Second paragraph of Law 3:

Over several weeks, Ninon de Lenclos, the most infamous courtesan of seventeenth-century France, listened patiently as the Marquis de Sevigné explained his struggles in pursuing a beautiful but difficult young countess. Ninon was sixty-two at the time, and more than experienced in matters of love; the marquis was a lad of twenty-two, handsome, dashing, but hopelessly inexperienced in romance. At first Ninon was amused to hear the marquis talk about his mistakes, but finally she had had enough. Unable to bear ineptitude in any realm, least of all in seducing a woman, she decided to take the young man under her wing. First, he had to understand that this was war, and that the beautiful countess was a citadel to which he had to lay siege as carefully as any general. Every step had to be planned and executed with the utmost attention to detail and nuance.

A well-wisher gave this to F a couple of months ago, and it bubbled rapidly to the top of my reading list. I read the first three chapters and put it down with no intention of resuming. (Actually, that's not the full story. I couldn't find the paper copy, was sufficiently irritated with myself to buy a Kindle version from Amazon, struggled through the first three chapters, gave up, got a refund from Amazon and then found the paper copy.)

I thought it was a repulsive book. It claims to be a self-help book about how to gain Power and be Powerful, illustrated by case studied of people who Obeyed or Transgressed the Laws of Power in history. Most of the self-help books that I have read at least pay lip service to becoming a better person, wanting to make the world a better place by your existence, finding and fulfilling your personal mission, that kind of thing. Greene is just interested in Power; he does not define it, just assumes that you want it too; there is no ethical framework here. It's rather sickening, and the worrying thing is that a lot of people seem to have bought and liked the book. I suspect that his historical analysis is bunk as well, but cannot be bothered to check any of the examples. If you really want to, you can get it here.

This was my top book acquired this year, and my top unread non-fiction book,. Next on those piles are respectively Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver, and Why I Write, by George Orwell.