For an Ayn Rand primer, start with The Fountainhead. Not as many pages as Atlas Shrugged.
Just a random thought but my favorite line from my favorite movie "Amadeus" is "too many notes" when the king tells Mozart what's wrong with his latest opera.
EDIT- oops Beth skip the first section, guess that was Rich I was aiming at.
Beth- Atlas Shrugged is a BIG, THICK book. I had no trouble getting into it and loving it. But I don't give fiction books much of a chance otherwise. If they don't grab me within the first few pages and make me want to skip work to keep reading, then I move on.
I've read Freakonomics. It is interesting. If you are a Gen X'er, you might also like Slackonomics. I just finished that and really found it enlightening and fun.
Have been trying to read 3000 degrees. It is a very good book, I just keep getting distracted by other books. It is the story of the December 1999 warehouse fire in Worcester, MA that killed 6 firefighters. I was reading it piecemeal at the massage office but bought my own copy. If anyone is interested when I am done, let me know.
ALERT- Potentially a topical hot potato- but I also recently finished Reproductive Choice by Alexander Sanger, the grandson of Margaret Sanger. A bit plodding but made some good points.
2nd EDIT- Looked back through some missed posts. The Time Traveler's Wife is incredible. I did not see the movie, don't think it could do the book justice unless Quentin Tarrantino was the director. He can handle those scene shifting out of time very well. (I heart "Pulp Fiction").
Follow the River is very good. Again, the movie sucked, but it was made for TV.
Almost finished with Kill Bin Laden. Frankly, I can't imagine reading this book without a military/fire support background, or least having been exposed to healthy bit of mil-speak.
The battles the describe, guys on a hill calling in air support, etc, that's a large part of what I did, as well as artillery and mortars. Brought back LOTS of memories of shoots, good times on the "OP," calling in F-18's on targets, etc. All training, of course, but very, very cool stuff.
One part they describe how a guy spotted a target, located himself on a map, shot an azimuth, estimated range, and used terrain association to determine a target grid and call in a fire mission. I was like "no shit! That's how we did it before Garmin, lasers, another other gear!"
Wow, I feel stoooopid compared to all the folks into the heavy reading materai. I'm currently between 3 different books: the very exciting Forensic Accounting by Hopwood, Leiner and Young; The Coming Great Depression by Harry Dent; and Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald. The latter is a must read for anyone looking for help to identify, achieve and hold their triathlon racing weight. I'll finish the accounting text by the end of March...just in time for my IMCDA surge...can't - wait - to - suffer.
@Rich - you might like House to House. It's a first person account of the seige of Fallujah
Currently reading -
Paradise Lost (one of the many classics that I managed to avoid in school, thought it would be something completely different that what I normally read)
A Patriot's History of the United States
Just finished
the first 5 Mitch Rapp novels by Vince Flynn. Makes Jason Bourne seem like a girlie man.
Based on Rich's recommendation I just read The Art of Racing in the Rain. LOVED the book. Absolutely recommend it, especially if you have a warm spot in your heart for dogs.
Just finishing up "The Lost Books of the Odyssey". Never read Homer's books on the Odyssey or the Illiad until one of my kids took an interest in mythology, then we read a kids version together. We are also plowing through the kids twist on the books, the Percy Jackson series. Now or soon to be a movie.
This book is also a great twist. Written in plain english, it rewrites the stories with slightly different endings and from different characters perspectives.
Just finishing up "The Lost Books of the Odyssey". Never read Homer's books on the Odyssey or the Illiad until one of my kids took an interest in mythology, then we read a kids version together. We are also plowing through the kids twist on the books, the Percy Jackson series. Now or soon to be a movie.
This book is also a great twist. Written in plain english, it rewrites the stories with slightly different endings and from different characters perspectives.
Just bought The Art of Racing in the Rain.
tom
I received a "classical" education from the Jesuits in New Orleans. Four years of Latin, four years of Greek. I translatted the Odyssey and the Aeneid, as well as a tone of Greek plays...and some of the New Testament. Also studied the Old Testament and it's paralells found in Sumerian and Egyptian epics and myth. I used to be a lot smarter than I am now.
I received a "classical" education from the Jesuits in New Orleans. Four years of Latin, four years of Greek. I translatted the Odyssey and the Aeneid, as well as a tone of Greek plays...and some of the New Testament. Also studied the Old Testament and it's paralells found in Sumerian and Egyptian epics and myth. I used to be a lot smarter than I am now.
Just finished "The Art of Racing in the Rain" Excellent, weird but I do look at my dog a little differently now.... don't leave the TV on during the day...yet!
