50 books in a year
Well, I did it. Around this time last year, I set a goal to read 50 books in a year, and I've just finished.
Originally, I had planned on making it 50 books in the calendar year, despite the fact that I was starting in the middle of February. If I wouldn't have come back online, or if I wouldn't have incorporated so many non-fiction books in my reading, I probably would have made it pretty easily. But when I didn't, I decided to make it one full year, setting February 15th as my cut-off date. And I just finished up my 50th a couple of days ago.
I did a little mini book report after each book, and will post all of them behind the cut. There are probably *SPOILERS AHEAD*, so be forewarned.
What sucked is that my hard drive died after I'd read 18 of the books, so those first 18 book reports were lost. I redid a quick little blurb for those ones but they aren't nearly as in depth as they were, or as 19-50 are. What also sucks about that is that I may have had 19 or 20 read by that point but am failing to recall one or two.
Anyway, here's the listing of the books I read. I'm proud of myself for having done it.
Books I've read---
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1.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (good read, taught me lots of things)
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2.
Lila by Robert Pirsig (not that great of a sequel)
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3.
All of an Instant by Richard Garfinkle (fantastic - this and School of Night were probably the two best books I read this year)
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4.
Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle (good, but not as good as All of an Instant)
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5.
Star Trek New Frontier number 10 by Peter David (David)
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6.
Star Trek New Frontier number 11 by Peter David (sucks)
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7.
Star Trek New Frontier number 12 by Peter David (some)
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8.
Star Trek Gateways #6 by Peter David (ass)
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9.
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone by J.K. Rowling (weak character motivation and plot logic, but still utterly absorbing)
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10.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabah by J.K. Rowling (ditto)
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11.
Inside the Mind (understanding a moment of consciousness)
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12.
What Men Live By by Leo Tolstoy (read like a church sermon)
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13.
European-located spy book (can't remember the name) (too much relying on setting mood by naming European locations I didn't know, obvious plot twists)
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14.
The School of Night by Alan Wall (GREAT - probably the best ending to any book I've read all year - assuming I interpreted it right)
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15.
Vosoff and Nimmitz by Adam-Troy Castro - not a bad little formulaic comedic read
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16.
Last Things by David Searcy (TERRIBLE - the worst book I've read all year)
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17.
The Experiment by Stephen Kyle (not bad - taught me about gypsies and their terms)
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18.
From panic to power : proven techniques to calm your anxieties, conquer your fears, and put you in control of your life by Lucinda Bassett - not very good. Uses the goal-driven approach to calming anxiety, which, though very American, really only builds up the wall of your Type A personality instead of tearing all walls down and relaxing.
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19.
The Sirius Mystery by Robert Temple - This book solidified for me the difference between mysticism and science. Science is the pursuit of truth, no matter what that truth may turn out to be. Mystiscism is the practice of believing that what you WANT to be true in fact is is. For example, a SCIENTIST trying to discover dinosaur bones will look at a discovered bone and try to determine whether or not it's a dinosaur's by comparing its similarities and differences to those of a dinosaur's. A MYSTIC trying to discover dinosaur bones will look at a discovered bone and give attention ONLY to those aspects of the bone that are similar to that of a dinosaur's, thus making his search for a dinosaur bone a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Robert Temple's definitely a mystic. (He quoted Proculus for evidenciary purposes for chrissakes!)
I read this book just to get a little background and quotable quotes on the Sirius Mystery for the novel I'm writing, and for both of those purposes, it was abundantly useful, and well WELL worth the read. But as for Temple making any kind of serious logical case for aliens from the Dog Star (Sirius) having visited Egypt in its ancient past, un uh. He didn't come close.
In face most of his attempts were laughable. One in particular that stands out is where he took egyptian words and associated with them with other egyptian words spelled similarly to make a case that the two were intrinsically connected in the ancient egyptian mind. An english example of this laughable technique would be as follows: "In the english language, the word 'arm' is spelled very similarly to the word 'art', having just one letter different. Therefore, it's obvious that those speaking english consider their arms to be a work of art."
It was painful it was so logically clumsy. The only thing that kept me reading was the invaluable wealth of both background information and sourced quotes. For both of those, my novel and I thank you, Mystic Temple.
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20.
The Great Pyramid Decoded by E. Raymond Capt - incredibly scientific in its background information and incredibly mystic in its conclusions. It beautifully lays out the engineering specs for the Great Pyramid to such an in-depth extent that I went from knowing next to nothing about the interior of the Great Pyramid before the read, to now feeling like an expert afterward. (So much so, that I plan on someday making a scale model of the Great Pyramid in my backyard, using mud laid in ad hoc molds that build up the pyramid layer by layer, wedding-cake style.
But again, incredibly mystic conclusion. And if you're starting to think that maybe I'm just a humbug since my last two book critiques have ridiculed mysticism, I'm pretty sure I can change your mind since any book that concludes that the Pyramid's architect was God and calls the angle between the queen's chamber hall and the ascending hall the "Christ Angle" can be safely said to be drowning in mysticism.
So, reminiscent of The Sirius Mystery, The Great Pyramid Decoded was flawed with mysticism, but was an absolute wealth of information and quotes,so very useful for my novel, and so definitely worth the read.
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21.
The Encylopedia of Alien Encounters - Alan Baker - Last of the trifecta of books I was reading for research on my book. Now I just need to type the annotations I made in the three books into a text file, and I'll be all ready to start writing again. I still plan on reading books on Chaos, Complexity, and the top-secret plane code-named "Aurora", but those I can read as I write, or even after during the editing process or after I've sent them off to the publisher(since I can still do rewrites).
As for the book itself, there was a lot of crap, but a couple of interesting things, some about MIB-type organizatins I'll find useful for my book. The author did a good job, trying to remain objective, while still pointing out the glaring lies in alleged abductees' stories. (An example of such a lie is when an "abductee" said that he'd been visited by an alien who lives on a planet in our solar system, but one that we don't know about because it's behind the moon.)
There were a couple of times when the author's writing would sound a little too certain about the entries. (For instance he starts his "Quarouble, France" Entry out with the sentence: "Scene of an encounter with a landed UFO and alien beings in September 1954.") He explains in the introduction that he worded things such so that the text of the book wasn't annoyingly chock-full of the word "alleged", which is understandable. However, I wish he would have put in all the "alleged"s since every time I read something like "Site of an alien encounter", my mind would pause in disbelief and add the word "alleged" back in anyway.
