the time to read them...

moving on up

2006-06-09T21:52:00.000-05:00

I am now writing full time (ha!) over at Jennyjenny. I have not yet gotten around to a book posting, but if you want to read only book stuff, it will be tagged as such. Stuff's still a little wonky, but everything will be over there for now!

Bambi and Her Pink Gun

2006-06-04T23:09:00.000-05:00

Like a lot of manga, this book ends with me understanding way less about the story than when I started. It ends with a weird pseudo-hick style language that I am totally confused about how that translated. Also with the sentence "Tatas and violence. What the hell more do you want?" written across the main character's chest.

That pretty much sums it up.

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

2006-06-04T21:06:00.000-05:00

My friend Matt loves Tom Robbins and insisted I would too, so I have checked out several of his books. This was my first, and probably not the best choice. It's written in the second person, which I liked a lot. It's very funny, and totally made me want to read more of his books. To say it was quirky is a major understatement. Despite generally liking it, I had these problems:

1. Tom Robbins, enough with the freaking analogies already
2. TR, sometimes you add weirdness for no apparent reason. Why is a jewel thief monkey a major character?
3. Tom Robbins, I have no idea what happened in your book. There is a twist at the end that I do not understand. What?
4. Wikipedia words my problem with your writing this way, that you seem to be, ""high-fiving" the reader after every cleverly worded sentence." Okay I get it, you're WITTY. Shut up about it.
5. Your book got kinda slow in the middle there. Blah blah frogs blah blah Sirius. I thought this was supposed to be a statement about how boring and "out there" your character was, but apparently it was a real message about how we are controlled by reptiles. Huh? Are you serious? I have no idea what that was about or how it related because it made me nap. Maybe that's why I don't get your ending!
6. TR, I am by NO means shy about sex talk, but I don't think I have ever read a book which used the word pussy more often. And I have toured the HQ of Hustler. Impressive, but how much vagina monologue did this book need?

I think it's a good sign that I completely missed the point of this book and its message yet still want to read the author again.

Cell by Stephen King

2006-05-31T22:56:00.000-05:00

I love horror and I used to read a lot of King. But then he got kinda boring and he is a bit wordy. But I love the concept of this, since it's a cell phone virus that kills people. I have been saying for several years now that cell phone technology completely obliterates a lot of classic horror, since cutting the phone lines is so crucial in so many films.

And I started out loving this book. The characters are GREAT. But after King killed off my favorite character (I won't say who), I lost a lot of interest. The last 1/2 to 1/4 of this book, there is no action. And the ending is SO BAD. There is really no explanation I had been waiting for the entire time.

Based on the let down ending I dunno if I can recommend this, because the beginning was SO SUSPENSEFUL I could not wait to read more.

Love Sick

2006-05-31T22:48:00.000-05:00

by Michael J. Nelson

I wanted to like this, because I love Mike Nelson/MST3K so much. But mainly this is a book of cool clip art/graphics with really unnecessary commentary by Mike Nelson. His commentary seems sort of non-relevant.

It was especially weird since I am also reading this other book called Love Sick:

Potato Salad

2006-05-31T22:37:00.000-05:00

I have determined that potato salad without greens is much tastier than potato salad with. This seems like one of those recipes that masks gross food/tastless healthy food by putting it in (relatively) less healthy food. Turnip greens appear to have no flavor, but the same creepy soggy leaf texture.

I am happy with the turnips, but I am throwing away the greens. What is this the Depression? Do we have to eat garbage? :P

Veggie Update

2006-05-31T20:48:00.000-05:00

This week I got more spinach and radishes. Both of those will go towards salad, especially in this hot weather.

I also got turnips. I made this amazing soup from the CSA cookbook. I altered it a little. Basically:

Saute a cup of onions or green onions in butter
Add 4 cups of chopped turnips, cleaned
Add a few chopped potatoes, skinned.
Add 2 cans of chicken (or your preferred) stock
add a tbls. of sugar, a tbls. of lemon, a bunch (figurative) of parsley, sprinkle of lemon pepper.

Cook covered for 45 mins, or until turnips are mushy.

Puree in blender/food processor.

Put back into pot and add a little less than a cup of yogurt (they suggested milk or cream, but I never have those, and I like how yogurt tastes).

Then I added some chives and salt, and a lot of white pepper, which gave it a really nice heat.

Bring to a boil, then shut off, serve chilled. (Though also tasty hot.)

I couldn't find a good recipe for radish greens, but it seems like radish greens are spicy like mustard greens. So then I found this amazing looking radish green potato salad which I am making as I type. It's carbtastic over here.

I got some green onions, which I will use in both of the above and probably a test batch of cornmeal grean onion pancakes. But that still left 2 things: the much dreaded bok choy and turnip greens leftover from the turnips. I foisted the bok choy onto the aforementioned bokchoy lover Kurt. But turnip greens are sort of yucky seeming when raw. Websites seem to call them bitter, but I think of them more as sour. All recipes seem to have the usual "cook with pork" suggestions. So I searched in the cookbooks and found nothing appetizing. I am sorry people, but wilted greens? Yuck. Consistency of grossness. But then I found this. Mmmm anything cheesy can't be bad, right?

If anyone has more turnip green ideas, let me know. Hey I always thought you threw out this part of the plant.

Road Trip

2006-05-28T19:38:00.000-05:00

Anyone up for a Maine to Nevada road trip?

create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

Superiority

2006-05-27T20:13:00.000-05:00

Recipes from America's Small Farms: Fresh Ideas for the Season's Bounty

I am generally not a food snob. I like hot dogs way more than the next guy. I honestly like malt liquor. I also love lobster (which, depending on how you construe it, is sort of dirty so probably a bad example) and fois gras, no matter if the place I first had it (Chicago) has now outlawed it. I pretty much like the whole gamut. While I am known to my friends as a person who will eat "garbage" (meaning leftovers from strangers) or to my family as a risktaker (I think refrigeration of cooked meat is optional for about a day after it has been cooked), I also enjoy good for you/non decaying food.

Wow, you guys are never ever going to trust my food recommendations or eat at my house again, are you?

Anyways, short story long, I think I should try more things and eat more vegetables. So I joined a farmshare aka community supported agriculture. And all of the correspondance I get from my CSA pretty much is about how I am better than YOU, the big box consumer. I think that's a pretty good marketing scheme, making me feel better than you.

Even tho we CSAers are much better than you, many of us are probably unfamiliar with how to cook the kooky veggies they give us, so they made us buy the above cookbook. So far I haven't really cooked anything out of it, but it's care/handling/general cooking instructions have been very helpful. I am not a very "stick to a recipe" person anyways.

So in order to test this book, and because it's my blog and I say so, I will be logging what weird veggies I ate and how this book was useful. I want to keep track of my weird veggie intake. Also I am an extreeeeeeeme city kid. I don't think I can underline this enough (although I would never underline it here, because then you'd think it was a link.). I saw my first constellation at a rave at 22 since that was the first time I had been far enough out of the city to see one. I have never had a driver's license. I am allergic to all living things. And my family is meatcentric. So I discovered spinach at college and loved it. I am ignorant of non-Italian (ie not tomatoes, eggplant, onions) veggies pretty much, so this "weird veggie" list may look pedestrian to you!

