BETA
Books I Am Reading

I Want to Read

  1. Juliet, Naked: a novel by Nick Hornby - 10 months
  2. High Fidelity: A Novel by Nick Hornby - 10 months
  3. SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Steven D. Levitt - 11 months
    Did you say "sequel" to Freakonomics? Count me in! I do want to re-read the first one before getting into this one.
  4. What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell - 11 months
    Found out about this a week before the release date. Though its not an original book, it is a collection of his New Yorker articles and such. Which i have read sporadically over the last year, but there have been a few i missed.
  5. How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer - 1 year
  6. Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis - 1 year
    Been meaning to read this one for a long time. Matt's read it.
  7. The Crossing (The Border Trilogy) by Cormac Mccarthy - 2 year
    Bought this as soon as i started reading "All The Pretty Horses". And this time i'll try to translate the spanish passages.

I Have Read

  1. 36.
    Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman - 11 months ago B+
    Now here's a book that i would describe as funny. Though can we call a collection of essays a book? Either way, I cracked up over a fictitious Q&A with someone's who Draft Value declined after he was caught pointing a gun at someone's head. And the fact New Yorkers will crack up at everything, that is except for no-name comedians.
  2. 35.
    Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins and James C. Collins - 11 months ago B-
    Not too bad for a business book. Though the same concepts were repeated over and over again (hire great people, find the one thing your company can do great, stay focused on that one great thing), there were some good company profiles and stories to go along with it. I read most of it, skimming over the parts about Fannie Mae (since it was written in 2001 long before the Banking scandals of 2008-09) and Merck (don't agree with the line: "we are in this to make people healthy not make money", i say bullshit).
  3. 34.
    Cash: The Autobiography by Johnny Cash - 11 months ago B
    The man has done it all. I love how it meanders and wanders from decade to decade, story to story. Bringing up one person, leads him to remembering stories about 3 others. It just flows like one long conversation, a conversation that i wish i could have been apart of. But after reading this, feeling i have a better understanding of the Man in Black.
  4. 33.
    Everything They Had: Sports Writing from David Halberstam by David Halberstam and Glenn Stout - 12 months ago B
    Baseball, football, basketball, fishing... though the sports vary, the stories all share the same themes: learning, friends, life.
  5. 32.
    Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy - 1 year ago C+
    I have to remember for next time that any book described as "funny"... isn't really going to be funny at all. I've laughed out loud reading a few books in my life, but i don't even think those books were described as "funny". This was a quick easy read that i never really got into. I could've wrote something like this, as it basically describes my daily work life.
  6. 31.
    Spaceman Blues: A Love Song by Brian Francis Slattery - 1 year ago C
    That was kind of mess... i'm not even sure what the book was about or even how it ended... did they find Manuel or not? Or was there ever a Manuel to begin with? You gotta spell it out for me sometimes... i like nice neat packages
  7. 30.
    Rock Bottom: A Novel by Michael Shilling - 1 year ago A
    Wow, that blew me away. Loved the story, the characters, the pacing, the different points of view from which the tale is told. I want to see what happens when they get back to the US, but that's what makes these types of books great, you gotta picture it on your own. In the end, i think they'll all be all right.
  8. 29.
    Billion-Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years by Paul B. Carroll - 1 year ago C-
    Lots of good stories in the first part of the book like how some company tried to consolidate funeral homes and another with doctor's offices. But as the 2nd half turned into lessons about running a business, i lost interest. Rather have heard a bunch of stories, instead of lessons. Stopped with like 50 pages to go.
  9. 28.
    Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America by Brian Francis Slattery - 1 year ago A-
    Read like a screenplay to a possibly awesome movie. Loved the characters, the moving around in the story from one paragraph to the next, the splicing of the old life with the new life. And in the end it was about going back to the beginning... the very beginning.
  10. 27.
    Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age by Steve Knopper - 1 year ago B-
    Suing your own fans; failing to make a deal with Napster while it was in its infancy; bitching about Steve Jobs getting the best of them; forcing people to buy $18.99 CDs to listen to 2 songs; digital rights management; and it goes on and on. These music executives are the biggest bunch of backward blowhards any industry has ever seen. I've known most of these issues from techdirt but it was nice seeing it all in one place. Bunch of idiots.