Overall though, well written. A fine scientific approach that staved off the enormous mysticism inherent in the subject material.
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22.
The A.D.D and A.D.H.D. Diet! by Rachel Bell and Dr. Howard Peiper - Not a bad book, though since this is basically my first delving into natural treatment methods, I'm not really sure how much of the book's purported truths are efficacious in treating ADD and how much is the by-product of WANTING natural treatments to work for every ailment. (Science versus mysticism yet again.)
But since I need to start somewhere, I'm going to take up the large majority of the diet presented in the book, and see how it works. Down the road I may read another (thicker) book on treating ADD with natural techniques (or a book to understand more about the elements of naturpathy in general - enzymes, vitamins, trace minerals, EFAs, amino acids, electrolytes, etc) and adjust my diet accordingly.
But for now, this book will be the foundation of my diet.
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23.
Introducing Postmodernism by Richard Appignanesi and Chris Garratt - Thank fucking god. Finally a book that gives names to some of the ideas in my head about awareness and the human condition. Things, I now know have names like semiology, metonymy, syntagmatic, paradigmatic, Grand Narratives, and reflexivity. Most of the philosophers who are discussing these things, fuck it up though, in one way or another, but still at least they're talking about it. All this time I thought I was the only fucking person on the planet thinking about these things, NEEDING to figure these things out with my failure to leading to insanity. But here are other peeps, trying to figure out the same questions, make sense of the same paradoxes. Maybe the stakes aren't as high for them as it is for me, but still, at least they're thinking about it.
Here's one particularly passage that nicely articulated what I mean by living in the here and now:
"Reflexivity doesn't mean simply to 'reflect on' (which usually comes later, or too late) but is an immediate critical consciousness of what one is doing, thinking or writing. However, since it is impossible to do anything innocently in our age of lost innocence, reflexivity can easily slide into ironic self-consciousness, cynicism and politically correct hypocrisy."
In short, it's saying something that I've discovered and am (and have been) practicing for months now, with very little, but at least some, success. It's this: In order to be in the here and now, one's interest (and so their attention) must be on the WHAT one is doing, thinking, or sensing, NOT on the self doing, self thinking, or self sensing. That is, in order to be in the now, your interest has to be on something other than yourself. For instance, if I'm looking at a tree, my interest has to be on the tree and discovering what the tree is, not on myself observing the tree.
Though one can be in the moment while paying attention to their own thoughts, I'm trying to learn to be in the moment in the external world whenever I choose, so I can choose when I'm in the here and now internally and when i'm in the here and now externally. In order to be in the here and now externally, a large component is acceptance. Turning off the problem-solving, the efficacy, the want, and just accepting what is. Accepting what is and believing this is the way it will always be and feeling the resulting emotion.
Acceptance seems almost impossible in a postmodern world whose consumerism pushes happiness as fulfilling wants, and whose tv instills and sustains hyperactivity in its citizenry with quick-shot camera angles and 99 channels to flip through.
Though I was happy to find such a book so that I know the field to pursue to get other peep's opinions on the things I'm considering, I was dissapointed in the fact that it never gave a straight answer to what is postmodernism. A major failing point, but one I'll remedy by reading a book it recommends at the end: "The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge" by J.F. Lyotard.
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24.
Star Trek Federation Travel Guide - by Michael Jan Friedman - fun little faux travel book rating Federation worlds' attractions, dining, and hotels, using a three-star system. Each item rated has a short little paragraph written about it, each one giving a glimpse deeper into the Star Trek universe.
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25.
Aurora - The Pentagon's Secret Hypersonic Spyplane - by Bill Sweetman -- informative, but very dry. A book about the officially-denied plane that likely took over (in conjunction with satellites) for the SR-71 Blackbird in the mid-80s.
In 10 to 20 years, it will likely be officially acknowledged, and my guess is that its existence will explain the the triangular lights seen over cities all over the world. (Since hypersonic planes are usually delta-winged, aka triangular-winged, in shape.)
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26.
Imperfect Control - Our Lifelong Struggles with Power and Surrender - by Judith Viorst -- I only read about a fifth of this book, the first and last chapters. It had some interesting research it pointed to, but this was few and far between, and strewn among alot of borderline self-affirming crap. Viorst isn't the worst mystic I've read, but she definitely finds herself erring that way at times, as seen by her conclusions about the nature-nurture debate in the first chapter.
Still, it turned me onto Herbert Lefcourt's "Locus of Control: Current Trends in Theory and Research", so it was worth the (short) read.
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27.
The Author's Toolkit - A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Book -- by Mary Embree - Good reference book for other sources of information on writing, which is a good thing since it completely failed to live up to its title. It gave little step-by-step information whatsoever, and the questions I found myself asking never got addressed.
I think the author may have even sensed this herself, for in the second to last chapter of the book, the last paragraph contains the following line: "You may need to do more research an you may need to get help for some parts of the process but it should no longer be a mystery to you." I guess that line wasn't as marketable as the "Step-by-Step" one. But it would have been more honest.
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28.
Control Theory by William Glasser -- I could only make my way through about a third of it, this book was such a big dissapointment. On its jacket it talked about how the images in our head affect our behavior, which I thought would be tied into what I call visual thinking. But, and alas, they've very little in common. While both use images as thinking, he makes the mistake of thinking that everything we picture is tied to want.
Which is really the major failing of this book. He equates happiness/contentment in one's life with the fulfilling of wants, which is a very 80s notion (the book was written in '84), but wrong to its core. He completely ignores the state of wantlessness, which is much closer to satisfaction (if not synonomous to it) than fulfilling wants is.
Even sadder, I'd checked out a newer book of his at the same time, called Choice Theory(written in '98). In it, he espouses the same misguided theory. This hit me as sad for two reasons. First, I personally monitor my own consciousness and come up with theories, and let me tell you, there's refinement on a monthly basis. The fact that he went 14 years without such a refinement makes me wonder how much of a scientist he really is. Second, to go 14 years without a refinement on a flawed theory makes me wonder if he's just out to make money from the books. Maybe he's more concerned with that than the truth. If so, he's living his flawed theory to the fullest - pursuing a want to try to be satisfied.
Hope he's happy.