Veggies thus far

Many kinds of salad-I like salad, so salad mix, red leaf, green leaf, spinach have all been good.
Radishes-I tried radishes in college as well and love them. Other than putting them in salad or dipping them in things, I am still sort of at a loss as to what to do with them.
Kale- This one immediately threw me. Okay kale sounds super super healthy. And super healthy things, by and large, just aren't very tasty. My opinion. But I really liked kale. So much so that I threw it in salads. I cooked one batch in a lasagna. It was good too, but I liked it raw better.
Green onions- Okay so not a weird vegetable. But I received a MASS quantity of green onions. Every week. I put them in salads. I love them. But then I accidentally found a green onion pancake recipe and oh boy is it awesome. Basically:

1 cup pancake mix (less sugar if you are not getting it out of the box
3/4 cup of water--make as thin or thick as you like
salt and pepper
10 green onions (the more the better. use way more than you think you should)
cayenne (pinch or two)
tumeric (to taste)

Yumtastic. If I had made them thinner I think a yogurt dipping sauce might have been awesome.
Mustard greens- These also scared me. Looking up recipes for a lot of these new veggies landed me at websites like completelytastelessvegancooking.com (made up). I mean I am already eating kale, must I eat tofu as well? I knew if I made this stuff into super healthy meals only, I would hate it and never eat it again. The other extreme was that basically, you can cook any green with bacon. Um, ANYTHING cooked with bacon is good because it TASTES like BACON and is covered in BACON FAT. I didn't think this would give me a real taste of whatever veggie it was.

So for mustard greens I sort of made it up. I made a pasta salad with lemon and red peppers. On a side note, I LOVE lemon pepper. Like, way too much for my own good. So lemon + mustard greens=LEMON PEPPER. Amazing. I guess the longer you cook them, the less peppery they are. They were awesome and i look forward to buying them again.
Bok Choy- Now, I have had bok choy in chinese restaurants. And I sort of avoid all veggies at Chinese restaurants, because all the veggies are soggy, covered in some soy/gelatinous cornstarch mix that grosses me out. My friend Kurt who is moving to China has insisted that bok choy is great and encouraged me to try some of his bok choy and I do and pretend it's yummy and am secretly all icked out. My best friend and her bf expressed how awesome bok choy was and suggested a recipe. In fact it is the only recipe that seems to be available for bok choy, which made me slightly suspicious:

stirfry bokchoy with garlic, ginger, soysauce, sugar.

This made it taste like every other bok choy I have ever had--wet, soggy and PF Changy. IE like a fake imitation of Chinese food. I have come to the conclusion that bok choy is not for me.

But 1 bad thing is pretty good so far. Stay tuned.

Running with Scissors

2006-05-16T18:05:00.000-05:00

by Augusten Burroughs

I was led to believe this book was funny. The next David Sedaris. I have even read Dry by Burroughs, and I loved it. Even though it was a tad disturbing (since it's about the author's struggle with alcoholism) it was more funny and surreal than sad. Now Burroughs is also being compared to James Frey since his foster family is suing him over the book. And they're making a movie about it.

Generally if I like one book by and author, and he is compared in any way to Sedaris and Frey and his books is self-read on audiobook, there's no way I won't love the other books by the author.

But man, this book was SO DEPRESSING. I just can't really focus on the funny/weird things happening when a 15 year old boy gets anally raped by a 34-yr old man, and is giving random medication and "adopted" by his mother's shrink who's raped her.

I started reading this months ago and then had to return it and re-check it out. I liked it, I was just expecting a fun book. The movie trailer also looks pretty fun. I will totally see the movie, but I wonder how they can make it happy!

Washington Schlepped Here

2006-05-10T21:16:00.000-05:00

by Christopher Buckley

This is another of the Crown Travel Series, and perhaps the complete opposite of all of them. This one actually is sort of a walking tour of the city sites, which made it immediately less interesting, since I am not walking through DC anytime soon. However, I can't fault a travel book for this!

It was pretty funny and of course the best parts were Buckley talking about his personal experience working for the (first) Bush administration. My favorite Buckley book, God is My Broker is a complete satire of the self-help genre. In parts, this book does the same with the travel genre, but not enough. i imagine Buckley's publishers actually wanted a real travel book.

I would recommend this to only the fiercest Buckley fans, or anyone going to DC. It's got a lot of good and fun historical tidbots.

And through looking this up, I realized that this series has a book about Vancouver, BC by Douglas Coupland! I wish I had known that before going there, but I hope to read it anyway. Sadly, no library seems to have it.

Are Men Necessary? by Maureen Dowd

2006-05-06T22:04:00.000-05:00

I started actually liking this book, and thinking is was funny. But I ended up yawning, wincing at Dowd's REALLY annoying voice, and mainly wishing this book had less politics and more facts.

This book is a lot of small blurbs. Some blurbs are really interesting. Those usually have references and are based on actual research. Then there's a whole bunch based on a few people the author is friends with who she interviewed. As i cannot relate to super rich, very urban late 30s/40s dating, I have no idea whether her assertions are true or not, and, more importantly I do not care. Since the chances of me going on dates with people who make hundreds of thousands of dollars at places where I have to buy expensive ball gowns is near nill, and that is so far removed from 90%+ people in the world, I don't really find any interest in reading about it. Another HUGE group of blurbs is about the presidency (Clinton and Bush II). This last group was least interesting to me. First, it was mainly really dated. Second, it was basically Dowd's personal opinion, which is fine I guess, but not really convincing to me. Mainly I just thought "Yes, Bill Clinton got a blow job OVER TEN YEARS ago now, why do I care?"

Mainly all of the situations and personal experiences detailed in the book are so far removed from most anyone I might ever meet.

Then, I found the book ended abruptly, with the title question, and I had no idea how that title fit in to the entire section. So mainly, I am totally confused at the end.

At least the cover is spiffy.

Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman

2006-05-06T21:48:00.000-05:00

You may know John Hodgman from the new Mac/PC commercials (he's the pc). I had listened to his Little Grey Book Lectures and did not realize when picking up this book that it was the same guy. Actually, I have found the LGB Lectures a little annoying, inside jokeish, and overall way way too focused on Brookline, MA. I saw this in the bookstore months ago and thought it would be more like Schott's Miscellany. Instead, it is almost wholly made up.

It seems like everyone on Earth is reading this book. Over 10 people I know are, at least, and that's A LOT of people. First, just because I wouldn't have assumed the book is well known (although the author is on the Daily Show, so maybe that's why) and also because the content doesn't strike me as popularly accessible....

Anyway I did like this book, but apparently not as much as the other 10 people I know. There were parts of it which were brilliant, and going in, I read it pretty compulsively. But now I must say something that, when I have mentioned it to everyone who has read this book, makes me the object of derision. Hobos really aren't funny, or at least not for as long as Hodgman thinks they are. i guess that hobos are the new pirates. Seriously I just started skimming over all the hobo stuff. It was so freakin' repetitive and boring.

Generally I did like this book, but it way overstayed its welcome and generally had the same issues as the LGB Lectures for me.

Cheap Hotels

2006-05-01T14:03:00.000-05:00

This is a Taschen book with lots of great pictures of cheap hotels that are nice. It's not useful for traveling, but it is interesting. A major point of the text (there is little of it) is that how much money you pay for a hotel generally does not reflect its quality unless you are in a US Super-luxury hotel. It made me want to go on vacation!

Never a City So Real

2006-05-01T12:29:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed this, although there were some semi-boring sections. I must confess I have little interest in American labor history, so that section sort of bored me. I am reading a few of the Crown Journeys series, and I have to say I liked the Austin/Kinky Friedman one better. First, this book would be really bad if you were a tourist, but I felt the Austin version did give you a comprehensive city history as well as info about sights to see. While I found the author's personal history of his father-in-law a really compelling story, if you have never been to Chicago and were looking for places to visit, it would be completely useless.

Basically almost none of the places mentioned (Austin, Robert Taylor Homes, cemeteries, 26th Courthouse) are big tourist spots. In fact the great majority of them I would strongly suggest people NOT go to. And some don't exist anymore. Which I guess makes this a tourbook of a different kind--Alex Kotlowitz went so you don't have to!

In that respect I did like the book. The best chapter, in my opinion, was about the artist who paints murals in public housing apts. It read like a This American Life episode and included info on the Bud Billiken parade, which was interesting. I think this book gives a great introduction to the ethos of Chicago, but maybe not a great physical tour. I guess that is much like the Portland edition of this series. Both this book and the Portland one did make me all nostalgic, so if you are a resident or former resident this will probably make you feel good. It reminded me of the Algren quotation "Once you've become a part of this particular patch, you'll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies, but never a lovely so real." Which is both why I love Chicago, and why I never ever want to live there.

