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Catching Up

I’ve fallen very far behind on my posting to this blog. I added six books to my reading list just now, which covers the last 5 months. They are:

Many of the books listed above I read because I was at least slightly interested and I was participating in the adult summer reading program at my local library. The last book on this list is the exception. I read that just because I loved the first two books. It took me a while to get to this last book because there are so many other books I also want to read. I’m happy to have finally read it and I will update you all with a review soon I hope.

Now that it is Thanksgiving break I finally have some time to sit down and do some work in my office that’s not related to my day job. I got some other things done as well. I scan all the girl’s artwork that they give me. I know we can’t keep it all, but I can scan it and store it on the Network Attached Storage (NAS) device we have. I also have all our movies and tv shows stored on it. I scan everything in using my trusty Canon scanner. Thankfully, they keep their driver page updated, even for those of us that adopted macOS High Sierra early.

I’ve also been watching some more TV recently as well. I started by diving into Star Trek DS9. It is the only series that I haven’t watched all the way through. I’m making my way through that on Netflix. In addition, I’ve also gotten addicted to Stranger Things. I’m early in the second season so no spoilers, please. When I’m not watching those I’ve been making time to learn about class b RVs on youtube and got addicted to the We Are The Russos.

I’m not a camper, so I have not idea why I’m so into the idea of these RV things. No idea where it all came from, but I’ve always been into the tiny homes stuff. I think it is amazing the way that people find a way to make it with so little. I have so much and the idea of paring down has always appealed to me. When I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I really did get rid of a lot, but it really wasn’t enough. We have a two-thousand square foot home and it is full!

Speaking of youtube. I think it would be a good idea to try that here. I’m not one to sit down and record a video, but I think it would help drive traffic to the site and I know lots of times I want to watch a video of something instead of reading a bunch of text. Sounds strange on a book blog site, doesn’t it? I think some more about that one. Lots of things to consider.

Lots of other things are also going on. Work has gotten a lot busier and I started taking my weight loss a lot more seriously. I watched Vegucated on Netflix and a few other vegetarian and vegan documentaries as well as Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead 2. All these films together pushed me over the edge to go vegan. I’m what you would call a lazy vegan. I find my self-making exceptions to the dairy rule. For example, I can not give up pizza so my give and take on that is ordering only vegetarian pizza. It’s not vegan, but at least it is vegetarian. I haven’t had meat in about four months.

I have been also going to the gym on average 5-6 days a week. Pretty much every day. I got a new Apple Watch and I’ve been trying to close all the rings every day. Most days I make it and with giving up meat, it has been pretty easy to lose a lot of weight. I’m down about 18 pounds from September. I use my Aria, a Fitbit scale, to track my weight every day. They have the 2nd version of it available now. I was thinking of getting it because mine doesn’t always sync right. I’ve had problems with it since the beginning.

I think that is pretty good for now. Hopefully, more coming very soon.

Reading as a Punishment

On February 8th the New York Times published Teenagers Who Vandalized Historic Black Schoolhouse Are Ordered to Read Books. The article describes a crime, where 4 young boys, vandalized a historic black schoolhouse. The judge of the case handed down a strange ruling. The boys had to read. For someone like me, this would not have been a punishment, but I also didn’t go around vandalizing anything.

USA Today article on the schoolhouse.

Pictures and more from Patch.com

Now, I don’t know if this will work. If those kids see this as a punishment then maybe not, but if they take it as a learning opportunity then maybe so. I’m not sure how enlightened kids that would do this kind of thing are, there is also their age to consider.

I did think that the list of books they were ordered to read was actually pretty well thought out. It wasn’t just, we are going to give you a bunch of books to read as a pure punishment. They thought about the books hoping to give the kids a little background and maybe teach them an understanding that they didn’t have and they weren’t learning from their parents or school.

For those of you interested (like me) here is the list:

