Reading List — March 2010

Posted Tue Mar 9, 2010 in

I’m working my way through a few books this month. One of the things I decided to do differently this year is to develop a directed reading list. One of my heroes is Tim Schmidt. He got me started thinking about the books I read (or am not reading) because of a list he posted on his website. So, that got me started thinking.

I finished Dale Carnegie’s How to win friends and influence people a few weeks ago. I finished Jim Rohn’s 7 strategies for wealth & happiness a couple of weeks ago (and am still working on my notes for that book). I’m currently reading Napolean Hill’s Think and grow rich and should finish that next week.

I started building a list this morning during my early thinking time. I’ve been cleaning out my virtual closet (as well as my physical closet), filing, organizing, and thinking. A few other books came across my (virtual) desk because of my reading of Lifehacker and the GTD mailing list.

I think I’ll add David Allen’s Making it all work as my next read (after Hill’s book). In the meantime, I’ll continue formalizing my reading list. I might even have a few thoughts to share on what I learn.

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Home from Monterey

Posted Sun Feb 28, 2010 in

I should have written last night, but did not. Well, at least I didn’t write here — I posted a note on Facebook that we were home. But it didn’t go much beyond that… well, the writing didn’t.

After the long trip home and the awfully-long week, I had little energy to burn. So, I grabbed my (dead-tree) book and sat in the living room with Wife and finished the book.

I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was reading some Stephen Hunter. He’s a retired Washington Post writer who took up fiction a couple of decades ago. He’s also knowledgeable of firearms, so one of his claims to fame is that the use of firearms (and their effects) are “accurately” depicted in his stories. I believe this assertion to be true. That is, I find nothing in his accounts that is counter to my understanding of the physics of firearms. I have this “thing” about physics.

I finished Dirty White Boys last night. Although Bob Lee Swagger (the sniper) is not featured in the story, there is a mention of his father in the book that provides a connection later used by Hunter (if what I read online is correct) in developing the Swagger character. So, I decided to read this book before the next in the Swagger saga.

This is the first “crime story” book I can recall reading. It’s not really my cup of tea, although I can say that I’m satisfied-enough that I read it… and I can say the story was sufficiently compelling to keep me engaged. I can say I will not run out and start buying crime-story fiction. It was OK, but not what I’ll routinely read. The story line was interesting and the characters were multi-dimensional so the craft was workmanlike. Hunter is a good writer.

That said, I wasn’t fully-engaged. Maybe I’m just old, or maybe I’m no longer going to be satisfied with much fiction, but I kept analyzing the plot line, seeing directions it could go and wondering which direction the author would take the story. There were a few twists and turns along the way and that was fun. But, in the end the hero wins and the villain doesn’t and that’s pretty much the formula, right?

Book finished, I took my evening medications and hit the rack. After the day’s drive, I was tired and ready to sleep in my own bed. I need to clean up a few more images from the trip and put together a trip report. It was an “interesting” trip, I can say that.

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Dale Carnegie HTWFAIP

Posted Mon Feb 8, 2010 in

I recently finished Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. The book was written nearly a century ago and went through any number of editions. It is an excellent book and one I wish I read many years ago. What can I say besides I’m a late-bloomer.

The book is a combination of many stories (anecdotes) that illustrate Carnegie’s theses. He did an excellent job of enumerating those principles and then providing a heuristic argument for how they work when dealing with people.

My expectation is that they will not work all the time. But, I think what they will do is set up the situation to be cordial and professional and provide the framework for reaching a conclusion where every participate takes away something they want or need. The side benefit is that they will all leave as pleased with the outcome as they can be.

I prepared a summary of the 31 principles. I printed a couple of copies and posted one in the back of my reporter’s notepad (Moleskine squared small size) and another on the back inside cover of my journal (Moleskine plain regular size). A copy of the PDF is posted (carnegie-win-friends.pdf) on my website for download. Use the summary if it helps you.

But, you will need the book to understand how the principles work. Get yourself a copy and read it. It’s good.

Maybe I’ll make an image of the back of my reporter’s notebook and post it for this entry before the entry posts.

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Fence-Sitting

Posted Mon Oct 20, 2008 in

I’ve been waffling about e-readers for a couple of months now. I already wrote a bit about this here and here. Beyond those entries (and one is just a link), I have been thinking about this quite a lot. So, excuse me while I ruminate a bit here in this bit of web-space.

Rob Beschizza has a comparison of the Sony and Kindle. He had some of his initial facts wrong, but commenters fixed that problem for him.

There is a website of interest: www.mobileread.com/forums/. There’s a lot of interesting discussion there. I like the discussion of the textbook torrent that was recently shut down (here). It’s well worth the read because textbooks remain an issue and I’m concerned about intellectual property (having some of that material of my own).

The Sony eBook Store offers some insight into what is available for that device. I really think the Sony looks better. I handled a PRS-505 a few weeks ago and it was impressive. However, it doesn’t have the access to materials that the Kindle has through Amazon. That is the rub.

O’Reilly offers a lot of material in PDF form. However, their Safari service is not Kindle capable. Nonetheless, if you search through Tim O’Reilly’s articles for “Kindle” you find the device is on their radar screen. An e-reader for me must have access to O’Reilly books if it’s to be useful, because I want my O’Reilly library on the device.