In reality, he's more likely a poor scientist than a con-man, but I've got to say, the evangelist picture of him on the inside back cover of Choice Theory makes me wonder.
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29.
Dianetics by L.Ron Hubbard -- I only got through the first book (there are three books that make up Dianetics) but I didn't need to go any further. I was hoping this book had just got a bad wrap, as our knee jerk culture often does with things that threaten its provincial view. But and alas, this book is utter crap.
It was first published in 1950, which surprised me, since I was thinking it came out in the 80s when the commercials were run. Whether it's because of the era, or just mankind's predeliction towards believing want over truth, this book is sopping in mysticism.
I'd had an idea a couple of days before starting this book that maybe our society/culture evolves by steps it takes in its religious structure, leading closer and closer to the truth. That is, Christianity was an evolutionary step forward from Judaism, and Dianetics is a step forward from Christianity. Although this is probably still true, since despite its *MANY* flaws, it still incorporates more science than christianity does, if this is our culture's next step, we've got a long long way to go.
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30.
Get your First Book Published - And Make it a Success - by Jason Shinder with Amy Holman and Jeff Herman -- This book had an identity crisis. Half of it was self-affirming tripe for writers with Chapters named things like, "What Lovest Well Remains", while the other half was just complete gold - providing straight lists of Publishers sympathetic to first time novels, awards for first time novels, organizations that are helpful, websites to visit, lists of trade journals to read, and a couple of useful explanations from author's themselves.
So, skipping all the "Lovest Well" crap and focusing on the rest, I found (and will find) this book invaluable.
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31.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - by J.K. Rowling -- There are times when Rowling's character motivation and plot points just don't add up, leaving me saying, "Why didn't he just..." or "That's somewhat contrived." But you know what I realized reading this book?
I don't care.
I become completely immersed in the Harry Potter world everytime I read one of the books, and this one is no exception. What's more, it's 734 pages long, 300 pages longer than any of the first three, so I was immersed even longer in the wonderful world Rowling creates.
Everytime I read one of her books, the critic's praise for the first one comes to mind - "A wonderful confectionary of a book."
I hope the Harry Potter series continues for a very very long time, and I hope the trend of their size increasing continues. (Year Five, which I have waiting for me right now in my room, is 870 pages.)
I don't know how many grades there are at Hogwarts, six or seven I think, but whatever it takes, whether that be holding Harry back a year or two or ten, or having him teach there when he graduates (ooo, I just thought that up, and I like), I don't care. Just keep the books coming, J.K.!
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32.
The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches, and Proposals by Moira Allen -- useful book with not as much in the way of specific listings of publishers and awards, but MUCH more in the way of formatting for query letters, novel synopses, etc.
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33.
Writer Tells All - Robert Masello -- Masello might be slightly too commercially-minded(talking about making your second book as close to the first as possible to build your audience), but that's about the only knock I have against him. This book was super informative - giving information from an insider's point of view, and super funny.
Super funny.
This was a non-fiction book about getting your book published, but my god, it had spots that made me bursting out laughing, which isn't an easy to do to my grizzed 2000-comic-writing ass.
He was so good, I plan on reading a novel or two of his.
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34.
The Wisdom of Insecurity -- by Alan W. Watts -- This book had some very interesting things to say about living in the moment, and what it is, unfortunately it didn't tell you how to do it. Oh, it tried - its advice was basically "You have nowhere to live but the moment - you're already there!" Great, dandy. So why did you write a 150-page book about getting there if we're already there?
Another really second-rate aspect of this book was its very poor use of logic. It made logical jumps that were so bad they made me wince at times. He was definitely more motivated by PROVING what he already believes then by trying to find the real truth, regardless of his wants. ie, he's just another mystic.
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35.
Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana -- Well worth the read because of it introducing to me the ideas of breathing meditation, unstructured meditation(just in passing), and the dual practices of concentration and mindfulness needing to both be practiced to improve awareness.
That said though, there was a smattering of illogical crapola throughout the book and the Afterword was just complete crapola. The crapola mainly centered around "Universal Loving Friendliness" which is really a concept that was inconsistent with the rest of the book. "Universal Loving Friendliness" is basically being nice to people, thinking nice of people, turning the other cheek, garbage. It's garbage because if you really want to practice a loving attitude, it must include a loving attitude for oneself, which means accepting when you dislike something someone does and being comfortable with expressing that dislike. It's inconsistent because previously in the book he had talked about how both bad AND good emotions can keep you out of mindfulness, so if that's true, "Universal Loving Friendliness" is actually an impediment to mindfulness, which is exactly opposite that which the book purports.
So, as seems to be the theme with many of the books I've read - logically flawed, but with some interesting information that made it worth the read.
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36.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (aka J.K. Rowling) -- fun little pamphlet-type book that listed the Magical Beasts of the Harry Potter world.
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37.
Present Moment Awareness by Shannon Duncan -- Really a great book. Still focuses on the breath meditation initally, which I don't understand, but then jumps being aware of your feelings and surroundings. Not a whole lot on the practice, unfortunately, which was dissapointing. But tons on understanding what living in the moment is and how our childhood formative experiences can work to keep us out of it. (Since we're adopting certain false selves in an attempt to get our needs met, when being ourself doesn't accomplish that.)
That was really the brilliant point of this book - when it highlighted how we stop from being ourself to try to get what we want, and how this strategy takes us out of the moment. It was so brilliant, in fact, that I'd like to share a couple of paragraphs:
"Many Children have learned to stifle their own emotions and needs in order to maintain a semblance of love. This brought about the belief that having these feelings was somehow a sign that something was wrong with them. In essence, these children are bending themselves around their parents' needs and anxiety. While this was a mechanism for surviving their childhood, it usually ends up being very limiting in their adult life.
Picture a child who was criticized by his caregivers whenever he was upset. He learned to feel shame for feeling frustration, a very normal emotion for a child. As an adult he distances himself from people or situations that frustrate or anger him, and he avoids confrontation. The arising of these emotions brings with it the anxiety and shame of the unconscious belief that there is something wrong with him for feeling that way. To compensate, he becomes manipulative in order to get the things he wants. After a while, when he cannot avoid it, he will explode to vent his overwhelming rage because there is no middle ground of simply being frustrated and then working through it. This leads to more feelings of shame, which further fuel his sense of inadequacy.