Next up, "The Other Boleyn Girl". Historical fiction set in England at the time of King Henry. Pretty good so far.
@Rich, the best economics book ever written, "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazzlit. I think it was written 50 years ago, but still sells well, is an easy fun read and most chapters are a couple of pages.
Just finished Howard Bloom's "The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism". Hell bought a copy for my 70 year old father (and my business partner) as well which is hilarious. He wrote probably one of the most important books I ever read (one of those 'life changer' books) "The Lucifer Principle" and no it isn't about what you think it is about
However very interesting read, he is a complete nut but brilliant. Now I am onto 'The Art of Scalability' about scaling businesses and the systems behind it. Talk about dry...
I keep meaning to go back and read the classics. Will probably go back and read Catcher in the Rye this summer. I haven't been doing as much travel as I normally do so haven't been reading as much as I could/should.
I'm driving to St George tomorrow. Any books on Audible you recommend? Free podcasts on iTunes? I subscribe to This American Life, BBC documentaries and some other stuff but looking for ideas. Thanks!
+ ?? on ATLAS SHRUGGED!! Took 3 times starting to ever get through it, but loved it. If you like ATLAS SHRUGGED the read THE FOUTAINHEAD. It is the precursor to ATLAS and where AR started to lay down her theory of "objectivism".
Born to Run - natch
Once a Runner AND Again to Carthage - Everyone has read Once a Runner but Again to Carthage is the follow up. They mythical Quenton Cassidy trains/runs a marathon.
The Shack - awesome. You won't believe the character that is GOD!
No Angel - just finished. True story by Jay Dobyns, ATF agent that infiltrated Hell's Angels.
Bible - always in it.
Lots of good ideas here. Bit of travel next few months.....Hmmm.....Kindle??
I'm still on an India kick. I just finished Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, it's set in the 1800s and has some really great characters and story. It's the first book of an eventual trilogy. Warning, though, if you get it on Kindle. There's a pretty big glossary that will come in quite handy. I didn't realize it was there until I finished the book at like 85% complete. It made for a really great ending because I wasn't expecting it.
I'm currently reading Drive by Daniel Pink which has some really, really great insights into what motivates us. Definitely worth a read. I'm also reading Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande, which is a really interesting book about how we could improve medical outcomes if we would follow simple checklists. I'm constantly fascinated by how medicine can be so amazingly slow to adapt to proven best practices. Sort of reminds me of triathlon...why after all do people still insist on LSD in the off-season when there's no science behind it?
For all of you DOG LOVERS, I would suggest Timbuktu by Paul Auster. It's a short book (almost a long short story) about a dog that belongs to a homeless man who dies and leaves the dog orphaned. It begins with the dog lamenting how much better off he would be if his master had bothered to teach him to talk. The story about what happens is told from the dog's perspective: funny, sad, thoughtful.
If you want to push the literary geography boundaries, I'd suggest the following, all by Nobel Prize winners:
Hunger by Knut Hamsun...this one is about a proud young artist in Norway who is slowly starving to death...it kept me awake at night for almost a week. Hamsun is probably the greatest Norwegian author. Good for those of you working on body comp issues
The Yacoubian Building by Naguib Mahfouz...about a group of people who live in an apartment in Cairo...very interesting observations about religion, modernity, class, etc.
The Bend in the River by V.S. Naipul...another story about race, politics, and class centered around an Indian shopkeeper in Zaire as the country goes through political upheaval...great view of colonialism and some of it's lesser known impacts
I'd also recommend anything by Cormac McCarthy, although I'm personally partial to his "Southern" stuff (Suttree, Child of God, etc.) vs. his western (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain, Blood Meridian) or apocalyptic (The Road). If you've read the recent stuff like The Road which was an Oprah book or seen the movie No Country for Old Men and liked it, you should check out the Southern stuff...same vivid imagery, rich characters, and dark themes, but set in the South/Appalachia.
Finally if you're looking for comedy, you can't go wrong with any of the Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle, (The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van). If you love soccer, The Van is particularly great since it was set during the '90 World Cup. I'm also a big fan of Doyle's series about the troubles, migration to America, and other historical issues...the 3 books in this group are: A Star Called Henry (which has a character who was known for whipping off his prosthetic leg and beating guys with it), Oh, Play That Thing which follows Henry to the US, and soon to be released The Dead Republic which follows Henry to Hollywood and then back to Ireland. Looking forward to reading that one as soon as it's out in April.
@Bill, if you are on the India kick still, have you read "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mystry? An incredible story of people at the bottom struggling to make it in India in the 1960's. One of the better and more haunting books I've read.
