The Idiot Board Readers Corner - General Discussion

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An Incomplete Education by Judy and William Wilson.

I've only spent about a half hour thumbing through the book at this point, but it looks and reads awesome.

It's kind of a crash course in philosophy, music, poetry, literature and world history....if you consider 700+ pages a crash course.

It's well written and has plenty of light hearted humor interjected.

Once I get some time to actually sit down and read it, I'll let y'all know but thus far it appears to be great.

 

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The Big Short by Michael Lewis is even better than Liar's Poker or Money Ball. Considering that Goldman is now being sued by the SEC, it's required reading. The latest article by Matt Taibbi will serve as an entree to the book and will make you stop in your tracks in disbelief.

 

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If you are reading "The Big Short," I would also recommend reading this article by Yves Smith and her book "Econned" which seems to be a better treatise on the subject of how these big hedge funds made money on CDS-related instruments. From the article, Smith seems to think Lewis missed the most important part of the story so he could mass market the book to people who don't know much about the subject.

 

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The Ginger Man-J.P. Donleavy

Just finished this book, and enjoyed the hell out of it. It came as a recommendation by PhilaLawyer on his site, and I would like to give it a mention as well. Very entertaining read, sometimes very funny..sometimes a little sad. The style of writing is lyrical, very unique with a prose type of feel. I was surprised at how quick I got into it.

 

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I just finished Snark by David Denby. Fantastic read. Denby talks about the culture of snark and how the internet and anonymity have affected it. He also goes into the history of snark, discusses its principles, differentiates between snark, irony and satire. If you are at all into journalism, literature, or politics, I would definitely recommend this.

Speaking of snark, I also recently read The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti, which discusses how purity and virginity are not directly related and how placing such high value on a girl's virginity is detrimental. I was really excited to read this, as in theory it seems like a book I'd enjoy, but the snarky, feminist tone of the book was so awful, it made the book quite difficult to get through.

 

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I'm a little late to the game on this one, but I just read Gates of Fire, and goddamn it if I don't want to go to the park immediately with a makeshift shield made out of a cookie sheet and start "tree fucking" until the cops drag me away. Awesome book.

 

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Just finished Pygmy by Chuck P.

Unlike Fight Club and Choke, I'd have a hard time recommending this book to someone else. While narrating the book in "Engrish" sounds like an interesting concept, it ultimately detracts from the book. On numerous occasions I had to re-read sentences in order to understand them. There are the usual Chuck P. themes of anti-consumerism and rampant over-consumption, seen this time through the eyes of a foreign terrorist taught to hate all these things. I found this book had more criticism of religion than past books. There was also some interesting symbolism with the Model U.N. incident in the book.

Unfortunately, the "Engrish" just makes it too difficult to really get into the book. Both Fight Club and Choke have beautiful little nuggets that send a chill up my spine. Sentences likes:

"You do the little job you're trained to do. Pull a lever. Push a button. You don't understand any of it, and then you just die."
or
"It's easy to cry when you realize everyone you love will reject you or die."
or
"We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are...Or we can decide for ourselves."

By contrast, Pygmy is all "For official record, squirrel maze of retail distribution center puzzle of competition warring objects, all improved, all package within fire colors." I just wasn't able to make a connection with this book. Its not the worst book I've read, but I didn't feel the need to immediately re-read it the way I did with the other two.

 

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I'm reading The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain right now. It's basically a bunch of essays he has written about traveling, cooking, and doing a TV show. While not as good as Kitchen Confidential(I love that book), it's still an entertaining read.

 

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Kitchen Confidential is a great read eric.

Over spring break I read another McCarthy book Blood Meridian while camping in Canyonlands. Perfect setting to read it in, and I found myself reading pretty late into the night in front of the fire reading. It's a gory and blood drenched story, and I felt it was lacking some of the character insight that made The Road and No Country for Old Men so good, but it was still worth my time just for the vivid descriptions of the desert. McCarthy does use his usual spartan grammatical style which can at times lead to some confusion.

Starting The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz after finals, from skimming it, looks like a good read.

 

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I'm almost finished with Nabokov's Pale Fire. I haven't read Lolita or any of his other works yet, but I have to say that he is one hell of a writer. The mere fact that he wrote his first 8 novels in Russian, and yet writes masterful English prose that surpasses most famous US writers is amazing enough. However, there's also something very powerfully American about his presentation and style.

The book itself is highly unusual in terms of structure; it contains a forward by a fictional person, Dr. Kinbote, followed by a 999 line canto by a fictional Professor John Shade, and then an extensive literary analysis by the Dr. Kinbote. While that may sound drab, it is anything but, as every paragraph contains significant action, backstory, and plenty of humorous observations.