The best description I've ever come across of the phenomenon of a damaged sense of self was that of a bubble, an idea developed by psychologist D.W. Winnicott. Picture a child as a bubble. If the outside (caregiver) pressure is too great or too little, then the child must change from genuinely being themselves to prevent their caregivers from being upset or distant. They learn to compensate, to the best of their ability, in order to adapt to the pressure. Their requirement for basic connection needs is so strong that they literally feel as if they will "pop" out of existence if that connection is completely lost. When a child has taken personally the perceived disconnection from their caregivers, they feel bad about themselves. This is how Negative Core Beliefs are formed. **Their not-yet-rational minds automatically and unconsciously start changing themselves from simply being who they genuinely are into what they feel that they are supposed to be in an effort to get those needs met.** The more that they are required to compensate, the more their sense of self is damaged."
(Emphasis added.)
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38.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling -- Fun read like all the Harry Potter books, though, also like all the Harry Potter books, some occasional bad character motivation, and some often bad plot logic.
The Harry Potter books are, to a large degree contrived. They're not tight plots by any reach of the imagination.
Still, they always immerse me, and I always enjoy them. I'll continue to read them for as long as Joe Rowling continues to write them.
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39.
The 10th Planet by me -- I've been writing this book this year and so have probably had to read it 4 or 5 times, with editing and what not.
I like it, but other than that, I'll leave it for other people to critique.
Mainly I'm including it because I'm desperately trying to hit 50 books read this year, and it being November 12th, and I needing to read 12 more books before the end of the year, I see my accomplishing that goal becoming an ever more remote possibility.
In my defense, though, about half the books I've read have been non-fiction, and those take a much longer time to read. If I would have stuck to just novels, I probably easily would have hit 50 already.
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40. Moment by Moment - The Art and Practice of Mindfulness by Jerry Braza -- Another so-so book about mindfulness. It too, like all the books I've read on mindfulness so far, advocates a breathing technique that I believe to be much less useful(if useful at all) than other external techniques.
The problem is that this external technique I've never read about. I only know about it from glimpses of experiencing it. (Though I do seem to be experiencing it more and more which gives me hope that I'm progressing forward to an awareness where I'm able to summon the state at will.)
It had some interesting tidbits, though, and, again, as seems to be the theme with all the conscious books I've read - worth the read despite some faulty logic.
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41. Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams -- last installment of the great Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 5-book series.
Good read, though I found the ending pretty unsatisfying. The thing I'd been worrying most about though ended up not bothering me. A friend had told me about it, and had told me that was why though he loved books 1 through 4, he HATED book 5. It was the killing of Fenchurch. My friend said he'd never forgive the author for that.
Funny that I should miss its happening to such an extent that after I finished reading the book, I went back looking for it and finally found it. They had said she vanished, making me think Arthur Dent was searching the galaxy looking for her when in reality, in this circumstance, vanished meant dead.
In retrospect, it was a rather obvious way for Adams to ditch her. If she meant anything at all to Arthur or to Adams, I'd think she would have been reinserted in the ending, when Arthur finds himself back on an Earth that had survived, presumably with Fenchurch on it.
She's never even mentioned.
Still, a good read, in the same way that a Cheers Reunion special would be a good watch, even if the quality of the whole would have been better had it never been made.
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42.
Night Train by Judith Clarke -- teen fiction that I read because the title character sounded fucked up in a way similar to me:
"His family, peers, and teachers despair of eighteen-year-old Luke, who seems to have turned himself into a loser, failing at school, paralyzed with fear and indecision, losing touch with reality."
He dies in the end.
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43.
Here by Elizabeth Inness-Brown -- I had high hopes for this books from the title and description on the insert, but it was so bad I could only make it through a third of it, which is saying something when you realize it's only 110 pages long.
All of her lead characters are superficial women, a breed that can be found everywhere in real life, so I didn't enjoy reading about their by-now well-understood and simple ways in a book. They provoke no empathy or sympathy or identification, so made it like reading about one-dimensional cardboard cutouts, who you cared nothing about.
Not a good thing for character-driven tales.
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44.
God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert -- I read this book because I had seen the Sc-Fi channels "Dune" and "Children of Dune" miniseries, which comprised the first 3 books of the Dune series, and wanted to see what happened to Leto. This book revealed that, so that was nice.
It was a so-so book though. Too much mushiness about love. Too much fuzzy logic on the part of Leto, the titular God Emperor. Too unsatisfying an ending. It did have a sort of Hari-Seldon-esque psychohistorian feel about it, at least originally, and that was nice. But that soon diminished and it went instead into a series of thin subplots and a not-too-interesting main plot.
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45.
Going to Pieces without Falling Apart - A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness - Lessons from Meditation and Psychotherapy -- by Mark Epstein -- This was really like two different books. The first 60% was all in all pretty decent. It talked about tolerance and acceptance and even talked about a beginning meditation practice that keeps purpose in mind. (Though he didn't express it as such.)
The last 40% though was the ass. The beautiful thing about the first 60% was that it merged psychotherapy and buddhism - with psychotherapy explaining the specific and buddhism explaining the larger concepts that arise from that. The last 40% however, was basically just a blind faith recital of buddhism. He talked about love, and orgasm, and even made a very weak argument that centered around statues in a 1000-year-old buddhist temple. The last 40% was just thin reasoning guided by his buddhist indoctrination.
And to top it all off, the author was ego-driven. Not horribly so, but enough that it made suspect his teaching of awareness.
All in all, more of the same from what I've read of eastern thought. It's closer to the truth than western thought, but still reasonably far off.
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46.
Quidditch through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp (aka J.K. Rowling) -- fun little chapbook that I buzzed through in a couple days
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47.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson -- I only made it through a hundred of its 480 pages. It was too dry for my tastes, despite the author's best attempts at making it enjoyable. That coupled with the fact that it's already overdue at the library made me decide to move on.
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48.
Sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson -- Interesting read. Not really anything new as far as the search for awareness, which I was hoping for, but fun reading about the Bulls run, from the inside perspective of the coach.
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49. and 50.
Watchmen - Installment 1 and Installment 2 - by Alan Moore(writer), Dave Gibbons(illustrator), and John Higgons(colorist) -- This is a great comic book series so far. Really grimy and real, gets me emotionally involved more than other books do, probably because of the images. After I've read 10 or so more books I have on my list to read, I may turn to comic books as the main ingredient of my reading diet.
