2010 Reading Recap
Proud to say, I read sixteen books this year. Seven more last year AND I got more out of what I read.
Overall takeaways:
The Wolfen is a fantastic book and even better when you've been to NYC a few times.
The Forgotten Soldier is a work of fiction, NOT an autobiography. Sorry Guy.
If it didn't pay a slave wage, I'd be a morgue tech in a heartbeat.
Bernie Siegel has the right idea but he's a complete fruitcake.
Everybody who's ever had to speak to another person should at least skim Getting to Yes.
The stock market is completely imaginary.
Reading The Gulag is like being a prisoner of it.
The Fun Corner:
The Wolfen: Whitley Strieber
The Forgotten Soldier: Guy Sajer
83 Hours Until Dawn: Gene Miller and Barbara Jane Mackle
Waiter Rant: Steve Dublanica
Down Among the Dead Men: Michelle Williams
Heart of Darkness: Joseph Conrad
The Picture of Dorian Gray: Oscar Wilde
The Time Machine: H.G. Wells
The Masochist Corner:
The Gulag: Anne Applebaum
The Fruit Corner:
Love, Medicine & Miracles: Bernie Siegel
Death: The Final Phase of Growth: Elizabeth Kübler-Ross
The Nerd Corner:
Finance and Accounting for Non-Financial Managers: William G. Droms
Getting to Yes: Roger Fisher, et al.
Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: Lois P. Frankel
When is Enough, Enough: Laurie Ashner, Mitch Meyerson
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When The Stakes are High: Kerry Patterson, et al.
Overall takeaways:
The Wolfen is a fantastic book and even better when you've been to NYC a few times.
The Forgotten Soldier is a work of fiction, NOT an autobiography. Sorry Guy.
If it didn't pay a slave wage, I'd be a morgue tech in a heartbeat.
Bernie Siegel has the right idea but he's a complete fruitcake.
Everybody who's ever had to speak to another person should at least skim Getting to Yes.
The stock market is completely imaginary.
Reading The Gulag is like being a prisoner of it.
The Fun Corner:
The Wolfen: Whitley Strieber
The Forgotten Soldier: Guy Sajer
83 Hours Until Dawn: Gene Miller and Barbara Jane Mackle
Waiter Rant: Steve Dublanica
Down Among the Dead Men: Michelle Williams
Heart of Darkness: Joseph Conrad
The Picture of Dorian Gray: Oscar Wilde
The Time Machine: H.G. Wells
The Masochist Corner:
The Gulag: Anne Applebaum
The Fruit Corner:
Love, Medicine & Miracles: Bernie Siegel
Death: The Final Phase of Growth: Elizabeth Kübler-Ross
The Nerd Corner:
Finance and Accounting for Non-Financial Managers: William G. Droms
Getting to Yes: Roger Fisher, et al.
Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: Lois P. Frankel
When is Enough, Enough: Laurie Ashner, Mitch Meyerson
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When The Stakes are High: Kerry Patterson, et al.
posted by Skullgal at 1:32 PM
4 Comments:
I'll definitely keep (at least some of) these in mind! The Wolfen and 83 Hours 'Til Dawn sound wild. And they made movies of both of those?! I'm sure the books are better.
The movie of The Wolfen is quite different from the book but still considered a classic in 80's Horror. There has never been another film that looks quite like it. Both the book and the film reside in my top 5 favorite books/movies.
Haven't yet seen the film for 83 Hours Till Dawn but I'm sure it would get my claustrophobia going pretty bad.
Do you have any recommendations to trade? I'd like to know what's been in Cosmo's hands this year!
I have a pretty bad memory for books, because unlike with, say, albums, I don't leave any paper/electronic trail that I can trace later. I always sell or give away my books (I'm not a things person), but in the past year, I've started reading books on my phone. So at least I can remember those.
Let's see. Right now I'm reading Robert Greene's The 33 Strategies of War. It's a great mental boot camp, sort of like a very tough self-help seminar. The title says it's about war, and it draws upon wars as its examples (it's sparked an interest for me in Napoleon - I had no idea he was such a military genius), but it's applicable to everyday life, because, well, everyday life involves conflict. Just reading bits of it every day helps keep me focused and desirous of self-improvement.
Before that, I read Steven Pressfield's The War of Art (see a theme?). That book is also very good. It's about overcoming creative blocks, but it's also applicable to everyday life. Its thesis is that we are our own worst enemies when it comes to achieving what we are meant to do. That's not a new insight, but the way he lays it out is practical and inspirational. The book is perfect for those who have that novel or album that never gets finished (or started). I know many such people; I bet you do, too.
In the past year, I picked up a mild obsession with crime/noir/pulp fiction. I've mentioned him before, and I'll mention him again - Charlie Huston, his Hank Thompson trilogy. It's "fun" reading, page-turning stuff, but the material is brutal and the language is almost violently concise. In that vein also is Dan Fante, whom we interviewed for IO a few months ago. His Chump Change book is brutal - I couldn't read it while eating because it would make me sick - but his language is on point.
I like brutal books that put me through the wringer. At least that's what I feel I need personally right now, so that's what I'm feeding myself!
Great suggestions! I think "The War of Art" is a great one for me!
Thanks, have an awesome New Year's Eve, even if you just stay home and read your phone... LOL
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