Media of 2010 - Books

Wow, almost a full year since I last blogged here. And to think I posted something almost daily before. Anyway - lets get right to it:

BOOKS OF 2010

Makers - by Cory Doctorow - ★★★ - It's odd, but I just had a really difficult time getting into this book. I'm a fan of Cory's. I REALLY enjoyed his last book called "Little Brother". I also liked (though it was a struggle at times) his book previous to that called "Someone comes to town, Someone leaves town". The subject matter of "Makers" was right up my alley too... I'm a big fan of Make magazine, and I've dabbled in the "maker culture", of which I know a lot about the subjects in the book (eg: 3d printers that can be set up in a person's living room). But I felt like the story was just a bit too forced. Like he created an outline first of a few key technologies, and then tried to cram a story in-between. I did finish the book, so that explains the 3 ★'s, as any book that can hold my attention that long means something. I just wish I liked it better.

1/24/10 - Altar of Eden - by James Rollins - ★★★★ - Another Rollins book that I enjoyed. While this one took a slightly different turn than his previous books, I still enjoyed the storyline. A few 'hollywood' moments and odd coincidences, but this is the type of book that were it a movie, it would be an action adventure movie where coincidences are often overlooked. As always, I appreciate Rollins' blend of science into his stories.

3/15/10 - Three Cups of Tea - by Greg Mortenson - ★★★★ - this was a difficult book for me to rate, but I chose to go with 4★'s. It is/was an amazing story about Greg's life and the events and things he's accomplished in his life (and those around him). While I appreciate the well told story, and applaud his efforts of building schools in and around Pakistan, I struggled with the book. I was so glad to have finally been done it. It took me a very long time to plow my way through it. I suspect, the main reason is because of all the tons of names involved and places involved and that there were many foreign language names/places/descriptions. I'm glad I did make the extra effort, and finished the book, it was a struggle for me. That said, though, I would highly recommend this book. It is inspiring how one man can make a difference in the world to bring about good.

3/23/10 - Shutter Island - by Dennis Lehane - ★★★ - Perhaps I should not rate this book... the reason being I only read about 70% of it - But - I did see the movie so I know how it ends :) The main reason I decided to try and give the book a shot was because I enjoyed the movie. I enjoyed it because of the story. I also had a couple questions regarding the characters that I thought that if I took my time with the book, those questions would be answered. Sadly - not so much. I even went back and re-read some pages, but I still didn't get it. Finally, I decided to just stop, and move onto a book that I enjoyed more. And what surprised me, was how much the movie stayed true to the book. There were lines of dialogue that were word for word, and I could hear Dicaprio saying it in his Boston Accent. But when I couldn't get my answers, I just decided to move on. So take my rating for the book for what it's worth.

4/18/10 - The Pawn (The Patrick Bowers Files, Book 1) - by Steven James. - ★★★★ -
This was a free book I picked up on Amazon for the Kindle. (It's not longer free at this moment -sorry).
I enjoyed it. It was a fast read and moved along nicely, like an an action movie. Some interesting plot stories going on as well. I'm not ready to go out and purchase the next book in the series, but perhaps I will come back to the series in the future.

7/10 - The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - by Howard Pyle - ★★★★★ - (I've since learned that Mr. Howard Pyle is perhaps more well known for being a talented illustrator/artist). I really enjoyed this book, much to my surprise. It was a "freebie" on my Amazon Kindle, and having seen the movie just a week or two before getting this book, I was curious to find out more about this character called Robin Hood. Semi-spoiler alert>>> the book and the movie are NOTHING alike! The book was enjoyable and I liked the somewhat simple stories. It was like reading an "action movie" at times. Now... one thing to mention... at the beginning, I almost gave up on this book. I learned that it contained a lot of "old English" like "thee, thou, mayest, pray they, marry, etc..." - but it was mostly just the dialogue between the characters. I was able to get used to it, and then was able to enjoy it. All in all, a fun book, that takes just a little bit of work to get through.