@Bill, if you are on the India kick still, have you read "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mystry? An incredible story of people at the bottom struggling to make it in India in the 1960's. One of the better and more haunting books I've read.
@Tom - it definitely looks like something I would like, and despite my elitist sensibilities, Oprah usually picks pretty good books. You're reco + Oprah's = something I should probably read. I've added it to my Amazon wishlist and will give it a read as soon as I finish the other 2 unread books on the Kindle.
Got a few new ones for you Rich since you like Kill Bin Laden and Super/Freakonomics. Check out Making Jack Falcone (modern day Donnie Brasco, FBI agent infiltrates the NY Mafia) True story also on 60 minutes. Give me a Break by John Stossel I listened to What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell who also wrote Outliers (Coach P blogged on it) some good stuff in both of these. As a go to sleep sorta book Gladwell has a great voice.
As far as podcasts go, I'm a huge Adam Carolla fan, I love his daily podcast. I've been listening to him since 1997 when he was on Loveline. Either you like him or hate him, a lot of people find him annoying, I don't.
I've been devouring books in my iPhone Kindle since last fall. After reading all of the Alex Cross books by James Patterson, I found a couple of good books that I'd recommend:
The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. I didn't see the movie, but highly recommend the book. Not sure if it was the father/daughter connection that grabbed my attention (I have 3 girls), but I couldn't put it down.
I Am Ozzy - While it is probably wrong to laugh at an alcoholic and drug addict, I frequently found myself litterally laughing out loud at some of Ozzy's stories. Just a light, funny read to pass the time. You won't learn anything, but it is certainly entertaining. I was always a fan, so again, maybe I'm biased.
Just read Born to Run, Christopher Mcdougall over the last 2 days based on recommendations above - great read, thanks. Actually read last night instead of biked and really cannot wait to run tonight. Very cool stuff.
Started reading Once a Runner this morning, and moving to East of Eden next.
If anyone is interested in ancient Rome, someone pointed me to a series of books by Colleen McCullough that were excellent. It's an excellent fiction series that really allows you to picture ancient Rome as it was. Just a great author.
This is a little different than my normal plate of economic and business books, but I highly recommend you take the time to listen to this audiobook. It's called "My Stroke Of Insight". It's an amazing story read by the author. A Harvard-trained brain scientist who had a massive stroke in her late 30's, she took the next 8 years to recover fully. She gives her account of what it was like as her brain failed, what the experience of recovery is like, and what she learned from the ordeal. What's so amazing about it is not only was she able to recover from the stroke, but that she remembers everything in a pretty detailed fashion. I think she gave a speech at TED
I listened to it as I drove the five hours to visit my grandma who at the time had just had a stroke. It gave me some comfort that even though communication was hard my presence could have a positive effect on her. Even without knowing anyone affected by a stroke, it's a pretty powerful first-hand account.
Those of you with kids (and weren't artillery officers) - I've been having fun building the projects in Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices with my 9 and 7 year old daughter and son. You might be more mature than me though
Black Swan is on my list this week...very excited. Resisting kindle...
If you haven't bought Black Swan, I can give you my copy tonight at the meetup. It's a pretty dense book, but really great insights. Ever since I read it, I've ignored every economic or stock market prognosticator. Among Taleb's theses is that the financial system has gotten so complicated that it's impossible to predict what will happen next and that anyone that thinks they can is a fool. Watch some of his YouTube comments about the crash and you'll get a sense for his views.
I'm almost done with Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. Great read!
Comments
Just a random thought but my favorite line from my favorite movie "Amadeus" is "too many notes" when the king tells Mozart what's wrong with his latest opera.
tom
EDIT- oops Beth skip the first section, guess that was Rich I was aiming at.
Beth- Atlas Shrugged is a BIG, THICK book. I had no trouble getting into it and loving it. But I don't give fiction books much of a chance otherwise. If they don't grab me within the first few pages and make me want to skip work to keep reading, then I move on.
I've read Freakonomics. It is interesting. If you are a Gen X'er, you might also like Slackonomics. I just finished that and really found it enlightening and fun.
Have been trying to read 3000 degrees. It is a very good book, I just keep getting distracted by other books. It is the story of the December 1999 warehouse fire in Worcester, MA that killed 6 firefighters. I was reading it piecemeal at the massage office but bought my own copy. If anyone is interested when I am done, let me know.
ALERT- Potentially a topical hot potato- but I also recently finished Reproductive Choice by Alexander Sanger, the grandson of Margaret Sanger. A bit plodding but made some good points.
