What I Read 2014: Non-Fiction Edition

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 100^th 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. 

The Year in Books: 2013 (Part Three of Three)

It’s time to finish off the recap of all of the books that I read in 2013 with the remainder of the non-fiction list. As always opinions and recommendations are mine alone and keep in mind that I am someone who has paid to see Weird Al in concert.

“The Great Fire of London” Neil Hanson: When Kim and I started dating we spent much of our time hanging out in the library in her house. Kim had a legitimate library to the point that we really should institute the Dewey Decimal System at some point just for convenience. This book was one that I saw on her shelves and wanted to read immediately. Ok, it took a few years for me to actually read it but if you are interested in the inner workings of 17^th century London and want to get a sense of the calamitous fire that destroyed the entire city this is the book to read. Well, technically Samuel Pepys’ diary would be the book to read but this one doesn’t require you to read numerous diary entries detailing the purchase of cheese.

“Afterliff” John Lloyd: A literary / comedy game in which you take a city’s name and use it to define something that doesn’t have a word for it yet. So it is essentially a Sniglet. Yes, I consider a book that is a collection of Sniglets to be just as worthwhile to read as a Shakespeare play. Don’t bother trying to understand me. I don’t understand me and I’ve been me for a very long time.

“Monkey Mind” Daniel Smith: A memoir on anxiety and how it shapes one’s life. I’m a bit more honest now about my struggles with anxiety issues and how it has affected me. For the most part I now have them under control and in the process have learned a lot about how the mind works and the wonderful moments when you realize “I am being completely irrational here and even though I know that I have no idea how to stop.” This book kind of gets into it but wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be.

“102 Minutes” Jim Dwyer: I have a tendency at times to step back and try to look at the world as an outside observer. At times this results in my being cold and critical but I like to think that it also adds insights that are missed in the accepted narrative. Even though 9/11 is the biggest historical event of my lifetime and that it occurred only a dozen years ago the details of the event have seemingly been erased from the popular retellings. You do not see the unedited footage and you do not read the stories about what it was like during those horrible hours. I feel that it is wrong to forget that horror, no matter how challenging and depressing it can be to face it. This book recounts what happened in the Towers that day and these stories should be remembered as facts and not as political talking points.

“Every Love Story is a Ghost Story” D.T. Max: Ok, keeping with the uplifting tone here is the biography of the late David Foster Wallace. As I mentioned when I reviewed his last essay collection I am an unabashed fan of DFW and this provided the clearest look into his life and his troubled mind. It’s a story of someone who was too bright for their own good and who struggled with addiction and depression his entire life. Wallace isn’t for everyone (it really helps if you understand central Illinois, tennis and high level mathematics) but he will always be the author I turn to in order to be inspired about what writing can be.

“Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die” Willie Nelson: This is a little better. To be clear I am going through these books in chronological order so you can get a sense of when I am in my dark moods and when things are a little brighter. A nice little collection of road stories from Willie Nelson who apparently spends a lot of time in Hawaii playing poker with Woody Harrelson. Not a bad life if you can get it.

“Playing the Moldovans at Tennis” Tony Hawks: Years ago I read Tony Hawks’ first book “Round Ireland with a Fridge” in which he took a bet that he could hitchhike around the whole of Ireland while bringing with him a dorm sized refrigerator. In this follow up, Tony takes on another silly bet in which he proclaims that he could beat the entire starting lineup of the Moldovan national soccer team in tennis. I like anyone who does challenges like this. There is such a big thrill about living life just for the hell of it. I’ve always said that I want to one day try for a world record but for it to be in the silliest manner possible.

“The Fix is In” Brian Touhy: A book that focuses on conspiracy theories in sports. Some of these I agree with: the first NBA lottery sure seemed fixed so that the Knicks got Patrick Ewing, I’m pretty sure that Michael Jordan’s first retirement was really a suspension for gambling and NASCAR has a very interesting history of certain results occurring when it would fit the overall narrative. However, he ends the book by going through the past ten Super Bowl’s and explaining how they were fixed. While Peyton Manning leading the Colts over the Bears did fulfill the storyline of Peyton finally winning the Super Bowl I don’t think the NFL needed to do anything to accomplish this other than making sure that the Bears started Rex Grossman at quarterback.

“The Squared Circle” David Shoemaker: Probably the best book on pro wrestling that I have read from the sense of analyzing the sport and what it means from a cultural standpoint. It is close to what I have always though I would write a master’s thesis on in some vague liberal arts subject though I would focus more on how pro wrestling mirrors the wants and desires of the public. If you are a wrestling fan you need to read this book immediately. Very well written, only minimal mistakes on the history of the sport (and with something like pro wrestling the history is nebulous to begin with) and a lot of fun.

“Geek Wisdom” Stephen Segal: A world view taken from science fiction, fantasy and pop culture. Hits a little closer to home than I would like. Not by that Stephen Segal, which takes away a lot of the promise of the book.

Best of 120 Minutes: Blur’s “She’s So High” from their shoegazing period. I want Damon Albarn’s t-shirt from this video so much that I should just put it on my birthday wish list. I was clearly on the Blur side of the Blur vs. Oasis war that tore apart Alternative Nation. In the end I still hold that I was on the right side of history.

The Year in Books: Part Two

Continuing with my review of what I read in 2013 with a roundup of some of the non-fiction I read this year. I will split this into two parts because I don’t know if I will want to force this into one huge entry.

“More Baths Less Talking” Nick Hornby: A collection of essays in which Nick Hornby discusses what books he had bought and read over the past month. So this is a blog post in which I discuss a book I read that consists of an author discussing what books he read. Yeah, my head hurts just thinking about this.

“Both Flesh and Not” David Foster Wallace: I am an unabashed fan of David Foster Wallace. I will always say that he was the best writer of my generation and / or the last forty years. Sorry, amongst literary snobs I fall into that camp. While his work is not the easiest to read his non-fiction essays are probably the best way to understand just what an amazing talent he was. The way he captures and explains events and provides this clinical yet at the same time profound insight is something I’ve never encountered before. At a minimum read the title essay on Roger Federer which is the best piece of sports writing of the last twenty years.

“Life After Death” Damien Echols: A brutal, gripping and at times mind boggling true story of an innocent man who spent nearly twenty years on death row. Damien Echols was once of the West Memphis Three, a group of teenagers in Arkansas who were without a doubt innocent of the charge of murdering three children yet were railroaded and convicted based on claims of Satanism and occult beliefs when at best all they did was wear black clothing and listen to heavy metal. This is Damien’s account of his years spent on death row as well as his life before and during the trial. It is a story that will make your heart stop. A book that everyone should check out just to understand the flaws of our justice system and the fact that, unbelievably, while Damien is now out of prison he still isn’t legally free.

“The Book of Animal Ignorance” John Lloyd and John Mitchinson: If you want to waste a lot of time on YouTube search out the British panel show QI. Hosted by the legendary Stephen Fry, it consists of four British comedians who all seem to have gone to Oxford or Cambridge discussing really interesting facts from history and science. It is much more fun than my description makes it out to be. This book is a collection of some of the facts with the best being that a combination of horse and zebra is called a zorse. Personally I would have preferred Horbra just so we could have a Skank of Horbras.

“Gulp” and “My Planet” Mary Roach: This is what I would consider my light science reading. Mary Roach writes very readable articles on science without getting too technical. For example, Gulp is about everything that happens when you eat from when the food enters your mouth to when it leaves the other end with discussions on what happens physically and the strange tales of those that study this to begin with. I read things like this to relax, which is probably scary.

“Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls” David Sedaris: I’m tossing this in my non-fiction category though that is probably a bit of a stretch. I assume David Sedaris follows my rule of writing in which both my fiction and non-fiction is 75% true with the only difference being which part of the story is true. This was an easier writing rule to follow when I was single and telling embellished stories about my time in bars. Now Kim looks at what I’ve written, points out the inaccuracies and tells me that “being married to you is like dating Taylor Swift.” Sadly, that last line is a) true and b) much wittier than anything I have written over the past two years.

“Dishwasher” Pete Jordan: The tales of a man whose dream was to wash dishes in every state of the union. Also talks about his zine. Remember zines? They were like blogs before people realized that the internet existed. This, along with record stores, rotary phones and personal dignity, are going to be the items that we tell our children about as they look at us in dismay. By the way, part of this book revolves around his inability to get a dishwashing job in New Orleans. He must have been a really crappy dishwasher.

“I Wear the Black Hat” Chuck Klosterman: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Chuck Klosterman has my dream job. He just sits around, watches a lot of television, listens to music and writes long essays on pop culture in which he compares Paul Stanley to Ralph Sampson and gets paid for it. I would have focused on that as a career over electrical engineering except that no one ever told me that rambling essays that only vaguely hold together is an actual career path. This was a pretty good collection of essays that focused on the bad guys in culture including a very interesting comparison of O.J. Simpson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

“Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love” Andrew Shaffer: Pretty much self explanatory. 

2013 Year in Books: Part One

As I mentioned in the New Year’s Resolutions post one of my goals for the year is to read forty books. Last year I hit thirty seven, which might sound impression if it wasn’t for the fact that Kim probably read somewhere between 100 and 200 books for the year and that still might be a low estimate. Still, I figure that it might be nice to review what I read last year and it will be easier than trying to add these to my Goodreads account. I really like Goodreads though giving books a 1 – 5 rating seems really silly. Anyway, here is an overview of all of the fiction that I read last year and my memories of the books.

“One Last Thing Before I Go” Jonathan Tropper: I think that I have always described Jonathan Tropper as a lower rent, American Nick Hornby. That seems like a really harsh critique of someone who I own every single thing he has ever written. Interesting book featuring Jonathan’s usual main character of a guy who is a screw up in a very funny way but not one that really stayed with me.

“A Wrinkle in Time” Madeline L’Engle: One of those books that I was told to read when I was ten years old and didn’t read until I was forty. I hate to say this because I know that for many people this is one of their favorite books of all time but I just didn’t get it. It was nice but I couldn’t see what made it such a mind-bending success. Maybe I am just too old and cynical.

“This is How You Lose Her” Junot Diaz: Probably the best book I read all year from a pure literary standpoint. More of a short story collection than anything else, though certain characters appear and reappear, and a very interesting take on modern life. Sadly, I read it a year ago so my memories of it are very sparse.

“Tristan and Iseult” Traditional: Kim gave me this book to read when we started dating and I finally came around to reading it. This was one of those books that I read because I feel that I should understand some of these old stories as though I am missing wide swaths of our common mythology. Absolutely great story involving love potions, love triangles, curses and knights. It was surprisingly good and didn’t drag you into the medieval abyss as some other stories of the ilk do.

“Attachments” and “Eleanor and Park” Rainbow Rowell: One of Kim’s biggest critiques of what I read is that I tend to read authors for the sole purpose of saying that I’ve read them. I’ve read David Foster Wallace and James Joyce and it is difficult for me to say I did that for any reason other than to be a literary snob. Heck, half of these comments on what I read last year will come off as being a literary snob. As a result, when I started to read Rainbow Rowell’s books (another Kim recommendation) I really wanted to dislike it. It was light, relationship based and the type of book that I scoff at when I am in Barnes and Noble. To my dismay, though, I could not put these books down and they were easily some of my favorites for the year. I just loved these books with characters I could relate to and Rainbow just has a way of writing really fun and engaging scenes. Really recommend checking her out.

“You Don’t Have to be Evil to Work Here but it Helps” Tom Holt: I have no idea where Kim found this author, or why I had never heard of him, but the book involves magic, goblins, immortals and office politics. It is a strange mix of Dungeons and Dragons and Office Space. Again, how I had missed Tom Holt in the past is beyond me.

“The Middlesteins” Jami Attenberg: I want to say that this was a modern take on Middlemarch. I know that it involved a Bar Mitzvah, an extremely obese woman, really good Chinese food and probably some other plot points. I swear that I enjoyed the book a lot but getting older has really screwed with my recall.

“Z” Therese Anne Fowler: A novel on the life of Zelda Fitzgerald. As someone who said that he was always in search of his Zelda this book obviously was very interesting to me. On the plus side you get to really understand the wild and carefree life that Zelda and Scott were living in the 20’s and be amazed at a time when an author could be the toast of the town. On the other hand, it paints F. Scott Fitzgerald as an alcoholic jerk, which is probably accurate but I would rather not have to view my idol in that light. Still better than the Gatsby movie.

“The Financial Lives of the Poets” Jess Walter: Killer book about someone who decided to start a financial website written in poetry and who in the process bankrupts himself and his family and gets pulled into a very comical drug deal. A lot of fun and a good take on the financial crisis as well.

“The Ocean at the End of the Lane” Neil Gaiman: Now I am a huge Neil Gaiman fan going back to his earliest work in comics but I have to admit that this story left me a little flat. I understand that it was in part a retelling of events that occurred to him in childhood and many of the scenes about his home life and those nooks and crannies of the area around your home that fill your earliest memories carry a lot of weight. It’s just that the fantastical elements didn’t strike me as being as strong as in Sandman or Anansi Boys or much of his other work. Nice story but not his best.

“The Long War” Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter: Sigh. Please understand that I feel that Terry Pratchett’s long slide into Alzheimer’s is an absolute tragedy. I also understand his desire to work with other authors in creating stories that take place outside of Discworld. The Long World series, which take place in a world where people discover a way to travel to a seemingly infinite number of parallel earths, is fascinating in terms of discussing what that type of world would be like but really lacking in terms of characters and plot. I would rather have a new Discworld book.

“The Last Dragonslayer” Jasper Fforde: Ok, I occasionally read Young Adult books by authors that I like in order to pump up my book count. Jasper Fforde is the author of the excellent Thursday Next series and this story, like everything else he writes, is filled with literary references and asides and is a great gift to give to that child who is much too smart for their own good.

“Bright Passage” Josh Ritter: Josh is one of my favorite singer-songwriters and is one of the few people whose lyrics truly are poetry. This was his first novel and is interesting in that it focuses on the First World War and thus brings up scenes of battle that have not become clichés. It is strange and surreal and a fascinating first effort at writing a novel. I like his songs better but then again, the number of people who can challenge him as a songwriter could be counted on one hand.

“The Maltese Falcon” Dashiell Hammett: Sam Spade, badass. Amazing to see just how politically incorrect the book is when viewed in a modern light. Given that this story invents the entire film noir world of detectives and crooked cops you owe it to yourself to read the book and watch the movie.

“A Clash of Kings” George R. R. Martin: At some point I will read enough of the Game of Thrones series so that I can catch up to the TV show. Great book though it takes forever for things to actually get going. Plus, my biggest problem with the books is that I don’t understand how the economy of Westeros could possibly function. It seems that everyone is either royalty, a soldier or a prostitute. Wars are constant and everyone dies all the time. Who is farming? Who is raising cattle? For crying out loud, where are the garbagemen in this world?

“All’s Well That Ends Well” William Shakespeare: My Shakespeare play for the year. Surprisingly feminist at times with a female character begging to cure the king and showing that she is as well trained and gifted as any male character. Surprisingly unfeminist as it involves a character saying “Yeah, I’ll marry you but I will never see you again” and involves an affair involving mistaken identity in order to consummate a marriage and somehow this is considered a happy ending.