7/24/10 - The Psychology of Dreams and On the Significance of Number-Dreams - by Carl Jung - ★ - I won't sugar coat this... it was a horrible book, and Carl Jung is probably a quack in my opinion. Ok, to be fair... I've never read anything else by him (though I plan to try once more), so maybe it's unfair to form such an opinion of this man from one small reading. While the first part of the book, had a few interesting points, it was not enough for me to 'enjoy' the read. (also it was written like a college paper, and almost had a lawyer-ish sounding to it). The second part of the book, regarding numbers in dreams, simply stretched all credibility for me. He twisted numbers, and math around into complete hogwash, in order to try and make a connection between points of significance. It reminded me a lot of "numerology". I don't doubt that mr. Jung has insights on dreams (he says he studied between 1500 and 2000 a year!), but I think he might be grasping at straws just a bit much for my liking.

11/25/10 - The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger - ★★★★ - I wasn't sure what to expect with this book… Of course I've heard this book mentioned a lot, but I can't say that I've ever heard what the story was about. So, I was curious why this book is a "classic". Oh, the other obvious thing… I had heard this book was banned (specifically where it was banned from, I'm not sure.) I went to purchase this book, but was shocked at the price. I ended up borrowing it from a friend. It started off not so good. I felt like I was just reading a college kid's modern-day blog. But I stuck with it, and today upon finishing it, I'm glad I did. I'm still not sure why this book is a "classic", but after all was said and done, I enjoyed the story. Well, "Enjoy" may not be the right word… I found the story interesting, and a bit depressing. I can understand why it was banned, but under today's moral ethics, it was fairly tame.

12/25/10 - Draculas - ★★★ - I learned about this book because it was a sort of experiment in ebooks. It was a collaboration between 4 authors, and posted directly to amazon by the authors. The coast was (I think) around 3-4 dollars, with most of that going directly to the authors and a lesser percentage to amazon.com. I liked the whole idea of the project and the price was right. And… it was right around Halloween and i was looking for a nice scary book. I just finished it last night, and while I do have some complaints, overall I was entertained. Especially when you factor in the price. Now here's my biggest complaint… The title was very misleading… the authors took great liberty as to what makes a creature a vampire. If you ask me, this should have simply been a zombie book, but I suspect they called them "draculas" as a marketing decision since vampire movies are popular now. A simple point that I was able to overlook, but for any vampire purest, this will be an important point. The book was rather gory and detailed in it's gore descriptions. Not for the faint at heart. It reminded me a bit like a B-movie. As I said, just don't expect a lot from this book, and if you view it through the lens of a B-horror movie, you should also be entertained.

total = 9

(I know... not all that impressive of a number for the year. In my defense, I spent quite a bit of time this year searching for a good book to read. I even tried to re-read one of my favorites from 15+ years ago (The Illuminatus Trilogy) - but even that book, I had a hard time getting back into it. And... This year I also attempted to learn a new software program, so many a night I spent reading the manuals.)

