I purchased this book for Marie a year ago, I think. It's by Thich Nhat Hanh, one of the most preeminent Zen monks on Earth. I had never read anything by him so I cracked this little book open and dug in.
The book was released by Shambhala Publications and I really like the production value. Feels like a quality piece. Very readable layout, nice stock, design, etc.
Content-wise, there were definitely some nuggets of inspiration and value. It definitely focused on practice quite a lot, and since I don't mediate regularly I'm less interested in the physical/mental practice and more interested in the dharma itself. I like to digest the concepts more than anything. Just ruminate on them however I see fit.
It's a short book. Only 130 pages or so. Easy to consume. Recommended.
I picked this up in Chicago at Myopic Books. Great store.
I was interested in this because it was an autobiography. I wanted to hear Moz's story from Moz's mouth. Until I started reading it and then I wasn't so sure. You see, Morrissey has an unusual writing style. It's almost like reading 500 pages of song lyrics. There are no chapters in this book and no real transitions. He just writes in a somewhat linear fashion from childhood through mid-life, recalling people and events along the way. But it's the way in which he writes that made me second-guess whether I was going to continue. It's fucking dense. It's off-puttingly metaphorical and indirect at times. Quite a lot of run-on sentences and lyrical descriptions that are best suited for...lyrics, not stories.
When I started the book and I thought, "how am I going to get through this whole thing without giving myself a headache?" But I got stuck in and the more I read the more I got acclimated to his literary style.
The first third of the book really focuses on his childhood, and the way he recounted the school system in Manchester really struck a chord within me. He paints an awfully dreary account of the teachers and the city of Manchester at the time. It reminded me a lot of growing up in Glasgow and being 'different'. Where Morrissey may have been referencing the New York Dolls or the Ramones, I was referencing the Misfits and Bad Religion. But the same ominous cloud hung over our heads, interspersed with rays of light from time to time. It was really like reading a trip down memory lane for me.
Then he gets into the Smiths era, a bloody boring section on the court case brought upon him by Andy Rourke, and then the Morrissey solo era. Reading about the Smiths and Morrissey was great. Moz paints a terrible picture of the labels that've backed him since the beginning. And Morrissey knows a lot of people who die, which sucks. That's kinda the book: school, the Smiths, court, Morrissey, death, vegetarianism, screaming fans, getting fucked over, and being a tortured artist.
It's all good. Even though it was a bit rough getting on board, the book ended up being really good. If you like Morrissey, read this.
Moorcock is famous for his Elric series and the Eternal Champion books, amongst others. I hadn't read either but I was in a bookstore up north and saw The Knight of the Swords, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.
Based on this book I gotta say I don't think Moorcock is a very good writer. He's certainly not challenging whatsoever. He uses blatant foreshadowing to the point where he's practically handing you the story on a plate. And his metaphors are painfully obvious. There's no real subtext. It's all way too close to the surface. His diction and sentence structure is also somewhat juvenile. This felt like a book that a twelve year old might really get into. Like a gateway drug into something harder. Something better.
I was reading this and comparing it to the likes of Lovecraft, Burroughs, and Howard, and that's why I felt it was rather elementary. I'd give the Elric series a shot because they're very popular and well respected. But if the first book isn't good then I'm outtie.
The story is decent. I definitely felt for a couple characters and were dismayed when they died. So it had the power to effect me on an emotional level. But still...
It wasn't a waste of time. It was a quick, easy read and relatively enjoyable. But I can't say I'd recommend you read it. It was just so-so.
I love seeking out management books that employ Eastern principles. Here we've got Lao Tzu's famous Tao Te Ching adapted and interpreted for a leader's perspective. The principles are viewed through the lens of a manager/leader.
Perfect.
I really enjoyed this book. It's short, but it takes a while to read because you inevitably have to sit and ponder each one-page entry. Let it ruminate and think about how it relates to your situation. I found myself taking numerous photos of the pages and sending them to people or just saving them to my phone for later.
It will definitely need a second reading. One where I sit down and pull out specific pages or quotes and create a "best of," so to speak. I'll probably snag a PDF and pass it around.
For me, the most important passages were typically about silence, standing back, empowering through being rather than doing, humility, nature and polarity.
