j wren pennington
i liked it. many people don't, but i thought it was interesting. not quite as suspenseful as peeps, but still nice.
This book is really well written and totally compelling. I just can't go down this dark of a path right now.
i don't even know what to say here....i mean really. this breaks into my top ten weird books of all time.
i don't even know what to say about this....it was good? i think it is intended to be an exploration of the nature v nurture argument using a ridiculously bizarre scenario, but the n v. n could be a red herring planted to justify plain ol' weird shit. really, i'm lost here.
it was an enjoyable read, in that train wreck sort of way....
It should have been better than it was. Bodanis is not able to weave a narrative like Bryson, Dawkins or Feynman; instead the bits are broken into different parts of the book. This resulted in frequent disappointment only to learn later that I do indeed get my questions answered, well after I thought to ask them.
Also, there i not enough. Also, I didn't particularly click with his metaphors. They were not especially illuminating.
The information itself is fascinating. I think it would be a hit with young adult readers, if any of them were interested in the history of electrical discoveries.
turns out it's not what i'm looking for.
i probably read a third of it, skipping around. i wanted to read it because daniel dennett is often quoted in steven pinker's and richard dawkins' books, but i think the quotes used by those two learned scholars is really all i need to know. dennett is a philosopher in the abstract, and that's fun and all but what i'm looking for is tangibility and concrete manifestation of these ideas in our physical environment. if i had nothing else to read, i would read it all and probably enjoy it, but i have a lot of other books that i am eager to get to.
it went like this:
part 1: corn - i'm stoked! lots of science and history uncovering things i didn't know, yay!
part 2: meat - okay. not a lot here i don't already know, but i read a lot on this issue. nice description of totally sustainable farm even though the guy running it is obviously a crack pot.
part 3: i do it myself! - um, whoa. what are you talking about? and who the hell are these people who live in berkley and have large walk in freezers and spend their leisure time hunting on their personal swathes of california that must be worth tens of millions of dollars? and why do i care about you wringing your very waspish hands over shooting a pig?
ooohhh...i get it now, this is where we turn food into a “delightfully” entertaining moral and philosophical experiment that 70% of the population has absolutely no chance of identifying with; instead of something that everyone has to have to live and is therefore the single commodity whose supply is most easily reformed by individual demands to address ecological, health, and safety concerns.
i see what you did there, michael pollan.
i suppose this confuses your own point well enough to mask the fact that you obviously come out this deciding to continue to eat as you always do except for special occasions? because it made you several millions of dollars, i can see why you did it. i cannot however see any reason for anyone to read it.
because it is a collection, the styles vary from eh to exceptional, but the story is indeed intriguing. can't wait to read more.
i like wooding's writing. let me say that again, i like wooding's writing. his stories are not placating or and yet they are satisfying. he really gets that place between horribly predictable and overly complicated. yeah you might know where he's going, but he does a good enough job that you're happy to let him tell it they way he wants.
i cannot believe i am just now hearing about this remarkable project. if you know nothing about it check out the blog at http:\postsecret.com
it's amazing how these brief messages and the images that accompany them are so robust because they are someone's real secret. someone took the time to create that artifact and put it in the mail, and wave goodbye to something so meaningful, and so integral to themselves.
yeah, wow.
this series is getting better and better.
the most remarkable thing about it is the author's ability to build on a bigger story while creating smaller arcs throughout. i am dying to know what happens in the big picture but i am distracted by the build-up and resolution of the smaller story lines within the larger story, so i never get frustrated and give up.
this is the problem with many other YA series. they come up with one big story line, then write it and divide it into three parts, published at intervals, to make more money and to make the books a reasonable length. like twilight. the important bits could fill about 150 pages, but it is padded with righteous abstinence flavored drivel. blech. or they go the route of the morganville vampire series, now up to 6 books, which starts out strong but by the fifth book, not enough is happening for me to care.
beyond that, the story has much to say about history and time and religion and a myriad other abstract concepts, while not being overly obtuse.
good book.
it's like crack...actually, it's worse because you know what you're getting into when you are lighting chemicals on fire within inches of your face and inhaling the fumes, picking up a book should be a far more innocuous action. so just be warned....don't start until you have time to read 734 pages in one sitting.
oh, and the whole thing is like a gazillion times more intense if you have a fever and have been taking lots if NyQuil.
i have said this before, but i mean it this time...i will not read anymore YA series. this is ridiculous. i realize writing one long story and publishing it as 8 books in a series is probably easier and ludicrously more lucrative than crafting a story within the confines of a page limit, but it is heartily disappointing.
these aren't really books, they are serials. they are comics without the artwork. many times they are sloppy and poorly edited overall, which makes them more like reading someone's journal. what makes this truly frustrating is that often the concepts and ideas are really interesting and sometimes even unique. this is the case with leviathan.
really neat ideas shaped to it's detriment to make money. boo.
fun read. unique, compelling, clever, at times violent and gritty, but in a very comic book sort of way. it's written in poetry format; don't think ellen hopkins, think dante allegheri. it doesn't seem to matter at first, but then you run across some lines here and there that would be trite and cheesy written into prose, but as poetry are rendered witty and even beautiful.
well played mr. barlow.
good stuff.
i like the timeless quality...there are only a few gender related issues that date this book to the seventies.
There are many things being said about this little tome. Things such as, “Aesop for the modern age,” and “21st century tribal allegories.” And those things are true and wonderful, but they aren't why this book is good.
This book is good because David Sedaris' very specific humor, perspective and judgment is written into every line. These brief allegories work perfectly with Sedaris' style and tone, at once creating a sigh of a statement about regrets, and then turning into a delicious condemnation of the stupid, selfish and fearful. Because the actors are animals within specific contexts, you know what's going to happen, so it never seems that the author himself is punishing these individuals for their prejudices. The genius is supplying them with attitudes stolen directly from the most annoying moments of your life. The result is utterly satisfying.
i love him so.
a fun little non-fiction read in the vein of bryson's “a walk in the woods.”
mark adams, a magazine editor with a pretty decent CV, decides after years of working for Outdoor magazine that, as he is 41 years old and therefore could die at any minute, an adventure is in order. the adventure he chooses is following in the footsteps of Hiram Bingham III on his 1911 expedition that brought the great Incan ruin of Machu Picchu to the front pages of the US press.
adams is a clever writer with a knack for appropriately weighting his narrative against historical data about Bingham and the original journey. he is also wise enough not to stray too much into his own musings and relay his trip, and the people he met on it, in a very authentic way.
this is a solid good read no regardless of it's particular subject matter, but if you have an interest in Peru or the Inca or in anthropology in general, you are likely to enjoy this one. if you like travel books, this is also good for you.
this book goes down in my own personal history as the first book i picked up, read the first paragraph and realized i have already read it.
interestingly, i did not recognize the words exactly, but i recognized the place it described. my brain created the exact same image and my initial response was not, “hey, i've read this,” but, “hey, i've been here before.”