http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/1079215 en-US Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:49:21 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 20053320 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:49:21 -0700
Although the characters are less colorful and their actions less exciting than the first book, let's pretend that we are reading these dialogs for the ideas as well as the action.]]>
author: Jane Jacobs
name: Seth
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:
Everybody reads Jane Jacobs' Systems of Survival and never gets around to reading The Nature of Economies. Don't be like them. Read this book.

Although the characters are less colorful and their actions less exciting than the first book, let's pretend that we are reading these dialogs for the ideas as well as the action.
]]> 20056319 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:21:38 -0700
In So Yesterday he steps away from the sci-fi genre and explores the world of popular culture which we all know so well - or at least we would like to think so. The result is an exciting adventure story which is paradoxically reflective and very human with a touch of subtly dark comedy. If you've ever wondered what it really means to be cool, THIS book is cool.

(The audiobook is excellent too. Don't miss it.)
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author: Scott Westerfeld
name: Seth
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 01/06
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:
I cannot say enough about Scott Westerfeld's highly digestible prose and brilliant, all-encompassing grasp of our complicated and rapidly evolving times. He can take post-cyberpunk (Uglies) or epic space opera (The Risen Empire), mix in some Nancy Drew, David Cronenberg, and a little bit of pixie dust, then out pops a very readable book that will keep your brain spinning for weeks.

In So Yesterday he steps away from the sci-fi genre and explores the world of popular culture which we all know so well - or at least we would like to think so. The result is an exciting adventure story which is paradoxically reflective and very human with a touch of subtly dark comedy. If you've ever wondered what it really means to be cool, THIS book is cool.

(The audiobook is excellent too. Don't miss it.)

]]> 20054203 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:53:50 -0700
I grew out of corny fantasy genre humor (i.e. Piers Anthony) in Junior High. Now I pride myself in only reading the hard stuff*. So when a friend drops his complete Robert Asprin collection in my lap, I was surprised to find something new that I could relate to and enjoy.

* i.e. Terry Pratchett - try to keep up with me here.

You will miss some jokes if you aren't into old movies and fantasy/sci-fi genre geek culture, but Asprin seems to have synthesized the cross-genre, character-centered fantasy subgenre that most of us are now familiar with through Buffy and WoW, which leaves very few people who won't get what he's talking about when he starts in with "interdimensional travel" and the like.

If you can digest the cheese the series gets better and better after the first book.]]>
author: Robert Lynn Asprin
name: Seth
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 01/07
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:
Magicians. Demons. Vampires. Comedy. Worker Cooperatives.

I grew out of corny fantasy genre humor (i.e. Piers Anthony) in Junior High. Now I pride myself in only reading the hard stuff*. So when a friend drops his complete Robert Asprin collection in my lap, I was surprised to find something new that I could relate to and enjoy.

* i.e. Terry Pratchett - try to keep up with me here.

You will miss some jokes if you aren't into old movies and fantasy/sci-fi genre geek culture, but Asprin seems to have synthesized the cross-genre, character-centered fantasy subgenre that most of us are now familiar with through Buffy and WoW, which leaves very few people who won't get what he's talking about when he starts in with "interdimensional travel" and the like.

If you can digest the cheese the series gets better and better after the first book.
]]> 20055442 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:50:56 -0700
author: George Lakoff
name: Seth
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 01/05
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:
A lot of liberal and centrist democrats hate this book, which challenges them to think of the diverse movements of the political left as sharing deeply important ideas and motives, instead of living on a one-dimensional political spectrum with good democrats and republicans in the middle and evil terrorists at both ends.
]]> 20053979 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:17:13 -0700
author: Jane Jacobs
name: Seth
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:
This book is fantastic but everyone forgets to read the sequel, The Nature of Economies. Don't be like them. Read The Nature of Economies too.
]]> 20053928 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:14:50 -0700
author: Scott Ritter
name: Seth
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 20052760 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:03:10 -0700
Bohm suggests a mechanism for exploring thought and perhaps even solving global problems through dialogue in which groups of people suspend and examine their assumptions about who they are and what they believe.]]>
author: David Bohm
name: Seth
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 01/06
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:
Physicist David Bohm provides a uniquely european and scientific perspective into the paradoxes of identity which most westerners know only indirectly through translations and interpretations of asian scripture.

Bohm suggests a mechanism for exploring thought and perhaps even solving global problems through dialogue in which groups of people suspend and examine their assumptions about who they are and what they believe.
]]> 20052664 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:52:12 -0700
author: Shel Silverstein
name: Seth
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1981
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 20051729 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:49:54 -0700
The first few pages of Neuromancer caught me and dragged me in with it's cold war burnout and hacker ninja icons. I'm a generation X slacker who did a brief stint at a dot com just to experience the Y2K apocalypse and IPO mania, and yes I do own at least one functional asian martial arts weapon.

But then I noticed something: it goes on like this! I put the book down and I have never felt the urge to pick it up again, any more than I have felt the urge to finish The Lord of the Rings after suffering through a few pages of overly descriptive Hobbit Birthday Drama.
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author: William Gibson
name: Seth
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1984
rating: 1
read at: 01/04
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:
Thank you William Gibson for providing exactly what the world doesn't need: another purile genre of self-serving fantasy.

The first few pages of Neuromancer caught me and dragged me in with it's cold war burnout and hacker ninja icons. I'm a generation X slacker who did a brief stint at a dot com just to experience the Y2K apocalypse and IPO mania, and yes I do own at least one functional asian martial arts weapon.

But then I noticed something: it goes on like this! I put the book down and I have never felt the urge to pick it up again, any more than I have felt the urge to finish The Lord of the Rings after suffering through a few pages of overly descriptive Hobbit Birthday Drama.

]]> 20051644 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:29:32 -0700
author: George Orwell
name: Seth
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1949
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 20051600 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:28:32 -0700
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Seth
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 20051540 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:27:32 -0700
author: Shel Silverstein
name: Seth
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 20051527 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:27:16 -0700
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Seth
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/13/08
shelves:
review:

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