Best of 120 Minutes: Post was long so I will keep the video short. Guided by Voices with Teenage FBI.

For the Love of Tebow...

Before I get to the odds and ends of my books read in 2011 I need to make a comment on the Broncos game today and the media firestorm that is Tim Tebow. First of all, that was one hell of a game especially given that I thought that it was going to be the worst game of the weekend. I was glued to the screen and was amazed by how well the Broncos played. The Steelers were lucky to fight their way back into the game but Tebow’s killstrike in overtime was incredible.

It is incredible from a cultural perspective to watch the way people view Tebow. The best explanation that I have read is that no matter what your point of view you can use Tebow to prove your point. Want to talk about the gritty underdog winning with unconventional ways? Or how about the Heisman Trophy winner succeeding at the next level? Need to work an angle regarding how Christianity leads to success? Tebow is a media darling because he makes writing stories really, really easy. As a result he has become simultaneously the biggest hero and villain in sports, neither of which is earned.

Now I will be honest here, I kind of like the guy. He was drafted in the same year as Jimmy Claussen and I made the following claim. I could guarantee you that Claussen would be between the 20th and the 40th best quarterback in the NFL while Tebow would either win a Super Bowl or be a complete bust and I stand behind that claim. Claussen is either a bad starter or a decent backup while Tebow is either great or horrible depending on the day. To be honest he has already exceeded expectations. No one is ever going to consider him a draft bust. He is unorthodox and not a classic quarterback but he does get things done. I think a lot of the dislike for his football play is simply the fact that it is not the way we expect it to be done. We all believe that the quarterback position has to be played in the way that Peyton Manning does it so anything different must be wrong.

The biggest reason that a lot of people hate Tebow, beyond the media saturation, is that he is actually a really nice guy and we can’t stand it. The guy doesn’t have any big flaws to him. He is religious but I would never call him preachy or at least no more so than any other player who takes a knee after scoring a touchdown. He doesn’t screw around and leads a clean life and because he is open about that people hate him. The strange thing is you don’t see Tebow rallying against what others are doing. Not even in the way that the Straight Edge punk movement can be annoying in an “I am better than you” way. Tebow just is and people can’t stand it. Our cultural has become so cynical and jaded that the sheer fact that someone can just be famous and be a good guy drives us insane. That is a pretty sad statement.

Ok, last few books…

My Year of Flops by Nathan Rabin: An analysis of horrible movies by a writer for the Onion’s AV Club. Yes, I read a book of reviews of movies that you would never want to see. I can’t explain it either other than anyone who feels that Joe vs. the Volcano is a bad movie is someone I can never be friends with. I am sorry but that is one of my favorite movies ever.

Richard III by William Shakespeare: Yes, I met my yearly quota of Shakespeare by reading the one about the hunchback and a horse and various children being murdered offstage. What was interesting was that this was the first time that I have read Shakespeare on my Kindle and thus didn’t have all of the annotations and definitions that you traditionally have in one of the print editions of Shakespeare. On one hand I was proud of the fact that my vocabulary has improved to the point that I could follow everything without those definitions but I know that I missed some of the more obscure references and puns. I think that I will end up going back to print for Shakespeare. It just doesn’t read properly on a screen.

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenberger: A graphic novel by the author of the Time Traveler’s Wife about finding a bookmobile with every book that you have ever read inside, which would be both awesome and kind of boring. On one hand it would be wonderful to look about and see everything that you have ever read but on the other hand you would also look around and go, “But do you have anything else?”

Best of 120 Minutes: Ok, so maybe a few of you are aware that the new season of Portlandia debuted on IFC this weekend. I note this only for the fact that I have connections to both of the stars of the show. I met Carrie Browenstein before a Sleater-Kinney show in Lawrence a few years back and ages and ages ago I hit on Fred Armisen’s ex-wife at a bar once. If you need to wonder if I was successful at hitting on the ex-wife of a Saturday Night Live actor you really, really don’t know me. Especially if you envision the 24 year old version of me doing it. Actually, I’d rather you didn’t envision that. Anyway, this is all just an excuse to post a Sleater-Kinney video.

2011 Reading List: It's Nonfiction so it has to be true

Ok, time to make my way over to the non-fiction side of the aisle for the second part of my review of everything that I read last year. I have a few pieces of odds and ends that I will write about over the weekend but I run a pretty even split between fiction and non-fiction. Used to be almost all fiction so it is a rather interesting change. Anyway, here we go…

“The Childless Revolution” by Madelyn Cain: A very interesting analysis of the fact that women are having less and less children and are often choosing careers and education over motherhood. This is going to be a growing theory in the future especially as you see the conflict between career success and family size leading to the world predicted in Idiocracy. The other interesting bit about this analysis is that it is entirely focused on women. No one ever questions if a guy chooses his career over fatherhood but for women there is a cultural stigma attached to it.

“Gunn’s Golden Rules” by Tim Gunn: If you need to have a life coach you could do a lot worse than choosing Tim Gunn. At a minimum you could guarantee that you will be dressed immaculately. Sadly I can’t get excited for the new season of Project Runway: All Stars because Tim and Heidi are not going to be a part of it, which makes me wonder if I want to watch the show at all. It just isn’t the same without Tim saying “Make it work” and saying hello to Swatch the dog.

“Bait and Switch” by Barbara Ehrenreich: Back when I took the separation package from Sprint I was given access to a career development service, essentially a place that would help me build a resume, work on my interview skills and help in searching for a new job. Outside of having someone to proofread my resume and give a little bit of a refresher on my interview technique I don’t know if I received any benefit from it. Talking about networking with people who are also unemployed is not precisely the easiest way to find a job. This book covers the same subject as Barbara spends a year in the world of the job searchers: attending networking events and sending out resumes on Monster and CareerBuilder in an attempt to see if it is at all possible to find a job using those tools. For those of you who have ever been pissed at the job search process this book will let you know that you are not alone.

“Scorecasting” by Tobias Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim: This book was basically taking a look at sports from a Freakonomics perspective. I am sure that it interested me at the time but right now I am completely blanking on it. I read it before I got married so maybe I can use that as an excuse.

“Undisputed” by Chris Jericho and “The Road Warriors” by Joe Laurinaitis: I broke one of my internal rules this year. I typically limit myself to one biography by a pro wrestler in any given year but this time I had to read two from some of my favorites. Chris Jericho, who made his triumphant return on Monday night as the most loved person on the show and was then the most hated six minutes later, is probably my favorite wrestler around and one of the few guys who I respect in the business. This book is as much about his music career as anything else and isn’t as good as his first but it is interesting. The second book focuses on my favorite tag team of all time, The Road Warriors, and while not the best written book it definitely holds your interest. Plus, the story of Hawk wrestling on a scaffold with a broken leg is always a good one to read. Sadly, the number of people in both books who have died before the age of fifty is too much for me to comprehend.

“The War for Late Night” by Bill Carter: A study of the whole Jay Leno / Conan O’Brien controversy, which was the biggest story in the world for a few months and has since become a total afterthought. Leno is back hosting the Tonight Show and will be until the sun collapses into itself, Conan has a fringe audience on TBS and I still wish that I could stay up late enough to watch Craig Ferguson. If you are interested in the ins and outs of how the late night shows works and just how many political games take place in the background this is an incredible read.

