The Night Strangers

Author: Chris Bohjalian
Date: 7/21/2012

This book was pretty unique for books that I've read in the past, it could be just that I've never strayed into this genre before but none the less, it kept me entertained.

The Night Strangers centers around a group of quasi-witches (herbalist) who have a recipe that requires harm to another but comes with great benefits for those who drink it. The book progresses pretty straight forward, tragedy -> change of lifestyle -> weird witchcraft -> really unexpected ending.

I gave the book a B mainly because it wasn't a page turner for me, took me about a month to read 375 pages but the payoff at the end was pretty solid. The writing style was simple, the story was unique, the characters well developed.

I'm not sure if I'd recommend the book to most of the people I talk to but, it's different, and if you're into different, this book is worth picking up.

Star Wars -- Revan

Title: Star Wars Revan

Author: Drew Karphyshhyn

Pages: 289

Date Completed: May 6

This book was exactly what I expected it to be, nothing fantastic, but none the less a decent sci-fi Star Wars read. Character development was solid (for the genre and audience that it's meant to be written for), plot was interesting & fast paced. Only complaint would be that the author jumped around in the plot a bit too much but none the less, a good read. 

Grade: B-  -- more because it's graded on a universal scale competing against all types of books, within the                        genre probably a solid B+.

No Apology....more issues

This book is bordering on simple rants of a paranoid man. After spending months studying for the LSAT's I'm just seeing a long list of logical fallacies which are really unacceptable for a man trying to become the President of the United States. His new thing is attacking arguments/stances based on our consensus on the "evil" of those stating said argument/stance. This is a CLEAR logical fallacy as it doesn't actually criticize the argument but instead relies on an emotional response from the reader when the name of the "evil" person is mentioned.

Simply ridiculous, 25 pages in, dreading the next 300 +

Also, no citations, how can this even be possible? 

Death from the Skies!

Page Count: 79,757

Expected Completion Date: Mar. 18th, 2095

Book Page Count: 216

Title: Death From The Skies!

Author: Philip Plait


Had I read this book before going to undergrad I probably would have seriously considered physics as a major despite high school failures in the field. Professor Plait is an incredible writer that has the ability to bring what might be too complicated for 99% of us to a level that is available for the most of us to understand, appreciate and marvel at. 


The universe is truly incredible. I'm not the type who routinely gets the opportunity to be wowed by life, and this one did it for me. Recognizing what goes on daily in our vast and incredible universe is nothing short of miraculous. The most memorable part of this book was the idea that the compound which helps us clog blood (iron) originated in a supernova at some point in the distant pass. That every cell in our body was star dust, and before that it was hydrogen, all hydrogen. 



The pressure and heat, the randomness, the incredible vastness, all lead to a sense of aw. The ability for all of it to kill us, the pure fact that sooner or later IT WILL kill us (unless of course we do the job before the Universe gets a chance). The sun will eventually die, the solar system will vanish, the galaxy will fade away. It's all in the distant (distant distant distant) future. 


Purely put, amazing

The Jaguar

Page Count: 79,450

Expected Completion Date: Jan. 16th, 2095

Book Page Count: 216

Title: The Jaguar

Author: T. Jefferson Parker


This book really lacked focus for me. Multiple story lines that weren't well developed ran parallel only to come crashing together in some half hazard way at the end. From my understanding the book is part of a larger series of books about a character by the name of Charlie Hood, my best guess is that these other books provide some background information about the characters in this book. None the less, a book should stand alone as well as fit nicely in a series, this one didn't do that.


The characters lack of development was just short of amazing. As I read the book I found almost all of the characters to be one dimensional, lacking any insight and instead focused on single simple items. Throwing in new characters was the norm for this author, most of which were given names and played somewhat major roles (such as helping to rescue the primary character's wife) but were never given a personality.


Another major fall back to this one was the climax. One (1) page (I know, I've never seen this before!). A single page ended a kidnapping which had lasted hundreds of pages. A couple characters dead, bang bang, all done. A 30 page ending followed where characters again were for the most part left singular.


The last chapter just finalized my view of the book. A whole new discussion/topic came up with a side character becoming the main villain because of some back history. Love was lost (in some corny way again in just a couple pages), and talk of super natural beings came in to the mix (no joke, new villain is the devil who has lived for centuries).