Next I hope to read the D.C. version, since it's a Chris Buckley book!

Anyone but You

2006-04-29T16:49:00.000-05:00

Anyone but You by Jennifer Crusie

I love Jennifer Crusie's books even though:
--they often include long passages about animals
--some people consider them romance novels
--usually half the book I am annoyed that people in the book believe so strongly in stereotypes.

If you know me, you will know these three things would most likely steer me clear of a book, but I LOVE her books. They are really funny and end up basically as an antidote to everything the media says about how to "catch a man." Which is great, and I am sure why women love to read her books.

Basically this one is about an "older" woman who falls for a young dr. but refuses to sex him up because she is afraid that she's an old ugly hag. But he's also in love with her. Yay! Also there is a subplot about a friend of hers writing a novel. In almost all of the Crusie novels I have read there is usually some secondary love story, and I had totally tried to guess it at the beginning of this book, and there were hints along the way that it would work out and then nothing, so that was a weird loose end that never got ties up. Also, this book uses the term "alcoholic" for what I would term "casual drinker." So, that was a little weird. At the end of the novel everyone stops drinking! Yay! What? Why is that even in this book? No idea.

Either way I read it very quickly and it was a lot of fun.

Freakonomics

2006-04-29T16:38:00.000-05:00

Lots of people rave about this book and it deserves it. It juxtaposes a lot of situations you might never have thought similar, but statistically they are. Like Chicago Public School teachers and sumo wrestlers!

It also has some pretty provocative things to say about abortion, namely that in Romania and the US, the more abortions the less crime. This is obviously simplified, but it's that kind of talk which makes Bill O'Reilly take notice. Were I to need more convincing about why women should have the right to abortion (which for the record, I don't think I could BE more pro-choice, I mean I am even okay with late-term abortion, which even most liberals won't touch with a ten foot poll) this would totally have done it. Basically this section is about how women who don't think they are ready to have kids are --SHOCK-- usually RIGHT! Wowie.

That is only one section of the book though, although personally the most compelling. It's been blown a little out of proportion though. There's an interesting comparison of crack dealing and traditional business hierarchies that is good too.

Mainly the book is aabout how conventional wisdom is mostly not based on facts. I firmly agree with that and argue it in almost every conversation I have, much to the chagrin of my friends, I am sure. So I liked this book a lot!

The Sociopath Next Door

2006-04-24T13:36:00.000-05:00

I read the first few chapters of this book and was completely bored. I guess I thought it would be more about how to figure out who was and wasn't a sociopath and how they dealt with daily life. I put it aside. Actually, it fell underneath my bed. And I had to return it to the library soon, so I ended up skimming through it and really liked it. Perhaps it was in reading it out of order and piecemeal that made it a much better book.

I still don't feel I have an incredible grasp on what determines if someone is a sociopath (although 4/100 Americans are one). The book had great narrative examples of sociopaths IN ACTION that were really compelling. This is a little dry for a "fun read" but the examples, which span many pages, are really interesting.

Stumbling on Happiness

2006-04-17T21:23:00.000-05:00

Oh wowie. Look at this. I am reviewing this book before it even comes out. I am such a cool book reviewer. I am so hep to the literary scene.

Okay so now that THAT's out of the way, I got this book for free at SXSW from some very nice publicists. I did not get to hear the author speak, but his talk was attractively titled "How to Do Precisely the Right Thing at All Possible Times." A recording is available here. Basically it boiled down to:

happiness you can expect in the future= (odds event will make you happy) x (how happy it will make you)

And that you can't predict what you'll like in the future, so the best way to understand how you will feel in the future is to ask someone who is in the situation you are considering.

I read this book piecemeal, which was a bad way to do so. It's not overly academic and is pretty funny. I liked it, but the lack of a real conclusion to help was a bit of a letdown. I did think I would be much happier after reading this book, but sadly, since no one has read it yet, I had no one to ask. Help me help you learn from this book: you will not be as happy as you think you will be when finishing this book.

Instead just listen to the podcast! The studies it summarised were interesting, but as the book explains, I won't really remember them. :)

feeds be damned!

2006-04-17T00:27:00.000-05:00

Feeds be damned, the actual webpage now has my allconsuming link, so you can see what i am reading...particularly since I am in the middle of about 4 books right now!

Around the World in 80 Dates

2006-04-04T20:56:00.000-05:00

by Jennifer Cox

This was a completely fun book. A career woman decides to put all the effort she has put into her career, and use it to find a soul mate. She plumbs her contacts around the world to find her dates in countries all over. Some are good dates, and some are very very bad. And Metallica makes an appearance. Who can shake a stick at that? This is, by the way a true story, although someone in the train station looked down at me for reading this in public, calling it "chick lit."

The author used to work for Lonely Planet, and her writing as a travel author completely shines through. You really travel all the way around the world with her. She is very funny, and the Britishisms were cool.

On the other hand, there are a lot of assumptions about dating you have to swallow, which I wasn't completely in agreement with. This book is very funny, but it is a bit serious too. Cox repeatedly ascribes many people's (and specifically women's) unhappiness to spending a lot of their life in their careers. She is clearly opposed to the idea of "the right person will just come along." That's fine by me, but the fact that women have to quit their jobs and date 80 men in a few months to find a soulmate is sort of, um sexist. Clearly it isn't intended this way, and it's her book and her journey (she began the journey well before getting the book or movie deals), but I bristle at the idea that women working is what makes them unable to catch a man. She does have an idea of multiple soulmates (ie you don't get one for your whole life, but a whole bunch for different periods in your life), which I liked.

In the interest of full confession though, I was predisposed to like this book as I got it at an author reading that included MANY raw oysters and wine. Which were excellent. And the author was very nice and funny in person. So I could really see her participating in the story. I do recommend this book. I couldn't really put it down even though I had other things to read!

Traveling

2006-03-19T23:01:00.000-06:00

Usually when I travel a lot, it forces me to read a lot of books on planes and waiting for trains and such. Recently, though I have been travelling at funny times, and have had a monster cold the whole time. This means I sleep consistently during travel. I am thankful for the shuteye, but it's bringing down the reading!

So recently I have read two books at the home of my host in Austin, TX. I read

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy by Tim Burton
This was good, very Edward Gorey, except with more resolution. I like Gorey but every time I read one of his books I expect a story with an ending and then am just confused. This was that same Gorey feel with some witty resolution! Yay!

The World According to Mimi Smartypants by Mimi Smartypants
I used to read Mimi Smartypants a lot, but she kind of dropped off my radar a few years ago. I read again a couple of months ago, and to my horror she has a kid and the blog is totally lame now. Bummer. So reading this really reminded me why I liked Mimi Smartypants in the first place. Let this not be misconstrued to mean that she is lame for having a kid, but that her writing is now not as personally interesting now that she does.

Now I have to cough all over things and get on another plane.

Bitter Harvest by Ann Rule

2006-03-05T22:11:00.000-06:00

Man I have to stay away from Ann Rule's angry wife stories. I understand why she finds them interesting, but the part I like about true crime is figuring out who the criminal is, which these do not have. these seem more like legal thrillers, as the court case took up more than half the book. Bo-ring.

The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic : A "Walk" in Austin by Kinky Friedman

2006-03-05T13:26:00.000-06:00

I read this and some other austin travel guides as I am going there Thursday for SXSW. While this book was amusing, I don't know how helpful it was to tourists! It seems a lot like Chuck Palahniuk's Fugitives and Refugees : A Walk in Portland, Oregon which I enjoyed because I actually lived in the town. The books are part of the same "Crown Journeys" series, which I now want to read more of. I have the D.C. one in my ipod because it's by Christopher Buckley, but I intend on reading the Chicago one too.

It was a fun read and did talk about the geography and restaurants to visit. And who doesn't love Kinky Friedman?

