Page Turners: Fiction and Non

Last week I read Dan Brown's latest, Inferno.  I wouldn't recommend it, too formulaic and dependent on plot gimmicks.  I'm probably cured from wanting to read any more page turner fiction, at least for the time being.  But it does raise some questions that people should ask themselves once in a while.  In a bit I will discuss some of those.  Yesterday we went to see The Big Short, which though the story is preposterous and at a macro level already is completely familiar based on the events of the last decade, is mainly true and a fairly compelling, if disturbing, tale.  The book by Michael Lewis on which the movie is based is non-fiction.  This movie also raises some interesting issues, especially if you ask whether any of those apply outside the financial arena.  I will get to those as well.  In the process, I will try to connect the stories in the issues they raise.