Although I do agree with criticisms of his writing and have felt the same in his later books (as I was too young to feel the poor writing when I read A&D, Da Vinci Code etc.), I know that I'll get his next book when it releases.
I like that his works mention random things that you can then read about from other sources, information that are tangents to search off of. It helps that all his books are easy page-turning reads.
But yeah, about his writing, I remember the latest (Origin) having some atrocious lines
Due to heavy regulations on the shipbreaking industry in Western countries, > 50% of ships worldwide are (or were, when the documentary was made) dismantled in Alang, India.
The industry is extremely polluting (to the environment and the workers) and the working conditions (incl. safety) are dire to put it nicely.
For anyone even mildly interested in crime, exploitation, vigilantes and other human stories across the oceans, check out The Outlaw Ocean by NYT journalist Ian Urbina. Brilliant work.
Tangential, but any suggestions for sites that publish on art? Artnews, as expected, is more about the latest updates in the international art scene. I'd like to know of one with articles on art history, analysis, news etc.
Not exactly what they mentioned, but check this out [1]. It talks about the perception of time in the middle ages, and how merchant time slowly substituted the impractical notions of church time. A professor of mine who was talking about medieval paintings and their ideas of space and time suggested this paper.
Yeah, this lack of knowledge in what exactly we're reading (except for a few oft-occurring words here and there) can be seen in the inability to read, say, an Arabic newspaper. Written Arabic heavily omits the equivalent of vowels in Arabic (fathah, kasra, lamma, sukoon) since those can be figured out with context.
So, even if I can fluently read the Quraan, I wouldn't be able to figure out the right way to read a simple poster.
If you want to read a good non-fiction on the Sri Lankan civil war, check out "The Divided Island" by Samanth Subramaniam.