I Am Charlotte Simmons

2006-03-05T12:56:00.000-06:00

This was recommended to me as something everyone who works with undergrads should read. I live in undergrad cities, so I tried it out. I liked the other Tom Wolfe book I read, so I tried it out. I was repeatedly warned I would hate it, but should read it anyways.

Well, it IS longer than it needs to be and some of the description is unnecessary. Wolfe clearly comes up with some clever adjective phrases that he repeats OVER AND OVER. I now hate the phrase "fuck patois." Mainly a lot of it just makes me think, "nice try Tom, but this makes it clear you are SEVENTY!" I think the intended audience of this books is definitely over 40. If you are under 40 and went to college, or had an undergrad experience recently, none of this would be very surprising. Yes, girls swear and hookup. Kids pay too much money for ripped jeans. Big whoop.

The other side of that coin is that some of his characterization of the college experience are untrue. A large part of the SHOCK of the story revolves around the dorm the main character (Charlotte Simmons) lives in. Her dorm has coed bathrooms. OH MY GOD. First, my undergrad DID have college bathrooms and didn't really have any of the issues involved in this book. But mainly, no colleges have coed dorm bathrooms. I don't know anyone whose alma mater had them. More dorms will probably have them in the future, but not now.

The bigger problem I had with this book is that I hated the main character. And was also confused as to how she would get involved in the story in the first place. She is a big rural prude. She is very stereotypical, and a genius. Okay so it is briefly mentioned that she is evangelical. Yet the entire book, though she is SHOCKED by people saying "fuck" she never once goes to church or attempts to join a youth group. Yes, colleges are by and large not open to super religious conservatives, but every single college campus in the country (including my alma mater which is consistently voted as having the most students likely to ignore god on a regular basis.) has a bible study or religious group. All of them have non-alcohol related activities put on by the school that any student who didn't want to get into the frat scene could go to and actually make friends. But in this universe, none of these things exist.

The other confusing point was that Charlotte gets into being shallow and popular and fratty, but still hates drinking and sex. Huh? I thought the latter was the only good part about the former? For being so religious and high and mighty, this character is a total ass to all of the people who try to befriend her.

I had a theory that the reader is supposed to love and feel sorry for Charlotte in the beginning of the book, and be shocked by the state of colleges. And then, when Charlotte sort of assimilates, you're supposed to hate her, as she is relatively a prude, and you, the audience member have become one with the rowdy college students. After hearing an interview with Tom Wolfe though, I think we're just supposed to like her the whole way through.

I still agree it's a great book if you work in/near college students. I can't tell you how many times I have brought up the book to friends recently, and how often I will see something in real life that is so in sync with the book. I believe finishing this book on the weekend of Unofficial St. Pat's (our drunken made up holiday in this college town), was really the best time possible! Although I had problems with the character, I enjoyed reading this book, and got through it quickly! Even if you are only recently graduated from a college, you can learn something.

Our local version of "IMs" in the book:

(taken by Oldtasty)

The Plot Against America

2006-02-17T18:29:00.000-06:00

I like Phillip Roth. But the more of his books I read, the more I think they are all the same. I say things like "oh here comes the awkward, disturbing masturbation scene!" or "hey, more jewish se;f-hatred!" So, why might I read this book, which is all about Jew hate? :)

Well I liked the concept. First it's 1930s-40s historical. And about Hitler. I like that. And it's a speculative history book. I love that. And it's based on how Roth's own family would have reacted to these situations in the fake history. That's such a great idea.

And all of these things in the book are great. The ascension of fascist Lindbergh becoming president and turning the US into a Nazi ally is a great theme.

But you have to stuggle through a lot of boring stuff along the way. A lot of it is day to day family stuff that is sort of irrelevant to the historical setting. Basically I liked the book, but I wish more would have been made of the great setting Roth made for himself. And it was waaaaay long. There were very long, descriptive passages/internal monologues that were sort of like a non-funny more neurotic Woody Allen monologue. Too much.

cheesy link

2006-02-17T18:24:00.000-06:00

for those of you who do read here (mainly heidi, i think) i caved into this johari square meme. Basically, you say 6 things on that list you think I am. I don't see how if you do this and publicly post it anyone could click MODEST, but it's up there!

company

2006-02-01T22:33:00.000-06:00

Company by Max Barry

Awesome. Now I would say this is my least favorite of his books. But until the major plot twist (pg. 100), I was so excited b/c I knew the twist was coming. After that it wasn't as exciting for me. But it's my own fault for reading his blog regularly. But it was great and the whole thing was hilarious, cathartic, and a great societal comment. The end was kinda blah, though, for me because it happened so quickly. But it's an amazing book, and I am terribly sad that he will not be touring the midwest. Go! Read it!

company by max barry

2006-01-26T18:38:00.000-06:00

Max Barry is one of my favorite authors and this is his new book. He is amazing. You should read this. I just got my copy. He writes hilarious corporate American satire. If you've enjoyed Christopher Buckley, Carl Hiaasen, or Tom Robbins (says my friend Matt) you will like this. If you like news and funny, you will like this. If you don't really like the news, but like funny and like to have a social commentary position, you will like this. If you really hate big corporations, you will like this.

I Kissed Dating Goodbye

2006-01-26T18:22:00.000-06:00

I Kissed Dating Goodbye: A New Attitude Toward Relationships And Romance by Joshua Harris

I had heard about this book as part of Christian contemporary culture but also as part of some Quirkyalone type thing. It's generalized thesis--"You shouldn't date and you shouldn't feel bad about not dating because dating is lame." very much fits in with the whole ethos. However, the more specific thesis being "You shouldn't date because God doesn't want you to and if you date you are giving parts of your heart away to people who aren't your God-chosen spouse." was a little much. Since I wholeheartedly agree with the general thesis, I didn't need much convincing, but this book was more for convincing by telling you God was unhappy with everything you do in your dating life. I can see how people who aren't supposed to have sex before marriage might get way too into dating since they have to get married to have sex, but there are reasons outside of religion for not dating as well, and so it was sort of annoying not to see those included much.

Perhaps I made the mistake of reading two christian books in a row, but this one is waaaaaaaaay christier than "blue like jazz." i ended up skimming because it was just too much. It is amusing that EVERY couple in this book "doesn't intend" to have sex, but then does. I thought that was pretty funny. It does make a lot of points I agree with that aren't being made very loudly in general culture (ie, our culture is frigteningly against being alone ever, and that's creepy and wrong; media portrays a bizarre unrealistic image of beauty/romance that apparently some people are too stupid to realize is not reality, getting married/dating just because you are supposed but not because you actually are in love is dumb, most people who date are just screwing and are not really in love, they just think they are, etc.), so that was good.

But, I'd really only recommend this if you are a born-again Christian who has been led astray from the path by dating. In that case it's pretty practical. However, I doubt I have many readers (ha) in that category, so carry on without this book.

1000 Signs

2006-01-26T18:14:00.000-06:00

This is part of the Taschen/Colors 1000 series. I read 1000 Extra/ordinary Objects. I liked it a lot, but it took a long time. This was very fast, since signs need little explanation. In fact, the signs I wished had explanation because of their language or because they are conditional on the environment they are in, had no explanation. There were passages of writing and I could not for the life of me understand their relevance. Again, they were oddly moralistic/political screeds, totally irrelevant to the sections (man, land, etc) they were in. I liked this book, but it would have been so much better if the translations of the foreign signs were included.

Blue Like Jazz and a fairy tale

2006-01-20T16:36:00.000-06:00

Blue Like Jazz by Don Miller

I really liked this book and it read really fast. His style is very readable. While the book is religious and I am not, it was refreshing to hear this viewpoint. A big point of the book is that non-Christians often act way more Christian than Christians do. In fact, Miller pretty much talks about how selfish we all are, how little we are all doing for other people, and how modern Christianity doesn't really encourage anyone to be less selfish.

