The Idiot Board Readers Corner - General Discussion

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In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson.

This is my third Bryson book and one of the only travel books that seemed fun as hell. He describes his travels in Australia, some of the coolest things and places on Earth can be found there. Definitely read this instead of a stupid (God, do I detest these things) guidebook if you are going to Australia. It's more fun, filled with the awesome historical tidbits, observations and anecdotes that make Bryson unique and paints a genuinely fascinating portrait of the country and culture.

The Prophet-Khalil Gibran

This is seriously the world's most popular book that isn't tied to a religion. I feel incredibly dumb for not having read this years earlier. If you haven't read this, pick it up and do so. It's quick, absorbing and has an appeal that's difficult to describe, but universal. The simplicity makes it worth the time, and whatever your philosophy is, you'll find something you value mentioned in it.

Never Work Harder Than Your Students-Robyn R. Jackson

This is a pop-teaching book that is almost worthless for anyone who doesn't teach in a traditional, US/Canada classroom. It was valuable for the analytic tools, a few best practices and some good techniques for dealing with kids in any situation. It was way too heavy on the "Plight of the Teacher" bullshit. Sorry you chose a profession that sucks, but I don't feel sorry for garbage collectors whose shoes stink either. This could have easily been called "Classroom Teaching for Dummies".

 

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Life on Air by David Attenborough (2009)

Attenborough is a BBC lifer making animal and nature documentaries his life's work. From stumbling into television in it's earliest days to being one of the most revered, well-recognized and established TV personalities over a career that lasted a stunningly long time, this is one of his dozen or so books (!) that is a fantastic collection of his travel, tv and animal stories. It's quick, easy to read (in his voice), and each new story is fascinating. You learn about tv production, nature, the truly exotic and wild places he's been in an era when travelling was done by "I'll be back in June with some animal footage, malaria and a bill!". He talked about visiting Bali damned near 25 years BEFORE the surfers made it popular, Guyana, Sierra Leone, and a blue million other places, some of which aren't even countries anymore. I have had more fun reading about his never-ending list of travelling nightmares, bizarre animal adventures (removing biting ants from a helpless viper in the dark, for example), television misadventures or just the "back in those days" stories that sum up a truly unique and amazing life.

Read this book, it's by far the best autobiographical book I have yet read.

 

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Tales of the Jazz Age by F Scott Fitzgerald

Between some heavier reading, I decided to read a collection of Fitzgerald's stories. Some of them are insanely funny ("The Camel's Back", "Mr. Icky"), others are fantastic adventures ("The Diamond as Big as the Ritz", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"), while a few are more dark and contemplative ("The Russet Witch" and most notably, "May Day").

All of them, however, are written with Fitzgerald's tremendous flair for description and dialogue, making for a wonderfully fast, breezy read that doesn't afford one an opportunity to stop reading. The stories themselves are exciting, unique, and humorous. The intellectual depth varies depending on the tale; some are as serious classics right up there with Faulkner, while others are frivolous fun. Regardless, they're a delight to read, and evoke the flavor of the 1920's in a way no other writer has. I also found Fitzgerald's short notes before each story highly amusing.

Remarkably, "The Camel's Back", a 30 page short story that might well be the funniest I have ever read, was completed in a single 7 hour sitting because Fitzgerald desperately wanted to buy a $600 (a fortune in those days) platinum watch. Now that's talent!

This is one of the best short story collections ever assembled; a definite masterpiece.

 

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"Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman's got to hold onto." The ultimate feminist novel. Written by a weirdo from Maine. Stay with me. It truly celebrates a woman who was pushed to her brink, forced to protect her children, and how society views her. Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King. Ladies, especially, I implore you to pick this one up. The book begins with Dolores telling her story of how her elderly and infirmed employer ended up dead at the bottom of the stairs. She is an instant suspect because of the odd, similar circumstances surrounding her drunkard husband's death years prior. My God, the simple beauty of it. King writes a truly strong and real woman, a woman that's had a hard life and a resolute mind despite hardships, a woman with female idiosyncrasies, and you *feel* every thorn that pricked her. I dare say, as far as male authors go, King writes women the best, and they all seem to have shades of his wife in them. This is also one of those books that reminds you what an underrated writer he is. He's sold 300 million books, but he still has to fight for the respect of his peers. If anybody else wrote this, it would have won a slew of awards right up to possibly The Pulitzer. No. Shitting. The movie (cutting several characters, but offering a more in depth plot) might be even better than the book. And I think the book is damn near flawless, save for a narrative that takes a little getting used to.