“The Color Purple,” Alice Walker
“Native Son,” Richard Wright
“Exodus,” Leon Uris
“Mila 18,” Leon Uris
“Trinity,” Leon Uris
“My Name Is Asher Lev,” Chaim Potok
“The Chosen,” Chaim Potok
“The Sun Also Rises,” Ernest Hemingway
“Night,” Elie Wiesel
“The Crucible,” Arthur Miller
“The Kite Runner,” Khaled Hosseini
“A Thousand Splendid Suns,” Khaled Hosseini
“Things Fall Apart,” Chinua Achebe
“The Handmaid’s Tale,” Margaret Atwood
“To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” Rebecca Skloot
“Caleb’s Crossing,” Geraldine Brooks
“Tortilla Curtain,” T.C. Boyle
“The Bluest Eye,” Toni Morrison
“A Hope in the Unseen,” Ron Suskind
“Down These Mean Streets,” Piri Thomas
“Black Boy,” Richard Wright
“The Beautiful Struggle,” Ta-Nehisi Coates
“The Banality of Evil,” Hannah Arendt
“The Underground Railroad,” Colson Whitehead
“Reading Lolita in Tehran,” Azar Nafisi
“The Rape of Nanking,” Iris Chang
“Infidel,” Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“The Orphan Master’s Son,” Adam Johnson
“The Help,” Kathryn Stockett
“Cry the Beloved Country,” Alan Paton
“Too Late the Phalarope,” Alan Paton
“A Dry White Season,” André Brink
“Ghost Soldiers,” Hampton Sides

Book Review: Super You

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Full disclosure: I met Andy Walker and Sean Carruthers a long time ago at one the first podcast conventions. It was an absolute pleasure. They even treated me to lunch. Andy sent me a copy of this book himself. Having said all that my review of this book is my own.

Who should read this book? As the authors themselves say “…there’s a good chance you’re interested in ways to use science to make life better for yourself and your offspring…”

The authors of Super You are Andy Walker, known technology journalist, tv and radio personality, and podcaster. You may know him from Call for Help, a tech television show he starred on with Leo Laporte. Andy writes this book with co-authors Kay Walker, his wife and Sean Carruthers, a long-time friend, and partner in many of his endeavors.

I enjoyed watching their many videos on youtube and listening to their podcast. Even watching their tv shows back when ZDTV or TechTV was still a channel. Speaking about podcasts, check out this interview about the book from Triangulation one of Leo’s many podcasts.

Back to the book. The chapters are mostly about how you can improve yourself through technology for the first portion of the book. Altering the genes of your baby before it is born to make sure you have a boy with blue eyes. The book moves on to discuss beauty hacks like plastic surgery and a few people who are injecting themselves with RFID chips.

Most interesting to me was the bit about living longer through technology and how that is about 30 years away. What happens in 30ish years? By then, the authors say, we should have access to the technology to extend our lives by double what people are living now. It shouldn’t be a stretch to live past 100 if you are younger than the baby-boomer generation.

That’s all great, but will it really happen? And what do we do to ensure that we make it that last 30-year stretch? The book speaks to both of these questions. I suggest you read it, with a glass of red wine, you’ll see why after you read the book! Enjoy!

How to Read More

Lots of people have new year’s resolutions to read more each year. While I didn’t make my goal of 100 books in 2016, I still think 66 is not too bad. If you think that is a lot keep reading and I’ll tell you how I did it.

This is how I read 66 books last year with two kids to watch and taking 3 online courses, not to mention a regular job every day that regularly required more than 40 hours a week. The biggest secret to my success is probably audio books. I listened to 3.7 days of audio last year. 14% of all books I read (consumed) were audio. Listening to books is easy to do. Sometimes I can do it at work on a break or when I’m doing something boring and reparative. A long commute is a godsend to consuming lots of books. I also listen in the gym and when I go on short walking breaks during the day. Another big part of listening to books is not to buy them, at least not physically. I download all the books I read from Overdrive, a company that sells audio downloads to public libraries so the patrons can download and listens to books free. That’s right, free. Download to your smartphone and listen as much as you want for free.

Reading Kindle at Old Street Tube by Annie Mole

Buy a Kindle. It will pay for itself in no time! I have the new oasis. Whenever I’m heading out somewhere that I will have to wait or think I may get bored, I grab my Kindle. I read every night in my daughter’s room. She likes it if I lay on her floor while she falls asleep, so I need a quiet activity to keep myself awake. I read. Usually for a good 20 minutes before she nods off.

Lastly, use your local libraries. That’s right plural. You probably have a bunch within about 15 miles from where you live. Use all of them. Librarians are there to help and they do a great job! You can usually find what you want, but sometimes you have to get in sent from another branch, its worth the hold fee, some don’t even have a hold fee! Try to plan a weekly trip to the library to keep some books in stock and ready to read. Better yet visit a used book store and buy some books to have ready for to read, that way you don’t have to worry about returning them before the borrowing period is over.

Good luck and let me know how you are doing.

Book Review: The Lost Hero

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The Lost Hero is the first book in a series from Rick Riordan. It is a spin-off series from the original Percy Jackson and The Olympian series. There are 5 books in the series. This book reads very much like the books in the Percy Jackson series and for me, this is a very good thing. I liked that series a lot. A lot of action all the time and it is funny as well. This book was a great introduction to a new series. We meet all new heroes but still get to check-in with some of our favorites from the Percy Jackson series. Riordan makes some great calls in writing this new series. I’m hooked.

