Miscellany Buffet

I stumbled upon this list at artofmanliness.com and wanted to re-post it.  Red text indicates the ones I’ve read.  Blue means I read the title but not all or it.  Black means I’ve yet to get to it.

1. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Prince – Niccolo Machiavelli
3. Slaughter-house Five – Kurt Vonnegut
4. 1984 – George Orwell
5. The Republic – Plato
6. The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky
7. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
8. The Wealth of Nations – Adam Smith
9. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
10. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
11. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
12. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (more…)

I’ve never been a great maker of New Year’s resolutions, but I made one this year.  I promised myself that I would read 52 books by the end of 2011.  That, of course, works out to one per week.

Through March I was off and rolling.  With my new Kindle in hand and some Winter free time, I was blowing away titles at the rate of two a week.  It’s a good thing, too, because since baseball season has started, not to mention Summer in general, I’ve slowed considerably.

The good news is I just went through and tallied up and right now I’m reading my 27th book of the year.  Being that it is exactly midway through June, that puts me about two books ahead.

Right now I’m reading “The Psychopath Test”, by Jon Ronson.

Assuming the rest of the summer will be slow, I’m looking for a good push between the end of the World Series and the Christmas week to bring me home.

Wish me luck.

Room by Emma Donoghue
February March 16 – March 18

( 5 stars)

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I stumbled upon this book completely by accident while roaming around the web.  The brief description really intrigued me when it mentioned an 5-year-old boy named Jack who lived in a room that he never left.  That was enough to get me started.

As I read, I was close to putting it down a couple of times through the first 50 pages or so.  It is written from the boys perspective, which makes it sort of tough to get through with the odd phasing and thought processes.

I did not give up on the book and I’m very happy with the decision.

To put things concisely, let me just say this:  If you are a parent, a teacher, a day-care-worker, if you have children of your own, grand children, or perhaps even if you ever considered having any at some point, YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK.

The story deal with, as mentioned, a five-year-old named Jack who lives with his mother (who we know only as “Ma”.) The live in an 11 foot square with all the required amenities – toilet, tub, table, sink, bed, and son on.  The only window in this room is a skylight where Jack can sometimes see “God’s face” or the snow that sometimes covers it.  Jack and his Ma never leave this room.

The why’s, who’s and wherefore’s constitute a story that is at time unsettling, fascinating, horrifying, enlightening, disturbing, uplifting, depressing, cute, nasty, scary, and wonderful.  It offers the strange world in which it takes place in the only way that it really could have been conveyed; through the eyes and mind of a very, very unique young boy named Jack.  Through Jack the reader gets some keen insight on what things are really important, what ones are really fun, and also some judgments on what is dumb and even scary.

Don’t skip this one.

See the whole 2011 List…

2010 list…

Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America by Dana Milbank
February March 12 – March 16

( 3 stars)

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In a big way, this book was a waste of time.  I mean, I know that Glenn Beck is a radical Tea Party conservative who even other conservatives seem to distance themselves from.  Dana Milbank, a political columnist foe the Washington Post, doesn’t cover any markedly new territory in his little book.  Even as far as political rebuttal books are concerned, this one is not all that great.  Milbank repeats a lot of the anecdotes, sometimes several times, and doesn’t have the wit of Jon Stewart or Al Franken, two of the best in the genre.

On the other hand, if you are not totally familiar with the gross exaggerations, outright fabrications, hypocritical comments, checkered past, and otherwise nastiness in the name of politics that are Glenn Beck, then read this book.   Some of the insights into the supposed psychological gambits that Beck uses to advance his points are fascinating.

See the whole 2011 List…

2010 list…

Don’t Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned by Kenneth C. Davis
February March 1 – March 10

( 5 stars)

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In the first place, I can’t say the whole title was accurate, at least in my case.  I was a history minor when I went for my undergrad degree.  There was a good amount of info that this book presented that I was aware of. Much of it was a walk down Memory Lane.  Not just the topics that I remembered from school, but also revisiting the “history” that I lived through – Reagan, the elder Bush, Clinton, the Cold War, the space shuttle disaster, etc.)  There was still a good amount of info that was new to me.  Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Perhaps you need to be as geeky as me – which I’m told is quite geeky, indeed – but the book is not geared toward history buffs as much as it is geared to the average joe; the person who has a vague idea of the history of our country and its key events.

The book doesn’t paint an all rosy picture of every event.  It’s presentation of the darker moments are in many cases starkly honest, though the overall brevity of the book (conpaired to its broad scope) might give the impression that it glosses over things on occasion.

Davis has a slew of books out under the “Don’t Know Much About…” header.  I would heartily recommend them to anyone who has ever said to themselves, “I don’t know much about history,” or any of the other topics that Davis covers.

Check out his site:  http://www.dontknowmuch.com/

See the whole 2011 List…

2010 list…

I truly hope that most don’t need to be told what the values of reading are. But in case you’re not in on the secret, here it is:   No two people read the same book.

If you don’t believe it, watch this video.

(This video is from DailyMotion.com and it may take awhile to fully download on your screen.  At least it did when I post this, but I was in a place with a real crapolla internet connection. Here’s the link to the site, itself.)

Nothing particularly interesting to post today, but it’s been awhile, so I’m gonna throw one in here about the current book I’m reading…

While certainly not the caliber of his father Michael’s The Killer Angels, this sequel and picks up right after the battle of Gettysburg is similar in style and very readable.

I’m only about 1/4 of the way through it (it’s been a busy week), but I’m looking forward to finishing it.

(more…)