2nd EDIT- Looked back through some missed posts. The Time Traveler's Wife is incredible. I did not see the movie, don't think it could do the book justice unless Quentin Tarrantino was the director. He can handle those scene shifting out of time very well. (I heart "Pulp Fiction").
Follow the River is very good. Again, the movie sucked, but it was made for TV.
Almost finished with Kill Bin Laden. Frankly, I can't imagine reading this book without a military/fire support background, or least having been exposed to healthy bit of mil-speak.
The battles the describe, guys on a hill calling in air support, etc, that's a large part of what I did, as well as artillery and mortars. Brought back LOTS of memories of shoots, good times on the "OP," calling in F-18's on targets, etc. All training, of course, but very, very cool stuff.
One part they describe how a guy spotted a target, located himself on a map, shot an azimuth, estimated range, and used terrain association to determine a target grid and call in a fire mission. I was like "no shit! That's how we did it before Garmin, lasers, another other gear!"
@Rich - you might like House to House. It's a first person account of the seige of Fallujah
Currently reading -
Just finished
Going back through Ayn Rand to see if it still resonates.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell. Couldn't stomach it in college, devoured it this time around. Mid life thing I guess.
This book is also a great twist. Written in plain english, it rewrites the stories with slightly different endings and from different characters perspectives.
Just bought The Art of Racing in the Rain.
tom
I received a "classical" education from the Jesuits in New Orleans. Four years of Latin, four years of Greek. I translatted the Odyssey and the Aeneid, as well as a tone of Greek plays...and some of the New Testament. Also studied the Old Testament and it's paralells found in Sumerian and Egyptian epics and myth. I used to be a lot smarter than I am now.
Wow, I'm very impressed Rich.
Not a book, but I Netflix-ed "Why We Fight" last night, a documentary. Already saw it but worth watching again. Very good.
Also read Freakanomics and SuperFreakanomics. Very cool devices to explain or dig deeper into common questions.
Next up, "The Other Boleyn Girl". Historical fiction set in England at the time of King Henry. Pretty good so far.
@Rich, the best economics book ever written, "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazzlit. I think it was written 50 years ago, but still sells well, is an easy fun read and most chapters are a couple of pages.
Just finished Howard Bloom's "The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism". Hell bought a copy for my 70 year old father (and my business partner) as well which is hilarious. He wrote probably one of the most important books I ever read (one of those 'life changer' books) "The Lucifer Principle" and no it isn't about what you think it is about
However very interesting read, he is a complete nut but brilliant. Now I am onto 'The Art of Scalability' about scaling businesses and the systems behind it. Talk about dry...
I keep meaning to go back and read the classics. Will probably go back and read Catcher in the Rye this summer. I haven't been doing as much travel as I normally do so haven't been reading as much as I could/should.
-Dave
I'm driving to St George tomorrow. Any books on Audible you recommend? Free podcasts on iTunes? I subscribe to This American Life, BBC documentaries and some other stuff but looking for ideas. Thanks!
+ ?? on ATLAS SHRUGGED!! Took 3 times starting to ever get through it, but loved it. If you like ATLAS SHRUGGED the read THE FOUTAINHEAD. It is the precursor to ATLAS and where AR started to lay down her theory of "objectivism".
Born to Run - natch
Once a Runner AND Again to Carthage - Everyone has read Once a Runner but Again to Carthage is the follow up. They mythical Quenton Cassidy trains/runs a marathon.
The Shack - awesome. You won't believe the character that is GOD!
No Angel - just finished. True story by Jay Dobyns, ATF agent that infiltrated Hell's Angels.
Bible - always in it.
Lots of good ideas here. Bit of travel next few months.....Hmmm.....Kindle??
I'm still on an India kick. I just finished Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, it's set in the 1800s and has some really great characters and story. It's the first book of an eventual trilogy. Warning, though, if you get it on Kindle. There's a pretty big glossary that will come in quite handy. I didn't realize it was there until I finished the book at like 85% complete. It made for a really great ending because I wasn't expecting it.
I'm currently reading Drive by Daniel Pink which has some really, really great insights into what motivates us. Definitely worth a read. I'm also reading Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande, which is a really interesting book about how we could improve medical outcomes if we would follow simple checklists. I'm constantly fascinated by how medicine can be so amazingly slow to adapt to proven best practices. Sort of reminds me of triathlon...why after all do people still insist on LSD in the off-season when there's no science behind it?
For all of you DOG LOVERS, I would suggest Timbuktu by Paul Auster. It's a short book (almost a long short story) about a dog that belongs to a homeless man who dies and leaves the dog orphaned. It begins with the dog lamenting how much better off he would be if his master had bothered to teach him to talk. The story about what happens is told from the dog's perspective: funny, sad, thoughtful.
