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Hi. I'm Rick. I write, advise, and invest.

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Posts tagged books:

2012 books read

In chronological order. Asterisks next to recommended reads. Dagger’s next to Kindle singles. 

  • Boomerang, Michael Lewis
  • Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman*
  • How To Be Black, Baratunde Thurston*
  • Inside Apple, Adam Lashinsky
  • The Operators: The Wild Ride and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan: Michael Hastings*
  • The Theory of Monopolistic Competition: Reorientation of The Theory of Value: Edward Hastings Chamberlain
  • We’re With Nobody: Two Insiders Reveal the Dark Side of American Politics: Alan Huffman and Michal Rejebian
  • Lords of Finance: The Bankers who Broke the World: Ahamed Liaquat*
  • Common Sense, Thomas Paine
  • The Art of the Pitch: Persuasion and Presentation Skills that Win Business: Peter Coughter*
  • The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen*
  • Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion, Alain de Botton*
  • Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier: Neil deGrasse Tyson
  • #Fail: The 50 Greatest Social Media Screw-Ups and How to Avoid Being The Next One, Bernhard Warner
  • Venture Deals: Be Smarter than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist: Brad Feld*
  • The Last Trade: James Conway*
  • No Logo: Naomi Klein*
  • The Hidden Persuaders: Vance Packard
  • The Ubiquitous Persuaders: George Parker
  • Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power: Rachel Maddow*
  • The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising: Kenneth Roman
  • Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness:  Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein*
  • The First Time I Heard Joy Division/New Order: Anthology edited by Scott Heim
  • The Command: Deep Inside the President’s Secret Army: Marc Ambinder* †
  • How To Get Away With Murder in America: Evan Wright* †
  • One Way Forward: The Outsider’s Guide to Fixing the Republic: Lawrence Lessig* †
  • The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA:  Taylor Branch* †
  • The Engineers and the Price System: Thorstein Veblen
  • I’m Starved For You: Margart Atwood †
  • Fifty Shades of Grey: EL James
  • Fifty Shades of Darker: EL James
  • Fifty Shades of Freed: EL James
  • Nobody’s Perfect: Bill Bernbach and the Golden Age of Advertising: Doris Willens
  • Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet: Andrew Blum
  • Man Vs Markets: Economics Explained: Paddy Hirsh*
  • Salesforce.com For Dummies: Tom Wong
  • Lionel Asbo: State of England:  Martin Amis
  • Rick Perry and His Eggheads: Inside the Brainest Political Operation in America: Sasha Issenberg *†
  • Insanely Simple: The Obsession that Drives Apple’s Success: Ken Segall
  • Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street: Neil Barofsky*
  • The Casual Vacancy: JK Rowling
  • Mortality: Christopher Hitchens*
  • The Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy: Christopher Hayes*
  • Judging a Book By Its Lover: A Field Guide to the Hearts and Minds of Readers Everywhere: Lauren Leto*
  • Quantum Man: Richard Feynman’s Life in Science:  Lawrence Krauss
  • Cloud Atlas: David Mitchell*
  • Looking for Alaska: John Green
  • Ragged Dick: Horatio Alger
  • The Sense of an Ending: Julian Barnes*
  • Train Dreams: A Novella: Denis Johnson*
  • Keep The Aspidistra Flying: George Orwell*
  • Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore:  Robin Sloan*
  • Sweet Tooth: In McEwan*
  • The Fault In Our Stars: John Green*
  • John McAfee’s Last Stand: Joshua Davis*
  • Last and First Men: Olaf Stapledon
  • Bad Behavior: Mary Gaitskill
  • Star Trek Federation: The First 150 Years: David A Goodman (unfinished)
  • Bullfinch’s Mythology: Thomas Bullfinch

I was shooting for 60, I got 57 and 2 halves. I could easily finish the Star Trek book, but I haven’t watched Enterprise yet and it’s getting too spoilery. 

