what do you read?

it is one of the best books i've read. the crazy thing is, i worked in the hells kitchen area so i knew where a lot of the spots they referenced were.

i have a copy (somewhere) if you want to borrow it.
 
I used to like Tom Clancy & Stephen King's novels but now I just wanna keep up with the times so I read something like Inside the Jihad, Ghost Wars, Stalkers & Shooters, Blackwater, etc.
 
Let My People Go Surfing

i just finished the first, and likely last, business book i'll ever read. i can say with 100% certainty that i will never part with this book. ever. i owe jdog something for tipping me off on this one because it is truly a fantastic read.

Let My People Go Surfing, the education of a reluctant businessman by Yvon Chouinard should be the text book for how all businesses operate moving into the 21st century. every high school senior, every business major, every MBA should read this book. why? because it simply makes sense.

the book is brilliantly written and is part the tale of a dirt bag climber/surfer, part the tale of an individual looking at his life, his passion and company and trying to do the "right" thing as much as possible. treating people as they should be treated. making the best product possible. doing everything possible to use sustainable and low-impact materials. help preserve what is left of the natural world. and, in doing all this, making the company more profitable. it is my opinion that this book is a manual for how business should be run moving forward. Plan for seven generations, not seven months, b/c on the longer time table your decision making process is completely different.

one thing i was reminded of while reading this book was that i'm a hypocrite. really. i love to say i was an environmental major in college, that i recycle, buy organic, do the right thing for the community/environment, blah, blah, blah. but at the end of the day i'm just as much a consumer and collector of shit as anyone else. i had already started taking a hard look at myself and saying "do i really need all this stuff?" before i started this book but after reading it i'm doing it again. i'm "collecting" tons of shit i just don't need...stuff that other people could really use. i'm struggling with a lot after reading this book.

need vs. want. doing the right thing for yourself, your neighbor, your community and your environment is hard. very, very hard and in all cases uncomfortable and requires fundamental changes to our habits and our systems.

i could go on and on but that's not the point. the point is to tell you about this book, to get you to read it b/c of all the books i've ever said are a "must read", this one really is.

five out of five tasty crab flies for this one. i don't have a higher rating to give a book.
 
world war z

so it looks like everyone took the summer off from reading and getting yourselves more smarter. dummies. i'll rule the world soon, especially after reading this last book, World War Z by Max Brooks.

To cut to it, this book is about zombies which, according to the barnes and noble guy i talked to in Chicago, are "hot" this year. zombies? hot? ok, WTF is that all about? granted, book guy but whatever. then again i just spent $90 on trendy erasers from Japan so what do i know. anywho...

...i really liked this book (unlike the last book i started which was given to me by norm. i doubt i'll ever touch that book again for various reasons). it's a follow up to brook's first book called The Zombie Survival Guide which is, you guessed it, about zombies. World War Z takes one from beginning to end of the zombie war, which was a worldwide infestation of the living dead caused by a mutated virus. it provides first hand accounts from the survivors of the zombie infestation across a variety of countries and perspectives ranging from the guy who invented a supposed "cure" to the zombie virus to battle hardened veterans who fought the undead to the random citizens who witnessed human atrocity in its wake. it touches on the environmental decimation of the globe as various systems shut down and humans had to revert to a primitive way of life to by basically burning and killing everything not a zombie just to stay alive. it talks about the survival strategies of various nations to combat the undead; it talks about the fundamental shift in power and politics away from the united states and other developed countries; it talks about the hard lessons learned fighting the zombies.

it really is an entertaining read and flows well. it's somewhat odd to say that a book about zombies teaches you something (by the way, if they do attack your bike is your best friend b/c it'll never run outta gas...and grab yourself a machete or samurai sword 'cause you have to cut their heads off to kill 'em), or so neatly parallels so many of the current issues in our society but it really does. there weren't any part of the book that dragged (for me) and i liked the first person perspective on it. as with most good writers, one never gets the sense that the same person is being re-hashed and all the individuals that "discuss" their take on the zombie war are distinguishable.

all in all, good book and if you're even remotely a sci-fi person i'd recommend it. i don't have any major issues but would have liked a little more back story on how the virus came to be, its origin and it's place of origin but it's never firmly discussed. it also would have been nice if the first book was written more as a narrative and less as a field guide. i probably would have bought it.

so, i'll give this 4 outta five tasty crab flies on the bfj scale of approval.
as a sidebar, the book norm lent me by yann martel (the facts behind the helsinki roccamatios) is a steaming pile of tarpon poo. at least he gave me a heads up on that.
 