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Originally, I had planned on making it 50 books in the calendar year, despite the fact that I was starting in the middle of February. If I wouldn't have come back online, or if I wouldn't have incorporated so many non-fiction books in my reading, I probably would have made it pretty easily. But when I didn't, I decided to make it one full year, setting February 15th as my cut-off date. And I just finished up my 50th a couple of days ago.
I did a little mini book report after each book, and will post all of them behind the cut. There are probably *SPOILERS AHEAD*, so be forewarned.
What sucked is that my hard drive died after I'd read 18 of the books, so those first 18 book reports were lost. I redid a quick little blurb for those ones but they aren't nearly as in depth as they were, or as 19-50 are. What also sucks about that is that I may have had 19 or 20 read by that point but am failing to recall one or two.
Anyway, here's the listing of the books I read. I'm proud of myself for having done it.
Books I've read---
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1.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (good read, taught me lots of things)
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2.
Lila by Robert Pirsig (not that great of a sequel)
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3.
All of an Instant by Richard Garfinkle (fantastic - this and School of Night were probably the two best books I read this year)
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4.
Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle (good, but not as good as All of an Instant)
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5.
Star Trek New Frontier number 10 by Peter David (David)
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6.
Star Trek New Frontier number 11 by Peter David (sucks)
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7.
Star Trek New Frontier number 12 by Peter David (some)
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8.
Star Trek Gateways #6 by Peter David (ass)
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9.
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone by J.K. Rowling (weak character motivation and plot logic, but still utterly absorbing)
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10.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabah by J.K. Rowling (ditto)
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11.
Inside the Mind (understanding a moment of consciousness)
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12.
What Men Live By by Leo Tolstoy (read like a church sermon)
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13.
European-located spy book (can't remember the name) (too much relying on setting mood by naming European locations I didn't know, obvious plot twists)
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14.
The School of Night by Alan Wall (GREAT - probably the best ending to any book I've read all year - assuming I interpreted it right)
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15.
Vosoff and Nimmitz by Adam-Troy Castro - not a bad little formulaic comedic read
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16.
Last Things by David Searcy (TERRIBLE - the worst book I've read all year)
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17.
The Experiment by Stephen Kyle (not bad - taught me about gypsies and their terms)
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18.
From panic to power : proven techniques to calm your anxieties, conquer your fears, and put you in control of your life by Lucinda Bassett - not very good. Uses the goal-driven approach to calming anxiety, which, though very American, really only builds up the wall of your Type A personality instead of tearing all walls down and relaxing.
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19.
The Sirius Mystery by Robert Temple - This book solidified for me the difference between mysticism and science. Science is the pursuit of truth, no matter what that truth may turn out to be. Mystiscism is the practice of believing that what you WANT to be true in fact is is. For example, a SCIENTIST trying to discover dinosaur bones will look at a discovered bone and try to determine whether or not it's a dinosaur's by comparing its similarities and differences to those of a dinosaur's. A MYSTIC trying to discover dinosaur bones will look at a discovered bone and give attention ONLY to those aspects of the bone that are similar to that of a dinosaur's, thus making his search for a dinosaur bone a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Robert Temple's definitely a mystic. (He quoted Proculus for evidenciary purposes for chrissakes!)
I read this book just to get a little background and quotable quotes on the Sirius Mystery for the novel I'm writing, and for both of those purposes, it was abundantly useful, and well WELL worth the read. But as for Temple making any kind of serious logical case for aliens from the Dog Star (Sirius) having visited Egypt in its ancient past, un uh. He didn't come close.
In face most of his attempts were laughable. One in particular that stands out is where he took egyptian words and associated with them with other egyptian words spelled similarly to make a case that the two were intrinsically connected in the ancient egyptian mind. An english example of this laughable technique would be as follows: "In the english language, the word 'arm' is spelled very similarly to the word 'art', having just one letter different. Therefore, it's obvious that those speaking english consider their arms to be a work of art."
It was painful it was so logically clumsy. The only thing that kept me reading was the invaluable wealth of both background information and sourced quotes. For both of those, my novel and I thank you, Mystic Temple.
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20.
The Great Pyramid Decoded by E. Raymond Capt - incredibly scientific in its background information and incredibly mystic in its conclusions. It beautifully lays out the engineering specs for the Great Pyramid to such an in-depth extent that I went from knowing next to nothing about the interior of the Great Pyramid before the read, to now feeling like an expert afterward. (So much so, that I plan on someday making a scale model of the Great Pyramid in my backyard, using mud laid in ad hoc molds that build up the pyramid layer by layer, wedding-cake style.
But again, incredibly mystic conclusion. And if you're starting to think that maybe I'm just a humbug since my last two book critiques have ridiculed mysticism, I'm pretty sure I can change your mind since any book that concludes that the Pyramid's architect was God and calls the angle between the queen's chamber hall and the ascending hall the "Christ Angle" can be safely said to be drowning in mysticism.
So, reminiscent of The Sirius Mystery, The Great Pyramid Decoded was flawed with mysticism, but was an absolute wealth of information and quotes,so very useful for my novel, and so definitely worth the read.
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21.
The Encylopedia of Alien Encounters - Alan Baker - Last of the trifecta of books I was reading for research on my book. Now I just need to type the annotations I made in the three books into a text file, and I'll be all ready to start writing again. I still plan on reading books on Chaos, Complexity, and the top-secret plane code-named "Aurora", but those I can read as I write, or even after during the editing process or after I've sent them off to the publisher(since I can still do rewrites).
As for the book itself, there was a lot of crap, but a couple of interesting things, some about MIB-type organizatins I'll find useful for my book. The author did a good job, trying to remain objective, while still pointing out the glaring lies in alleged abductees' stories. (An example of such a lie is when an "abductee" said that he'd been visited by an alien who lives on a planet in our solar system, but one that we don't know about because it's behind the moon.)
There were a couple of times when the author's writing would sound a little too certain about the entries. (For instance he starts his "Quarouble, France" Entry out with the sentence: "Scene of an encounter with a landed UFO and alien beings in September 1954.") He explains in the introduction that he worded things such so that the text of the book wasn't annoyingly chock-full of the word "alleged", which is understandable. However, I wish he would have put in all the "alleged"s since every time I read something like "Site of an alien encounter", my mind would pause in disbelief and add the word "alleged" back in anyway.