Vocabulary Test

A little back story first... While on twitter, one of folks I follow was talking about a FREE e-book that he just got for his Kindle. I have enjoyed his tweets, so I thought, 'it's free - why not give it a try'. I finished the book last night and I have to say it was one of the toughest books I've read in as long as I can remember. It seemed like every other page, I was coming across a word that I didn't know the meaning of! Luckily the Kindle has a "built-in" dictionary, and I obviously took advantage of that feature. In my defense... the book was written around 1911, and it was originally written in French, so some of the words have a French origin.
But I'm curious: out of these 86 words, how many do you know the meaning of?
(also, some of the words, I was able to deduce the meaning of based on the context, but even so I marked it as a word I didn't know). (also: any misspellings are from the book).
Oh - and if you're interested... you can download the book here. I found it a good read overall (the ending kinda fell apart for me only due to an increase of character names and I was getting a bit lost).
>>>
munificent
remunerated
coign
vexation
chit
copse
presentiment
escritoire
circumlocutions
pretermitted
vouchsafed
gendarme
peremptory
navvies
quietened
crapulous
monomania
paroxysms
adduce
efface
dentelated
pilules
peremptorily
képi
impassivity
fastidiousness
wen
equipage
felloes
perambulator
rushes
mien
pursy
squireens
ulster
disquisition
obloquy
deferent
abstracted
impudence
conciliate
abdicate
expiate
peremptory
throve
anodynes
unctuous
evinced
discomfited
ministrations
interminable
libations :one of my favorites
evincing
potations
unctuously
garrulity
peremptorily
brooked
alighted
jemmy :one of my favorites
vouchsafed
peccadillo
privations
adroitly
plucky
major-domo
paroxysm
peripatetic
warder
blenched
acclivity
soliloquising
vituperation
calumny
Bosh
Torquemada
lorgnettes
adducing
Proteus
perfunctorily
deprecatingly
inveterate
callow
toffs :one of my favorites
lugubrious

The last Templar and Spook Country - books

I've put way too much pressure on myself to write something of substance! I should just go in and delete that previous post. But I won't I'll leave it there as a reminder to myself that I should never do that again! Rather, I'm going to go back to just posting about whatever I want and whenever I want! So take that my previous self!

Well, unfortunately I waited too long to post a meaningful review of a book I recently finished. The book was called "The Last Templar". First off... this book was NOT what I was expecting it to be. I thought it would be about the history of the Templars, maybe a little "da Vinci Code" thrown in, etc... But instead it was a sort of modern day cop thriller with only hints at the Templar story. Granted, the book did eventually get into a bit more of an explanation on the Templars, but still. So once I got over this initial dissapointment, I decided to stick with it and see where the author would take me. The first sign to me enjoying a book... actually FINISHING it! So that says something right there. It overall was a good story. It had a few "hollywood style" coincidences but I was able to overlook those. One of the pivitol points in the book invovled a slam against religion (Catholicism and Christitanity to be specific), and although I don't agree with everything the author (or character in the book) said, I will grant them, that it was good information to ponder.
Bottom line... If you're looking for a summer read, I'd recommend this book. If you're sensitive to having an athiest question your beliefs, you might want to skip this book.

So, in having finished that book, I'm met with the unfortunate task of deciding which of several books to read next! Yes, I have several books here on my shelves already, waiting for me to read them. I decided to go with William Gibson's "Spook Country." I saw Mr. Gibson speak several months ago at the Philadelphia Free Library (I thought he gave a poor presentation for what it's worth). But, I did buy his book and have it autographed. So I feel somewhat obligated to read this. MAN... I am having such a difficult time getting into this book! First off, he seems to write with a sense of A.D.D. He tends to wander in his descriptions of events and places. I keep wanting to shake the book and say "get a hold of yourself, and finish one train of thought!" The other problem I'm having is the many different names and characters he's introduced. I can't keep them all straight! Lastly, I have a real problem with some of his "fanciful" writing. For example, this random quote:

The Flagellant Messiah, as Milgrim imagined him, was a sort of brightly colored Hieronymus Bosch action figure molded from some very superior grade of Japanese vinyl.

What?!
Well, I'm about a quarter of the way into this book and I still feel a sense of obligation to reach at the very least the half way point. I can only hope that it picks up eventually.

Book review

Ok, not a real in depth book review just a quick post to say that I'm enjoying another James Rollins book called "Black Order" (I'm only about halfway done). Huh, I just went over to James' website and I think I've read more of his books than I thought...
I know I have read: Map of Bones, and Amazonia.
I'm not sure, but I think I read "Excavation" a while ago as my first introduction to this author.
I enjoy Jame's writing because he tends to blend fact with fiction, and introduces a little history in there too. If I had to pick a favorite so far, I'd have to go with "Map of Bones".