It's very fast-paced, and at roughly 200 pages, a quick read. An excellent novel, and definitely worth checking out.

 

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The 50th Law.

I'm almost through with it and it seems like a condensed version of Greene's other books, with less historical examples. He uses scenes from 50 Cent's "rise to power" to illustrate what he previously used a variety of examples for. It's a little more preaching than I like, and there's just not any new ideas, just re-hashed concepts from the other three books. Overall, it's a let-down, but I had the bar pretty high. I think that if you haven't read any of Greene's stuff and you started with this one, it would be great. If you have read all of them, it's still worth it, just don't expect to come away from it with anything new.

 

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Outliers
An amazing read that will make you start to look at the world in a different way, which is what the dustcover says but is actually one of the few books that actually deliver what they promise. Ironically my boss was out in Colorado Springs for a National Team coaches conference and the 10,000 hour rule (one has to engage in 10,000 hours worth of practice in a given field before they can acquire mastery of it) was brought up frequently.

 

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Just picked up "The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt". I love biographies and this man defined the American dream.

I've also read Lincoln's, Warren Buffet's, Ron Jeremy's among a few not so memorable others.


What's the best biography you've ever read?

 

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Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris is an excellent biography, Talleyrand by Duff Cooper was a good picture of the man behind several empires, and Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! is a fun read. Also, David McCullough has written about some interesting historical figures and written well. The Dirt, by Motley Crue is a fun fucking book to read, none too serious or involved. The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a powerful book, well worth reading.

Anything about Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon, or Genghis Khan tends to be worth reading, regardless of the quality of the biographer, they are just interesting men with tons of material about their lives. I've also enjoyed more than one bio of JFK, FDR, Lincoln and a slew of Civil War generals (Stonewall Jackson and U.S. Grant are two interesting men to read about) God knows, there are some good ones, but you have to be choosy or you get some off-center perspectives.

 

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I've read a number of biographies about Andrew Jackson and Winston Churchill, both of whom led epic, exciting lives. Most are great, with the exception of a few very recent ones written by uneducated liberal morons. In general, the older the better; I remember reading some biography about Jackson from the late 1800s which had an incredible level of research and historical detail (including hundreds of primary documents) that is mostly known among modern day "historians".

"Surely you're Joking, Mr. Feynman", as mentioned by downndirty, is a classic, but I'm not sure I would call it a biography. Rather, it's a collection of largely self-contained stories organized chronologically. Many parts of his life are glossed over or not mentioned at all in favor of exciting, often random personal anecdotes.

 

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Can't say that I've read too many biographies, but I love Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman. Not often that you can find someone that brilliant relate so easily to regular people. Also read Autobiography of Malcolm X in 11th grade (5 years ago), which I really loved. Probably due for a re-read.

 

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A few I have really liked:

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
The Education of Henry Adams
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Night by Elie Wiesel
Angela's Ashes
John Adams by David McCullough

 

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Ty Cobb by Al Stump was excellent. (I know it's not an "autobiography" but it's great) Can't say I agree with you on "Night" though, I know it was an excellent book but it was so incredibly depressing.

SC-I'm seriously going to get Ron Jeremy's if you were not kidding.

 

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Hands down, it's got to be Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis. I love this book so much I own two copies of it just in case. It's pure sex, drugs and rock and roll. So badass.

And though technically it's not all truth, James Frey's A Million Little Pieces is wonderful along with My Friend Leonard. I'm pretty sure I cry at the same part every time I read the latter even though I know it's coming. I can't help it. Also drug related.

And because I'm apparently obsessed with reading drug-related biographies, Tweak by Nic Sheff and Beautiful Boy by David Sheff are a couple more great ones. A meth addict and his father's view, respectively, on the journey of crystal meth addiction. I think you have to read both of these. Having both sides of the story added a lot to the reading experience.

If alcoholism is more your thing, Smashed by Koren Zailckas was another good read. She doesn't refer to herself as an alcoholic, which bothered me, but as an abuser of alcohol. She recounts her history of drinking and her path towards quitting.

Lastly, Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen. It's pretty much what you think it would be; a girl recounting her sexual escapades throughout her teens and twenties. The way it ended left me wanting more though.

 

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It's perfectly fine if you enjoy those books, but they should never, ever be mentioned among non-fictional biographies. Everything in them, from his time in jail (never happened) to a girl he knew closely in adulthood dying tragically (never happened) to even his drug addiction (never happened!) were all lies uncovered by TheSmokingGun.

Anti-Focus-

The worst biography I ever read was Conrad Hilton's Be My Guest, Autobiography of Conrad Hilton , which you can find in the desk drawer of any of their fine hotels, right next to the Bible.