Book Review: A Wizard of Earthsea

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This is the first book in a series of 6 books by Ursula K. Le Guin. She is an awesome science fiction writer. Not too long ago I reviewed The Lathe of Heaven, another excellent book. I listened to this book and had a hard time pausing it when life got in the way. Just a great story that is very original. Lots of adventure and magic. I can’t wait to read the second book.

Book Review: The Conscious Parent

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Another Dalai Lama book! So this co-author on this one is Shefali Tsabary, who also wrote The Awakened Family which is a New York Times Best Seller and was a book endorsed by Oprah. “Parents . . . you will be wowed and awed by [Dr. Shefali].” —Oprah Winfrey The Conscious Parent won the Nautilus award in 2011. I would recommend this book to any parent. I found it very helpful and trying to slow down and remember that my kids are going to remember things that I don’t think are a big deal. Every time I lose it my kids will remember that and it will go into the idea of who I am in their eyes. I highlighted substantially in this book. Here are some lines I think are worth sharing:

perfection is an ideal of the foolish.

when we are in the grip of anger, we are anything but in control. We are prisoners of ego.

“It’s okay to be bored. There’s nothing wrong with feeling bored. Keep being bored.”

On weekends, my daughter is allowed an hour of television or an hour on the computer.

Not that they will blindly follow your dictates, but that they will seek your counsel

[to our children] I learn how to be a better person from you.

truly hearing what they are saying, without feeling we have to fix, correct, or lecture.

The smallest, “I don’t know, but let’s find out together,” has the power to evoke the most profound of life qualities.

we often don’t take the time or exercise the patience required to get at the why,

For a young child, times to nap and go to bed are aspects of the main rules and as such are non-negotiable.

If the parent is resolute, the child will quickly pick up that there is no argument around this issue.

The traditional dynamic of parent-versus-child would yield to the realization that our children are often wiser than us and able to advance us spiritually just as effectively as we can advance them.

I know that’s a lot but, I thought every one of them was worth sharing. The highest praise I can give a book is buying extra copies to give other people. This is a book that I can defiantly think of buying extra copies for friends and family.

Book Review: Secrets of the Chest

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This is a tough review. I really like the story in the jacket sleeve of this. Actually, that was sent to me from the publisher and I liked it so much I requested a copy of the book. When it came I was excited to start it, but as I read I lost interest in the story. IT started out okay, but it kept going on subjects it needed to just move on with. This is another book that it took me a very long time to get through. I kept putting it down to read something else. However, since I hate leaving a book unfinished, I picked it up when I could. 5 months passed and I finally had it done. I gave it 2 stars. I think this book had potential, but it didn’t execute. What makes this review tough is I asked for this book and I don’t want to give it a poor review, but I have. I’m the only reviewer of this book on good reads and the poor thing has a 2-star rating. I hope others will review this book, but I can recommend it.

Book Review: Last Full Measure

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I like Star Trek. You could even call me a Treky. I really liked the Enterprise tv show. I have watched it on Netflix from start to finish in addition to seeing it live when the show was still airing. I can watch those episodes over and over. When the show was pulled I was bummed. The world without a Star Trek series currently on air makes me sad. I hope it someday makes its way back on the air. In the meantime, there are always books! I started reading the Star Trek Enterprise series back in 2013. The books feel real comfortable to me. Probably because I have watched all the series from the original to Enterprise. I have not read a book in the series that I hated. I’ve read some that I particularly care for, but I wouldn’t call it a waste of time.

The Last Full Measure follows along the story from the original episode when the show was still on. Therefore, I like this one a little less because I already know the story. Having said that I still enjoyed my time reading this book in the series. If you are reading the series and don’t want to read the books that are also an episode you can skip this one. If like me, you enjoy all the Star Trek you can get, this book is a good addition to the ongoing series. I’m looking forward to the next book.

Book Review: The Lathe of Heaven

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Ursula K. Le Giun is the woman! She is an amazing weaver of science fiction stories. She will completely immerse you in her stories and make you believe the unbelievable. I love her work. I recently finished the first Earthsea book and I can’t wait to read the rest. This book takes you on an incredible journey asking the question what if what you dream came true? At first, if you are like me, you think awesome, all my wishes coming true. Alas, we forget our nightmares. Also, who is to say how your dreams will be interpreted? This is just a fascinating read. Highly recommended.