On a Vonnegut kick as well. What a beautiful human being. No author captures tragicomedy as well as him. There's a wonderful grace in all the rotten things he feels compelled to say, and at the same time he completely celebrates life and celebrates humans as shitty as they are. As Steinbeck wrote, "He's full of everything good and everything bad." Mother Night, about an American spy in Nazi Germany standing trial for war crimes, and Bluebeard, about a crappy artist trying to reconcile his life, are the recent ones that got me. Such conflicting emotions in there. That's rare so many disparate themes work, yet it mirrors reality perfectly. The more I read from him, and the more I read his letters, his death meant we lost one of the good ones. Not just an author, but a wonderfully flawed human being that simply "got it." I was choked the hell up at the end of both of those books. They followed me for weeks.

 

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City of Theives

David Benioff.

Leningrad is surrounded by Germans during WW II, and the Russian officer running the city's daughter is getting married. It's bad luck to marry without a cake. Enter our two mis-matched heros who were arrested the same night and shared a cell. The Officer tells them if they can return before the wedding (a week away) with a dozen eggs -- there is little or no food in the city -- he will spare their lives. So off they go on their quest and we follow along.

Written by David Benioff (who wrote the novel The 25th Hour) this book is funny, entertaining, and gripping. Very highly recommended.

 

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Under the Banner of Heaven ~ Jon Krakauer

What this book really feels like is Krakauer began to investigate a true crime murder that occurred in the 80's and got sucked down a rabbit hole investigating the Mormon Fundamentalism that was inextricable from the murder itself. The result is a fascinating tour through the sordid and violent history of Mormonism and the ability of religion to manipulate and deceive, that unfortunately comes across as disjointed at parts. On the whole it's a great read and a jaw dropping insight into what "true belief" really means.

85/100

Boomerang ~ Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis returns to the world of finance as he takes what he describes as a "tour of the new third world," aka he visits countries (and California) ravaged by the 2008 economic crisis and attempts to understand how and why things happened the way they did. It's not as deep or compelling as the amazing Liar's Poker or the solid The Big Short, but it's pretty good and refreshing for the fact that it examines financial life outside the US.

70/100

 

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I'm smack in the middle of Fifty Shades of Grey, because I couldn't stand that pretty much every woman I know was raving about it. It's shit so far - and it isn't necessarily the unfortunate writing.

It's the fact that the author sort of insists that Christian Grey is broken, and that his wounds are the only thing that fuel his kink and keep him from being in a "normal" and "vanilla" relationship. I think it's a sad misrepresentation of S&M and everyone who actively lives and enjoys the lifestyle.

Sexual preference is a choice you make - so wanting to "fix" it is a little ignorant.

It seems like because it's so poorly put together - women everywhere are slowly getting on their soap boxes to preach about women's rights, control, and physical abuse. The S&M lifestyle, in my opinion, is based entirely on trust and consensual non-consent. And I wish that instead of creating more fear and misunderstanding in women everywhere, the book had properly pictured a healthy S&M relationship.

Instead, it drops the naive virgin next to the wealthy and powerful millionaire and mixes together a pathetic love story filled with a terrible take on Dom/sub relationships.

Has anyone else here read it? Did anyone actually like it?