Terrible book, I have it a F 

Started "No Apology" by Mr. Romney

My rule of not starting a book without finishing is going to bite me in the ass for this one. Mitt Romney is an idiot, no doubt about it. First few pages and already he's made a few obviously ridiculous assumptions. One of which is that if you're not #1 (power wise I suppose...he doesn't really clarify), then you cannot protect your safety, freedom and the like....the implications of course is that countries who are not #1 (again, I would have to guess militarily but even economically) cannot protect their freedoms and/or are less free than we are. This is an absurd and baseless suggestion. I expect more of this throughout the book as I've been vocally angry three times (3) in seven (7) pages. To say the least, it's no surprise that so many conservatives have a hard time identifying with this (or any other) of the current candidates.

Just another quick criticism, appears like he's trying to prove absolutes by giving individual cases. One of which is "you can do it if you try hard enough" proof is his father succeeding. This is simply an illogical approach to life, if one person can do it we call can. Let's say that we should all buy lotto tickets because it worked for the one person who went into debt buying tickets and it finally paid off.

To summarize, Mitt Romney's book is re-establishing my lack of faith in him as a leader.

Game of Thrones

Page Count: 79,095

Expected Completion Date: Feb. 6th, 2095

Book Page Count: 215

Title: Game of Thrones

Author: George Martin


Who would have thought that Pride and Prejudice could be so good! The Game of Thrones is really just Pride and Prejudice, minus the bad, and adding so many qualities that P&P utterly lacked. The book had an epic quality, nearly 700 pages of intense drama, suspense, character development, love, hate, action, blood, sorrow...and the list goes on. 


So what does Game of Thrones have in common with P&P. To start with the intricacies of the character interactions. Development of relationships was incredible in this book, making it almost like a soap opera drama. Conversations were intense, the list of relationships was immense, the interconnectedness of the characters were mind boggling (there are diagrams online showing familiar relationships of the series, look it up if you don't believe me). A majority of the book was dedicated to developing these connections, exploring the feelings of the characters in regards to each other and their feelings about their own actions. This aspect of the book reminded me a lot of P&P -- which you'd think would be a terrible thing for me as I hated P&P but, what P&P lacked to "bring it all together", Game of Thrones not only brought to the table, but excelled in doing so.


What Mr. Martin was able to add was a level of action that would appeal to men and women equally. P&P was a long drawn out conversation between women talking about petty aspects of life, Game of Thrones was a long drawn out interaction based on a mix of mundane details of life as well as the difficult decisions which we would expect faced leaders, kings, etc... during the distant past of our civilization. Treachery wasn't a matter of back stabbing a friend for a lover, but instead a matter of killing a king in order to gain power, revenge was a matter of family pride as well as national pride, character development was a matter of children becoming military leaders, siblings learning to deal with immense pain, evil falling alongside of good. 



Game of Thrones went one step further by bringing a level of fantasy into the novel that combined with the length and nature of the book (which truly made it epic) reminded me of Tolkien -- and that's a tremendous author to be compared to. The fantasy nature was done incredibly well, it wasn't the focus of the novel yet it played a pivotal role, especially as the book came to a conclusion and prepared for the next book in the series. Character development was the focus, but dragons and magic were included, and not just for a pretty addition but instead for an addition to developing characters. Furthermore, similar to Tolkien I had an incredibly hard time getting into the book for the first 100 pages or so, but, once I dedicated myself to the read, it had a payoff unlike most books which I have read.


Tolkien meets P&P = a damn good read. 

Go Ask Alice

Page Count: 78,421

Expected Completion Date: Apr. 12th, 2095

Book Page Count: 214

Title: Go Ask Alice

Author: "Anonymous"


This is a hard book to review as I have conflicting feelings about it. One review comes from my general sense about the topic along with the writing style itself. The other comes from the clear misrepresentation from the author (who is in fact not anonymous at all) of a story that is fiction, presented as fact. 