“Unfamiliar Fishes” by Sarah Vowell: I am a big fan of Sarah Vowell’s writing and this book about how Hawaii became a state is at least a little bit of a return to form from her last book, which was about the Puritans and was one of the most boring things that I have read. This has a lot more of her trademark dry wit and is an interesting study as to just how did we end up deciding that a) the United States should possess a couple of random islands in the Pacific Ocean and b) that they should be considered just as much a part of the United States as say, Delaware. Ok, that is not a good example. I’m not sure anyone can think of a reason why Delaware should be considered a state other than it gives all the other states someone to look down upon. Delaware is the Barry Horrowitz of states.

“Spook” and “Bonk” by Mary Roach: One book is about ghosts and the other is about sex. Sadly, sex with ghosts does not come up at any time as a subject though it obviously should. I’ve now read everything that Mary Roach has written and she is a writer whose style I like. She takes a scientific look at subject but does it from a very personal perspective. It’s basically investigative journalism from someone who is just genuinely interested in a subject. You couldn’t use one of her books as the basis for a doctoral thesis but they make for wonderful reads on airplanes.

“Those Guys Have All the Fun” by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales: An oral history of ESPN. After reading this you might not have a positive image of any single person who was ever associated with the networks with the exception of Robin Roberts. I knew of a lot of the ESPN sex scandals ahead of time (the wonders of reading Deadspin everyday) but there was stuff in here that was just stunning. Apparently Bristol is the Sodom of Connecticut. The book does make it clear just how the network became an unbelievable success and also why it will never be as cool as it was in the early 90’s when I watched it for every moment. Essentially, once you are owned by Disney and are the mainstream source of news you can no longer be inventive and reckless. Sad but true.

“The To-Do List” by Mike Gayle: The story of one man who sits down late one night, starts writing a to do list for his life, ends up with over 500 items and then goes ahead and completes every single one of them. I am pretty sure that Kim slapped me when I told her what I was reading because she knew that I would immediately try to do the same thing since I love To Do lists. Especially given that the first item on every To Do list that I write is, and I’m not kidding here, “Write To Do List.”

“Moneyball” and “Boomerang” by Michael Lewis: Written by the lucky bastard who married Tabitha Soren you have the story of the Oakland A’s and Billy Beane, made into a movie about a team that never makes it to the World Series (which was already made and called Major League) and another on how various economies have collapsed in the credit crisis. Given that one of those failed economies was Iceland I was interested to see if I could at all understand how in the world a country like that could suddenly decide that it was a financial center. I still don’t think anyone understands. Apparently it involves fish and elves. Basically everything in Iceland involves fish and elves and smells slightly like rotten eggs.

“I’m a Stranger Here Myself” by Bill Bryson: More travelogues by Bill Bryson. For those who know my story I have spent most of the past year on planes, in airports and basically never spending more than four days in any one location. As a result my Kindle has become a steady companion and there are times when you just search for something to read that you know that you will enjoy but don’t want to put too much thought into it. Bill Bryson works really well for those moments.

“Popular Crime” by Bill James: I’ve never been a massive baseball stat guy, though I certainly have done more than my share of scorekeeping over the year, but I have always been impressed with how Bill James investigated the game and developed better methods to analyze player performance. Apparently as a sideline Bill has also been interested in true crime stories and this book is basically his examining of various cases over the centuries. It basically reads like a bar conversation with a friend who is brilliant, extremely dedicated and completely ignoring the fact that at many points he is either wrong or bringing up a point that is really irrelevant. Still, I go back to this book to read select chapters occasionally and it did bring up cases that even I was unaware of.

“I Want My MTV” by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum: An oral history of MTV, which is basically the same as the one about ESPN but replace Robin Roberts with Martha Quinn. Also, Adam Curry’s hair is essentially its own character in this book. Seriously, I think it gives an interview at some point. Oh, and no one liked Downtown Julie Brown. Absolutely no one.

2011 Reading List: Fiction for all

Since it is a start of a new year (and an effective restart of the blog) I thought that I would go with an easy topic for the next couple of days: an examination of the books that I read over the course of 2011. I finished 38 books last year, which is about average for me. Yes, I’ve kept track of every book that I have read since 1998. In many instances I can tell you how many days it took me to read the book. Don’t ask me why this is the case. Kim asks me all the time and I have yet to come up with a good answer.

Anyway, I will start with the fiction and do the non-fiction and odds and ends tomorrow.

“The Power and the Glory” by Graham Greene: This was my challenge reading for the year, which just shows that I have really lapsed in terms of what constitutes a challenge for me anymore. Not like the good old days where in January I would decide to read Faust in its entirety despite the fact that once you read the definition of the term “Faustian Bargain” you can pretty much ignore the entire book. Anyway, I have always meant to read more of Graham Greene’s work and this is just an amazing story about Central America and the struggle of a failed priest trying to do one last good act. Really, really fascinating read about a time that we are not too far removed from.

“An Object of Beauty” by Steve Martin: I’ll state up front that I am a huge fan of Steve Martin’s writings and one of the first books that I ever gave Kim was his novel “The Pleasure of my Company.” But while I enjoyed this book you can tell that this was more of a novel written by someone who is really intrigued with a certain subject, in this case the New York art world, than by someone with a story to tell. You will learn more about auction houses and galleries and the denizens of the world than you could ever wish to know. A nice book but not a required read.

“Perforated Heart” by Eric Bogosian: Eric Bogosian falls into the category of one of those writers that I have always admired but had never actually read. Mainly because I tend to see movies of his work (Talk Radio being the biggest example) and just always hear praise about him. So I gave this novel a try because it focused on the 70’s punk rock scene in New York, which I have a passing interest in for some reason. Mainly because everyone considers it to be incredibly important artistically and musically but it all happened before I was aware of art and music outside of Sesame Street so I don’t know of CBGB’s outside of the t-shirts that you can buy at Urban Outfitters. Not sure if this book helped me to get a sense of the time, either. 70’s punk remains to me the story of a really good party attended by someone else a few years ago. Maybe you just had to be there.

“The Well of Lost Plots” by Jasper Fforde: Some books are written for certain audiences. Jasper Fforde writes for literature geeks. I have seen no author who is so inventive and dedicated to making as many literary references as possible via his Thursday Next series, which involves a world where characters in books are surprisingly real. If you can find references to Austen and the Charge of the Light Brigade entertaining than pick up his books. It is like someone decided to specifically invent crack for English majors.

“Midnight Mile” by Dennis Lehane: As you can probably already tell my taste in fiction runs to the more obscure but here is a book that everyone would enjoy. Lehane is an outstanding writer of tense thrillers and this book is in the realm as his earlier work with “Mystic River” and “Shutter Island” (along with his belief that book titles should only contain two words.) His books are page turners that do not fall into the Dan Brown trap of seeming to be formed out of a rejected Scooby Doo script. Definite one to check out.

“The Wee Free Men” and “Snuff” by Terry Pratchett: If I would hazard a guess I would estimate that I own / have read almost thirty books by Terry Pratchett over the past fifteen years. He is my fantasy writer of choice as his Discworld novels are brilliant satires of society and the nature of fantasy itself. What saddens me though is that he is reaching the end of his career as he has early onset Alzheimer’s and is now forced to dictate his books. You have to admire someone who sees the end of the road ahead of him and still plows on as he knows that he still has stories to tell the world.

“A Game of Thrones” by George R. R. Martin: I must admit I had not been very aware of this series until the HBO series and as a book it would typically scare me off for the same reason that I avoid most fantasy novels. At a certain age you decide that you can’t read a thousand pages about dragons and ancient rivalries without going completely numb. But my god is this a good book. He keeps you reading and the use of numerous viewpoint characters keeps you constantly engaged in all of the different threads that run through the book. I am going to continue to make my way through the series though I certainly will take pauses between the books. With something so dense you need to take breaks.

