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As biographies go, this one was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, nearly every anecdote was something I'd read before, but there was still much in Jobs Next and Pixar years that was great to learn about.
This one so closely follows the old BBC miniseries that I had to laugh along with it. All of the parts I remember from when I watched it as a kid – Deep Thought, Norway, the Earth, the Highway. Hitchhikers Guide was the first comedic science fiction I ever learned about and I see why this is a classic.
With the TV series for this book coming out later this year, and this being one of Marilyns favorites, I knew I had to read it before that. Although the characters were intresting, for a story about someone who lived through World War II, and time travels 200 years back to Scotland, this was surprisingly boring. The story is interesting, but I wanted more sci-fi/fantasy/time travel and less romance and political intrigue.
What makes great olive oil? What makes it poor? Although I'd love to answer those questions with an answer that I could bring to the store and use, I didn't end up with a satisfactory answer. The taste and smell notes that make a oil great are elaborated on, but are tricky to understand without being there. A more useful exploration into olive oil would be finding a local place to hear about olive oil from someone who can be a guide to understanding the difference between lamp oil (which is what is in many supermarkets) and real extra virgin olive oil.
If Mistborn is Avatar, then The Allow of Law is Korra. Taking place many years after the events of the first trilogy, Alloy starts a new series more focused on allomancer/pharochemist characters, which opens up an entirely new world of skills not previously explored. Being able to slow down time + heal? Yeah, that sounds useful. The story itself is more of a detective story, with some likable characters. I worried it would be too much driven by the period it was set in, but the characters were the main focus.
If you don't want to be spoiled on Game of Thrones on HBO, you probably need to read the books. Book 3 is still my favorite, 4 least favorite. #5 is somewhere in the middle. Don't want to spoil anything, but to say it follows a lot of my favorite characters.
I've always been a sucker for time travel. When the author highlights very specific rules for how it works in that universe and sticks to them it makes for even more interesting stories in my eyes. King does an amazing job in this one of setting up the structure needed to explore his main objective – what would happen if someone stopped Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating JFK?
This one seems to more set the stage for the 3rd book than to be a great 2nd book in a trilogy. As much as I loved the first one, this one left me thinking it was half a book – and not the better half.
When I started this book, I thought it would be more of a “memoir of the craft”, but was surprised to see it's much more of a memoir of King himself. His own rise an author from nothing to one of the biggest names in writing.
I loved the individual stories of hard work, coupled with a mission to just write. From selling short stories to other kids while in school, to submitting to magazines, Kind wrote and wrote and hustled. It would have been easy for him to give up, but he had so much he wanted to say that he couldn't not write.
Ken Jennings is hilarious. Back when he was on Jeopardy I would watch everyday (and still do occasionally). If you want to get a dose is his humor, check out his Reddit Ask Me Anything. I've always loved maps, so this book hit a sweet spot for me. I remember being the navigator on road trips as a kid, winning the “Pride” award for geography in elementary school (whatever that is) and hacking on Google Maps before they put out an official API. Somehow this book tied into everything I love about maps and exploration. Highly recommend it.
Shatter me is another entrant into the dystopian, superhero, young adult genre. It feels like a bit of Hunger Games combined with Sandersons Reckoners series (but more series and also more sexual). As a first book in a series goes, this got me interested in the world enough to take another step.
I didn't grow up reading comics. I've recently started reading more, but I'm still figuring out what I enjoy (Y the Last Man, Walking Dead, Saga, and Attack on Titan so far).
This book is completely different. It's not about how to read comics, but about how to write comics. While I have no intention of writing comics, it's an insightful overview of how to create a story using a combination of images and words – something I want to get better at.
What impresses me most about this book is that it felt like a conversation between me and the author. The entire comic is written in a format where the author, the main character of the comic, is introducing you to various comic concepts and exploring why they work (or don't). Although I don't plan to create comics, I came out of this with a bunch of ideas that I want to try on mediums I work in.
The first Sherlock Holmes book, and the start of one of the most iconic characters of all time. Unlike movies and TV shows, a flashback to Utah plays an important role in the book. Although it came as a surprise, I did enjoy the payoff in the book moreso than in the video form. There was much more background to the murders that gave the villain more of a heart – and a real motive.
A short one, which I was able to listen to on the way to JSConf. I felt as though it only goes skin deep into the problems facing education – reiterating issues I've heard discussed many times before. The group education concept and self directed learning this one promotes are clearly useful, but falls short of showing how it might help reframe our current systems.
If you're curious about the idea of picking up and just traveling around without much planning, or even a return ticket, you might enjoy this book. Not planning is something I've had trouble doing when it comes to travel, but I'd still like to go with the flow more. Although there were a few chapters about this concept, a lot of the book was devoted to preparing your lifestyle.
After Ringworld, I liked Nivens Sci-fi concepts, but not so much his characters. The same could be said for Mote, which lacks any strong women characters, but makes up for it with a gripping tale of first contact. After seeing this one on NPRs top 100 SciFi list, and always being interested in first encounters, I knew I had to check this out. The story kept me interested – keeping things a mystery at times, and at other times giving you the information and watching to see if the correct decisions were made. I wouldn't recommend this one for everyone, but if you like entertaining sci fi and an interesting alien race, it's worth a read.
This one had interesting points, but as someone who focuses around systems and order, it was hard for me to imagine structuring systems in this way. The examples were interesting – things like the human body and vaccines as an example of a system that grows stronger after trauma.
Very similar to Caves of Steel, this is the 3rd book in Asimovs Robot series. Fun detective novel in a space setting. I was a bit disappointed by some of the answers, but overall it was satisfying.
Lots of good advice on how on how to safe and live within your means. Great look at how most millionaires are not driving flashy cars, but purchasing used vehicles with research.
“Follow your passion” has always been the advice given to people that I've run into. If you love what you do, good things will follow. This book goes completely against that, and I love it for it. The alternate route to passion is following what you're good at, and what you can make a living at, and let passion follow. The premise is that passion follows expertise, and as you get better at something, your passion for it will increase.
The anecdotal stories told by people who “followed their passion” leading them to change their lifestyle only to realize it wasn't their passion after all were compelling as well. For example dropping everything to join a Buddhist Monastery only to realize it's the wrong life path. I could see a lot of amazing advice in this that could counteract the prevailing culture of bad advice on this same subject.
One of the most FUN books I've ever listened to – and read by Wil Wheaton. The premise for this one takes place about 30 years in the future, where the creator of an MMO dies (imagine 2nd Life + WoW + Eve + the web itself + more). His will leaves his assets, and the fate of the game itself, to whoever can find the Easter Egg he hid within Oasis, his game.
The quest to find the Easter Egg dives into geek culture – specifically from the 80s. Games, TV, movies, anime, cartoons, computers, music and too much more to count are referenced. Most of the book takes place in the game itself, allowing for a world where anything can happen without the need to justify. Things get interesting when the high score list highlights names of players – effectively making them targets both in the game and in the real world.
If you're up for an 80s pop culture history lesson in the form of a book, that reads like a game, you should check this out.
While in a different time, and with a different goal from the original Mistborn trilogy, this one expanded on the world in unexpected ways. I'm always impressed how Sanderson can bring back an idea from books ago that was ambiguous and expand on it. This book gave me a Final Fantasy vibe –a combination from the time period, magic system, characters and a few familiar plot devices that somehow seem right at home in the world of Mistborn.
Although I'm no longer managing people, I've heard enough people mention this book that I wanted to check it out. The focus is around communicating clearly with people and teams as the way to be the most effective. Opting for empathy over insincerity and candor over aggression. The goal is to actually CARE while challenging people directly.