The Modern Girl's Guide to Life

The Modern Girl's Guide to Life is the best of these how to books I have read. It even had a how to (fixing a toilet) that I could have used earlier this year. It had simple recipes in case you have to make a surprise dinner, how you should dress compared to your boss, and how to move in with a significant other without killing them. I am considering buying this book because I think it would be a great reference! And it's coated in plastic and a great shade of pink to boot! Apparently it's based on a tv show, but I have not seen it....

Playground by Jennifer Saginor

I read this very quickly and enjoyed it. It was very "Behind the Music." How could a 15 yr old stealing Hef's girlfriend not be a compelling read? Parts of it were a bit bitter and kind of dragged the story down. I could see if the entirety of the story was about how her childhood sucked, but there were too many happy memories for that. I guess the mixed bag is a result of real life. At many, many points I really wanted to yell at some of the characters "Just do X!" (X being a variable, not ecstasy.) I find books/movies where I feel that way frustrating, and this book definitely wore thin by the end, but was an enjoyable train trip read!

Things You Should Know By Now

Things You Should Know By Now: A Mini-Life Manual for the Quarterly Aged


This is another Relevant Books (read: hip Christian publisher) book. The title was apt, since most of it was stuff I already knew! Or had chosen to ignore (ie How to play poker).

I have recently been reading quite a few of these "Stuff everyone should know" books and have come to the conclusion that I either:
1. Know how to do whatever it is, and am amazed that other people do not
2. Think "this would be helpful if I ever needed to do this, but I when that time comes I will never be by this book (which is my general opinion of the "worst case scenario" books) and it is too boring/long to read or commit to memory.
3. Why would I ever need to know this?
4. There is a much easier way to do this. Who would do this in such a complicated way?

Top 20 Geek Novels Meme

Ones I have read are in bold.

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham

Pretty good for hating fantasy! Also, not having the attention span to read 500 page novels. :)

Books Read Thus Far in 2005

The list was begun around the time of ALA in Chicago, so mid-January

Starred items are read on audio book.


60. Seconds of Pleasure--Neil LaBute
These were LaBute short stories. They all were interesting situations that went NOWHERE, like all LaBute stories. I don't understand how he can make such interesting situations and then do nothing with them! Only a few had any resolution at all, and the rest ended at the interesting point.


*59. Green River, Running Red--Ann Rule. I love true crime, but I had never read anything by Ann Rule. This was quite good and I am looking forward to reading more of her books.


58. Cheap Ways to... -- Only so so. Who needs cheap ways to amuse a toddler? Toddlers are pretty easily amused.


57. The Christian Culture Survival Guide -- Good, very realistic, funny.


*56. Reread of America the Book on audio -- especially if you don't have cable, it was fun to hear jon stewart read this.


*55. No way to treat a First Lady--Christopher Buckley -- I think Buckley is among one of the best writers to listen to on audiobook. Great as always!


54. Freakonomics
I want to finish this, but I checked it out digitally and it won't let me print it because of the drm.


*53. Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket
--Not as fast a read as the others, though there were QUITE a few librarian jokes in in, which I loved. The end did leave me eager for the next but sad that it will be the last. Like all of them, we didn't learn enough about VFD, or the Snickets, but I have come to expect that. Excellent Scalia joke. Not many books have me looking up the Dewey table of thousands like this did!


52. Library Mascot Cage Match
-- awesome as always. A collection of comic strips about a public library.


51. fat pig--Neil LaBute.
I thought everyone in this book was totally unbelievable. Most of the characters were people no one would ever want to know. I did not get the point.


50. Inside of Me
This book could be summarized like this "Don't have sex before marriage, because I did an it was awful. I also have horrible taste in jerky men, and never ever use contraception, so I got knocked up like, 4 times, but seriously it must be because sex is bad."


49. Good News- Jeremiah J. White
I would love to go to this really open minded preacher's church, but I can't, because their church rules say no white people. Wow, how open minded.


48. Killing Yourself to Live : 85% of a True Story
--Oh man this was great. I read this in less than a day. I love Chuck Klosterman.


47. Pocket Guide To The Apocalypse: The Official Field Manual For The End Of The World --
This was really hilarious as well as historically informative. Man Jehova's Witnesses love their Second Coming


46. Lobscouse and Spotted Dog
These are recipes from the "Master and Commander" era. Very interesting--lots of animal organs.