 

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I loved this book, and I urge you to go out and buy it immediately. That said, I suspect it only appeals to a fairly narrow range of tastes, especially if the decidedly average Amazon reviews are anything to go by. This is an insane mishmash of a book, part creature feature, part thriller, part polemic on modern society. It has hot sex, violent death, meth dealers, and Sarah Palin, all of which are pretty much brain candy disguising the well researched social commentary beneath. I read this in a single sitting on a plane, and actually cracked up laughing about 20 separate times. Definitely worth a read. Also, check out his debut novel, Beat the Reaper. Both books are glorious fun.

 

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My first thought on this is much the same as when we see people criticize fiction because the characters are doing wildly improbable things. A narrative about a guy in a healthy relationship who enjoys his conventional family and nothing much happens wouldn't exactly make an interesting story. BDSM fiction is mostly about wildly unhealthy dynamics - because the reality is that most of us fantasize about kinks we'd never actually explore outside of fantasy or role play. Most BDSM porn is about a horrific person doing monstrous things to an innocent - because that shit is hot. As a fictional fantasy. An overwhelming majority of BDSM fiction porn is about blackmail or rape or coercion or something else terrible. And the overwhelming majority of people who get off on it never want to be on either side of that shit in reality. They just want to play out the fantasy with a consenting partner who enjoys the dynamic as much as they do.

It's hard to write porn about healthy BDSM dynamics.

I also kind of associate the sexual preference is a choice you make sentiment with the people who want 'The Gays' to just decide to stop sinning and be straight like god wanted.

BDSM isn't something I choose to be interested in, it's something that I couldn't choose to change any more than I could choose to change my sexual preference to exclusively homosexual. Some parts of it I choose - but the core of the kinks and the sexuality? It's wired to my identity and to my libido. If I try and pretend it isn't there, it's messy and generally bad. It's not something I could do without and be healthy or happy.

But I HATE where 50 shades goes, with the idea that BDSM is a thing you just need to fix so you can be happy. A sign that you're broken and need to be fixed. For me it's like saying that someone who really like having sex doggy style just needs to learn to only fucking missionary style and they'll forget their silly delusions of happiness and suddenly be joyous. Fuck off.

Also, jesus fuck that crap is badly written. I want to bleach my eyes to make it go away.

 

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The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs.

This book is a fascinating idea dump by Sachs, who is one of the top American economic development experts. He outlines the six components necessary to escape extreme poverty, using examples like Bangladesh, Korea, Costa Rica and others. He advocates debt cancellation for a lot of the countries least able to handle the debt to begin with and he makes a few interesting points about the IMF (he hates them). One thing worth considering is the developed world's reluctance to do necessary work with governments besieged by corruption. Should we abstain completely from working with them because some of our efforts are likely to be abused? He makes a good argument against the perceptions of poverty, corruption and infrastructure and how they skew development efforts.

Part uber-hippie rant, part worthwhile dissection of the development history and a dash of staggering descriptions of poverty in Africa, it's a worthwhile read if development or the economics of developing countries is an interest to you.

Deep Economy by Bill McKibben

This book focuses on the economic influence of community in the US (mostly). He makes valid points about how we've become more isolated, the industrialization of food has begun to be reversed and what it all means for the future of individual communities. It's in keeping with the trend of decentralization and obsession with the environmental impact of American expenditure. Good, short and interesting. Whether or not you give a shit about economics, it's worth reading.

Note: these books will only further your hatred for hippies, especially the second one.

 

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Just pre-rdered Ryan's Book for the promotion pre-release thing (and I was going to buy it anyway). Have already got the promotion pre-release material and it's very, very good. Brutally honest and fascinating for anyone with an interest in the industry he's writing about or in Tucker's sponsored tweets stunt. Very enthusiastic about the book after reading the pre-release stuff.

 

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Read this a while ago, but I really needed to put my thoughts together before writing a review;

Sanctuary- William Faulkner

Temple Drake, a wealthy young blonde in college in the 1920s,gets mixed up with a group of Mississippi bootleggers, including the the sinister Popeye. Eventually, one of the bootleggers is murdered, Temple is raped, and can't be found. The wrong man is arrested. Involved in the story is Horace Benbow, who also crossed paths with the bootleggers, and defends the accused man.

