Thought
that it might be a nice idea to review all of the books that I read in 2014 and
give everyone an insight into my reading list and maybe a window into my
personality. Ah, who am I kidding, I just want to try to show off how well read
I am even though no one gives a damn. Like most people I don’t use Goodreads as
a way to discover new authors or discuss my favorite books: I’d rather have
quantifiable proof that I am a more cultured person than everyone I know. Anyway,
I’ll start with the non-fiction.
“How to Fail at Almost Everything
and Still Win Big” by Scott Adams: Do
you want life coaching from the guy who writes Dilbert? Yeah, I thought so too.
However, the chapter on “how to make an obscene amount of money doing something
that hasn’t been culturally relevant for fifteen years” is definitely worth
reading.
“David and Goliath” Malcolm
Gladwell:
Speaking of making money while no longer relevant here is the latest by
Gladwell who in this book explains that you should go to Maryland instead of
Brown because you will rank higher in your class at Maryland and thus be more
likely to complete your major. That is quite possibly the dumbest thing I have
ever read. I’m much more successful for getting a C in an electrical
engineering course at Illinois as opposed to being a straight A student
somewhere else.
“The First World War” by John Keegan and “Aftermath:
The Remnants of War” by Donovan Webster: If there is one podcast that I recommend that
everyone should listen to it is Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. In particular,
you must listen to his current series on the First World War and Ghosts of the
Osfront, which covers the Eastern Front of World War II. Don’t think of it as
your typical military history where you are going to be forced to listen to
lists of units and brigades followed by technical minutiae. Instead it is a
fascinating and in many ways personal view of some of the most important events
in modern history. This is the 100th anniversary of the First World
War and I have really tried to make an effort to understand what happened and
why and I have been struck by two facts. One, the entire history of the last
100 years can be directly tied to what happened over those four years and two,
this is some of the most horrific stuff I have ever heard or read. The only
place worse than the trenches of World War I was Stalingrad in World War II and
these podcasts cover both. Even more interesting, read Aftermath as it goes
back to these battlefields to show how the areas have yet to recover. They are
still pulling live artillery shells out of the fields of France.
“The Intellectual Devotional” by David S.
Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim and “1,411 Facts to Knock You Sideways” by John
Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin: While I no longer play trivia on a weekly basis I
still devour a few books on trivia, interesting facts or stupid things that no
one else would ever care about a year. I wish I could find a good weekly trivia
game again. If there is one thing I miss about Kansas City it is the merry band
of misfits that made up the competitive trivia circuit. (Items two and three
that I miss would be easy access to great concerts and Boulevard Wheat beer
respectively.)
“Founding Myths” by Ray Raphael: Pretty much the same as above
except with a focus on the Revolutionary War. Did you know that most of what
you were taught in grade school history class was lies? Of course you do. It’s
just amazing that we never bother to change that fact once we become adults and
start writing the textbooks ourselves.
“Get in the Van” by Henry Rollins: I caught a few episodes of Henry’s
latest show on the history channel, which surprisingly did not feature aliens,
pawn shops or Bigfoot so I don’t know how it ever even aired. Anyway, as much
as I love Henry and his work I have to admit that time may have finally caught
up to him. Not in terms of his thoughts or what he says but more in the fact
that decades of screaming into a microphone has left his voice completely shot.
You can almost hear him wincing in pain while he speaks. This book is the
classic collection of journal entries from his years as the frontman for Black
Flag. If you ever wanted to get a sense of what it was like to be in the middle
of the 80’s punk scene, including all the brawls, riots and poverty that you
could ever desire, this is the book for you. Great read.
“What If” by Randall Munroe: My website recommendation for
everyone is the incomparable xkcd.com. In it, Randall Munroe uses stick figure
cartoons to explain science, what it is like to be a nerd and occasionally presents
the meaning of life as if he just feels like bestowing a gift on all of
humanity. It’s truly some of the most amazing work that I have ever seen. This
is his first book out of his What If series that explains what would happen if
someone threw a baseball at 90% of the speed of light or opened a hole at the
bottom of the ocean and let the water start to drain out. I’m not saying that
you will ever need to know the answer to these but the book is funny,
fascinating and a great way to introduce people to science without making them
read pages of equations.