If you want to push the literary geography boundaries, I'd suggest the following, all by Nobel Prize winners:
I'd also recommend anything by Cormac McCarthy, although I'm personally partial to his "Southern" stuff (Suttree, Child of God, etc.) vs. his western (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain, Blood Meridian) or apocalyptic (The Road). If you've read the recent stuff like The Road which was an Oprah book or seen the movie No Country for Old Men and liked it, you should check out the Southern stuff...same vivid imagery, rich characters, and dark themes, but set in the South/Appalachia.
Finally if you're looking for comedy, you can't go wrong with any of the Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle, (The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van). If you love soccer, The Van is particularly great since it was set during the '90 World Cup. I'm also a big fan of Doyle's series about the troubles, migration to America, and other historical issues...the 3 books in this group are: A Star Called Henry (which has a character who was known for whipping off his prosthetic leg and beating guys with it), Oh, Play That Thing which follows Henry to the US, and soon to be released The Dead Republic which follows Henry to Hollywood and then back to Ireland. Looking forward to reading that one as soon as it's out in April.
@Tom - it definitely looks like something I would like, and despite my elitist sensibilities, Oprah usually picks pretty good books. You're reco + Oprah's = something I should probably read. I've added it to my Amazon wishlist and will give it a read as soon as I finish the other 2 unread books on the Kindle.
Check out
Making Jack Falcone (modern day Donnie Brasco, FBI agent infiltrates the NY Mafia) True story also on 60 minutes.
Give me a Break by John Stossel
I listened to What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell who also wrote Outliers (Coach P blogged on it) some good stuff in both of these. As a go to sleep sorta book Gladwell has a great voice.
As far as podcasts go, I'm a huge Adam Carolla fan, I love his daily podcast. I've been listening to him since 1997 when he was on Loveline. Either you like him or hate him, a lot of people find him annoying, I don't.
Just finished Sarah's Key- about the round up of jews in France in 1942. Good story
Althought it has been out for awhile- Finally reading Kite Runner. Couldn't put it down yesterday.
Keep them coming
tom
Great list! I need to sit down and load up the Kindle with these suggestions!
I've been devouring books in my iPhone Kindle since last fall. After reading all of the Alex Cross books by James Patterson, I found a couple of good books that I'd recommend:
The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. I didn't see the movie, but highly recommend the book. Not sure if it was the father/daughter connection that grabbed my attention (I have 3 girls), but I couldn't put it down.
I Am Ozzy - While it is probably wrong to laugh at an alcoholic and drug addict, I frequently found myself litterally laughing out loud at some of Ozzy's stories. Just a light, funny read to pass the time. You won't learn anything, but it is certainly entertaining. I was always a fan, so again, maybe I'm biased.
Just read Born to Run, Christopher Mcdougall over the last 2 days based on recommendations above - great read, thanks. Actually read last night instead of biked and really cannot wait to run tonight. Very cool stuff.
Started reading Once a Runner this morning, and moving to East of Eden next.
If anyone is interested in ancient Rome, someone pointed me to a series of books by Colleen McCullough that were excellent. It's an excellent fiction series that really allows you to picture ancient Rome as it was. Just a great author.
It's called "My Stroke Of Insight". It's an amazing story read by the author. A Harvard-trained brain scientist who had a massive stroke in her late 30's, she took the next 8 years to recover fully. She gives her account of what it was like as her brain failed, what the experience of recovery is like, and what she learned from the ordeal. What's so amazing about it is not only was she able to recover from the stroke, but that she remembers everything in a pretty detailed fashion. I think she gave a speech at TED
I listened to it as I drove the five hours to visit my grandma who at the time had just had a stroke. It gave me some comfort that even though communication was hard my presence could have a positive effect on her. Even without knowing anyone affected by a stroke, it's a pretty powerful first-hand account.
Those of you with kids (and weren't artillery officers) - I've been having fun building the projects in Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices with my 9 and 7 year old daughter and son. You might be more mature than me though
Bryan
http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
Chris
If you haven't bought Black Swan, I can give you my copy tonight at the meetup. It's a pretty dense book, but really great insights. Ever since I read it, I've ignored every economic or stock market prognosticator. Among Taleb's theses is that the financial system has gotten so complicated that it's impossible to predict what will happen next and that anyone that thinks they can is a fool. Watch some of his YouTube comments about the crash and you'll get a sense for his views.
I'm almost done with Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. Great read!