He also makes good points about living alone vs. living in a community. I like living alone, but I have always enjoyed living with other people. I think a lot of people really hate living with others, but Miller makes the point that living with a group of people forces you to socially interact and socially compromise. His point is that when you live alone, you converse (for most of us in our heads, I hope) with only yourself and just keep getting more and more used to how you do things. I totally see this in older people who have lived alone for a dozen years or so--they can't handle anything done a different way in their house. It also seems to me that when you live with other people you get drawn into social activity that you might not participate in if no one was there to say "Come onnnnnnnnnnn, let's go OUUUUUUUUUT!" I think living alone makes it easier to make excuses that you really need to stay home. Also you have to do all the housework yourself, which does take more time than if a lot of people are doing it.

This book made me very homesick for Portland because there is a lot of specific place information in it. Apparently, I lived a few blocks from the author several times! Also, much of the book takes place at my alma mater. I do not know when the stories in the book took place, but I lived, worked, and attended the college in question for the six years before the book was published, so I imagine I know some of the people mentioned. In fact, there is a very very specific mention of someone that I cannot imagine being a coincidence. It is very weird to read about places you know so intimately, and people you know in real life in a book. That really hasn't happened to me in this degree before. It's completely creepy. SO CREEPY. You feel like someone's watching you read the book!

This is probably the most easily enjoyable religious book for non-religious people, possibly because it disses on Christians. But I do not know if I would have liked it half as much if I couldn't related to the places and people mentioned.

Lona: a fairy tale. By Dare Wright
This was a pretty book, sadly in black and white. It was not as weirdly creepy as the majority of Dare Wright's children's books, which I am taking as a good sign.

Basket Case

2006-01-18T22:57:00.000-06:00

I liked this book a lot. It was pretty witty. I could take a little less Florida in his novels, and I don't get the snake obsession, but it was funny. The reason for the title isn't revealed until the very end, and it's great. I listened to this on audiobook and it was read well.

There are 2 good female characters in this book, and of course the main character dates one of them. However it was painfully obvious to me he should be dating the other one. :)

Once again, suspenseful, fun, and funny.

visual fun!

2006-01-18T22:32:00.000-06:00

Bizarro Postcards

This was a fun "read" since it's all photos! Why some of these were made into postcards, I will never know. It was sometimes a lot funnier than the Boring Postcards" series, just because it was more random. My favorites include a man with human sized pepper mills and the "grave of the first white child buried in KY."

Amusingly, Amazon has the concordance of this book. :)

Also in visual entertainment, I finally finished HEY SKINNY!: Great Advertisements from the Golden Age of Comic Books

I completely wanted to buy everything in this book and had to remind myself 1. the ads were 50 years old, 2. they were for not real things, 3. they were created to trick 11 year olds, and I am 26. But who can resist a POCKET SIZED MONKEY!?

It also surprised me to see so many ads aimed at girls, which from my comic reading I do not remember at all. I wonder if there were more girl comics in the olden days. It kinda made me want to read more comics, but they are too serialized for me, and the library has so few of them. maybe I will buy an Archie next time I am at the store for old time's sake.

Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder

2006-01-17T23:43:00.000-06:00

I have wanted to read this for about 5 years. My upcoming visit to the Museum of Jurassic Technology pressed the issue. First, the book is very short. A lot of the book is notes and bibliography, etc. That leads me to the most annoying part of this book--endnotes! Grr! They are too long to be footnotes, I guess, because they really are notes/anecdotes, and not references. There aren't a lot of references even though there is clearly a lot of research.

I would say the first half is great. This is a wonderful subject. I love Mr. Wilson. However the second half, which could have told me a whole lot more about the museum, its creator, and its exhibits, instead researches the bejesus out of only a few exhibits. Basically, it's a very academic research project to figure out whether the exhibits are true or not. The final conclusion is that most of them are really true, so the whole background research is kinda boring and useless.

Overall I did like this book because I was so excited about the subject matter. But it's really hard to read about all the non-interesting parts without getting to the good parts. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, so apparently many people liked it. It really walks the line between "popular" and "academic." I think it fails this, as the only good parts of academic books (facts! footnotes!) are not used, but the bad parts (long, long references to Freud. Extensive quoting from manuals in non-modern English, a lack of reporting of actual events in favor of discussing cultural impact).

I guess this review will not be complete until I visit the museum!

LA Roundup!

2006-01-15T22:19:00.000-06:00

I am going to LA in Feb. for the first time, so I got a bunch of guidebooks including LA Off the Beaten Path, Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Los Angeles, and Eccentric AMerica

The latter was the best, but least specific. I am considering buying the new edition (I got the first), but it even showed me things in areas I have lived and visited that I did not know about, which is fairly impressive, since these are the things I try to see when in new places.

The Off the Beaten Path and Irreverent Guide are sort of redundant and are organized oddly by cutesy categories. This means you really have to look over the whole thing. This was fine, and I learned a lot, but the Irreverent Guide had better maps.

I am also reading Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder which is about the Museum of Jurassic TTechnology, which I plan to see when in town.

33 1/3 Velvet Underground

2006-01-03T01:30:00.000-06:00

I like the VU in an obsessive way. My favorite albums of theirs are demos which feature them redoing a song over and over again for 30 mins. I even like Nico.

Understanding that, I loved this book of course. It read so quickly. Still I would not recommend it unless you are 1. a huge VU fan or 2. an intense audiophile. If you enjoy 10 page discussions which try to figure out how many tracks a certain album was recorded on, using private investigation-like detective work, then this is the book for you. i don't know anyone who like the VU enough to recommend this book, but I know maybe one person who might get something out of it. I haven't read any other full 33 1/3 books so I am hoping to to see how this one compares.

Mainly I did love the histories of particular songs that the book ended with, but it made me realize that this is not my favorite album by them and I do wish there were other songs covered. But then I imagine this would have been a longer book!

Book Roundup!

2006-01-01T21:14:00.000-06:00

72 books read this year.
24 were fiction (1/3)
9 were religious or by religious publishers
1 reread
21 were audiobooks (29%)

What I couldn't get through fast enough cuz I loved them soooo much:
Green River, Running Red--Ann Rule
No way to treat a First Lady--Christopher Buckley
Library Mascot Cage Match
Killing Yourself to Live : 85% of a True Story--Chuck Klosterman
Urban Tribes
Assassination Vacation
Dry by Augusten Burroughs
men who stare at goats by jon ronson
The Pirates and Their Adventures with the Scientists
CandyFreak by Steve Almond
The Know-It-All : One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World
Blink
Into Thin Air -- Jon Krakauer
America, the Book -- Jon Stewart
God Is My Broker -- Christopher Buckley
Little Green Men -- Christopher Buckley
Book 11 of Lemony Snicket

Books I hated, or could not finish:
Seconds of Pleasure--Neil LaBute
Cheap Ways to...
fat pig--Neil LaBute
Inside of Me
Eats, Shoots, and Leaves
Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way
In the Dark--Richard Layman
Glorious Appearing--Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins
Tommyland by Tommy Lee
Life of Pi
Single: The Art of Being Satisfied, Fulfilled and Independent by Judy Ford

Favorite(s) this year: Tie between The Pirates and Their Adventures with the Scientists and men who stare at goats by jon ronson

Biggest Dissapointment? Life of Pi

Modern Drunkard

2006-01-01T18:23:00.000-06:00

After reading a review for this book here, I knew I must read this. So much so that when my local library did not stock it, I actually went out and bought it. This is a momentous occasion as I never ever buy books, really. But it was worth it. Some of it is a little repetitive because it's based on columns in a magazine, but I heartily enjoyed it. The explanations for how to get free drinks and drink at work unnoticed are hilarious. There are excellent graphics and checklists for telling if you are a modern drunkard. Best of all, there's info on how to beat an intervention!

I liked the spirit of this book because it celebrates excessive drinking, something that used to be seen as more "okay" than it is now. The book repeatedly points out situations where liquor used to be standard and now would be considered offensive (for example--your desk at work!). Considering how much teens/20somethings drink at college, this new opinion seems a little hypocritical and puritanical! So, in addition to being quite humorous, the political message was interesting.