This is the first story I have read by William Faulkner, and damn if he isn't a difficult author to read. Apparently, his first versions of books were unreadable, and always required colossal editing. This is so extreme that different editions of his novels are almost considered different books altogether. "Sanctuary" was one of the few novels that he heavily edited himself. The style of writing is bizarre, ephemeral, and requires keen attention to follow and comprehend. 20 pages of Faulkner are more difficult to get through than 200 pages of some modern, popular bestseller.

In terms of the novel overall, I joke that "nothing good ever happens in a Faulkner tale". In a strange way, he reminds me of Dostoevsky; they both write about an absolutely insane world populated with mad characters, and yet, the work is intensely realistic. This mad world with its crazy characters isn't that much different than our own.

The climax and ending to Sanctuary is one of the most awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping things I have ever read. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

The characters and emotions are at times so vivid and so accurately describe the true nature of humanity that it's palpable. While it's a slow read, it's more than worth it. Unquestionably a masterpiece.

 

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Team of Rivals – Doris Kearns Goodwin

I wanted to read a Lincoln bio and picked this up because it had a unique angle.

Essentially the book is about Lincoln, his cabinet, and the internal/external problems he had to overcome as president. It also provides a good overview of the Civil War.

Everyone knows Lincoln’s backstory- he grew up in rural Kentucky, had his mother/sister/first love die before reaching adulthood, labored in obscurity as a prairie lawyer, suffered a string of political failures, and then, almost as a fluke, became president.

The book shines in highlighting the difference between Lincoln and his political rivals. Despite not having received a formal education, Lincoln’s inexhaustible desire for knowledge and magnanimity put him on a different level than his peers. Against the convention of the time, Lincoln filled his cabinet with the men he had defeated. Initially, these guys felt better suited for the presidency, but eventually they came to realize that Lincoln was a true boss.

Coming away from this book it’s hard not to be amazed by Lincoln. The South came close to permanently dividing the country- had any other man but Lincoln been president they may well have.
Found out after reading this that a movie based on it is gonna be released later this year, starring Daniel Day Lewis as Lincoln. Righteous.


Best Music Writing of 2011 -

Self-explanatory. Pretty much every article is worth reading, just for moments like-
“Blah Blah Blah,” Ke$ha’s current single, features 3OH!3 in a marvelous Skank & Douchebag Power! gesture of solidarity.”

Dune- Frank Herbert

Did Tremors seriously steal the entire giant, marauding killer worm thing from this book?..Anyhow, decent read, kinda fizzled out near the end though.

 

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Have a lot of thoughts on this one;

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Let me start off by saying Steinbeck is one of my four favorite authors ever. An absolute genius; sometimes I will come across a passage of his, and it will make my hair stand on end. I have also read the vast majority of his works, from his first book "The Cup of Gold" to "The Winter of our Discontent".

Before reading this book, I thought that "Of Mice and Men" was BY FAR his weakest effort. Still a pretty good book, but by his lofty standards, absolutely nothing. Well, after having read "Grapes of Wrath", I can add it to the list. A pretty good book overall, but knowing what Steinbeck is capable of, I felt a certain degree of disappointment.

The book follows the Joad family, a redneck family from Oklahoma kicked off the land they rent from the bank during the Dust Bowl. They immigrate to California only to find more hardships and owners, banks, police, and farmer associations against them.

I can readily see why this is the most popular of Steinbeck's works. It's the most overtly political, and honestly, the only one that espouses any political views of any kind. Some parts of the work are a liberal's wet dream, lionizing labor unions and government intervention, decrying businesses and banks, etc.

I don't mind this by itself, but it feeds into what is the book's biggest problem; a lack of nuance. The book is very black-and-white with its characterizations and developments, to the point where it becomes borderline cartoonish at times. This is the first time I have come across this in a Steinbeck work; usually, the characters and actions in his stories are sufficiently complex and realistic.