Overall though, well written. A fine scientific approach that staved off the enormous mysticism inherent in the subject material.
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22.
The A.D.D and A.D.H.D. Diet! by Rachel Bell and Dr. Howard Peiper - Not a bad book, though since this is basically my first delving into natural treatment methods, I'm not really sure how much of the book's purported truths are efficacious in treating ADD and how much is the by-product of WANTING natural treatments to work for every ailment. (Science versus mysticism yet again.)
But since I need to start somewhere, I'm going to take up the large majority of the diet presented in the book, and see how it works. Down the road I may read another (thicker) book on treating ADD with natural techniques (or a book to understand more about the elements of naturpathy in general - enzymes, vitamins, trace minerals, EFAs, amino acids, electrolytes, etc) and adjust my diet accordingly.
But for now, this book will be the foundation of my diet.
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23.
Introducing Postmodernism by Richard Appignanesi and Chris Garratt - Thank fucking god. Finally a book that gives names to some of the ideas in my head about awareness and the human condition. Things, I now know have names like semiology, metonymy, syntagmatic, paradigmatic, Grand Narratives, and reflexivity. Most of the philosophers who are discussing these things, fuck it up though, in one way or another, but still at least they're talking about it. All this time I thought I was the only fucking person on the planet thinking about these things, NEEDING to figure these things out with my failure to leading to insanity. But here are other peeps, trying to figure out the same questions, make sense of the same paradoxes. Maybe the stakes aren't as high for them as it is for me, but still, at least they're thinking about it.
Here's one particularly passage that nicely articulated what I mean by living in the here and now:
"Reflexivity doesn't mean simply to 'reflect on' (which usually comes later, or too late) but is an immediate critical consciousness of what one is doing, thinking or writing. However, since it is impossible to do anything innocently in our age of lost innocence, reflexivity can easily slide into ironic self-consciousness, cynicism and politically correct hypocrisy."
In short, it's saying something that I've discovered and am (and have been) practicing for months now, with very little, but at least some, success. It's this: In order to be in the here and now, one's interest (and so their attention) must be on the WHAT one is doing, thinking, or sensing, NOT on the self doing, self thinking, or self sensing. That is, in order to be in the now, your interest has to be on something other than yourself. For instance, if I'm looking at a tree, my interest has to be on the tree and discovering what the tree is, not on myself observing the tree.
Though one can be in the moment while paying attention to their own thoughts, I'm trying to learn to be in the moment in the external world whenever I choose, so I can choose when I'm in the here and now internally and when i'm in the here and now externally. In order to be in the here and now externally, a large component is acceptance. Turning off the problem-solving, the efficacy, the want, and just accepting what is. Accepting what is and believing this is the way it will always be and feeling the resulting emotion.
Acceptance seems almost impossible in a postmodern world whose consumerism pushes happiness as fulfilling wants, and whose tv instills and sustains hyperactivity in its citizenry with quick-shot camera angles and 99 channels to flip through.
Though I was happy to find such a book so that I know the field to pursue to get other peep's opinions on the things I'm considering, I was dissapointed in the fact that it never gave a straight answer to what is postmodernism. A major failing point, but one I'll remedy by reading a book it recommends at the end: "The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge" by J.F. Lyotard.
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24.
Star Trek Federation Travel Guide - by Michael Jan Friedman - fun little faux travel book rating Federation worlds' attractions, dining, and hotels, using a three-star system. Each item rated has a short little paragraph written about it, each one giving a glimpse deeper into the Star Trek universe.
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25.
Aurora - The Pentagon's Secret Hypersonic Spyplane - by Bill Sweetman -- informative, but very dry. A book about the officially-denied plane that likely took over (in conjunction with satellites) for the SR-71 Blackbird in the mid-80s.
In 10 to 20 years, it will likely be officially acknowledged, and my guess is that its existence will explain the the triangular lights seen over cities all over the world. (Since hypersonic planes are usually delta-winged, aka triangular-winged, in shape.)
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26.
Imperfect Control - Our Lifelong Struggles with Power and Surrender - by Judith Viorst -- I only read about a fifth of this book, the first and last chapters. It had some interesting research it pointed to, but this was few and far between, and strewn among alot of borderline self-affirming crap. Viorst isn't the worst mystic I've read, but she definitely finds herself erring that way at times, as seen by her conclusions about the nature-nurture debate in the first chapter.
Still, it turned me onto Herbert Lefcourt's "Locus of Control: Current Trends in Theory and Research", so it was worth the (short) read.
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27.
The Author's Toolkit - A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Book -- by Mary Embree - Good reference book for other sources of information on writing, which is a good thing since it completely failed to live up to its title. It gave little step-by-step information whatsoever, and the questions I found myself asking never got addressed.
I think the author may have even sensed this herself, for in the second to last chapter of the book, the last paragraph contains the following line: "You may need to do more research an you may need to get help for some parts of the process but it should no longer be a mystery to you." I guess that line wasn't as marketable as the "Step-by-Step" one. But it would have been more honest.
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28.
Control Theory by William Glasser -- I could only make my way through about a third of it, this book was such a big dissapointment. On its jacket it talked about how the images in our head affect our behavior, which I thought would be tied into what I call visual thinking. But, and alas, they've very little in common. While both use images as thinking, he makes the mistake of thinking that everything we picture is tied to want.
Which is really the major failing of this book. He equates happiness/contentment in one's life with the fulfilling of wants, which is a very 80s notion (the book was written in '84), but wrong to its core. He completely ignores the state of wantlessness, which is much closer to satisfaction (if not synonomous to it) than fulfilling wants is.
Even sadder, I'd checked out a newer book of his at the same time, called Choice Theory(written in '98). In it, he espouses the same misguided theory. This hit me as sad for two reasons. First, I personally monitor my own consciousness and come up with theories, and let me tell you, there's refinement on a monthly basis. The fact that he went 14 years without such a refinement makes me wonder how much of a scientist he really is. Second, to go 14 years without a refinement on a flawed theory makes me wonder if he's just out to make money from the books. Maybe he's more concerned with that than the truth. If so, he's living his flawed theory to the fullest - pursuing a want to try to be satisfied.
Hope he's happy.
In reality, he's more likely a poor scientist than a con-man, but I've got to say, the evangelist picture of him on the inside back cover of Choice Theory makes me wonder.