I'm also looking forward to the next book in my lineup of many, called "Mount Dragon" by co-authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I've read a couple of their previous books too and enjoyed them... Relic, The Cabinet of Curiosities, The Codex.
Their website here.

IF anyone happens to find this blog post on the intertubes, I'm interested in Fiction books that involve archeology. The idea of building a mystery or a thriller around an archeology plot line, really fascinates me. Please leave any suggestions in the comments.

Nikola Tesla

Small book review here...
Tesla - Man out of time. (google books)
I just finished this book a couple days ago (YAY! I actually FINISHED a book! That's rare for me).
Overall I enjoyed the book and liked learning about a Nikola's life. I have two small complaints... The author got stuck in a loops about 3/4 way through the book. Tesla was troubled with financial problems through-out his life. The author kept bringing this up after every new topic she discussed. It got to be cliché after a while and I could predict when she was going to start talking about how difficult he had it. At the same time she would talk about him being impecciably dressed, eating at fine restaurants, living in an expensive hotel, etc... so I never fully understood the whole "financial troubles" part. Unless it was just that, he would get large amounts of money, then just spend it all til he was broke, but he always seemed to have an income. My other complaint is that I wish a little more time was spent explaining some of his inventions and patents. The book tended to treat a lot of stories like "mystical secrets" which does make for interesting reading, but after it was over, I wish I could say that I learned more specifics about his inventions.
Bottom line: REALLY interesting guy this Tesla was. History has tended to have swept him under the carpet for some reason. Tesla made some WILD claims at times, but mixed in with those wild claims were also wild truths, so it's difficult (like with many geniuses) to separate the fantasy from fiction. One other thing that I found interesting, was the government conspiracy part late in Tesla's life (well, after he died I guess). The book just briefly touched on this, and I bet that would have made for additional interesting topics.
OH, and in case you are worried, the book is not very technical at all. It won't explain what electricity is and all that. It's more about the man and his life than a technical explanation.
Check it out.
For a good overview of Nikola Tesla - Good ol' wikipedia to the rescue :)
You can also see some of Tesla's original patents via google's patent search engine! Google rocks! I wonder if the sketches in these patents are from Nikola himself.

Tech Tags: nikola tesla nikola+tesla AC+DC electricity genius edison margaret+cheney

First Book Mooch!!

Hooray, I just got my first bookmooch! I had joined this group several months ago after being frustrated with bookcrossing.com. I had "released several books into the wild" only to have them disappear forever. I had the feeling that the public places I had released them at, that some worker with no love for books, just picked up my book and threw it in the trash.
I can NOT bring myself to recycle a book that I've read. So bookmooch was my next try. Granted, it may have taken so long because I only entered 2 books, but still.
There's also another cost involved in shipping the book to someone else, but if you use "media material" via the USPS it's only like 2-3 dollars. Plus that feeling that hopefully someone will enjoy the book as much as you did.
So, I'll post back again, if I hear anything from the person that requested my book. In the meantime if you have any books that you'd like to get rid of, try joining bookmooch.

Note: I think those illustrations on the front page of bookmooch are just plain creepy, I wish they'd change that.

Tech Tags: bookmooch bookcrossing books book recycle reuse

random thoughts...

Just a small question to throw out there into the intertubesphere...
How come there has never been an attempt (maybe there was?) to put ratings on books?
Movies have ratings G, PG, PG-13, R, etc... Video Games have ratings, E, M, etc...
Why did it never take hold with books?
I don't know if it's good or bad, I'm just curious. I guess there is almost always a "kids" section in most book stores, but even so.
Anyone have any ideas how the publishing world skirted this issue?

Tech Tags: books ratings censor mpaa

Harry Potter...