I really, really want the ability to carry several books with me all the time. An e-reader is the way to do that (and save my back). However, like the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD warz, the e-reader warz do not seem to have straightened out. Maybe I need to be patient, but I don’t want to collect a lot of new paper books, unless I have a specific need for hard copy.

OK, more random walking. There is a comparison of second generation e-readers assembled by folks at MobileRead, here. There are more devices out there than I thought. I need to do more research.

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Books, Weather, and Such

Posted Fri Oct 10, 2008 in

I’ve been reading a bit the last few weeks. I finished Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” a couple of weeks ago. It’s a good story. I have “Speaker for the Dead” on the kitchen table, but haven’t started it yet. I will probably start that before we head for Lubbock next week. Young Son and I are traveling to Lubbock. I have a set of meetings there (and a dissertation defense). I’ll need something for the flight.

I usually either read or write while flying. I write a lot in my journal during the enforced idleness of the flight. There isn’t enough room to get my computer out and get anything done on the aircraft. But, I can read and write.

My last flight I spent a lot of time in a book on copula technology. That was a good investment of my time. I learned a lot and had good notes when I got to D.C. I may spend some time reading the dissertation (which I’ve already read) to prepare myself for the defense. Or, I might just read. We’ll see.

I just finished reading Robert Boatman’s Living with Glocks and Living with the AR-15. Robert Boatman is a controversial writer. He’s a staunch self-defense advocate (the proper interpretation of the second amendment) and expresses that clearly. In our sensitive age, we skirt the issue of self-defense against violence. There seems to be a taboo about openly discussing the issue of self-defense against violence.

I’m of the opinion that self-defense is a basic (inalienable) right of humans. We are an aggressive species (some think a virus — don’t get me started on that one) and without social internal restraint will use force against others to obtain what we want. A segment of the population will always find it easier to prey on weaker members for survival than participating in the larger community. That means the weaker need means to abort violent attempts upon themselves.

I’m also of the opinion that a society that tolerates violence toward its citizens (from internal or external sources) promulgates said violence. Predators who insist on using violence against other citizens should simply be eliminated. That is not a popular position, but it’s mine. I digress — sorry.

Boatman expresses these ideas articulately and repeatedly. He is opinionated. For that reason, many people call him extreme or a nut-case. I suspect he wears those monikers with pride. I don’t always agree with him, but I think he’s on pretty sound footing.

His books reflect his opinions, of course. The Amazon ratings of his books reflect that. The distributions are bimodal with reviewers either loving or hating his books. Such occurrences always fascinate me because they are often a reflection of controversial subject matter. Hence the opinions expressed by reviewers are either wildly positive or wildly negative (depending on the reviewer’s position). Such reviews are not useful because they provide little or no insight into the book.

Boatman’s books are littered with such reviews. My plan is to write a couple of reviews that do a better job of commenting on content regardless of my personal position on some of Boatman’s opinions.

OK — end of rant.

Young Son and I finished the first Avatar season. It’s an interesting story. The story improved substantially with the season finale. The characters deepened greatly. The story line moved to something a bit darker and more complex. I’m going to put the second season on my Netflix list soon. I’d like to see how it plays out.

We’ve also been on a House binge. Even Young Son likes the show. We think House channels Sherlock Holmes expressed as a clinician. The series is holding up pretty well, but when I watch two or three episodes back-to-back, the writers’ patterns emerge — at least for me. That steals some of the magic from the story lines.

Last weekend we had our first bit of snow on the Sierras. Job’s Peak and Job’s Sister both were frosted. The snow crept down the mountainsides to maybe 7,000 or 8,000 feet. It’s still there on the peaks this morning and the forecast is for more weather today and tomorrow. We should start to see snow on the mountains for the remainder of the year. Fall is arrived and winter comes soon.

I love the change of the seasons. I’ll get out and make some images as soon as the weather clears.

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Tao of Willie

Posted Sun Apr 15, 2007 in

Tao of WillieI finally finished The Tao of Willie this afternoon. I’d been working my way through it for a month or more. Sometimes I’m distracted by other things around me and don’t spend the time I should to read.

This is not a deep book. It isn’t intended to be a deep book. However, it is an interesting look into the thoughts of one of America’s icons, Willie Nelson. Whatever you think about Nelson, he’s had staying power in the music business that few others have achieved.

While reading, it felt like Nelson was sitting in the room with me, telling me stories and thoughts learned while on the road, or just living through a long life. It was fun to read text like that and is a type of literature I rarely read.

Did I learn anything about life (the universe and everything)? Nope. Nonetheless, this is a decent little book, if for no other reason than the conversational tone was entertaining.

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Lovecraft

Posted Thu May 25, 2006 in

LovecraftMy Young Son found this at the library and had to check it out. I found it lying on the living-room table and picked it up. It’s a graphic novel done in a wonderful style that reminds me of water colors. The artwork is not as stark as for most graphic novels, but is quite good and very graphic.

Lovecraft’s work still give me the willies after nearly 40 years. This story is not about Lovecraft’s worlds as much as how he might have fit in between his fantasy worlds and reality. It is a story that breaks down the distinction between reality in fantasy in the way that some of my favorite stories do, such that one is never quite sure what is in the character’s head and what is real.

I enjoyed this book. If you enjoy Lovecraft’s work (or haven’t discovered it yet), this will be a fun read, even if it’s a graphic novel.

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