“A Visit from the Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan: I am not sure if I can call this the best book that I read all year (though it would certainly be in the top three) but it without a doubt has the best chapter that I have read in a very long time. It is a single chapter written as PowerPoint slides. It is a chapter about autism and the idea of pauses within music and what that implies and the different ways in which information is communicated and it is just fascinating to read. At first you think that it is just a gimmick but after reading it I could think of no other way to present such a story in so compelling of a manner. I’d read this book for that chapter alone.

“How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe” by Charles Yu: I read a lot of books because I hear good things about them online. Kim challenges me on why I use this method to choose books as I typically end up reading books that I am supposed to read rather than what I would actually like to read at any point in time. Sometimes my method works and I find a great book. Other times like this one I just don’t get it. It is the story of a time machine repairman with a cute dog who ends up somehow killing his future self and forming an infinite loop. Outside of the bits with the dog I still don’t know what it was about.

“Hunger Games”, “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins: Now these are books that I can understand! 24 teenagers put into an arena to battle to the death for the entertainment of the super wealthy. I have to say of all of the young adult novels that have gained mainstream attention in the post Harry Potter world these are easily the best. I highly recommend reading Hunger Games before the movie comes out because it really is a book that you will not be able to put down. You will find yourself rooting for Katniss and Peeta and wondering just how would you do in such a situation. The other two books aren’t quite as good though that is due mainly to the nature of the story. There would have to be a bit of a letdown after the first one. Huge recommendation on this one to be on board before the movie comes out and possibly ruins it for everyone.

“The Visible Man” by Chuck Klosterman: There is an old question that I have heard that you can use whenever you are at a lull in a conversation. You can have one superpower: flight or invisibility, which do you choose and you must answer immediately. It is a test of extroversion versus introversion and I have to admit that my first choice is invisibility and I then regret it. This is a novel about what it would be like to truly be invisible and then be able to watch peole as they truly are. It asks the question of who are we really: the person that we show the world or the person that we are when we are home alone. What is your true self? As with most of Chuck’s writing it is more of an examination of an idea than a good novel (you tend to find yourself searching for a plot at times) but man is it a good idea. The story will stick with you for a while.

“The Post-Mortal” by Drew Magary: For those who are unaware, Drew is one of the writers on Deadspin, a blog that I have been reading forever that was founded by a fellow Illini so I am a little biased on this one. The novel is built around a brilliant premise: What would happen if someone created a cure for aging. You take an injection and then you never age. Now you can still die by being shot or by smoking until you get lung cancer but you would never die of old age. You would just stay the same age as you were when you took the injection. Would you take it? What if everyone else did and you ended up being the only old person on the planet? What would the world be like if everyone was a twentysomething with no maturity in sight? Have to admit this book was a lot better than I initially expected.

“The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes: I wrote about this book a few weeks ago so I’ll be brief. Plus it won the Booker Prize so it really doesn’t need my endorsement. It is about memory and how we view things as we age and that amazing way you think when you are in your late teens and find yourself fascinated with intellectual pursuits. Ok, maybe not everyone gets that but there is part of me that wonders how I would have done if I had been in a school like one of the Ivies or Oxford or Cambridge and got to live one of those experiences that I have only read about. I probably would be an even bigger arrogant prick than I already am. Guess I should be happy that I went to a school that features a cornfield as one of its campus landmarks.

“Plan B” by Johnathan Tropper: I was surprised that I hadn’t read this book already. Tropper is pretty much an American version of Nick Hornby with a focus on stories revolving around New York. This was his first novel and it shows flashes of brilliance. A story of turning thirty and what that entails. Ah, the good old days…

Wednesday Night Music Club: Some days I would love to be able to stand on a stage with just a guitar, move away from the microphone and sing to an entirely silent crowd. Pretty amazing to see Josh Ritter pull it off with one of my favorite songs ever. “My wings are made of hay and cornhusks”

The complete 2010 booklist

Just for completeness sake here is the full list of all of the books I read in 2010 in case you want to compare your reading habits to mine. Or, consider it a simple way for me to make up a missed blog post. My 2011 New Year’s Resolutions will be posted on Sunday.

1) “What the Dog Saw” Malcolm Gladwell
2) “The Essential Book of Useless Information” Don Voorhees
3) “The World Without Us” Alan Weisman
4) “Lost in a Good Book” Jasper Fforde
5) “Debunked!” Richard Roeper
6) “Ring of Hell” Matthew Randazzo
7) “In Cold Blood” Truman Capote
8) “Why New Orleans Matters” Tom Piazza
9) “The Unnamed” Joshua Ferris
10) “Inventory” The Onion A.V. Club
11) “Game Change” John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
12) “Revenant” Carolyn Haines
13) “Little Wars” H. G. Wells
14) “The Pluto Files” Neil DeGrasse Tyson
15) “M is for Magic” Neil Gaiman
16) “American On Purpose” Craig Ferguson
17) “Stuff White People Like” Christian Lander
18) “Boomsday” Christopher Buckley
19) “The Watchman” Robert Crais
20) “Are We Winning?” Will Leitch
21) “In Defense of Food” Michael Pollan
22) “The Big Short” Michael Lewis
23) “The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake” Aimee Bender
24) “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future” Michael J. Fox
25) “No Country for Old Men” Cormac McCarthy
26) “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burrows
27) “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Stieg Larson
28) “Packing for Mars” Mary Roach
29) “Super Sad True Love Story” Gary Shytengart
30) “Lies the Government Told You” Andrew Napolitano
31) “Don’t Vote It Just Encourages Them” P.J. O’Rourke
32) “The Graveyard Book” Neil Gaiman
33) “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains” Nicholas Carr
34) “At Home: A Short History of Private Life” Bill Bryson
35) “Earth: The Book” Jon Stewart
36) “Stiff” Mary Roach
37) “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” David Sedaris
38) “Written on the Body” Jeanette Winterson
39) “21 Dog Years” Mike Daisey
40) “Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me” Edited by Ben Karlin
41) “Naked” David Sedaris
42) “Antony and Cleopatra” William Shakespeare

2010 Booklist

As some people know I have kept track of every book that I have read since 1998. Pretty much everything you need to know about me can be explained via that one sentence. The only thing that would surprise people is that it is in a Word document and not a spreadsheet (though I do note how long it took me to read each book.) I finished 42 books in 2010 and thought that I would give some highlights of what was on my reading list last year.

“The World Without Us” by Alan Weisman: Ever wonder if the planet would be a better place if we all simply left and handed things back over to the plants and animals? Well here is your chance to find out. This is the book that led to the several Life After People television specials that featured wonderful computer generated images of just how everything that we have built will simply crumble to the ground in fifty years and in a few thousand years there will be no evidence that we were even here, except for some patches of contaminated soil. An interesting read though not what one might call uplifting.

“Ring of Hell” by Matthew Randazzo: As I’ve said in the past I allow myself to read one pro wrestling book each year. Otherwise my reading list could become overwhelmed with things like autobiographies by “The Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiasie. This book looked at the life and death of Chris Benoit, someone who was one of my absolute favorite wrestlers of all time which makes the fact that he murdered his wife and son and then committed suicide all the more troubling. There are some issues with the book but it gives a view into the really dark side of pro wrestling as the wear and tear and constant concussions drive a seemingly normal person to commit the most heinous act one could ever imagine.

“In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote: This probably counts as my piece of classic literature this year. Though it starts slow this is such an amazing book as it marks a change in both the nature of non-fiction and essentially introduces the true crime genre of literature. Capote does an amazing job capturing what it is like in west Kansas and just how random the events that took place were.