Well it was a little sad this morning... I finally finished the newest and LAST Harry Potter book. I'm not going to go into any details incase there are others like me who didn't devour it in the first week it was released :)
I will say this, I very much enjoyed this book! The whole series really. It's sad to see it go, but I'm glad at the same time. I hope JK puts her talents into a new book or even another series. And I feel good about actually finishing another book! I'm on a roll now! I just finished one of the books my Sis got me about meeting Jesus again for the first time. Certainly not the same as a Harry Potter book :) I learned some things in the Jesus book, but not everything did I agree with. In fact, a small part of me is disappointed to learn some of the arguments agreed with my thoughts. I had hoped Borg would have set me straight, but instead he confirmed some of my fears. It's too late to go into any details here, so I won't bore you. But Thanks Sis! I look forward to tackling the next one. BUT that leads me to my next dilemma... which book to start next! I'm trying to break my habit of reading more than one book at a time. I've got a handful of others started, so I may go back and try to finish one of those, or I've got about 5 NEW books waiting for me to read. Ugh. So many books and not enought time to read them all.

finally, (sorry a bit of a random scatter brain post here)... Today's Quote on google really rings true with me... Wait a sec... It's not on google... maybe I saw it somewhere else?
Anyway, I'll try to remember it exactly... Education is whats left over after you've forgotten everything they taught you in school. - Albert Einstein.

UPDATE: V just reminded me it was over on her blog that I read the quote! Doh! She also posted a funny (well funny and sad at the same time sortta thing) video clip of the Daily Show. Go check it out. And here's the ACTUAL quote:
Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school. ~albert einstein


PEAS

Harry Potter

I'm amazed at all the hype over this new harry potter book. I've been avoiding all my internet news sites that have anything to do with Harry Potter. It seems every news agency is bound and determined to "break the story" about what happens in the book. I've heard a few rumors already that if true I will curse those who posted them. Why don't people understand that we (the readers) don't want someone to tell us what happened. We want to read it for ourselves! I saw one story the other day where a woman was in the midnight line, got her hands on the book, and proceeded to read the last five pages, then OUTLOUD started to tell her daughter how it ended. OMG!
I'm starting to see reports coming in now too that people are already finished reading the book. This baffles me too. This is the LAST book in the series! You should savor every last minute of each page. In the words of Remy (from ratatouille) "DON'T JUST HORK IT DOWN!" :)
I will admit, I was excited to get my copy. I pre-ordered it from Amazon.com, not so much that I would be sure to get it as soon as it came out (I had it shipped to my work address and picked it up Monday). But from what I saw, they had the best price of $17.99 Please shop around before buying it. Do not pay full price of $35! And, from the stacks and stacks of books that I'm seeing everywhere, I would imagine it won't be long until these books end up on the discount rack for $6.95.
So, enjoy your book - and Don't tell us anything about it! :)

New Book - Almost Human

Just a quick post about a new book that I'm enjoying. It's called "Almost Human" by Lee Gutkind. A little hard to describe, but apparently Mr. Gutkind just hung out at "Carnegie Mellon" and got to know a bunch of the staff and student that build Robots. It's not a techy book in that it won't teach you how to build a robot, but rather a glimpse into the people who are often times obsessed with building these machine, and pushing to boundaries to create the "Next Generation" of Robots. I find it all very interesting, and actually feel a bit of remorse that I was not a better student in that I could have been involved in some way with this. ARGH!? Did I just say that I wished I was a better student? What's gotten into me? I hated school. But, as I'm in my middle ages now I'm beginning to realize what options in life I may have missed out on because I didn't apply myself. Ah, such is life I guess.
I googled "almost human" and found this Wired interview online with the author.
Oh and I also think it's a great book cover design.

Oh on a totally unrelated side note... I happened to catch a movie tonight on the "classic movies" channel with Jimmy Stewart. I missed the beginning, but when flipping the channels I heard the word "Pooka" mentioned and it caught my attention. Turns out Robert Anton Wilson used the "Pooka" in his talks and I never knew what it meant. (I'm not gonna tell ya... go look it up on wikipedia ;) I have a new word to look up too a "rumpot". I also thought it was a good movie too. It was filmed in 1950... I'm AMAZED how things were so different culture wise only 60 years ago. I just learned via imdb that the movie is called "Harvey".