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29.
Dianetics by L.Ron Hubbard -- I only got through the first book (there are three books that make up Dianetics) but I didn't need to go any further. I was hoping this book had just got a bad wrap, as our knee jerk culture often does with things that threaten its provincial view. But and alas, this book is utter crap.
It was first published in 1950, which surprised me, since I was thinking it came out in the 80s when the commercials were run. Whether it's because of the era, or just mankind's predeliction towards believing want over truth, this book is sopping in mysticism.
I'd had an idea a couple of days before starting this book that maybe our society/culture evolves by steps it takes in its religious structure, leading closer and closer to the truth. That is, Christianity was an evolutionary step forward from Judaism, and Dianetics is a step forward from Christianity. Although this is probably still true, since despite its *MANY* flaws, it still incorporates more science than christianity does, if this is our culture's next step, we've got a long long way to go.
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30.
Get your First Book Published - And Make it a Success - by Jason Shinder with Amy Holman and Jeff Herman -- This book had an identity crisis. Half of it was self-affirming tripe for writers with Chapters named things like, "What Lovest Well Remains", while the other half was just complete gold - providing straight lists of Publishers sympathetic to first time novels, awards for first time novels, organizations that are helpful, websites to visit, lists of trade journals to read, and a couple of useful explanations from author's themselves.
So, skipping all the "Lovest Well" crap and focusing on the rest, I found (and will find) this book invaluable.
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31.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - by J.K. Rowling -- There are times when Rowling's character motivation and plot points just don't add up, leaving me saying, "Why didn't he just..." or "That's somewhat contrived." But you know what I realized reading this book?
I don't care.
I become completely immersed in the Harry Potter world everytime I read one of the books, and this one is no exception. What's more, it's 734 pages long, 300 pages longer than any of the first three, so I was immersed even longer in the wonderful world Rowling creates.
Everytime I read one of her books, the critic's praise for the first one comes to mind - "A wonderful confectionary of a book."
I hope the Harry Potter series continues for a very very long time, and I hope the trend of their size increasing continues. (Year Five, which I have waiting for me right now in my room, is 870 pages.)
I don't know how many grades there are at Hogwarts, six or seven I think, but whatever it takes, whether that be holding Harry back a year or two or ten, or having him teach there when he graduates (ooo, I just thought that up, and I like), I don't care. Just keep the books coming, J.K.!
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32.
The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches, and Proposals by Moira Allen -- useful book with not as much in the way of specific listings of publishers and awards, but MUCH more in the way of formatting for query letters, novel synopses, etc.
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33.
Writer Tells All - Robert Masello -- Masello might be slightly too commercially-minded(talking about making your second book as close to the first as possible to build your audience), but that's about the only knock I have against him. This book was super informative - giving information from an insider's point of view, and super funny.
Super funny.
This was a non-fiction book about getting your book published, but my god, it had spots that made me bursting out laughing, which isn't an easy to do to my grizzed 2000-comic-writing ass.
He was so good, I plan on reading a novel or two of his.
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34.
The Wisdom of Insecurity -- by Alan W. Watts -- This book had some very interesting things to say about living in the moment, and what it is, unfortunately it didn't tell you how to do it. Oh, it tried - its advice was basically "You have nowhere to live but the moment - you're already there!" Great, dandy. So why did you write a 150-page book about getting there if we're already there?
Another really second-rate aspect of this book was its very poor use of logic. It made logical jumps that were so bad they made me wince at times. He was definitely more motivated by PROVING what he already believes then by trying to find the real truth, regardless of his wants. ie, he's just another mystic.
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35.
Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana -- Well worth the read because of it introducing to me the ideas of breathing meditation, unstructured meditation(just in passing), and the dual practices of concentration and mindfulness needing to both be practiced to improve awareness.
That said though, there was a smattering of illogical crapola throughout the book and the Afterword was just complete crapola. The crapola mainly centered around "Universal Loving Friendliness" which is really a concept that was inconsistent with the rest of the book. "Universal Loving Friendliness" is basically being nice to people, thinking nice of people, turning the other cheek, garbage. It's garbage because if you really want to practice a loving attitude, it must include a loving attitude for oneself, which means accepting when you dislike something someone does and being comfortable with expressing that dislike. It's inconsistent because previously in the book he had talked about how both bad AND good emotions can keep you out of mindfulness, so if that's true, "Universal Loving Friendliness" is actually an impediment to mindfulness, which is exactly opposite that which the book purports.
So, as seems to be the theme with many of the books I've read - logically flawed, but with some interesting information that made it worth the read.
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36.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (aka J.K. Rowling) -- fun little pamphlet-type book that listed the Magical Beasts of the Harry Potter world.
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37.
Present Moment Awareness by Shannon Duncan -- Really a great book. Still focuses on the breath meditation initally, which I don't understand, but then jumps being aware of your feelings and surroundings. Not a whole lot on the practice, unfortunately, which was dissapointing. But tons on understanding what living in the moment is and how our childhood formative experiences can work to keep us out of it. (Since we're adopting certain false selves in an attempt to get our needs met, when being ourself doesn't accomplish that.)
That was really the brilliant point of this book - when it highlighted how we stop from being ourself to try to get what we want, and how this strategy takes us out of the moment. It was so brilliant, in fact, that I'd like to share a couple of paragraphs:
"Many Children have learned to stifle their own emotions and needs in order to maintain a semblance of love. This brought about the belief that having these feelings was somehow a sign that something was wrong with them. In essence, these children are bending themselves around their parents' needs and anxiety. While this was a mechanism for surviving their childhood, it usually ends up being very limiting in their adult life.
Picture a child who was criticized by his caregivers whenever he was upset. He learned to feel shame for feeling frustration, a very normal emotion for a child. As an adult he distances himself from people or situations that frustrate or anger him, and he avoids confrontation. The arising of these emotions brings with it the anxiety and shame of the unconscious belief that there is something wrong with him for feeling that way. To compensate, he becomes manipulative in order to get the things he wants. After a while, when he cannot avoid it, he will explode to vent his overwhelming rage because there is no middle ground of simply being frustrated and then working through it. This leads to more feelings of shame, which further fuel his sense of inadequacy.