“The Unnamed” by Joshua Ferris: My favorite novel of the year. The story of a man who cannot control the fact that at random points in his life he must stand up and start walking. He doesn’t know where he will walk or why or for how long. He just starts walking and cannot control it. I know the premise seems to be a bit out there but how the author ties this into how he relates with his family and relationships results in one of the most striking books that I have read in ages. I strongly encourage people to give this book a try.

“The Pluto Files” by Neil DeGrasse Tyson: Neil likes to state that it isn’t really his fault that Pluto is no longer a planet but you know what? It’s his damn fault. He’s the one who removed it from the list at the New York Planetarium so he innately approved of its removal from planethood. Well I like Pluto and feel that having nine planets in our solar system is only natural so screw you Prof. Tyson.

“American on Purpose” by Craig Ferguson: I wish I was younger and / or less employed so that I could stay up later and watch Craig Ferguson. I’ve only caught small bits of his late night show and I’ve greatly enjoyed them and his autobiography fits right in. Just an amazing story about his life as a comic and his battle with alcoholism. The guy is truly one of a kind and while I’m not one to typically recommend television personality autobiographies this is a good one to read.

“Are We Winning” by Will Leitch: I should note that Will is a fellow Illini and was a year behind me at school and was quite possibly on the team that beat me in the finals of the Intramural Sports Trivia competition. This book is about baseball and how we use baseball to bond with our fathers. It also focuses on the Cubs – Cardinals rivalry and if you are a fan of either team or have an undying hatred for either team that adds to the insight. Another good book by the founder of Deadspin and the guy whose career I wish I had.

“The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake” by Aimee Bender: The story of a girl who when she eats food she experiences the emotions of the person who made it or even of the factory where the food came from. Also a story of what it means to be considered a genius at a young age only to grow up and find out you really aren’t that special after all. I’m still not quite sure I understood everything that went on in this book but I was glad that I read it.

“No Country for Old Men” by Cormac McCarthy: I’ll just quote something I read this week: “Everything in life is debatable except for Cormac McCarthy.”

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larson: Yes, I did read this book. Look, I spend half my life in airports so I feel as though I was required to read it. It is certainly a fun murder mystery that keeps you guessing throughout while teaching you more about Swedish journalism and the intricacies of Nordic legal systems than you would ever really care to know about. Even though the book has a great plot and unique characters I’m more than a bit surprised that it has become such a huge hit. On the surface it just doesn’t seem like a book that would connect with the mainstream American audience.

“Super Sad True Love Story” by Gary Shytengart: A novel that takes place in the near future where everyone is a blogger and the most important thing in your life is your credit score. I guess that means that this novel takes place next Tuesday. This is one of those books with two narrators so you spend it going back and forth and while that is an interesting literary device I have yet to find a book where that doesn’t result in you wishing this chapter would be over so you could get back to the narrator you like. Also this is quite possibly the only book that puts a precise dollar value on immortality.

“Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” and “Naked” by David Sedaris: I should note that I also read “Stuff White People Like” this year and David Sedaris was listed as, well, something white people like. What I found interesting about him is that while I love him as a humorist I don’t find myself laughing when I read his work. It is funny but not in a punch line sort of way. I think this hits me because that is more along the lines of when I am best as a writer. I like to consider myself a writer of humorous essays but I do not have that natural punch line timing of a comic. Typically when I try to write that way it falls incredibly flat. I’m more suited to writing in a subdued style where the humor is there but it isn’t hitting you over the head.

“Antony and Cleopatra” by William Shakespeare: I end every year by reading a new Shakespeare play and this year it was time to go to ancient Rome where life is basically one big episode of the Real Housewives of Alexandria. In essence, Cleopatra is bipolar, Antony can’t do anything correctly including kill himself and Caesar is really Octavian though he is called Caesar the entire play despite the fact that this just confuses everyone into thinking that it refers to Julius Caesar. Not one of the bard’s best works though the scene of Cleopatra beating the crap out of a messenger for bringing bad news is all kinds of awesome.

Wednesday Night Music Club: I think all alarm clocks should be reprogramed to go off with Arcade Fire’s “Ready to Start.” No one would sleep late again.

What I've Read

So my friend Lori posted this list on her Facebook page and I figured that I might as well blog about it. It is a list of the top 100 books per the BBC (or more accurately the viewers). Books that I have read are shown in bold. Those that I have at least read some of are shown in italics. This will give a good sense of where the big gaps are in my reading habits.

1) Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2) The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3) Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4) Harry Potter series – J K Rowling
5) To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6) The Bible
7) Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8) 1984 – George Orwell
9) His Dark Materials – Phillip Pullman
10) Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11) Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
12) Tess of the D’Ubervilles – Thomas Hardy
13) Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14) The Complete Works of Shakespeare
15) Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16) The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17) Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18) The Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19) The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20) Middlemarch – George Eliot
21) Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22) The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23) Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24) War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26) Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27) Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
28) The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29) Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30) The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahme
31) Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32) David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33) The Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34) Emma – Jane Austen
35) Persuasion – Jane Austen
36) The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37) The Kite Runner – Khalid Hosseini
38) Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere
39) Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40) Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41) Animal Farm – George Orwell
42) The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43) One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44) A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45) The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46) Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47) Far from the Maddening Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48) The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49) Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50) Atonement – Ian McEwan
51) Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52) Dune – Frank Herbery
53) Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54) Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55) A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56) The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruis Zafon
57) A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58) Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Gaddon
60) Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marques
61) Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62) Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63) The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64) The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65) Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66) On the Road – Jack Kerouac
67) Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68) Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69) Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70) Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71) Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72) Dracula – Bram Stroker
73) The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74) Notes from a Small Island – Bill Bryson
75) Ulysses – James Joyce
76) The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77) Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78) Germinal – Emile Zola
79) Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80) Possession – AS Byatt
81) A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82) Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83) The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84) The Remains of the Day – Kazup Ishiguro
85) Madame Bovary – Gustave Falubert
86) A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87) Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88) The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90) The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91) Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92) The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93) The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94) Watership Down – Richard Adams
95) A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96) A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97) The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98) Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100) Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

That is 27 read and 6 partials and I am more than pissed that I have to count the works of Shakespeare as a partial. I’ve read 23 of the plays and I really don’t feel like I should be penalized for not having read King John. No one reads King John. Anyway, not bad for someone who is a science geek who never had a literature class above English 103. (Kim, my English major significantly better half, has read probably well over half of these.)

I don’t list this as much to show off what I’ve read and stroke my ego but rather to get a sense of where are the gaps in my reading. Since this is a BBC list my gaps are obviously amongst British authors. I haven’t read any Jane Austen and have barely touched the Brontes. I wish I had a better reason for that other than male chauvinism but that really is the answer. Remember at one point in time I had to specifically make it a goal of mine to read at least one female author every year. For some reason I got it stuck in my head that stuff like Pride and Prejudice were “girl books” and I didn’t have to concern myself with them. Yes, that is actually as stupid as it sounds.

I’m also woefully lacking in Charles Dickens and his cohort Wilkie Collins. Here I want to blame my precociousness as a youth given that it backfired on me. I probably started to read Great Expectations when I was in seventh or eighth grade and could just never get into it. There was Pip and a convict and for some reason a really detailed inventory of a cupboard and it just never clicked, most likely because I was a twelve year old kid trying to understand Victorian England. As a result, I’ve never gone back to it. Well, my goal for next year is to really fill this gap in my literary knowledge.

The Russians, on the other hand, have been my nemesis forever. Those books just stare at me from the shelves and taunt me with their difficulty. As a result I haven’t read War and Peace or Crime and Punishment or, for that matter, War and Punishment or Crime and Peace. I still don’t feel that I will be able to claim to be a true connoisseur of literature until I conquer the Russians but that will be a challenge.

