Entries tagged with “books”
Pride and Prejudice…and Zombies?
From the description:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. [...] Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen’s classic novel to new legions of fans.
I’m in. Can’t wait for the movie.
The New Yorker reviews the latest edition of “The Joy of Sex”
On the original edition:
If you are a child of the seventies and were raised on “The Joy of Sex,” you are not likely to have forgotten the illustrations. The woman depicted in these drawings is lovely, and, even nearly forty years later, quite chic. Her gentleman friend, however, looks like a werewolf with a hangover.
On the current version:
[...] what you are left with is something that bears little resemblance to the subversive, explosive original. “The Joy of Sex” redux becomes generic — Cook’s Illustrated with boobies.
I like Cook’s Illustrated. With that aside, it does make sense. The seventies were the sexual revolution and an instruction manual would have brought risque, fringe behavior to the forefront. These days, most of those same behaviors are freely talked about on Oprah, the news, reality TV shows, etc. There are a lot less taboo sexual subjects these days.
Along the way, he examines youth hockey players in Canada and how when they were born is more important than any inherit skill they may have; Bill Gates and The Beatles and how practice allows you to be ready for that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; Jewish lawyers and how cultural prejudices may prepare you for an opportunity later in life; and several others. The book attempts to debunk the myth that a successful person can be “self-made”, and shows that luck, cultural heritage, and the opportunities of your predecessors may have more to do with being present at the right moment in time, with the right set of skills, to take advantage of an opportunity.
I have always enjoyed Gladwell’s writings, in both The New Yorker and his other books. I enjoyed this one as well. However, compared to his first two books, this one doesn’t hit the same chord. It is interesting to look a little deeper at some outliers and how they may have gotten where they did, but it isn’t fascinating; and that’s the difference between The Tipping Point
Rating: 7.5/10
The Lion and the Mouse
An account of how the mother of children’s libraries encouraged, then discouraged, the wonderful children’s book “Stuart Little”.
Watching Moore stand in the way of “Stuart Little,” White’s editor, Ursula Nordstrom, remembered, was like watching a horse fall down, its spindly legs crumpling beneath its great weight.
Since I’ve been a little sick recently and spent a lot of time around the apartment, I decided to straighten up a little bit and throw out some stuff that I didn’t need cluttering up my spacious Manhattan apartment. Several books that didn’t make the cut are going to be dropped off on the windowsill in the lobby in case someone else would enjoy reading short stories and poems that I read in high school, The Soul of a Butterfly by Muhammed Ali, or The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy.
It was during this clean-up session that I noticed something that disturbed me. Next to my nightstand, on the floor, was a pile of about eight to ten books. This pile was of books that were on the short list to read, or worse, were already started and set aside for something else. Once I saw this pile, I realized that something drastic needed to be done.
My problem when it comes to reading books is that I don’t have a lot of time to do so. Most people I know read during their commute. Since I walk to and from work, that’s not really an option for me. In general, the only time I read is after I get into bed, right before I go to sleep. Since I generally go to bed when I’m dead tired and can’t stay awake anymore, I only get about two minutes of read time before nodding off. If I get two pages read before giving up, it’s a good reading session.
Yesterday, I decided to change that. I’m going to try a new attitude as it applies to going to bed and reading. First of all, I’m going to attempt to get at least 15 minutes, but more preferably 30 minute, of reading each night that it’s possible (i.e. if the room is spinning due to alcohol, then reading is not only not possible, it could be dangerous). This also means that I will need to head in to bed before I’m dead tired and nodding off in the living room.
Secondly, I will not start a new book until I have finished the current book. There will be exceptions to this rule, such as when a book needs to be read by a certain time, for example, for work, or when a particularly tough book hits a major section break.
I started my new plan last night, and I enjoyed over 20 pages of Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut before closing my eyes and dreaming of whatever it is that I dream about.
So I’m wandering around Amazon.com (metaphorically) and I stumbled upon The Tao of Pooh.
The reason why I mention this is because Amazon has a neat feature which shows you what items other customers have purchased after viewing the item you are looking at. On this particular item, 31% bought it. But 55% bought something called Sex and the Perfect Lover: Tao, Tantra, and the Kama Sutra, which means that over half of the people that looked at a book about eastern philosophy, applied that philosophy to sex.
I just thought that was interesting.
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