45. The Greatest Stories Never Told


44. Urban Tribes--
A lot of nodding and no real conclusion. Like a non-fiction Douglas Coupland novel. I feel like if you were pro individuality and anti-early marriage you could see a lot to bolster your position in this book, but also if you were anti-delayed marriage you could use the facts to bolster that as well.


43. shelf life


42. The experts' guide to 100 things everyone should know how to do


41. Retro-electro : collecting technology from Atari to Walkman
So pretty, I want many of these now.


*40. Eats, Shoots, and Leaves

I have not really gotten into this yet--it's on the ipod.

*39. Assassination Vacation Even though I am not the biggest American History buff, this was great, especially in audiobook. Stephen King as Lincoln!


38. Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way--I love Bruce Campbell but this was BAD.


*37. Dry by Augusten Burroughs
very good. consumed quickly. i want to read more, but there's not much of his stuff on audiobook.


36. Churches Ad Hoc


35. roadside religion
I never got to finish this as I had to return it to the library....


*34. florence of arabia
Probably my least favorite Buckley book, with a surprising amount of violence. Great reader again, though.


33. o'reilly factor for kids
I learned that kids who do drugs are never ever successful or creative....Apparently Bill is not familiar with the advertising industry.


32. men who stare at goats by jon ronson
I love Ronson's writing and subject matter. this is a great book.


31. cromartie high


30. swan
manga about ballet, not really my thing. got it at ala.


29. In the Dark--Richard Layman
about a librarian! Very suspenseful, but lame ending.


28. The Pirates and Their Adventures with the Scientists-- AMAZING! best book I have read in yaaaaaars


*27. Glorious Appearing--Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins I gave up. It was SO BAD.


*26. Hooking Up- Tom Wolfe
Completely not about what I thought it would be. Very interesting history of Intel.


25. My Life in Heavy Metal by Steve Almond
Steve Almond should concentrate on nonfiction. I liked this, but his non-fic is so much better!


24. Tommyland by Tommy Lee I gave up after the Motley Crue years


23. CandyFreak by Steve Almond
(SO incredibly good!


*22. The Know-It-All : One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World - reference books make me happy


21. Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac was Made by Andy Hertzfeld-This book is soooo beautiful.


*20. Life of Pi
sloooooow. i know everyone loved this, but i did not. the allegory came too late so that the whole book i thought "why must i know the minutae of this boat?" and then when it finally paid off, i wish i would have paid attention, but didn't care enough to go back. excellent reader though.


19. Steve Jobs: Techies, Thinks Different


18. Little Doll Series by Dare Wright


17. a variety of books on knitting and church signs...


16. Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain by Michael Paterniti (for the book club)



*15. Blink
Very eye opening....lots of interesting facts and studies which could have been books on their own...


14. Hackers and Painters


13. Don't Try This at Home-- Dave Navarro and Neil Strauss (Strauss is the best ghostwriter ever, I read all his books)


*12. Into the Wild -- Jon Krakauer
I liked this one better than the Everest one.


11. Doormat (YA novel I got at the CCB)


10. Turning the Tables -- Stephen Shaw


9. I'm Just Here for More Food -- Alton Brown
I love his books. They are a Bible.


8. McSweeneys (the comic book one) -- Chris Ware


7. America, the Book -- Jon Stewart


*6. Cat's Cradle -- Kurt Vonnegut


*5. Into Thin Air -- Jon Krakauer
This made me wonder why anyone would ever want to climb Everest.


*4. God Is My Broker -- Christopher Buckley
I really liked this book. Buckley is great.


*3. Little Green Men -- Christopher Buckley


*2. Choke -- Chuck Palanhiuk


1. Book 11 of Lemony Snicket

welcome

I have been keeping track of the books I read since the end of last year. I have a hard time remembering what I have read unless I write them down. I have been storing them on my school server, as the list is mainly for me, but a few friends have asked to see the list so I am turning it into a blog.

Here is the low tech version.

The title is based on a quotation which has been misattributed to several people (including Warren Zevon) but I have not yet found the actual person who said it. The quotation is:

'We buy books because we believe we're buying the time to read them.'

This is mainly the reason I try not to buy books. Buying books is the kiss of death for me--if I don't have to return them, I'll never read them! Support your library! :)