Tech Tags: almost+human lee+gutkind robots AI harvey Pookah jimmy+stewart

Breach, jeans, books

I always have such a difficult time coming up with a title for my blog post. If I only blogged about one item per post I suppose that'd make it easier but I like to throw 2-3 thoughts in at a time. Oh well.
Movies!
Finally made it back to the theater this weekend (I don't know how long it's been probably only 2 weeks but it felt much longer for some reason). My friend and I went to see "Breach". I pretty much liked it. It started to drag just a little towards the end, but then it snapped back just in time and held my interest for the rest of the movie. The movie was about the "greatest" breach of security in US history. (I put the quotes because that's not really such a great thing). AND it's a true story (well based upon true events). What made the movie riveting was the acting of Chris Cooper, and I have to say, Ryan Phillipe held up his side of the screen just as well. I liked the movie because it was a story, and had a few characters and dialog. I would have liked to have seen more into the personality of the lead character Robert Hanssen. We were pretty much shown his character at the office a once or twice in a social setting. Although they spent most of the movie developing his character, I think it should have been a little broader in focus. But all that said, it was a good spy movie. As I was leaving the theater though, I had a thought about "that world" versus "my world". To think there are people out there doing that for a living, and how much their actions or inactions effect my world is all hidden from me. For example, the actions of this man Robert Hanssen jeopardized so many American Intelligence officers, and even cost some their lives, yet here I am walking out of a movie about it all. I wonder how much of the Governments are run behind closed doors. I don't know if I really want to know what goes on behind those doors. Something tells me I don't.

I've been playing a good PS2 video game too. Midnight Run 3- Dub edition. It's a racing game, and I have to say it's pretty fun. It's nice to have a game where you can get lost for a couple hours at a time. (yes, I said hours). One of the things that makes the game interesting is it's open-end in that you the player controls what races to race, what vehicles to buy, etc...

I have to get two items out there in a small rant...
Yesterday I went to the mall to visit JCPenny's. I needed to get some new jeans and knew that JCPenny's had them last time so I'd go back. You need to have a college degree now to buy a pair of jeans. I wanted to get levis (I used to get Lee, but since found that I like the levis better). So just on that one brand of jeans there are different "model numbers" - 505, 550, 555, etc... Then, to complicate it even more, then there are various "cuts" - Relaxed, straight, boot, regular, etc... Then of course are the sizes. I must have spent a good hour looking through this store trying to find my size, in the right cut. NONE of the jeans were organized based on a pattern that I could recognize. I finally got fed up, and bought the wrong size (2" longer inseam) because I just wanted to get outta there. I figure I can sew them up if I need to. I asked the sales girl if I could make a suggestion that they have someone organize the jeans. She smiled politely, and said, "we do. Every Monday", and by sunday they are a mess again. I don't think I believe her. Not only was the overall store a mess, but these jeans were so unorganized that no one would accidentally place a 32-34 in with the 38-30's. It was as if someone deliberately went in a unorganized the jeans.
Ok, moving on.
My mom recently joined one of these book clubs called "North Light". They deal specifically with art related books. I've often wanted to join, but I know this would be the ruin of me. Books are like crack cocaine to me, and this would be like me starting a subscription with my local corner dealer. So I've borrowed some of my mom's selections. Well, this recent catalog had some really good choices for watercolor books. So I was going to order 3 thru her account. Just before she finished filling out the order form, I said "I wonder what amazon prices are like". So we picked my three, and 2-3 of here selections and did a price comparsion. Amazon was consistently about $3 cheaper than North Light. So, needless to say, I canceled my order, and my mom will probably be canceling her North Light membership. Shame on you North Light.

Tech Tags: Breach movies jeans levis lee jcpenny books north+light book+club