The only downsides were the repetitive thing, and the CONSTANT odd referencing of Jackie Gleason. Jackie Gleason must be the author's personal hero, and I respect that, but I personally could care less about JG, thanks!

Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie

2006-01-01T18:18:00.000-06:00

I have read 4 or so of Jennifer Crusie's novels and I have greatly enjoyed all of them. I am even on her list-serv. But this one started very slow. Part of the problem was that it referred to characters in another of her books that I read about 2 years ago. Generally, although I did get very into this book, I thought it was slow at times, and my least favorite of her books. It had a TON of characters, which I found difficult at first. It also, like most of her books, had an animal based subplot, and I could care less about those, but I realize she digs em! Anyways it was good, but not as good as the rest of her novels. It did, however, make me want to read more of her!

3 Reviews, or When It Rains It Pours

2005-12-18T21:31:00.000-06:00

First, Skinny Dip, by Carl Hiaasen

I read this as it came recommended. It began a bit too....mystery for me. It reminded me a lot of Janet Evanovich with a lot of wacky slapstick/falling in love in a goofy wacky predicament sort of way. But it has a lot of funny satire, so I stuck with it. I liked it a lot though it got a little slow at the end. It also had a really needless, but heartwarming subplot. I have Basket Case, also by Hiaasen, but much longer waiting in the wings. I read (listened on audiobook) to this book entirely while getting ready in the morning and getting ready for bed, which says to me I could be reading a lot more books in the meantime!

1000 Extra/Ordinary Objects

Phew! This took a looooooong time. But it was great. Each page has one or two objects that are either very average in a foreign culture or really bizarre in ours. It's a very pretty, though hefty book to look at! The religious and food sections were of course my favorite. I did detect a really odd anti-Catholicism POV in this book, and a lot of it was just in completely wrong facts about Catholic practices. It was totally weird.

A Girl and Her Money

I liked this book a lot more than other financial books I have read because it suggested some things those didn't. It was very heavy handed about going to regular medical checkups. It was really personalized and had you write down your goals and take quizzes to determine what is realistic for you to spend your money on. However it did have the usual "stop going to starbucks every day (duh) suggestions. Worse, as with many of these books, it assumes you are in debt, so the majority of it is focused on debt. And a lot of it is really stereotypical, like "Sometimes you just need those Manolo Blahniks! Giggle!"

My desperate situation

2005-12-17T20:28:00.000-06:00

I am in a dire reading situation. Here is everything I have checked out right now:

UNIVERSITY CHECKOUTS

Zimmer, Marc. Glowing genes : a revolution in biotechnology / Marc Zimmer.
heard this guy on npr, wanna read it.

Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanas´evich, 1891-1940. Heart of a dog [by] Mikhail Bulgakov. Translated, with an introd., by Michael Glenny. Location: Undergrad 891.74 B87OSEG
one of my favorite books, want to reread

Salerno, Steve. SHAM : how the self-help movement made America helpless / Steve Salerno. Location: Main Stacks 155.2 Sa326s
sounds super interesting--found in psychology today

Cohen, Jack. Stop working & start thinking : a guide to becoming a scientist / Jack Cohen & Graham Medley ; with an introduction by Ian Stewart. Location: Main Stacks 001.42 C66s2005
Hey! Eric has this. He should give it back!

Lileks, James. Interior desecrations : hideous homes from the horrible 70's/ by James Lileks. Location: Undergrad 747.0973 L627i
it's cool looking and I have read most of it....

Rough guide to cult pop / [compiled by Paul Simpson]. Location: Undergrad 782.42166 R755
This book's so cute. I want to go through and dnld all the music it talks
about.

Casey, Robert S. Punched cards; their applications to science and industry/ Edited by Robert S. Casey [and others]. Location: Library & Information Science 651 C26P1958
I love punch card/antiquated systems and I so want to read this.

Burke, James, 1936- Pinball effect : how renaissance water gardens made the carburetor possible, and other journeys through knowledge / James Burke. Location: Main Stacks 609 B917p
I've read a bit of it. Found it on the shelf at Eric's boyhood home.

Culinary Arts Institute. Cooking magic : fabulous foods step-by-step cookbooks / Culinary Arts Institute. v.1 Location: Main Stacks 641.5 C776
This is really an intensely good picture of culture at the time it was produced. These foods are totally inedible.

Harris, Joshua. I kissed dating goodbye / Joshua Harris. Location: Main Stacks 306.73 H242i
Relevant books....thinking of reading it over xmas.

Kidwell, Peggy Aldrich Landmarks in digital computing : a Smithsonian pictorial history / Peggy A. Kidwell, Paul E. Ceruzzi. Location: Engineering 681.140973 K541L
It's on my shelf. Cool photos.

Ash, Russell. Bizarre books / Russell Ash and Brian Lake. Location: Library & Information Science New Books 016.082 As31b1998
This is bad, because it is a bibliography which will no doubt lead me to
checking out a ton more books. I am thinking of buying a copy of this book.

Goldstone, Lawrence, 1947- Used and rare : travels in the book world /Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. Location: Library & Information Science 002.092 G578U
Heard em on NPR. haven't even looked at it

Best of Annals of improbable research / edited by Marc Abrahams. Location: Geology 502.072 B464
Oh I listened to the IgNobel Awards and requested this.

Nathan, Jean (Jean Elson) Secret life of The lonely doll : the search for Dare Wright / Jean Nathan. Location: Main Stacks 813 W9317Yn
Almost done!

D'Aluisio, Faith, 1957- Women in the material world / by Faith D'Aluisio and Peter Menzel. Location: Main Stacks Q. 305.42 D175W
Just checked this out. A coworker has it.

Abanes, Richard. One nation under gods : a history of the Mormon Church /Richard Abanes. Location: .General Collection - Basement BX8645 .A23 2002
This is huge. I doubt I will ever read it.

1000 extra/ordinary objects = 1000 extra/ordinaires objets. Location: Main Collection 030 O58m
This is about 800 pages. I am on 640.

Beal, Timothy K. (Timothy Kandler), 1963- Roadside religion : in search of the sacred, the strange, and the substance of faith / Timothy K. Beal. Location: Main Collection 203.50973 B366r
Read half of it this summer, had to return it. Hope to finish it soon.

Kirby, Doug New roadside America : the modern traveler's guide to the wild and wonderful world of America's tourist attractions / Doug Kirby, Ken Smith, Mike Wilkins. Location: Main Collection 917.3 R628B1992
Want to check out if there are any cool roadside attractions for me to see
in LA.

Kamekura, Junichi Ekiben : the art of the Japanese box lunch / Junichi Kamekura, Mamoru Watanabe, Gideon Bosker. Location: Book Stacks A-H 3000; J-L 2000; P-Z 1000 Level TX724.5.J3 K296 1989
This book makes me want to go to Japan more than anything else. I am pretty much done with this book but it's packed away so I have no returned it.

Lewis, Thomas. General theory of love / Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, Richard Lannon. Location: Stacks 152.41 L676g
I first saw this at powells years ago. I love the cover, and the idea, but skimming through it, it did not look so good.

Michell, John F. Eccentric lives and peculiar notions / John Michell. Location: Stacks 920.02 MICHECCE1999
sitting on my desk

Miller, Alice Gail. God squad. Illus. by James G. Macdonell. Location: Stacks 259 M647G
Haven't looked at it yet.

De Sáez, Eileen Elliott. Marketing concepts for libraries and information services / Eileen Elliott de Sáez. Location: Floor 1 Shelves Z716.3 .D42 2002
I checked this out the summer before last for a class. I accidentally left it in a
friend's car when she came to visit on her way to moving to BALTIMORE. She promised she would send it to me but has not. It is officially lost.

McCracken, Elizabeth Here's your hat what's your hurry : stories / by Elizabeth McCracken. Location: Floor 6 Shelves PS3563.C35248 H471993
Heard about on NPR. Doubt I will actually read.