For the first part, the book itself read really well. The subject matter (drug use by a teenager) is something that interests me as I believe that use itself is not an issue but lack of control over ones use is a problem. The author writes in a very edgy way, short sentences, good use of language, a bit chaotic which I appreciate. Character development is relatively straight forward as the book documents a little over a year of a 15 year old's life and struggle with drugs. A clear progression from a normal kid to a kid lost in the world of drugs (and of course sex, violence, etc...)and comes round to a girl who finds herself, cleans up and reunited with her family only to die 3 weeks later of an overdose. Writing as journal entries was effective for me, even if it was used to manipulate the reader.


Now the not so great part. This author is a proven liar. Multiple sources online show that she has this writing style of picking a subject and taking a very hardcore conservative stance on it. For instance, instead of just drug use of a teen, it's drug use which turns into a total and complete loss of control which leads to loss of life. Furthermore the author refuses to admit the book was written by herself (she is listed as an editor) and has refused to say the story is not true. Here is the really clever part by the publisher, in the opening credits along with the copyright is the following message:

This book is a work of fiction. Any reference to historical events, real people,

or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents

are the product of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual

events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.*

*Copyright Simon &Schuster, Inc., 1971. 

This is an unfortunate book, written by a liar. While the book itself portrays real things which happen to real people, portraying fiction as truth is under no circumstances acceptable. 

No grade given to this book because of conflicting opinions

Wager

So this weekend my wife pointed out that I have way too many books from the library (hovering near 30) so she told me to get them out of the apartment. I offered a counter-proposal. Here's the wager:

Time frame: 5 months
Number of Books: 15
Wager: some kind of baking will be involved


let the game begin :)

Mockingjay

Page Count: 78,207

Expected Completion Date: Nov 23rd, 2094

Book Page Count: 390

Title: Mockingjay

Author: Suzanne Collins


Mockingjay is the final book in the trilogy, the Hunger Games but probably should have been the third of four books. 


On the positive side, Mockingjay ended the series, the main story completed, characters died, lived, thrived, suffered, and years passed. The writing was fast paced which made it a good read. Character development was good overall (see negatives below). Main character had a future story.


On the negative side, the author forced way too much into this book. In the course of 100 pages dramatic changes happened which deviated enough from the previously known information that really, the information should have led to a new book, not 100 pages in the final pages of a trilogy. Furthermore, the author left her characters personalities in the dust in these pages, deviations from what we could expect from characters were half-hazard with little or no explanation. Two and a half books of character development were dropped so that new twists could be added to the series. For me this is not a good way to finish a series. I appreciate twists but to completely abandon character traits, while also deviating from the main story in such a way that it is clear that the goal is just to add new drama is unacceptable. 


I enjoyed the series because it was an interesting idea, written in an easy to read fast paced manner, but as a piece of literature it falls short because of a lack of focus by the author.

/*I'm sick so this is a short review*/

Griftopia

Page Count: 77,817

Expected Completion Date: Sep 4th, 2094

Book Page Count: 207

Title: Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That is Breaking America

Author: Matt Taibbi


From the start I'm going to admit to a few things concerning Matt Taibbi:
1. I believe most of what he says is true, I'll explain why shrotly

2. I cannot or will not factually check everything in the book, because of this I will not say what he says is true (this is different from above where I said I believe, this vs. it is absolute truth)


And here we go with the review....


This book is hilarious, scary, frustrating, complicated, and aggressive in almost every page. That's right, virtually every page of the book made me laugh, scream (either to myself or to my wife), or scratch my head in confusion -- sometimes all at the same time. Matt Taibbi is a brilliant writer to say the least, if even half of what he writes is true, he's a brilliant journalist as well. Mr. Taibbi's writing style is off the wall, his use of language, especially profanity, keeps a dry subject (finance) entertaining while his points are always clear, concise and enlightening. 



As I have said I won't vouch for what is said but what I will say is that, our system is probably just as fucked as Matt Taibbi claims to to be. An incestuous relationship between top level management in the banking sector and top level management in government is frightening and appalling. The legislation that results in interactions between these top level individuals results in what we see, a highly complicated, highly dysfunctional smörgåsbord of crap that ultimately doesn't protect us citizens from the one thing that government should legitimately protect us from -- flat out lies made in order to steal from the public. The back room deals are disgusting, the unwillingness of even the most idealistic president to intervene, all result in a continuous trend down the drain.  