Of what I have read I have hit most of the 20th century classics while missing some of the more popular stuff (no Tolkein even though no one will ever believe that.) I’ve always been lacking in terms of mainstream fiction though I really do want to read The Time Traveller’s Wife and The Lovely Bones. I don’t know if I can say that I am well rounded in my literary tastes but I have a pretty significant background especially given this is not what I’ve ever officially studied. I’m probably not as well read as I think I am, which is good because that just means I have more books to read and that is never a bad thing.

2009: The Year in Books

I read a lot of books. Or at least I think I read a lot of books. Reading 28 books in one year is more than average but probably not by that many standard deviations. I might make it a resolution to read a book a week, which would be a fun challenge. Anyway, here are some of the 28 books that graced my nightstand this year with some comments.

(Oh and for those wondering I did not read a book on pro wrestling this year. Haven’t had that happen in a long time.)

Henry V by William Shakespeare: I have continued in my tradition of reading one Shakespeare play a year and have now completed the Henriad. I like this play, mainly because I like any play that features a lot of battles and patriotic speeches. Funny how I never recall hearing about King Henry threatening to rape and pillage a town if they did not surrender in some of my previous studies nor do I understand why half the play is in really bad French. If there is one thing that I am proud of it is the fact that I can read Shakespeare without needing to look at the notes every two seconds.

This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper: I started reading Tropper last year after hearing many comparisons to Nick Hornby. This is easily his best book about a family coming together after death and divorce and then splintering again. Funny and compelling and one that I recommend.

Generation A by Douglas Coupland: I’ve read pretty much everything that Douglas has ever written including a few really bad books. This one falls in the middle of the pack for him. The overarching story about bees disappearing from the Earth and how that is interrelated with anti-depressants and stories is rather interesting. The continual interlacing of short stories into the novel completely ruins the flow though.

Bro on the Go by Barney Stinson: Life lessons for today’s active bro. In a word: awesome.

Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman: I’ve mentioned it many times before but it always bears repeating: I would really like to have Chuck Klosterman’s job. He just sits around and writes pieces examining pop culture from this detached, slightly cynical viewpoint. It would be like someone actually paying me to blog. Let’s face it, I could write long essays discussing the merits of Ralph Sampson and ABBA as well.

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane: Read the book before the movie comes out. This is a great thriller that actually keeps you guessing the entire time as to what reality really is. Occasionally it is nice to read a book that you just cannot put down and this is one of those books. Really highly recommended.

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby: In what can be considered almost a companion to High Fidelity Nick delves once again into the world of music fandom. What does it mean to know everything about an artist? What does it say about me that I will speak for hours on end on the merits of Jeff Buckley and will go and see a band just because his former drummer is playing in it? Why are people drawn to defining their life via the creations of someone that they will never meet and who didn’t have them in mind during the process of creation? Great book.

And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer: The sixth book in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy and the first written since the death of Douglas Adams. I had really mixed emotions about this book given that I copied most of my writing style from Douglas Adams. On the one hand, I was happy to see the characters one more time and appearing in a book with an actual plot for once. But it just didn’t have the same humor and pure joy of the absurd that Douglas’ work had and I really wasn’t a fan of the ending. Arthur Dent deserves a better fate in the universe.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer: Teaches you one important lesson: Do not go into the Alaskan wilderness alone. Ever. Especially if you’ve decided to change your last name to Supertramp.

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn: This book is about circus geeks as opposed to geeks like me. That almost amounts to false advertising. Any novel that has at its core a couple that ingests as many chemicals as possible in order to have children that could serve as circus geeks is bound to be interesting and this one is definitely unlike any other that I can recall. It’s not for everyone but I guarantee that you will never forget it.

Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson: Probably the best book I read all year due to some amazing language. The book is incredibly poetic and the words just seem to float from place to place as the characters drift through time. A hauntingly beautiful book that Kim introduced me to.

This is Water by David Foster Wallace: I miss DFW. His death cost my generation its most talented writer. He left us this, his graduation speech from a few years ago. Present it to your favorite graduate to make him think. Really, really think.

I Love You Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle: Yes, the movie sucked. But the book is surprisingly decent. Not great, but decent. Any resemblance between this novel and my high school years is purely coincidental. For one thing, I don’t recall Hayden Panniterrie attending my high school.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson: I may have read this book for the title alone. It’s actually a very readable analysis of the broad issues of science from the beginnings of the universe and the structure of matter to evolution and what makes us who we are. It’s not technical and Bryson is a joy to read so if you want to find out more about this world that we find ourselves in this is a good place to start.

10th Best Album of the Decade: The New Pornographers “Challengers” (2007): You have to love Canadian supergroups made up of people from bands you have never heard of. Neko Case is the most popular person in the group and not too many people other than me know about her. They are simply the best power pop group around right now. No one can touch them. Plus, as this video shows, you just can’t match the cuteness that is Kathryn Calder.

Will Charlie Junior still get to wear a headset at Arrowhead?

Reason #537 Why I am glad that I no longer live in Kansas City: Charlie Weis is going to be named offensive coordinator of the Chiefs. Well, at least they got the offensive portion right. I don’t think there is enough barbecue in Kansas City to please that man. Plus, at least we now know who is going to be drafting Jimmy Claussen.

Some interesting comments on the resolutions post and one that I want to touch on. I’ve never even thought that it was an option for me to stop improving. Getting married makes me want to be better as there is now someone else in the picture. One of the many things I love about Kim is that she makes me want to be the best person that I could possibly be. I always kind of thought that was the point of relationships: to become better as a couple than you were as individuals.

That said, it is just part of my personality that I must always try to accomplish something. It bothers me that there are books that I haven’t read or skills that I don’t have. I consider myself lucky in that my pursuits have always been intellectual over the athletic. If my life was basketball I would be at the point where every year I would be getting slightly worse at the game I love. Instead I think that my best years are ahead of me. There are so many opportunities out there and so many Shakespeare plays to read and novels to write.

On that note, I am searching for my next January challenge book, which will also be the first book read on my brand new Kindle, and I am opening it up for suggestions. The idea of the challenge book is that in January I read one of the classics (best defined as a book that has Cliff Notes written for it) for the enlightenment, the challenge and the fact that it is too cold to do anything outside so I might as well stay in and read. List some of your favorites in the comments. I’ll probably post the list of books I read in 2009 tomorrow as well as some synopsis. I’ve been keeping track of every book that I have read since 1998 and, wow, that is an awful lot of my life that has been catalogued.

Last bit, congrats to Andre Dawson for making the Hall of Fame. As a kid Andre was my absolute favorite baseball player. Not when he was with the Cubs though. I was a fan from back in the Expos days even getting my parents to take me to a Cubs – Expos game just to see him play. He was just a top of the line outfielder in the field and at the plate and while some of his numbers aren’t as strong when compared to the steroid era he certainly belongs in the Hall. For once they’ve made a good choice.

11th Best Album of the Decade: The Polyphonic Spree “Together We’re Heavy” (2004): In a perfect world The Polyphonic Spree would be the band for my wedding. That said if I had my way we would march down the aisle through an honor guard of Imperial Stormtroopers so I doubt that I will be placed in charge of wedding planning. Still, this is one of the first in a theme on the Top 15 list, which is the band that breaks all the rules. You aren’t supposed to have a twenty plus member band featuring a nine person choir and a harpist. You can’t take the stage in multi-colored choir robes looking like a bizarre cult. You can’t have all your songs about how awesome the sun is. But that is The Polyphonic Spree and I love them for it.