Baldaev, D. S. (Dantsik Sergeevich), 1925- Russian criminal tattoo encyclopaedia / [drawings and foreword [by] Danzig Baldaev ; text [by] Alexei Plutser-Sarno ; photographs [by] Sergei Vasiliev]. Location: Floor 4 Shelves HV6098 .B35 2003
I totally forgot about this. I have paged through (it's all photos) and it makes me wish I knew Russian better.

Strong, Jeff. AD/HD for dummies / by Jeff Strong and Michael O. Flanagan. Location: Floor 5 Shelves RJ506.H9 S775 2005
On my floor waiting to be returned.

Laing, Gordon. Digital retro / Gordon Laing. Location: Floor 5 Shelves QA76.5 .L3132 2004
This is such a pretty book but it requires a lot of time, which I do not have.

Jackson, Kevin, 1955- Invisible forms : a guide to literary curiosities / Kevin Jackson. Location: Floor 6 Shelves PN45.5 .J33 2000
On desk, checked out in a flurry of sideshow/oddities/ripley interest.

Davis, Martha, 1947- Relaxation & stress reduction workbook / Martha Davis, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman, Matthew McKay. Location: Stacks RA785 .D374 2000
Friend was using this, thought I would check it out. It's by my apt. door waiting for return.

Kennedy, James Ray, 1932- Mental hygiene movement in American education / by James Ray Kennedy. Location: General Collection - Lower Level LB1091.K4661975
Just checked out. It's a thesis! Spurred on by NPR induced rekindling of interest in mental hygiene.

Shulgin, Alexander T. (Alexander Theodore) Pihkal : a chemical love story /Alexander Shulgin, Ann Shulgin. Location: NIU--Main Collection--FML BF209.H34 S584 2000
I have had this checked out FOREVER.

Menzel, Peter, 1948- Hungry planet : what the world eats / photographed by Peter Menzel ; written by Faith D'Aluisio. Location: DuPage Stacks 641.3 Men
Beautiful sequel to the Material World books. Will read soon. Found
through NPR.

Jay, Ricky. Jay's journal of anomalies : conjurers, cheats, hustlers, hoaxsters, pranksters, jokesters, imposters, pretenders, sideshow showmen, armless calligraphers, mechanical marvels, popular entertainments / RickyJay. Location: LC Oversize Books, Basement Oversize PN1583 .J375 2001
Not read, on desk. Part of the sideshow crazed ordering.

Burr, Chandler, 1963- Emperor of scent : a story of perfume, obsession, and the last mystery of the senses / Chandler Burr. Location: LC Books, Basement QP458 .B83 2002
Looks really good. Found through The Mad Professor. My copy was kept either in a lab or a kitchen because it has a lot of curious spills!

Seaman, Barrett. Binge : what your college student won't tell you : campus life in an age of disconnection and excess / Barrett Seaman. Location: Stacks LB3605 .S382 2005
Really want to read this, heard so many great things. Since I work on a Big Ten campus, I am sure it will be enlightening.

Saginor, Jennifer. Playground : a childhood lost inside the Playboy Mansion/ Jennifer Saginor. Location: Stacks HQ777.5 .S24 2005
Hey I haven't returned this?

Stout, Martha, 1953- Sociopath next door : the ruthless versus the rest of us / Martha Stout. Location: Stacks RC555 .S76 2005
Read a bit of this, then forgot about it. Will skim/finish.

Meiselas, Susan. Carnival strippers / Susan Meiselas, with essays by Sylvia Wolf and Deirdre English. Location: Books - Main Stacks PN1949.S7 M4 1976
I have no idea where this is. It's a great book tho. I think it's at GSLIS.

Dear Mr. Ripley : a compendium of curioddities from the Believe it or not! archives / compiled and edited by Mark Sloan, Roger Manley, and Michelle Van Parys. Location: Books - Main Stacks AG243 .D471993
Curioddities is a rockin word.

Hey skinny! : great advertisements from the Golden Age of comic books /[compiled by] Miles Beller & Jerry Leibowitz ; preface by Jay Chiat. Location: Books - Main Stacks PN6710 .H481995
This is great. I am half through.

Chusid, Irwin. Songs in the key of Z : the curious universe of outsider music / Irwin Chusid. Location: Books - Main Stacks ML394 .C56 2000
Haven't looked at. Forgot where I found it.

Williams, Don, 1955- Saving stuff : how to care for and preserve your collectibles, heirlooms, and other prize possessions / Don Williams and Louisa Jaggar. Location: Books - Main Stacks AM145 .W55 2005
Just checked out, haven't looked at.

Smith, Ken, 1958- Mental hygiene : classroom films 1945-1970 / Ken Smith. Location: .Circulating Shelves RA790.85.Z9 S65 1999
Just checked out. But actually after checking it out and physically seeing
it, I noticed I have read this before.

Harold, Elliotte Rusty. XML in a nutshell / Elliotte Rusty Harold & W. Scott Means. Location: .Circulating Shelves QA76.76.H94 H36 2004
On my shelf, as a reference, though I should read it.

Green, Michael, 1930- Avoiding Jesus : answers for skeptics, cynics, and the curious / Michael Green. Location: .Circulating Shelves BT1212 .G74 2005
Relevant books, want to read it, have not yet.

Kitwana, Bakari. Why white kids love hip-hop : wankstas, wiggers, wannabes, and the new reality of race in America / Bakari Kitwana. Location: Daley Library - Book Stacks ML3531 .K58 2005
Looks good, have not read.

Baker, Nicholson. Double fold : libraries and the assault on paper /Nicholson Baker. Location: Daley Library - Book Stacks Z695.655 .B35 2001
Screw paper! I got this out of some idea that it might give me some anti-paper fervor.

Comfort, Ray. God doesn't believe in atheists / Ray Comfort. Location: MainStacks - Graham Center Library BR0128 .A8 C65 1990
This is the pastor who has a ministry with Kirk Cameron. He has the
world's most non-logical atheist attack, so I really want to read this.

Requests Pending

Velvet Underground and Nico / Joe Harvard. c. 1 Requested from Lewis & Clark Comm. Coll. In transit to Univ. of Illinois-UC
33 1/3 series!

Please feed me : a punk vegan cookbook / Niall McGuirk. Requested from Univ. of Illinois-UC Expires: 07-29-05
I don't think I will ever get this. It's been put on reserves several times.

Sign 'O' the times / Michaelangelo Matos. c. 2 Requested from Columbia College In Process :
More 33 1/3

Quonset hut : metal living for a modern age / Julie Decker and Chris Chiei, editors. Requested from Northern Ill. Univ.
This is a cool book on quonset huts. I think quonset is a really cool
word. As a kid I never knew how it looked and my dad used it a lot.

Items Available

Welcome to Temptation / Jennifer Crusie.
Reading this on the train to Chicago. I love jennifer Crusie

CHAMPAIGN PUBLIC

Amish not to be modern.
too boring. I stopped watching.

The average American : the extraordinary search for the nation's most ordinary citizen /by O'Keefe, Kevin.
Found through npr. Have not read.

Basket case
recommended by friend, it's an audiobook, I have not yet read

Committed: men tell stories of love, commitment, and marriage /by Knutsen, Chris.
Got it for the Sedaris story but had already read it. By the door to be
returned.

Foxfire: 25 years /by Wigginton, Eliot.
Recommended by friend, have not read.

A girl and her money /by Durling, Sharon.
financial and investing advice. i am all about it.

Mr. Wilson's cabinet of wonder /by Weschler, Lawrence.
have wanted to read this for maybe 6 years...and I want to go to this museum when in LA.

A new way to cook /by Schneider, Sally.
Haven't read.

Permission to land by Darkness (Musical group)
LOooooove it.

Scandinavia/by Lee, Phil, 1951- and Scandinavian Europe by Harding, Paul.
I want to go to Scandanavia, so I got there.

Single: the art of being satisfied, fulfilled, and independent /by Ford, Judy, 1944-
Haven't returned this trash yet.