Mr. Tabbai leaves no one out in his criticism -- well, almost, but I'll get back to that in just a second. The right, middle and left are all equally attacked. "Obamacare" (not my favorite term, but he uses it, so I will as well) is shown to be a total farce, the banking sector in total shambles, and our entire economy perpetually on the point of collapse by bubbles made by irresponsible people (both in government and in the private sector). The entire chapter dedicated to Allan Greenspan is probably the most entertaining to read, literally showing contradiction after contradiction spoken by a man who is so egotistical he places himself on a pedastool next to God.


Now my one complaint about the book. Personal responsibility by the 99% is almost completely stripped. The only time Taibbi really criticizes the masses is in the last chapter when he complains about our ADHD when it comes to politics, today we yell against them, tomorrow we scream in their favor. Now, to say that the American public isn't responsible at all for the 2007 collapse is irresponsible and I really wish Taibbi had addressed this. Americans wanted homes, President Clinton pushed on their behalf, it was done. A decade long boom began, lots of people moved to middle class, some moved to upper class, everyone was happy. The problem is that we rarely ask "how" or "why" something is possible. For instance, "how does suburban living contribute to degradation of our planet" instead we say "we want a clean planet" and "we want to live in the suburbs", never connecting the dots and seeing the inherit contradiction in these two demands. Our unwillingness to sacrifice coupled with our never ending desire for the "American Dream" (I'd call it something else, but to each their own), leaves us wanting crooks to make money for us and then when the shit hits the fan, we cry foul. 


Overall a great read, I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone

Killing Hope

Page Count: 77,565

Expected Completion Date: Nov 11th, 2094

Book Page Count: 207

Title: Killing Hope

Author: Keith Houghton


This will be a short review as there really isn't much to say about the book. 


On a positive note the book was fast paced and had a lot of action. The author's writing style was really simple (for me not the greatest positive but for a light read it made it fun). This was my first e-book read and surprisingly enough I liked the Kindle experience.


The cons of the book by far outweighed the pros unfortunately -- I gave the book a D- in my spreadsheet. Character development was lackluster, throwing new characters into the book every few pages while developing only a few of them to make you really feel connected. Even near the end new characters were being tossed out that became pivotal to the plot despite the reader having no connection at all to them. Character development was so bad that the author failed to even give the slightest hint of a connection between the protagonist and the antagonist despite the two having a very strong familiar connection. Lastly, the ending was just disastrous in this book. Too many things happened over a span of a few pages and ultimately the author let an easy out for the antagonist, obviously so future books can be made. 



This book didn't do it for me and I won't be reading another by this author.

Kindle Present = New Rule

Almost done with my first "kindle only" book and realized I have no way of knowing page count for the book. So here's the new rule:

Kindle only book, 5kb = 1 page (the only thing provided by Amazon is the size in KB's so this will have to do)

If there is another version of the book I'll just use the page count from the physical book, I'll try to use paperback version but if only hardcover exists, I'll take that.

For those of you curious, I did a quick random sample (kind of random) for books that there are physical copies and ecopies, number came out to just over 5 kb/page


**This rule is still under consideration as I'm seeing wide variation for book size**

Catching Fire

Page Count: 77,397

Expected Completion Date: Aug 19th, 2094

Book Count: 206

Title: Catching Fire (Book II of the Hunger Games Series)

Author: Suzanne Collins


The first book in the Hunger Games series was a near miss for me, it left me with a lot of questions, but ultimately character development and my general liking of the genre helped me get through it. Catching Fire, book II of the series, didn't answer most of the questions that I had from book I but none the less did an amazing job of holding my attention and making me crave more.


Character development and story development both contributed to me liking Catching Fire. There is a clear villain and hero(es) in the book now, and an ultimate goal in sight. This is different from the first book where hero(es) and villains were muddied by the fact that it was really a story inside of a larger story. Suzanne Collins has done an especially good job developing the evil character in the series, making it impossible for every reader not to want him dead. Her use of description while discussing characters is vivid but not overly wordy, both of which I appreciate. 