"...The rigid group leader may be able to lead repetitious and structured exercises but can't cope with lively process. Whatever is flexible and flowing will tend to grow. Whatever is rigid and blocked will atrophy and die." "...Good leadership consists of motivating people to their highest levels by offering them opportunities, not obligations. That is how things happen naturally. Life is an opportunity and not an obligation."
One of my favorite lines was, "...All growth spreads outward from a fertile and potent nucleus. You are a nucleus."
Recommended.
Probably heard about this from GQ a while ago. I just read it and really enjoyed it.
Warren Ellis is better known as a comic book writer. He created the cult classic Transmetropolitan in the late 90's / early 00's. I have the first TPB but I never got any further into it. But wether you like him from Transmet' or not, this is an enjoyable read regardless.
Gun Machine is a cop thriller. It's about a mass murderer and some NYC cops who have to track him down. I'm not a fan of giving away plots so I won't say anything further. But it's definitely a unique cast of characters. The concept isn't new (bag guy chased by good guys), but Warren puts his own stamp on it. It's gritty. There's some fucked up violence. It's pretty gnarly at times. But it's used effectively. You get sucked into the drama and the chase, then every now and then you get peppered with brains and blood. It's part of being a cop.
Hints of noir, too. But not a ton.
If you're squeamish, stay away. If you like a good cop / mass murderer chase thriller then dive right in.
There's only one Encyclopedia. There's only one Bible. And they're both called "The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" by Arnold Schwarzenegger. You do the math.
I've been reading a few books concurrently, this is one of them. I finally just finished reading it cover to cover. About 800 pages covering everything you need to know about bodybuilding. From exercises to diets, to overcoming injuries, to picking out posing trunks, to how to train for Mr. O. It's all in there. It's aimed at anyone who lifts, from n00bs to professionals.
Surprisingly it's not a dry read. I often found myself wanting to get stuck into it. Of course reading it and retaining the knowledge are two different things. It's not like I'm a walking encyclopedia now. Far from it. But it was nice to see what's covered so when I'm looking for a particular answer to a problem I can remember, "oh, that shit was in the encyclopedia, lemme look it up." And there were a few fundamental principles that I pulled out and started applying to my lifts.
I recommend that muscleheads of all sizes and walks of life read this book from cover to cover at least once.
#GAINZ
Man, just look at his traps and chest definition...
I tried reading Lovecraft years ago and I just wasn't in the right mindset for it. It felt hokey. I was just never really into reading horror, occult, fantasy, sword & sorcery, anything remotely like that for a long time. But after falling in love with Conan that lead to reading the original Robert E. Howard stories. I loved them. And from there I started reading more Howard, and before you know it it's a slippery slope to Lovecraft, Bloch, Moorecock, etc.
The Conqueror Worms by Brian Keene was a killer novel that had overt nods to the Cthulhu mythos without actually being an "official" tale of Lovecraftian lore. I liked that book a lot and I'm definitely open to these occult/horror/fantasy stories now that I've eased my way in.
I had to own this book as the cover is a painting called "Twilight" by Bruce Pennington. Forty-five years after this book came out, Temple of Void licensed the artwork for our debut album. So I had to own it. And since I bought it I might as well read the damn thing.
It's good. Real good.
I have a few Hitchcock books that are collections of short stories, much like this, and I dug reading them. I'm on board with the whole short story thing. The book becomes an "album", which each story being a "song." I can dig it.
There were no duds amongst the stories. Just all typical tales of the mythos involving forbidden books, scholarly protagonists, occult/esoteric wisdom...and monsters and death. There's always a lot of mystery and intrigue. And in most cases curiosity kills the proverbial cat.
I didn't mean to read this again. I just sort of did it. I was looking for something music related and I figured it'd been a while since I had read this so I cracked it open and it was consumed rather quickly thereafter.
I didn't realize that it was ten years old. Death Metal stops at 2003. Pretty odd to read in 2015 and not hear about what's been going on for the last dozen years. I really should have purchased the newly re-released version which has a bunch of updates. Oh well. I guess I'll just wait another decade and buy the next iteration. ;)
I hope you like Napalm Death, boyeee. Cuz this book is centers Death and Grind firmly around the boys from Birmingham. Somehow they're the center of the metal universe. Ah well.
