In the Begining

So, an introduction. My name is Tyler and since I will not post frequently enough to justify my own blog and because blogging is against my religion, I am posting on Bekah's which has a similar theme. Bekah is going to read about ten million books and I am going to read 165, probably in the same amount of time. But first, a few ground rules:

1) You are more than welcome to post comments, but under no circumstances are you allowed to suggest books for me to read or inform me of why whatever book or author I am reading should not be on the list. As soon as I figure out how, I will post a copy of the list on the blog. You are welcome to use it and start your own blogging empire if you like. The list is long enough and I made it so I get to decide what is worth reading. YAY, ME!!

2) No criticizing my reading speed. As a history, I had not read a novel front to back until after I was out of high school. I am not dumb, just lazy. So, I read slow because I am not very good at it. I am significantly better than I was, but I still only moderately faster than I am able to out loud. So, shut it.

3) You are welcome to make any other comments that you like.

That is it. I started reading seriously about 5 years ago with the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. I love the book and a few of them are on the list. I will read the books in whatever order I can buy them in because I am also attempting to build a library. Not to worry, I already own several of them to get started with. I hope you find this as interesting as I do. Since you don't, however, feel free to bore yourself with my wiley charms.

Above Suspicion finale

Well this book doesn't seem to fit in with the murder mystery category considering the reader knows who done it the whole time. Other than that, the book is unrealistic but do-able. Our author couldn't resist throwing in a very girly infatuation between two of our main characters, but if you go for that kind of thing, feel free to read Above Suspicion. I give it a 2.

Above Suspicion

If you can get past the first page, Above Suspicion by Linda La Plante isn't too bad. The first few paragraphs give the impression that she just isn't trying to write decent literature. The exposition is lazy and it's difficult to get into the characters.

I'm halfway through this murder mystery. As mysteries go, it's....so so. Doesn't come close to the mastery of an Agatha Christie, but we'll see how it ends.

Above Chicago

Yay, an easy one! Above Chicago is a coffee table book of photographs by Robert Cameron. They are all aerial shots of Chicago and some pages compare photos from decades past to show the city's development.

While I think Chicago is a great city and includes many beautiful elements, having a whole book of only aerial shots starts getting dull. After seeing building after building, I became less able to take interest in subtleties of architectural design. The photos themselves are well done, but the finished product could have been better.

This one gets a 2

Above All, Be Kind conclusion

This book has been the highlight reading of the month. Yeah, I'm generally a cynic about parenting books, but Weil puts out some great ideas to give your children a real sense of their own responsibility and purpose.

At the end of the book, she includes a questionnaire for parents revolving around the statement, "My life is my message" showing people just how well their life reflects their goals and ideals. GRANTED! Weil does have a certain bent toward issues of animal cruelty, consumerism, sweatshop labor, etc., but whether or not your ideas match with hers, this book is an excellent tool not only in helping raise children, but also in helping us raise ourselves.

I'll definitely read this again, though can't be bothered purchasing it. This one's a 4.

Above All Be Kind

At first glance, I thought I'd be putting this book down soon into the first chapter, but I'm pleasantly surprised. Above All, Be Kind by Zoe Weil is a book about how to raise humane children in a difficult society. I know, sounds a bit scary, right?

It's based on what she calls the best qualities of human beings, BUT she's willing to admit that her list is not a complete one. The qualities she focuses on in the book are
1. Willingness to choose and change
2. Kindness
3. Compassion
4. Honesty and trustworthiness
5. Generosity
6. Courage
7. Perseverance, self-discipline and restraint
8. Humor and playfulness
9. Wisdom
10. Integrity

The best thing about this book is that it's not based on some parenting styles that say "Here's how to get what you want out of your kid." Rather, it inspires adults to expect nothing more from their children than they are willing to exemplify. Simple concept, I know.

But along the way...we get some great greeting card, Oprah bookclub-esque, life lessons in the form of quotes.

"The people you have to lie to, own you. The things you have to lie about, own you. When your children see you owned, then they are not your children anymore, they are the children of what owns you. If money owns you, they are the children of money. If your need for pretense and illusion owns you, they are the children of pretense and illusion. If your fear of loneliness owns you, they are the children of loneliness. If your fear of the truth owns you, they are the children of the fear of the truth."
- Michael Venture

"Americans aren't starving for what they don't have but rather for what they won't give." - Marianne Williamson

"To see what is good and not to do it is want of courage." - Confucious

"If we did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves." - Thomas Edison

"I want peace; a quietness for my soul. And ease for my thoughts and a rest for my heart...I want faith. To possess the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen..." - Elisa, age 14

About Your House

This is it! I'm done with the "About"s. Very yay!

Well this book is a book companion to the PBS show by the same name, hosted by Bob Yapp. This book appeals to the creative type like me, AND it gets an automatic bonus because Yapp is from Des Moines.

Great advice from his mother, “Don’t worry about ‘the money’; if you do what you love, you will make a living.”