Catching Fire also did a good job of not opening new doors to deep questions while making me want to read Book III by ending on a cliff-hanger. The general theme continues (poverty, haves and have nots, etc...) but the theme is developed in a way to where it isn't simple pinpointing what Miss Collins is comparing to in real life -- if anything at all. There is the haves and have nots within the United States, possibly suggesting that the poor have no say and the rich enjoy watching them suffer for their entertainment, or it could be an attack against Capitalism as a whole (some working hard to produce for the few), or it could be an international comparison, putting the United States, or more likely the West as a whole, on the unethical side of the coin, while making the third wold countries equivalent to the poor in the book where we (the West) force the poor to work almost as slaves, in order for us to enjoy life. I lean towards the last interpretation but it really could be any of them. 


The failure of Catching Fire answering my deepest question from Book I (how did the Capitol become so sadistic as to like watching kids murder each other?) was more than made up for by great descriptions of scenery, character, and plot. I look forward to ending the series but am going to put it on hold for a couple weeks while I finish up other books that I have started. 

Current Books

I've started two new books this last week or so:

Griftopia: So far witty and makes me laugh, haven't decided about the biasness yet

Hunger Games Trilogy Book II: After the first book I had a lot of questions, hopefully this one answers it, should be a quick read

Spreadsheet

Here's the spreadsheet with all of my read books, other sheets have some stats, books that I want to read and a few other oddball things.


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmkdRhc960qddE80R0JvYURWSGFwRnFWQ2hfcFpId0E

Physics on the Fringe

Page Count: 77,006

Expected Completion Date: Oct 7th, 2094

Book Count: 205

Title: Physics on the Fringe

Author: Margaret Wertheim

     It took me almost 5 weeks to read Physics on the Fringe, a small book of only 284 pages. To say the least, it wasn't my favorite book. I couldn't exactly pinpoint what I didn't like about the book until about 2/3'rds through when I realized....I didn't like any of it.

     Margaret Wertheim's writing style is scattered at best, jumping from history to present day, talking about her main subject matter, Jim Carter, and comparing him to a slew of famous physicists from the past, not being willing to challenge her subject's theory, and ultimately an unscientific approach to the subject of Physics as a whole. 

     Jim Carter, the main subject matter of Physics on the Fringe, is not worthy of a book and it became clear almost immediately to me that this was the case. Jim Carter's "theory of everything" is grounded in one thing, his incapability to understand complex mathematics leads him to conclude that all mainstream theories in Physics are wrong. Margaret Wertheim never challenges this notion, never questions if writing about someone who has dedicated his life to making Physics easier simply because he is incapable of understanding math is a worthwhile endeavor. For me, reading about the man became tedious, and left me wondering if Mr. Carter is worth writing a book on then so is every crackpot yelling theories about everything from Physics to the date of the end of the world. 

     Lastly, Miss Wertheim's repetitive comparison of Jim Carter to famous physicists of the past was inappropriate in almost every instance. Miss Wertheim would open a chapter with one of Jim Carter's many theories, then compare these, or at least put in the same chapter, with physicists from the 1500's and expect readers to think that the comparison was warranted. What Miss Wertheim fails to acknowledge is that in the 1500's physicists were attempting to begin the field, simply offering alternatives to the nothing which existed before, vs. today where math has proven many things and should not be discarded with a grain of salt by the likes of people like Mr. Carter -- this of course includes myself as well, as I'm just as incapable of understanding the complex math associated with today's Physics.

     This has re-established my faith in Science, and my ultimate notion that not understanding something is no excuse for discarding it completely.

My Goal

Almost seven years ago I set a goal to read a million pages, since then I have maintained a list of all the books that I have read, including a short review. This blog is an attempt to a) Motivate me to continue, b) encourage others to set a similar goal c) encourage me to do more thoughtful reviews and lastly, just for something to do with a bit of my time.

Here are my only "rules":
1. Pages didn't count before I set my goal, so I couldn't say "well I've read a hundred thousand when I was a kid
2. Pages only count for books, no magazines, newspapers, text books
3. I have to finish the book before it counts
4. Only counts if I remember to put it in the spreadsheet that I keep


I'll post a link to my spreadsheet as soon as I can. Happy reading all