The book is good, though. It's definitely got a narrow focus. Albert chooses to hone in on about ten very important, seminal death metal bands and follow their evolution over a decade or so. Repulsion, Death, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Entombed, Carcass, Napalm Death, Nile...they're the main players in this story for sure. Plus some others of course. Plenty of cameos from NY, Florida, Cali, and Sweden. There are a million bands you could say "why didn't they talk about so-and-so more", but for me the biggest omission was Bolt Thrower. They have a few mentions in there but to me they could have been another 'big' band to follow their trajectory. Whatever. I didn't write the damn book so I can't complain.
It's gotta be hard to try and write a book of this scope. Ultimately narrowing the focus and crafting a story from characters, rather than a laundry list of releases and dates, was the way to go. It reads well. It bounces back and forth across the pond easily. I remember reading a book on the history of Swedish Death Metal and it felt more like a text book of "this band did this, then this band released that, then this demo came out, then this guy picked his nose on this date." It didn't flow. It was too comprehensive. Of course, I'll read it again, but still, it didn't have the flow that Choosing Death does.
This is a solid read and my only regret is that I should have ponied up the cash to buy the updated and expanded edition and read about the last ten years of DM and Grind. Maybe one of my boys will buy it and then I can borrow it and read those new chapters. ;)
Erdody found this on Amazon for cheap. I popped on and snagged a copy for myself. This collection of Pennington paintings includes a print of the one Temple of Void used for our album. It's entitled "Twilight" and was originally used for a H.P. Lovecraft collection. I copped one of those from Amazon, too.
This is a GREAT freaking book. It's cool because it talks a little about Bruce's technique and biography. So you get some good additional info on top of just looking at the incredible paintings. But by and large it's just a book of his images. Each section is prefaced by a few pages of commentary.
I'm interested in learning about cultural differences between Chinese and US companies to help better our relationship with our Chinese partners. This should be patently obvious as the title is pretty self-explanatory. So I did a little research and I purchased an e-copy of this today and read it real quick. It's the kind of thing you can get through on your lunch hour.
It's brief, so there's only so much you can get out of it. However, it was well-worth the $4.99 and hour of my time. I think it might actually pay back significant dividends. I've been noodling on some ideas to help improve employee retention overseas and this book has definitely sparked some ideas for me. I'm increasingly aware of what to expect from China, but this book helped me understand WHY I should expect what I see. Just understanding the root cause is more than half the battle.
So while this won't turn you into a Chinese/US relationship expert overnight, it definitely helped me get one rung closer to being more empathetic, understanding, and ultimately effective in dealing with Chinese nationals in a business environment.
I bought this for Pickle*, but the dude had already read it. So I figured fuck it, I'll read it myself. I was on an Ahhnold kick so what the hell.
I'm really glad I purchased it. It's an excellent read. Top class bio. Arnie charts his life growing up, through his body building career, then movie career and finally his political career. It's all there. Every rep.
The awesome part about his story is his mental fortitude. The dude is so god damn disciplined. It's a very inspiring read. You understand that Arnie wasn't a body builder who got into this or that...whether he was a body builder or not is irrelevant. The guy just had immense drive. He was going to succeed at multiple things in his life no matter what, and body building just happened to be one of the first major accomplishments. He's a scholar, an athlete, an actor and much, much more.
Arnold talks about his follies, too. It's not all glamour. He makes mistakes and he pulls back the curtain on a couple of them.
This book is highly enjoyable. But I found the final quarter less interesting because it focused on his political career...and that's obviously not as interesting to me. I prefer stories about lifting on Venice Beach or shooting Conan with John Milius. But if I'm gonna read about politics it might as well be about Arnold. So it's really a win/win. This is great.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story of grit, determination, and personal drive. Or anyone who just wants to know about Schwarzenegger. I mean, who wouldn't want to know about the Austrian Oak?
Eric let me borrow Barlow's Inferno. It's awesome.
Wayne Barlowe paints a series of images depicting a voyeuristic trip through Hell. It's truly epic in scale. Very immersive. He paints with great sense of scale and imagination. He narrates the canvases through the book, discussing inspiration and content behind the depictions of anguish and torture. Bricks made out of human souls. Stuff like that...
It's the kind of book and voyage you can keep coming back to relive. Cool shit...
