The Three Princes of Serendip


When I was first selling in New York, I came across a wonderful new ice cream parlor that was just opening called Serendipity.


It was such an unfamiliar name that I actually looked it up to see what it meant.


Since then, I’ve had many serendipitous events in my life.


When I moved away from New York’s Greenwich Village, I thought that I would never find a bookstore to replace the Strand for me as any book-loving New Yorker would know. It’s miles of shelves encouraged browsing and adventure in the stacks….


In Delaware, I found nothing but book stores with a conservative orientation; it was off-putting so I stopped going unless I had no other option.


But then I made a serendipitous discovery, the second hand stores and thrift centers carried books and so, I was saved.


Since then, I have made wonderful finds of books that I was seeking to read or add to my collection that were practically new and wonderfully inexpensive. I found 1776, Keagan's valuable treatises on War, some previously unread Michener, many books on government and Washington and much, much more. I just bought the Greatest Generation by Brokaw who I am however disappointed to say is not a great writer in my opinion for every story seems like the last.


I go browsing around now when the libraries are having a sale or tend to just poke around in the second hand stores in and near my neighborhood.


The other day, I was looking for some coloring and maze books for my grandchildren and happened to wander into the Dollar Stores. I found just what I was looking for and as I passed by, I saw a book by Tom Wolf that I hadn’t read. It was a hard cover for a dollar so I rushed to pick one up. Well, let me tell you, it was the best Tom Wolf I have read since the Right Stuff.


If anyone wants to get a real handle on the breakthrough of this new millennium, Tom is the right guy to go to; he knows everything—and I am not being facetious. I don’t know where he gets his information but I do know something about the evolution of the computer business but he brings in asides that only illuminate. This book is terrific and I would recommend it to anyone. It’s called “Hooking Up” and it has changed my life as much as the Ascent of Man or as much as Connections did for me during my fine-tuning in the late sixties…. He talks about Noyce and microcircuitry and how it changed the world; he writes about Edward O. Wilson and shows how his views on insects literally changed the way we think; he gets into the latest trends in education and why they are flat wrong; he talks about why we call certain people artists who have no talent and never personally get involved in the medium they work with; and on and on. A totally edifying and electrifying experience if you love knowledge!


Tom tells you about things that are so enlightening in every venue of science that’s worthwhile and gets your motor going with the insights he weaves so well into this composite tapestry of who we are and where we are going.


We need more TomWolf’s.


I would encourage every person to run to their Dollar Store and pick up a book of this under-reviewed little gem for one dollar. (It would be a buy at 20 times that!) and prepare to enjoy a week’s worth of wonderful, insightful, though provoking reading….


And if you read this awesome text, please pass along your thoughts….


Best wishes,



Les Aaron

The Committee for Positive Change.