Here, everything is much simpler, in a detrimental way. There are clear "good guys" and "bad guys", certain events are downright predictable, and too many characters become symbols as opposed to unique personas. (The ex-preacher, Jim Casey, being the best/worst example)

I recommend giving the book a read, but don't buy into the hype. It's one of Steinbeck's two worst books by a large margin, although still pretty good on its own merits.

 

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The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman

Briefly what the book is about: Josh Kaufman has self-educated himself in a range of topics from business, psychology, and systems theory from a number of renowned books in these areas and has filtered this information, to include only the few big ideas and recurring themes, that are presented in a simple and clear way to understand and absorb.

Recommend? Would highly recommend to anyone that wants to build a good foundation of knowledge in important areas of business, topics covered range from finance & accounting, marketing, leadership, corporate strategy and many more areas essential to developing your business knowledge.

Next on reading list: 'Blink' by Malcolm Gladwell, 'Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to Drive Your Career and Create a Remarkable Future' by Seth Godin.


I am always looking for new additions to my reading list in the areas of: Business, Marketing, Economics, Psychology, so PM me your recommendations, Cheers!

 

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Just finished Beat the Reaper, by Josh Bazell.

NY Times booker review is here.

I haven't been able to call a book "one of my favourites" in I don't know how many years, but this book certainly is. I loved it. It's got a bit of a Palahniuk-esque feel to it - but it's better than a lot of his stuff.

His humour is sharp. His medical foot notes are hilarious. And it's packed to the tits with mob action.

Love, love, love. Most of you freaks would probably enjoy it too.

 

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I was perusing the iBooks Store the other night and Tucker Max's "Sloppy Seconds" is available for free. Just thought I'd pass that along for anyone interested.

 

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Just closed the pages on Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's The Strain.
It's hardly the literature that other TiBers have reviewed on this thread, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it in parts, but overall it was one hell of a fun read.

I think it's a pretty cool collaboration, del Toro's personality is strongly felt; and I haven't read Hogan's other books to really glean his style, but I get the feeling that some of the sweet character work is down to him. There is some cool character stuff going on, and the ideas are really strong, but it can get really overwritten at times. There's a charming, almost amateurish passion that a bored housewife might throw into her first Mills & Boon novel.
It may just be that the writing style runs contrary to what I normally favour (which is especially the terse prose of Cormac McCarthy), because the overall effect is hella fun. It is a vampire novel that sticks it to all the wannabe Anne Rice sexy-meloncholic bullshit, and makes the vampires disgusting vermin with a repulsive biological foundation. They are somewhat reminiscent of the new vampires in Blade II, which this novel has a few things in common with, but they are even more foul. It's funny, del Toro is normally all about identifying with the monsters, but here they are never more deserving of death.
It also echoes a few themes and ideas from Cronos, del Toro's first feature, with characters watching loved ones succumb to vampirism, but with a more action-y twist. A lot of it reads very cinematically, and several reviews have been snidely explectant of a film adaption, but the boys here have also taken pains to mine the prose format's strengths over films, going for a very sensory experience, while offering no end of back stories for random characters.

Plot-wise it's kind of weak, working pretty much to a formula, and still only brings in important characters at odd times, but I guess it's part of the advantage of using a series format. The prose, and I have no idea how much is Hogan's, does kinda read the way del Toro speaks in English: Fluent, but with some strage accentuations, a kind of foriegn stilt that is slightly distancing.
That said the story told in the introduction was one of the scariest things I'd ever read, especially in my adult life. I can't think of anything else in recent times that made me feel like I helpless little boy they way it did.

 

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I have read all three books of The Strain trilogy and agree wiith you.

It's a fun, easy, entertaining read and I would not be suprised if the whole thing was made into a mini-series or even a movie.

I am looking forward to the release, later this year hopefully of The Twelve (Book Two of The Passage Trilogy) by Justin Cronin.

 

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Men are Better than Women by Dick Masterson

Eh. Good for a chuckle a couple of times a chapter. Otherwise, I was kind of underwhelmed. I expected it to be funnier. At least it's a short read, and not boring.

Grade: +