I saw this at the local classic used book store for a few bucks. As an avid Hitchcock nerd I was pretty stoked to pick this up.
I read the book in a few days and dug it. The novel is inevitably different from the film, but it's been a few years since my last viewing so I can't comment on the differences in too much detail. However, it did seem to be markedly different if my recollection is accurate. Some of the key scenes and characters are present in the movie, but Hitchcock definitely wove his own distinct yarn from the source material.
Anyway, the book was good. Slow pacing. Relatable characters. Typically English. Publisher's Weekly says it has "a shocker of an ending" and that's the truth, brotha! I found the denouement rather quickly pieced together, but still...it was good.
This is a short novel and worth the read. It's obvious why Hitchcock gravitated to it. "The Wrong Man" is a quintessential Hitchcockian theme that he visited time and time again. It's classic. Dig it.
Got this for x-mas. I'm obviously big on musician bios and so I was stoked to dive into Duff's take on GNFNR and beyond. I felt like the book was off to a rocky start but very quickly righted itself and became an engrossing read. Immediate comparisons will be drawn to Slash's bio and to be honest, Slash's is definitely better. I found it richer. But Duff's is Duff's and it's still a damn fine read. Not everything can be "the best."
Duff gave a lot of insight into the other band members, especially Izzy. And so it was an educational dive into some of the inner workings of Guns n Roses. You felt like you understood their respective personalities that little bit more after getting through the book. The walls are broken down and the characters are humanized. Although most of their antics and choices seem to defy what one would consider "human." Regularly drinking TEN BOTTLES OF WINE A DAY? Fuckin a'.
Duff's story is typically filled with ups, downs, lots of tragedies, epiphanies, success, failure, rebirth, and resilience. It's cool to see what he went through, how he learned from it, and how that took him down some unusual paths post-GnR.
If you like music you must like GnR. If you like GnR then you should read this book. That's my logic. Do yourself a favor and pick this up. You'll fly through it in no time. I think Pickle was telling me he was a born-again Christian but there's zero mention of religion in this book (and it's very recent). So if he is, he certainly doesn't mention it even once.
Erik Larson is probably my favorite living author. He writes non-fiction novels. To use a hackneyed phrase, he really brings the past to life. The dude goes bananas traveling the world and researching a specific topic for any given book. Marie just bought me his latest book and I devoured it in about 4 sittings in 3 days. This one is about the final voyage of the Lusitania.
I'm sure the story of the Lusitania is more familiar to yanks cuz it was pretty much the root cause for engaging the US in the First World War. But I didn't really know anything about it. It didn't take me 2 seconds to figure it out once I realized the protagonist was a captain of a cruise liner and the antagonist was the captain of a U-boat.
Dead Wake seemed to be one of his most thoroughly detailed historical accounts. But even given the minutia, it just flowed so well. You look at things on a microscopic level the way Erik does and it's just awesome. The book builds and builds until an unholy crescendo of horror, pain, death and loss.
Everyone should read this book so I don't want to give anything away regarding the other parts of the story you might not know about. But it's not the sinking of the Lusitania that's the most troubling aspect of this whole story: It's the government.
This book was fascinating. Read it.
44,000 tons, 9 passenger decks, 787 ft long, almost 3000 people capacity inc crew.
Sorry for the shitty graphic. I'm too lazy to take a pic of the book myself. It's not like it's a terribly thrilling book cover...
This is another one of those "read it on a plane ride" type of books. Only 140 pages or so.
I'm always interested in reading any books that merge Eastern Thought or Buddhist teachings in particular, with business or management. I found this little book and gave it a spin.
It wasn't mind-blowing, but it's worth passing along due to its brevity. It's not a big time investment so you can blaze through it and pull out a couple nuggets of truth. Or find a couple things to dwell upon.
Karmic Management essentially teaches you that in order for you to succeed in business, you first have to help other people succeed in the same types of things you want to achieve. The more you give and the more you help, the more it will created echoes that give back and help you out in the future. Make your team look like superstars because they in turn will reflect back upon you and make you look like a superstar. Stuff like that...
The cool thing about the book is that some, if not many of the concepts are things we already do at my job. So that's reassuring. But there's definitely some concepts to pull out and really think about how we could implement them at work.