And, of course, I’m counting longreads novellas, but I think that’s okay. I’m going to do that. I KNEW when I started Last and First Men in December it was shooting down my goal since it was a little long but I wanted to read it. 

Going into 2013, I’m gonna shoot for 60 again. This will be harder since I’m working this year, and I’m starting the year with Team of Rivals (900+ pages), but NO FEAR LET’S DO IT. 

Also on the upcoming reading list: 

  • Marhall Macluhan: You KNow Nothing of My Work: Douglas Coupland
  • The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: David green
  • The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires: Tim Wu
  • The Looming Tower: Lawrence Wright
  • The Sister Sisters: Patrick deWitt
  • Ulysses, James Joyce (just like every other year)
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Stephen Chobsky
  • Arcadia: Lauren Groff
  • Two Girls, Fat and Thin: Mary Gaitskill
  • JR: William Gaddis
  • True Things About Me: Deborah Kay Davies
  • Look At Me: Jennifer Egan
  • A Visit From the Goon Squad: Jennifer Egan
  • Matterhorn: Karl Marlantes
  • Strech: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude: Neal Pollack
  • Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market: Walter Bagehot
  • The English Constitution: Walter Bagehot
  • Get Lucky: How Planned Serendipity to Work For You and Your Business: Thor Muller and Lane Becker
  • The Theory of Moral Sentiments: Adam Smith
  • The Joyless Economy: The Psychology of Human Satisfaction: Tibor Scitofsky
  • Theory of The Leisure Class: Thorstein Veblen
  • The Innovator’s Solution: Michael Raynar and Clayton Christensen
  • Social Limits to Growth: Fred Hirsch
  • No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden: Mark Owen and Kevin Maurer
  • The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour do Frace: Doping, Cover-Ups and Winning at All Costs: Daniel Coyle
  • The New New Deal: Michael Grunwald
  • 10 Print: Moffet et al
  • How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from WWII to Hip-Hop:  Dave Thompkins
  • 100: Bill Drummond

30ish books in the reading queue. Not bad. Six Monthsish. 

unypl:

“1Q84,” by Haruki Murakami 
Read 1Q84
See the other Reading-Riders with 1Q84

Poor lady. It’s all downhill from there. 

unypl:

“1Q84,” by Haruki Murakami 

Read 1Q84

See the other Reading-Riders with 1Q84

Poor lady. It’s all downhill from there. 

strle:


There’s been ongoing discussion/controversy about whether Battle Royale inspired The Hunger Games. I finally got around to watching the the movie and reading the book*, and I’m really glad I did. 

I don’t really like gory movies (as you can see from the Gif Set above, the movie is pretty fucking violent) but the violence in Battle Royale is tinged with a comforting over-the-topness that Japanese cinema does so well. It’s just unreal enough that it’s not as unsettling as it should be. I can’t wait to watch it again.

Watching the movie a couple weeks ago had me really hungry to read the book, and I spent pretty much all of Saturday devouring the last 61% of it on my iPad. It’s even better than the movie. Having spent a year of High School in Japan as an exchange student, it was especially delightful to re-immerse myself in the Japanese high school experience, which Koushun Takami absolutely nails in the book. The translation is a little cheesy in spots, but the characters are totally recognizable to me and the  storytelling is wonderfully nuanced in a way that I can only describe as spectacularly Japanese. 

There are definitely some eyebrow-raising parallels between Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, but at the end of the day, they’re both great stories told from very different perspectives. 

Bottom Line- Battle Royale is a really great movie, an even better book, and an excellent companion piece to the Hunger Games. Highly recommended!

*Sorry it took me so long, John Bunting!!! We were both right. 

Thanks to Spiraphobia for the illustrative GifSet. It looks like this post has been reblogged over and over for this very same purpose, which I <3<3<3.

I’ve always thought of the Hunger Games as a mix between Battle Royale and The Lottery.