Skinny dip [a novel] /by Hiaasen, Carl.
Recommended by a friend. Very good so far!

HOLDS

IN
Blue like jazz : nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality /by Miller, Donald, 1971-
By a reedie! recommended to me by several people.

Small-batch baking : when just enough for 1 or 2-- is just enough! /by Nakos, Debby Maugans.
This looked really pretty, so I got it.

Requested items not yet available:

7th heaven by Brinckerhoff, Burt, 1936-
I love 7th heaven!

ANYONE BUT YOU - CD by Crusie, Jennifer
yay i love j. crusie!

But is it-- safe? by McPherson, Miles.
no idea what this is.

Children playing before a statue of Hercules / by Sedaris, David.
i should take this off....

Dangermouse. The complete seasons 1 & 2 the world's smallest secret agent /by Cosgrove, Brian.
One of my favorite shows as a kid.

Darkness by Belagueró, Jaume.
No idea.

Eccentric America : the Bradt guide to all that's weird and wacky in the USA /by Friedman, Jan.
More "what should I see in LA"

Emergency! Season one by Tighe, Kevin, 1944-
I used to like this show!

ER by Baer, Neal.
or maybe it was this one? with elliot gould?

ER. The complete first season by Edwards, Anthony, 1962-
I watched half the first season and love watching tv shows straight
through, so I thought I would watch this one.

ER. The complete third season by Chulack, Christopher.
I will eventually want this.

The exorcism of Emily Rose by Derrickson, Scott.
Wanted to see this in the theater, never got around to it. I am a sucker for exorcism/catholic horror movies

Extraordinary exhibitions : the wonderful remains of an enormous head, the whimsiphusicon & death to the savage unitarians : broadsides from the collection of Ricky Jay /by Jay, Ricky.
More of the oddities.

Freaks and geeks the complete series / by Cardellini, Linda, 1975-
It seems I would like this.

Frommer's irreverent guide to Los Angeles / by Spurrier, Jeff.
LA!

How to survive without a salary / by Long, Charles K.
woo financial negativity!

I am Charlotte Simmons by Wolfe, Tom.
Recommended by a friend

Left behind world at war / by Baxley, Craig R.
no idea

Los Angeles : off the beaten path / by Gould, Lark Ellen.
LA!

Lost. The complete first season by Fox, Matthew, 1966-
people are so obsessed by it I thought I would give it a try.

Monster by Kushner, Donald.
No idea.

Mythbusters: the explosive truth behind 30 of the most perplexing urban legends of all time / by Zimmerman, Keith.
I love this show!

Red dragon by De Laurentiis, Dino.
I rewatched silence of the lambs and have never seen this...

Running with scissors [a memoir] /by Burroughs, Augusten.
Augusten Burroughs is an EXCELLENT writer. I loved Dry.

Sealab 2021. Season 1,2, and 3 by Cartoon Network (Television network)
One of the few cartoon network shows that amuses me.

Seed of Chucky by Mancini, Don.
because bride of chucky was so awesome!

Sledge Hammer! Seasons one and two by Spencer, Alan.
I liked this show. Did you know Danny Elfman did the soundtrack?

Thirteen by Levy-Hinte, Jeff.
I have been meaning to rent this for a long time.

Tru calling. The complete first and second seasons by Dushku, Eliza, 1980-
I hear this is good. And I like Eliza Dushku!

Twistedby Twisted (Motion picture : 2003)
Horror! Yay!

Single

2005-12-09T16:42:00.000-06:00

Single: The Art of Being Satisfied, Fulfilled and Independent (Paperback)
by Judy Ford

Holy crap was this book bad. I can't even think of the words. I read it because it was somehow connected with Relevant books. First, it is the sappiest of self-help. And ever three sentences is another "you're not a bad person because you are not married." Jesu Christo, does anyone really believe that they are a truly awful person because they are not married? There are many, many personal stories from this woman's life, which involve the love of her life dying unexpectedly (which is totally awful, and I could see how horrible that could be) and then, because of her sadness, her quickly marrying some horrible guy just so as to not be single. I understand the idea of telling people not to make your mistakes, but it's kind of hard to hear "you're not awful because you're single" from someone who might do this! It also has a whole section on how not to feel bad because you are not married IN YOUR 20s! I have to stop myself from yelling out religious expletives AGAIN in this entry. Seriously, that is INSANE!

Okay perhaps this all comes down to my "marriage is for suckas" upbringing (not necessarily my personal opinion, just the opinion of every person in my family since all of them are divorced/separated), but all this cultural pressure that's like "get married when you're 24!" is insane. Not everyone who gets married young is wrong, but most people who are 24 don't even know how to live by themselves, let alone with someone else FOREVER. Sadly, I think the author would AGREE with me, yet her desperate "don't feel bad" is paranoia inducing. So, so awful.

NOTE: this book is not sold by powells.com, which makes me once again rejoice in what a great store powells is.

Material World

2005-12-09T16:30:00.000-06:00

Material World

Man this book is so good. It is beautiful and painful and humbling and awesome.

The author recently wrote "Hungry Planet" and I requested it after hearing about it on NPR. A coworker who likes a lot of the books I get asked if I had read this one, his previous work, and lent it to me. The concept is that a photographer lives with the statistically average family in different countries for a week, and finally takes a photo of them with the majority of their worldly possessions outside their home. The American family is a hardcore Baptist family in Texas. One of the best parts is a little blurb by the photographer about their experience. The Bosnian family and the Iraqi family are particularly heartbreaking. The grandmother in the Bosnian family hasn't ventured outside in years because they live in a warzone. She comes out to take the photo and ends up happily talking with people she has not seen in a long time. The Iraqi instance was the only one where the government of the country chose which family the book could use. The photographer mentions that although the family was great, it was the most frustrating experience ever, since the government told her what she could and could not take pictures of. One of her photos, of a woman all in black in a bombed out, blackened hull of a basement with funeral flower wreaths all around was completely not explained, but among the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen. I spent some time trying to find an online version, or at least a contact for the photographer as to how to purchase the photo with no luck. There is no explanation of the photo, unlike most of those in the book, but it's great. As is the rest of this book. Sometimes you can read a thousand articles, but pictures like these really show the difference. I also combed the author's website for info on what happened to this family, but could find no info.

Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death

2005-12-06T17:02:00.000-06:00

Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death
by Ann Rule

After reading "Green River, Running Red" which I found hard to put down, I was excited to read another Ann Rule book. Sadly, this one kinda sucked. First, you knew who the murderer was the whole time, and she kills her husband. She doesn't go on some crazy emotional spree. It was just pretty boring. I know this sounds kind of coldhearted, since the book is about real people and all, but I love true crime because the killers are so off the wall. And I like the mystery aspect of "who is the killer?" In this book, you know who the killer is, and she's not insane, she's just kind of a big liar who wants money. Wow, that's unique.

Well I have also checked out Rule's "Bitter Harvest," so hopefully that's better!

Party Like A Rockstar!

2005-12-06T16:52:00.000-06:00

Party Like a RockStar: Even When You're Poor as Dirt

I have to say that much of this book was exactly how I was able to eat and have fun while unemployed. I enjoyed it because it advocated illegal and distasteful things that I support, like rummaging through medicine cabinets and stealing the fun drugs. On the other hand, it also told you that if you have a party, you should hide your fun drugs, because people will steal them. That seems like excellent advice. There was info on getting free drinks from bartenders and crashing parties. I would not sat that the info would make you like a rockstar (because rockstars can pay for drinks), but it's all useful info. If I knew someone graduating from college, I would totally buy them this book. It's probably a LOT more useful if you live in a larger city, but one of my favorite parts of the book is that it gives you search terms and explains how to use quotations in web searches. That made the librarian in me very happy.

The Modern Girl's Guide to Life

2005-11-29T19:48:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-28T00:22:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-22T18:22:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-22T18:19:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-17T13:23:00.000-06:00

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

2005-11-17T13:18:00.000-06:00

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! :)