I plan on re-reading some of these chapters to get some of the main ideas down on paper and then taking that to my Managers at work and seeing how we can use them to spark conversations and positive change.
I think this is a great, very quick read about design. The author just plays devil's advocate and/or tries to dispels "lies" he's been told or encountered in his design career. Most of it is spot-on, and some of it is up for debate. But that's how it should be; a dialogue.
I'm looking forward to passing this along to the rest of my co-workers. I think they'll find it an inspirational read. The layout is excellent and worth the price of the book alone.
There isn't a ton to say about this. It's pocket-sized. It's well designed. And it's thought-provoking and sometimes confrontational. There are guest spots by quite a lot of famous and not-so-famous designers. Sagmeister and Carson make cameos. Y'know how it goes...
Good book for any designer. Another good one to hand out at design school. Dig it.
You can judge a book by its cover. I mean, just look at this. You know it's gonna be bad ass. Frank Frazetta painting of a muscled barbarian holding a dagger dripping with blood. He's just vanquished his foe and he's poised ready for more action. How could it not be great?
Edgar Rice Burroughs is famous for writing Tarzan, but he also had a series of books centered around the fictional realm of Pellucidar. This was my first exposure to the author and although it started cold I feel it definitely warmed up.
Pellucidar is in the center of the Earth. The inhabitants are in various states of cultural and physical evolution. There are some gnarly prehistoric creatures mixed with 17th Century era firearms like canons and harquebuses. There are a few people who have travelled from the surface down into Pellucidar and brought with them modern day technology. It's crazy shit. Their sun is perpetually at its zenith so there is no night and there is no concept of north, south, east or west. Things are different in the center of the Earth.
So, I felt like the book was a second-rate Conan yarn. Where are Robert E. Howard would have some sort of rising drama and eventual climax punctuated with small sub-dramatic elements along the way, I felt like this one was often times just one small drama to the next to the next to the next, with no clear destination. It took a while but eventually it started to coalesce. I just felt like a decent amount of the book was Burroughs making up one calamitous event after another for the sake of taking up pages. Girl is captured, Tanar fights some villagers, Taner frees girl, both are captured, they both escape, rinse wash, repeat.
But at the end of the day I definitely dug the book. I think the second half was better than the first. I probably needed to get used to Burroughs writing. I will continue to buy books for the Pellucidarian series whenever I see them at local stores. Hell, I'll read more Burroughs and maybe I'll get into Tarzan. Why not.
I read The Art of Client Service on the plane to Puerto Rico. As the subtitle says, it's 58 things every advertising & marketing professional should know. I figured being in the business it would be worthwhile for me to give it a good read. So I did...
This is the kind of book that should be mandatory reading for the Account / Sales team. The advice is universal and you can definitely apply it regardless of whether you're a "sales person" or not. Because truly we're all selling, every day, regardless of our title.
The book is broken up into the following areas: At the start of an assignment, looking at creative, making presentations, running a meeting, attitude, communication, trouble, and socializing. Each area has its own chunk of "things you should do." Most are exemplified via personal anecdotes. The author has failed often (as all successful people have), and mined those failures to give substance to his suggestions and assertions.
I will definitely be passing this one around at work. It's a quick read and it's packed with little nuggets of advice. But it's definitely something I'll reread and take specific notes. I believe the website has a downloadable PDF with the main 58 take-aways summarized so you can post them up on your wall and whatnot.
If you read business books then add this to your list and bust it out on your next flight...
Marie recently rented the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy audiobook from the library. It's narrated by the brilliant comedian and thinker, Stephen Fry. She really enjoyed it so passed it along to her husband.
I rarely ever listen to audiobooks. I wasn't sure how I felt about it to be honest. You had to really concentrate as you listened to it in your car. It's definitely a different experience. I prefer good ol' paper.
I won't take anything away from Stephen Fry's narration, though. He's very funny and did a great job assuming each character.
The end of the book is very abrupt. No denouement, just...over. I thought I had put in the wrong CD and missed something. I understand there are more books to read but still...
I also heard the radio drama is the best version of the Guide. I dunno. I'm definitely going to re-watch the film with Marie, though. If even only for the yarn scene.
I'm glad I "read" it (do you "read" audiobooks?), but I wasn't blown away. Probably would have been way better if I was 12.