The Influential 15: Books

An interesting fact was brought to my attention by the person who is directly responsible for this interesting fact. A few weeks back I mentioned how difficult it was for me to write when I am incredibly happy and how I felt that I was a better writer when I was cynical and bitter. The odd thing is now that I am smiling on a pretty much constant basis my blog readership has nearly tripled. So apparently people really like reading what Happy Chris has to say. I just promise to do my best to keep it that way.

(Though I will admit that being happy is not a regular state of existence for me. I’ve said in the past that I really view myself like the main character in Herman’s Head where there are several people in charge of my day to day internal operations. Right now they are all scurrying about yelling things like “What do you mean we don’t have a manual on how to deal with happiness?” and “Are you sure that there is no historical data to compare this to?”)

Anyway, time to continue with the Influential 15. Tonight, the 15 books that most influenced my life.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: Not only is this one of my favorite books but it is also the one that is most directly responsible for my writing style. The constant asides and footnotes, the slightly detached view of everything, my complete inability to write a coherent plot, it all stems from the dozens of times I sat down to read this book. It is science fiction and humor and philosophy all tied up into one neat little package. Oh, and in one of the sequels you learn how to fly. That is an incredibly useful skill to have.

Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne: The story of Eeyore as he confronts the harsh truth of reality while all of the other characters blindly pursue their immature goals. What? Doesn’t everyone read the book that way? This is the one book from my childhood where I still have the actual book on my shelf. The reason is very simple. Christopher Robin was the first character I ever came across who had the same name as I did. There isn’t much more you want as a little kid than to share your name with a favorite character.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Simply the greatest novel ever written. The reaching for the green light, Gatsby catching time in his hands, the impotent eyes of Dr. Eckelburg, “her voice is full of money” and my favorite scene of all time of Gatsby flinging his dress shirts into the air to show just how successful he has become. I’ve named the blog and the URL after the book, I find myself turning back to it time after time and sometimes I wonder if maybe, just maybe, that fortune teller was right.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut: I wrote a paper on this book in high school and received an A and an F at the same time. Essentially my analysis of the work was spot on but, in writing a book in which the plot goes from the present to the future to the past, my verb tense also would go from the past tense to the future tense to the present tense often within the same sentence. As a result I learned to not base my master’s thesis on stories that involve time travel. While much of the power of this book comes from the fact that it strips the façade off of the glory of war and shows it for what it is: random, cruel and bafflingly meaningless, for me it was the first book that showed me that there are other ways to write. I didn’t understand that novels did not have to follow a linear time frame, that the author does not have to stand apart from his work, until I read this.

13th Gen by Neil Howe and Bill Strauss: Ok, odds are you have never heard of this book and it wouldn’t surprise me. It is a non-fiction examination of Generation X written in the early 90’s (the title 13th Gen is in reference to the fact that Gen X is the 13th American generation since the Declaration of Independence and is seemingly cursed as a result.) They were so spot on in examining our generation and predicting what we would face in the future that it is rather amazing. Reading this was the first inkling I had into looking at society from a cultural and generational perspective and I would like to think that this has influenced my way of thinking ever since.

A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters by Julian Barnes: It begins with the story of stowaways on Noah’s Ark. It ends with a preview of heaven. In between you find insects on trials, a discussion on why you should always travel with an Irish passport, a view of art history that focuses on history as much as art, and stories about people coming to grips with the world around them. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Every chapter brings you another bit of brilliance that you never expected to find. Sometimes the book makes you stop and think and feel rather ashamed to be part of the human race. But you never stop being awed by how well written it is. I wish I could write something like this.

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman: It’s not a comic book, it’s a graphic novel! In fact, this collection marks the first time that I felt that comic books could legitimately be considered literature. It is the story of Morpheus, Dream of the Endless, who must decide whether to change after millennia of presiding over the universe in a certain manner. If that sentence doesn’t make much sense all I can say is that after reading the 75 issues it will be perfectly clear. Neil creates his own mythology in this series out of whole cloth. You actually begin to believe that you could check sources from 200 years ago and find a story about the goddess Delirium who was born Delight. Get over the fact that it is a comic book and read it.

The Day the Universe Changed by James Burke: I could pretty much link together all of James Burke’s Connections series (in both book and television form) in this one entry. This is the way to teach history and science in a way that people actually understand. What James focuses on is how seemingly unrelated events can build upon each other until suddenly there is a fundamental change in the way we view the world. Like we wouldn’t be able to fly to the moon unless someone had created the raincoat first. Just fascinating stuff and my first understanding that science can be taught without formulas.

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare: The first Shakespeare play I ever read. I was thirteen years old and in eighth grade. This wasn’t because I was in some amazingly advanced grade school where we read Shakespeare. I did this on my own because I wanted to read Shakespeare. That is the type of kid I was. This did start my long relationship with the Bard as since then I have averaged reading a play a year and have now completed all of the romances along with most of the comedies and tragedies. It took a good decade before I could read and understand what I was reading (as opposed to just looking at a lot of words) but now I can follow the masterpiece without much guidance. One day I would like to teach Shakespeare to kids to see if maybe, just maybe, I could get them to see his work in the same way that I do.

Animal Farm by George Orwell: “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” I would say this book had a bigger impact on me than 1984 (though Brave New World probably had an equal impact). Maybe it was more effective because the idea of the story being told via talking pigs seemed more realistic than having the government spying on us 24 hours a day. Oh how naïve I was at 14. Again, this was one of those times when my eyes were opened as to what a story could be. Here was political allegory told in the simplest format imaginable. The symbolism and the meaning were on display but you weren’t pounded over the head with them. And poor, poor Snowball.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy: Yes, I know that this was an Oprah Book Club selection. It also happens to be the best written book that I have come across in the last twenty years. I like to fancy myself as a writer but after reading this book I was tempted to give up knowing that I would never get anywhere near Cormac’s mastery of the language. I will also state that this book is, without a doubt, the most depressing work of fiction I have ever read. It is just brutal and heart wrenching page after page after page. I read it on vacation and one should never be horribly depressed while travelling. They have finished filming the movie but haven’t released it yet because I don’t think people want to see the world brutally end right now for their evening entertainment.

About a Boy by Nick Hornby: I actually prefer this one to High Fidelity. I’m not listing this just because it is a great book. This is also the first book I point to when I say, “This is what I want my novel to be like.” I really want to be the American equivalent to Nick Hornby. Partly because it would mean that I would be a great novelist but mainly because it would give me an excuse to write about music and soccer all day.

Life After God by Douglas Coupland: This is one of my desert island books. Despite the fact that every critical analysis of this book completely pans it I just think it is brilliance. Maybe it is just because I like the tone that Douglas takes in it. A very lackadaisical, pondering, introspective style. It is a book that meanders its way through sets of stories. Occasionally there is a glimpse of wonder but there is never a rush. It is one of those books that I like because of the way it reads.

The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams: The first collection of trivia, miscellany and imponderables that I ever purchased. In it I learned why pigeons bob their heads when they walk and why Betty wasn’t included in Flintstones vitamins. This is vitally important information to have in life. For those who wonder why I seem to know so much minutiae on so many subjects it is because I have spent much of my free time devouring books like this one.

Ulysses by James Joyce: Influential if only because I challenged myself to read it and understand it in one month and I succeeded. Easily one of the most challenging books I have ever read and to be honest it is a very satisfying read. It is just a book that requires a great deal of effort and concentration in order to gain anything close to a full understanding. I’m so proud that I have a picture of myself with a copy of the book in hand standing on the very spot where the novel begins. I might not have an English degree but I have proven to myself that I could if I wanted to.

Tomorrow: Movies. And probably some complaining about how difficult it is to come up with fifteen of these things.