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March 16
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Eric
gave
 
to:
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (Hardcover)
by Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in March, 2008
Eric said:
"I'm all for boundary pushing work, but I think Alan Moore was given a bit too much creative freedom here. I enjoyed "From Hell" greatly, but this was just too much. Never mind the the text sections, with their 200-word line lengths, were pu...more
I'm all for boundary pushing work, but I think Alan Moore was given a bit too much creative freedom here. I enjoyed "From Hell" greatly, but this was just too much. Never mind the the text sections, with their 200-word line lengths, were pure torture to try and read. The original idea of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is very fun as it lends itself to a lot of opportunities for clever literary references, but this is just a muddled, overwritten mess. Maybe I'm just not enough of a comic book geek to really appreciate this....less
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March 14
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Eric
gave
to:
Things I have learned in my life so far (Hardcover)
by Stefan Sagmeister
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in March, 2008
Eric said:
"These days, design monographs really bore me, so I give design's patron saint and resident rock star his due for an inspiring read. He does amazing work, seems like a genuine, down to earth guy, and spared us the nude self-portraits this time around....more
These days, design monographs really bore me, so I give design's patron saint and resident rock star his due for an inspiring read. He does amazing work, seems like a genuine, down to earth guy, and spared us the nude self-portraits this time around. But it's the honesty of his writing that endears him most. All in all a humbling and inspiring experience. I wish I knew him personally....less
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March 13
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Eric
marked as to-read:
Birth of the Cool (Hardcover)
by Elizabeth Armstrong
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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March 10
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Eric
gave
to:
Ronin (Paperback)
by Frank Miller
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in March, 2008
Eric said:
"Classic Frank Miller. No one up to this point had made western comic art so cinematic. Designers and film editors alike could learn much from Miller's work.
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Eric
gave
to:
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (Paperback)
by William McDonough, Michael Braungart
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in March, 2008
Eric said:
""Cradle to Cradle" probably doesn't read as innovatively or urgently as when released in 2002, but it remains required reading for its unconventional proposal of how we become more sustainable in our business practices, summed up in their c...more
"Cradle to Cradle" probably doesn't read as innovatively or urgently as when released in 2002, but it remains required reading for its unconventional proposal of how we become more sustainable in our business practices, summed up in their chapter, "Why Being 'Less Bad' Is No Good." The book describes how amazingly toxic almost every manufactured product we use really is. Look for an uptick in the amount of brain tumors soon. ...less
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March 06
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Eric
marked as to-read:
Learning to Love You More (Paperback)
by Miranda July
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Eric
marked as to-read:
Full Metal Jacket Diary (Hardcover)
by Matthew Modine
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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July 20
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Eric
gave
to:
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa (Hardcover)
by Peter Godwin
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in July, 2008
Eric said:
"Initially, I thought this book was going to be another white colonial (hence patronizing) view of Africa, a la Kapucinski or Theroux, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was much more——and much better——than I ever expected. There is...more
Initially, I thought this book was going to be another white colonial (hence patronizing) view of Africa, a la Kapucinski or Theroux, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was much more——and much better——than I ever expected. There is a nice triumvirate of storytelling here that when linked together as they are in this book, pack a punch that none of the three lines alone could have done. Peter Godwin IS white, but he was born and raised in Zimbabwe (nee Rhodesia) and his tacking between the worlds of black and white creates a palpaple tension in that you aren't sure if the narrator can be trusted. Two of the storylines——the death of Godwin's father and the disintegration of Zimbabwe——have a nice parallel, but it's when Godwin discovers that his father is not English by birth but actually a Polish Jew who disowned his birthright after World War II, that gives this memoir its propulsive narrative glue. I haven't cried from reading a book in a long while. This one broke the dry-eye streak and the tears felt earned and genuine....less
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May 01
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Eric
gave
to:
Lush Life
by Richard Price
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in April, 2008
Eric said:
"This is a literate novel that really doesn't make itself known as such until 30 pages from the end, when I thought to myself, "I'm really bummed this book is going to be over soon." The police procedural plot is nothing fancy and essentiall...more
This is a literate novel that really doesn't make itself known as such until 30 pages from the end, when I thought to myself, "I'm really bummed this book is going to be over soon." The police procedural plot is nothing fancy and essentially straight out of an episode of "Law and Order." But the naturalism of the dialogue and character development are shaded so well that I couldn't appreciate the book fully in the moment because its pretense of being a novel had been completely subverted. It plays like real time and real experience. By the end, I was so entrenched in the story—as if I, too, were cruising the streets of New York's lower east side (and I was when I started the novel)—that when it ended I felt a palpable sense of loss, as if a friend who was visiting was suddenly leaving after a week of fun. So while the book doesn't leave you with any great questions to ponder, it makes one such a part of its extended family, so to speak, that you are oddly moved by its conclusion....less
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March 05
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Eric
marked as to-read:
The Echo Maker: A Novel (Hardcover)
by Richard Powers
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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