The best description I've ever come across of the phenomenon of a damaged sense of self was that of a bubble, an idea developed by psychologist D.W. Winnicott. Picture a child as a bubble. If the outside (caregiver) pressure is too great or too little, then the child must change from genuinely being themselves to prevent their caregivers from being upset or distant. They learn to compensate, to the best of their ability, in order to adapt to the pressure. Their requirement for basic connection needs is so strong that they literally feel as if they will "pop" out of existence if that connection is completely lost. When a child has taken personally the perceived disconnection from their caregivers, they feel bad about themselves. This is how Negative Core Beliefs are formed. **Their not-yet-rational minds automatically and unconsciously start changing themselves from simply being who they genuinely are into what they feel that they are supposed to be in an effort to get those needs met.** The more that they are required to compensate, the more their sense of self is damaged."
(Emphasis added.)
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38.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling -- Fun read like all the Harry Potter books, though, also like all the Harry Potter books, some occasional bad character motivation, and some often bad plot logic.
The Harry Potter books are, to a large degree contrived. They're not tight plots by any reach of the imagination.
Still, they always immerse me, and I always enjoy them. I'll continue to read them for as long as Joe Rowling continues to write them.
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39.
The 10th Planet by me -- I've been writing this book this year and so have probably had to read it 4 or 5 times, with editing and what not.
I like it, but other than that, I'll leave it for other people to critique.
Mainly I'm including it because I'm desperately trying to hit 50 books read this year, and it being November 12th, and I needing to read 12 more books before the end of the year, I see my accomplishing that goal becoming an ever more remote possibility.
In my defense, though, about half the books I've read have been non-fiction, and those take a much longer time to read. If I would have stuck to just novels, I probably easily would have hit 50 already.
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40. Moment by Moment - The Art and Practice of Mindfulness by Jerry Braza -- Another so-so book about mindfulness. It too, like all the books I've read on mindfulness so far, advocates a breathing technique that I believe to be much less useful(if useful at all) than other external techniques.
The problem is that this external technique I've never read about. I only know about it from glimpses of experiencing it. (Though I do seem to be experiencing it more and more which gives me hope that I'm progressing forward to an awareness where I'm able to summon the state at will.)
It had some interesting tidbits, though, and, again, as seems to be the theme with all the conscious books I've read - worth the read despite some faulty logic.
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41. Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams -- last installment of the great Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 5-book series.
Good read, though I found the ending pretty unsatisfying. The thing I'd been worrying most about though ended up not bothering me. A friend had told me about it, and had told me that was why though he loved books 1 through 4, he HATED book 5. It was the killing of Fenchurch. My friend said he'd never forgive the author for that.
Funny that I should miss its happening to such an extent that after I finished reading the book, I went back looking for it and finally found it. They had said she vanished, making me think Arthur Dent was searching the galaxy looking for her when in reality, in this circumstance, vanished meant dead.
In retrospect, it was a rather obvious way for Adams to ditch her. If she meant anything at all to Arthur or to Adams, I'd think she would have been reinserted in the ending, when Arthur finds himself back on an Earth that had survived, presumably with Fenchurch on it.
She's never even mentioned.
Still, a good read, in the same way that a Cheers Reunion special would be a good watch, even if the quality of the whole would have been better had it never been made.
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42.
Night Train by Judith Clarke -- teen fiction that I read because the title character sounded fucked up in a way similar to me:
"His family, peers, and teachers despair of eighteen-year-old Luke, who seems to have turned himself into a loser, failing at school, paralyzed with fear and indecision, losing touch with reality."
He dies in the end.
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43.
Here by Elizabeth Inness-Brown -- I had high hopes for this books from the title and description on the insert, but it was so bad I could only make it through a third of it, which is saying something when you realize it's only 110 pages long.
All of her lead characters are superficial women, a breed that can be found everywhere in real life, so I didn't enjoy reading about their by-now well-understood and simple ways in a book. They provoke no empathy or sympathy or identification, so made it like reading about one-dimensional cardboard cutouts, who you cared nothing about.
Not a good thing for character-driven tales.
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44.
God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert -- I read this book because I had seen the Sc-Fi channels "Dune" and "Children of Dune" miniseries, which comprised the first 3 books of the Dune series, and wanted to see what happened to Leto. This book revealed that, so that was nice.
It was a so-so book though. Too much mushiness about love. Too much fuzzy logic on the part of Leto, the titular God Emperor. Too unsatisfying an ending. It did have a sort of Hari-Seldon-esque psychohistorian feel about it, at least originally, and that was nice. But that soon diminished and it went instead into a series of thin subplots and a not-too-interesting main plot.
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45.
Going to Pieces without Falling Apart - A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness - Lessons from Meditation and Psychotherapy -- by Mark Epstein -- This was really like two different books. The first 60% was all in all pretty decent. It talked about tolerance and acceptance and even talked about a beginning meditation practice that keeps purpose in mind. (Though he didn't express it as such.)
The last 40% though was the ass. The beautiful thing about the first 60% was that it merged psychotherapy and buddhism - with psychotherapy explaining the specific and buddhism explaining the larger concepts that arise from that. The last 40% however, was basically just a blind faith recital of buddhism. He talked about love, and orgasm, and even made a very weak argument that centered around statues in a 1000-year-old buddhist temple. The last 40% was just thin reasoning guided by his buddhist indoctrination.
And to top it all off, the author was ego-driven. Not horribly so, but enough that it made suspect his teaching of awareness.
All in all, more of the same from what I've read of eastern thought. It's closer to the truth than western thought, but still reasonably far off.
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46.
Quidditch through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp (aka J.K. Rowling) -- fun little chapbook that I buzzed through in a couple days
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47.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson -- I only made it through a hundred of its 480 pages. It was too dry for my tastes, despite the author's best attempts at making it enjoyable. That coupled with the fact that it's already overdue at the library made me decide to move on.
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48.
Sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson -- Interesting read. Not really anything new as far as the search for awareness, which I was hoping for, but fun reading about the Bulls run, from the inside perspective of the coach.
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49. and 50.
Watchmen - Installment 1 and Installment 2 - by Alan Moore(writer), Dave Gibbons(illustrator), and John Higgons(colorist) -- This is a great comic book series so far. Really grimy and real, gets me emotionally involved more than other books do, probably because of the images. After I've read 10 or so more books I have on my list to read, I may turn to comic books as the main ingredient of my reading diet.
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