The purpose of this book is to give home owners good ideas on how to preserve old houses, what to consider when making repairs, and overall, how to enjoy the beauty and history of American homes.

Between a lack of universal usage and great pictures, About Your House gets a 2.

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About This Life conclusion

Maybe I enjoy this book because the author is so different than I. He writes a whole chapter about how he likes to stop along the road and carry dead animals off the pavement to a proper burial. Very not me. And yet I enjoyed reading about it.

The section on his travels in THIS country are still other-worldly enough to entertain and intrigue me. The end of the book gets a bit dark toward the end, but in a chilling, suspenseful way.

In a surprising finish, this book get a very high 3.

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Out of Country

I finished the first (and longest) section of About This Life. I especially love Lopez's chapter on Flight. My boyfriend has been an aircraft maintainer and I've done a bit of traveling myself, so seeing his perspective on flying was an enjoyment. The next section is about memories in the States and I'm a bit skeptical. Patriotic stories don't usually resonate with me, but Lopez comes across not as anti-American, but not particularly loyal.

We'll see. I should have this book finished in a couple days. I'm working full-time now, so I don't have as much time to read as before, and I've been dedicating more time to learning Estonian.

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About This Life

Finally! A book worth reading!

About This Life by Barry Lopez is difficult to categorize. It is somewhat autobiographical, but it is not really the story of his life. It deals with moments from his life, but is not a memoir. He's a creative storyteller, but it's not a novel of any kind. This book is simply described as "journeys on the threshold of memory." These memories could belong to anyone, but they are truthfully his own.

The first section of the book (which I'm completing) deals with his "Out of Country" memories. The chapters are short enough to be taken in small doses, and they don't need to be read in succession or in any particular space of time.

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More Authors

I finished About the Author by Alfred and Emily Glossbrenner tonight. If I didn't already have a huge list of books to read, I would be more eager to utilize the suggestions in this one. It definitely needs updating. It was published in 2000, so quite a bit has changed in the world of literature since then.

It's not the kind of book you really "read" more than once. Consult perhaps, but not read. Because of this, I give it a 3

About the Author take 2

Be still my beating heart! This book by Alfred and Emily Glossebrenner serves as a guide to various well-loved authors. And they’re all listed in ALPHABETICAL ORDER!!! Okay, it’s not really that exciting. I just draw pleasure from strange things. Repackaged, this would make a great coffee table book.

As a bibliophile, I am rather impressed by the layout. Each two-page spread includes a photo, brief bio, best works, as well as suggestions on what book to read first if you’re interested in trying the author out.

Some fun little tidbits I picked up tonight:
1.Isaac Asimov was a major P.G. Wodehouse fan and loved Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
2.Jane Austen wrote anonymously and wasn’t known as the author until after her death.
3.T. C. Boyle entered the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop because it was the only one he’d heard of.
4.William S. Burroughs was kicked out of the army for purposefully chopping off part of his finger and once sold his typewriter for heroin.
5.Lewis Carroll invented the idea of the dust jacket.
6.Michael Crichton is 6’9”.

About the Author

It really helps to read the afterword sometimes. This novel by John Colapinto was painful from start to almost finish. The title itself made me nervous that this would be yet another set of memoirs in disguise. Luckily, it wasn't.

If you don't mind sex and drug references, this book is do-able. The closer and closer I got to the end, the more I wanted to line up the three main characters and give them one giant slap.

The plot consists of a wanna-be author who steals his dead roomate's manuscript and publishes it as his own. The book becomes an instant success, but his fear of being discovered as the fraud he is leads him to marry his dead roomate's sweetheart and be conned into drug trafficking by a former (brief) sexual partner.

The fact that none of these people wants to tell the truth just makes me wanna punch them all, and some of the coincidences are just too far-fetched for me to latch onto.

BUT! The final chapter and afterword make all the difference. The cleverness of Colapinto at this point redeemed any violent tendencies I had. If you can't think of anything else to read, I can suggest it. I give this one a 3.

Philosophy FIN

I completely About Philosophy by Robert Paul Wolff. The last two chapters were the philosophy of Art and Religion. "Art" dealt mainly with whether art has any value, while "Religion" compared views of different philosophers, discussing whether truth is subjective or objective. Freud argued that religious impulse is just an infantile expression of fantasies.

Obviously this book was meant to accompany a philosophy class, so as such I find it difficult to rate outside its intended environment. I'm very impressed with Wolff's ability to make such a vague topic so accessible to a novice as myself. Because of that, I have to give this book a 3. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning about philosophy.

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Science....boring

Science can be interesting...but the PHILOSOPHY of science??!! Couldn't handle it. But I trudged on despite the fact that I've had a severe head cold the last 48 hours. Just a couple chapters left.

In other news....I started reading About Schmidt and thought it'd be exciting, but I have to admit, I put it down. I got through the second chapter and wanted to pull my eyeballs out! How this was made into a major motion picture, I'm not sure, but I couldn't force myself to care a bit about any of the characters. This bad boy got a 0.

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