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I told you that book blew, especially for you.

Good deal on the WWZ, actually sounds pretty interesting. I added to my swaptree.com wish list so I should get it in a few years when people start dumping it.

I find that a lot of stories end up being about social politics, and the medium (sci fi, fantasy, zombies) is just another way to deliver it. If you can mix the 2 then you usually end up with a killer book. Maybe I'll write a book about a band of trained cyclists that have a power struggle to figure out who is going to lead their marry band of blue & orange fairies to the top of ST Nirvana. We can call it the Tibetan Book of the Freds.
 
Norm said:
I told you that book blew, especially for you.

Good deal on the WWZ, actually sounds pretty interesting. I added to my swaptree.com wish list so I should get it in a few years when people start dumping it.

I find that a lot of stories end up being about social politics, and the medium (sci fi, fantasy, zombies) is just another way to deliver it. If you can mix the 2 then you usually end up with a killer book. Maybe I'll write a book about a band of trained cyclists that have a power struggle to figure out who is going to lead their marry band of blue & orange fairies to the top of ST Nirvana. We can call it the Tibetan Book of the Freds.
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you're welcome to it norm. i really liked it. i was a mix of many cool things: karate, guns, life and death struggle, guns, karate, dogs, explosions, zombies, karate and that socio-economic politics thing you mentioned. i'll give it to you when i get my wheels back. :D

i think Tights would be better name for that blue fairy nirvana book though.
 
Here's what I've been chewing on lately.

Uncommon Sense by Gary S. Becker and Richard A. Posner
-"Popular economics" in the vein of Freakonomics.
http://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Sens...1026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287509827&sr=8-1

Returning to Silence by Dainin Katagiri
-Japanese Soto Zen Buddhism. This is the school of Buddhism that I have made the strongest connection with, mainly on the grounds of what I take to be its practical application for everyday life. This is the second book of Katagiri's that I've read, the first was Each Moment is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time.
http://www.amazon.com/Returning-Sil...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287509886&sr=1-1
 
Just finished "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall. It was recommended to me by a few unrelated people. It's no Atlas Shrugged but it'll get you thinking...

I don't run much but this got me interested in doing it more. This is a terrific story about the evolution of man and running. It follows the journey of a man in search of answers. along the way you meet some outrageous characters and learn from thier experiences. It'll make you question your choice of footwear, your bike gear, your nutrition (on and off the bike), and perhaps most importantly your attitude and approach toward training, competing, and enjoying yourself out there.
 
Under the Dome

Finished Under the Dome by Stephen King a few weeks back. I throughly enjoyed the book and it it is "classic" king. The action starts from the first page and doesn't slow down too through the end. In typical fashion it takes me 2 months to get through the first 700 pages and then i burn through the last 300 in a week. If you like King, I would check it.
 
Someone recommend me some books, Ill read anything pretty much.

Just finished these in past couple weeks:

The Broom of the System - very good. David Foster Wallace one of my favorite authors.
Eyeless in Gaza - Aldous Huxley
Point of Impact - book that movie Shooter was based (very loosely, apparently) off of.
 
i finished "the jungle" by upton sinclair about two weeks ago. i usually write reviews on the books i read but quite honestly i was at a loss for this one. it just touches upon so many different things i didn't really know where to begin.

i'm told that pretty much every kid in CHI has read this book (it is based on the meat packing district there). i can't fathom how a kid would keep any level of interest in it. i also don't know how anyone that ate beef (or pork) during that period of history survived if the accounts of what happened there are true...which they apparently are.

either way, i thought it was good, very good actually, but unless you're committed to it, don't start it.

i would read that zombie book i read though: world war z by max brooks. it has karate, guns and zombies in it which for me is almost always a winning combination.
 
Do you like SciFi?

Ugh on Wallace. Infinite Jest was a jest on anyone who plowed through all 1000+ pages :)
 
Reading this now. I'm a nature guy and I enjoy a good hike so a book about hiking the Appalachian trail is right up my ally. The writer is a good story teller. PM me if anyone wants the kindle version. Btw, I'm loving the kindle app for the droid.
 
bradmcnutt said:
Reading this now. I'm a nature guy and I enjoy a good hike so a book about hiking the Appalachian trail is right up my ally. The writer is a good story teller. PM me if anyone wants the kindle version. Btw, I'm loving the kindle app for the droid.
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This book is awesome, loved it. IMO read this book and never read another of his and you'll always have a good opinion of him. I'll leave it at that.
 
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