  11. 26.
    Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling by Bret Hart - 1 year ago B-
    It was an ode to wrestling and a kiss off at the same time. At parts he comes off like a whiner, and at other parts the whining is justified. Loved all the stories from the good days of wrestling, but the last 100 pages was just filled with too much tragedy. Here's to hoping Bret Hart finds some happiness. And i think this book helped him find it.
  12. 25.
    Now I Can Die in Peace: How The Sports Guy Found Salvation Thanks to the World Champion (Twice!) Red Sox by Bill Simmons - 1 year ago A-
    I have read most of the columns since 2005... i enjoyed the footnotes though as they added to the content. I liked the early year stuff about growing up and his family.
  13. 24.
    The Mental Floss History of the World: An Irreverent Romp through Civilization's Best Bits by Erik Sass - 1 year ago C+
    Not as funny as I thought it would be. Way too many facts thrown out for anything to stick. But i liked reading about the last half of the century, like i was reading about ancient history. And its funny how years skip on the recent timeline. Like nothing happened in 1993.
  14. 23.
    Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell - 2 year ago B+
    Interesting stuff. All about how successful people are not just successful because of who they are but because of where they are from and when. Liked the stories about the Canadian hockey team all being born in Jan, Feb, Mar and Bill Gates and the Beatles putting in 10,000 hours of practice before getting a chance to make it big. Now i want to look at myself and see what circumstances got me to where i am today...
  15. 22.
    Passion Is a Fashion: The Real Story of the Clash by Pat Gilbert - 2 year ago B+
    Not too well written, felt like it skipped parts at some point... or it just assumed i knew certain things about the band already. But i do love the story of this band.. all the contradictions about what they stood for and who they were. Mick Jones being a dick to everybody. Strummer being a weirdo. I want to read more about Strummer himself though. Real interested in his character and what he's all about. Love how they're tied in with the Sex Pistols. Pretty good read.
  16. 21.
    All the Pretty Horses by Cormac Mccarthy - 2 year ago
    Had trouble understanding it as i read it, but it began to come together towards the end. Look forward to reading the next two books in the Border Trilogy.
  17. 20.
    Show Me How: 500 Things You Should Know Instructions for Life From the Everyday to the Exotic by Lauren Smith - 2 year ago B
  18. 19.
    Annie Leibovitz at Work by Annie Leibovitz - 2 year ago B+
    Blew through the book so fast. Lots of cool pics and stories about the pics. She was able to adapt to different situations as they came up, whether she was on location or in a studio. She never forced anyone to smile, just let things happen.
  19. 18.
    The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss - 2 year ago B+
    Makes me want to travel and go on mini-retirements. Always had a goal of ditching the 9-5 scene at some point. This gets me pointed in the right direction. Like the 80/20 rule, and i need to revisit for various online tools and links that could make more productive and save money.
  20. 17.
    A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole - 2 year ago
  21. 16.
    Conversations With Tom Petty by Tom Petty - 2 years ago B+
  22. 15.
    Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and the Family Feud That Forever Changed the Business of Sport by Barbara Smit - 2 years ago
  23. 14.
    Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-up in the 1970s Changed America by Richard Zoglin - 2 years ago B+
  24. 13.
    Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield - 3 years ago
  25. 12.
    Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond by Paul Shirley - 3 years ago B+
  26. 11.
    The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs - 3 years ago
  27. 10.
    The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell - 3 years ago B
  28. 9.
    Freakonomics A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner - 3 years ago A-
  29. 8.
    The City Game: Basketball from the Garden to the Playgrounds by Pete Axthelm and Rick Telander - 4 years ago A
  30. 7.
    Chuck Klosterman IV by Chuck Klosterman - 4 years ago
  31. 6.
    Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die by Michael Largo - 4 years ago
  32. 5.
    Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman - 5 years ago
  33. 4.
    dot.bomb: My Days and Nights at an Internet Goliath by J. David Kuo - 5 years ago
  34. 3.
    The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - 6 years ago
  35. 2.
    1984 (Signet Classics) by George Orwell and Erich Fromm - 9 years ago
  36. 1.
    Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy by G. Gordon Liddy - 10 years ago

I Have Given Up

  1. The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't by Robert I. Sutton - 2 year ago