“Why Does E = MC2?” by
Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw:
Ok, this book does have a decent amount of equations and includes a discussion
on the space time continuum. And I’ll have to admit that while I can follow the
math I am still working on understanding the theory completely. Do I need to
really understand this for everyday living? No, but it does fascinate me that
we can sit here on our small insignificant planet and figure these essential
truths out while at the same time creating an entire industry out of the
Kardashians.
“My Heart is an Idiot” by Davy
Rothbart, “Hyperbole and a Half” by Allie Brosh and “Me Talk Pretty One Day”
David Sedaris: I
guess you could classify all of these as memoirs or collections of personal
essays (or cartoons as the case may be.) I’ll get into a run of reading books
like these and for the most part I enjoy them but once I read a few I am done
for a while. I mean, I like David Sedaris but I’ve always read his stuff and
chuckled as opposed to the people who talk about laughing hysterically. Just
different tastes I guess.
“Writing Movies for Fun and
Profit” Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant: I’ll definitely take writing advice from two of the
guys that wrote the sketches for The State and Reno 911. However, they also
wrote Herbie: Fully Loaded so I guess they can’t win them all.
“The Baby Boom” by P.J. O’Rourke: Ugh. I want to state up front
that I really like P. J. O’Rourke and that he has written some of my favorite
books. However, this is not one of them. Pretty much an entire book about how
awesome the Baby Boomers are by turning all of their flaws into sweet little
harmless eccentricities. Somehow they still believe that the fact that the
country went to hell in a handbasket after they arrived was a complete
coincidence.
“Things
That Matter” by Charles Krauthammer: I read this book after listening to a
speech of his and I will have to say that I liked the book a lot more than I
thought. I don’t entirely agree with his political view (I’d explain it but I
don’t want to spend three pages discussing how the United States should operate
in a solo superpower world if it ever even inhabited such a place) but he hit a
lot of good points. My view on pretty much all political writing is that I don’t
mind if I agree or disagree with someone’s point. The important thing is that
the writing makes me think and that the writer leaves him or herself open to
the possibility that they may be wrong.
“But Enough About You” by Christopher Buckley:
Talk about an underrated
writer. Maybe he gained enough fame for “Thank You for Smoking” but I have been
a fan of his for years and this was his first collection of non-fiction essays
in a long time. Worth checking out.
“Of
Dice and Men” by David Ewalt: A history of Dungeon and Dragons. Yes, I read
a book discussing the history of Dungeon and Dragons. I have had longstanding
arguments about how horrible it is to play as a cleric “We’re fighting kobolds!
Cleric, go over to that corner and, I don’t know, pray or something.” As
someone who started playing in the early 80’s and would like to play again one
day in the future it was a lot of fun hearing about the history and just
reading about the fun the author had playing various adventures.
“The Best in the World” by Chris
Jericho: I have
a set rule that I allow myself one book on pro wrestling each year. It is tough
to limit myself to just one because, I mean, it’s pro wrestling. You can never
learn to many of the intricacies of the sport. (True story: I have been playing
a wrestling computer game recently in which you manage a wrestling company. Not
an arcade game where you play matches. A game where you sit around, hire
wrestlers, book cards and matches where you say who wins and in what way, and
then see what the crowd thinks of your matches. It’s essentially playing a
giant spreadsheet and one where I am upset that one of my wrestlers retired on
me. I wish I could say that I am embarrassed by this.)
“This Changes Everything” by Naomi Klein: A discussion on climate change
and how we would need to change the entire nature of the world economy to address
it. As I have said on many occasions the planet isn’t screwed just yet but we
are getting close. The biggest problem is that this is a global issue and we
have never dealt with a global issue before. We do not have the structures in
place to deal with such a thing. That is what scares me about the future.
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