Reading To The End Of The World

[Greg]

What better way to spend the last year before the end of the world than reading 40 books? Downgraded my goal a little bit from previous years to keep it more realistic. Plus, the world ends on December 21st, which steals a whole ten days >:(

[Tiffany, Administrator]

Gregg wrote: "What better way to spend the last year before the end of the world than reading 40 books? Downgraded my goal a little bit from previous years to keep it more realistic. Plus, the world ends on December 21st, which steals a whole ten days >:( "

Ha! Good point! Those last few days could be a valuable difference between 40 books and 50 books!

Good luck on your 40. Maybe you'll make it to 50 before 12/21/12 anyway :)

[Susan]

I'll be mad if the world ends while I'm in the middle of a book!

[Greg]

Tiffany wrote: Ha! Good point! Those last few days could be a valuable difference between 40 books and 50 books!

Good luck on your 40. Maybe you'll make it to 50 before 12/21/12 anyway :)

Thanks, I hope so too.

Susan wrote: "I'll be mad if the world ends while I'm in the middle of a book!"

Or you just finished a book that ends in a cliff hanger.

[Greg]

1)

Just finished it this morning. It was pretty great, I'll update with a small review later. I got a Barnes and Noble gift card for Christmas and this was one of the two books I purchased with it. What a swell way to start the year.

This was a pretty good book. It got a bit slow at times (such as the pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages of Katniss just walking through the woods) but at least we got a bit of character development out of those moments. I especially liked the emphasis on the fact that she couldn't have done it herself. She wouldn't have survived if it weren't for Haymitch or Peeta, or even Cinna or Thresh giving her a chance. I think that shows the importance of working together and trust, which is a good thing to have in a young adult book.

I'm looking forward to the other books and the movie.

[Donna]

Or the day before the last book in a series comes out.

[Greg]

2)

Another book down! This is where I had left off with the series, waaaaaay back in 8th grade. Its a lot better than I remembered. 5 stars.

[Greg]

3)

My first nonfiction book of the year. I was disappointed by it so only gave it 3 stars. Its also one of the first books I wrote a full review for!

I love food and I love history, so naturally I bought this book when I saw it in Barnes and Noble. However, I found myself disappointed.

I had a few issues with the book. I felt that a lot of it simply reiterated what Jared Diamond said in Guns, Germs, and Steel (whom Standage mentions briefly). I found this work was more accessible than GGS. That latter was drier and heavier, though that isn't necessarily a mark of poor quality. However, I was a bit annoyed with the tone. It felt too casual, and there were instances of sentence fragments high school writing teachers try to get students away from.

While this work was more accessible, I was left bored by some parts (though I freely admit that likely has much more to do with me than the book itself). The evolution of certain crops and the spread of farming? Yawn. The Industrial and Green Revolutions? Snooze. The Spice Trade? da Gama and Columbus being dicks? Oh how I never wanted those parts to end! I think I'm just enjoy the social history more than the physical history.

Another issue I had was that I felt Standage did not defend his statements of opinion well. In one chapter, his says arguing that developing countries should grow food for themselves and not for trade is "tantamount to denying them the opportunity of economic development". I think that if you make such a claim, you need to back it up. Leaving it at that makes it feel as if he is weaseling out of having to defend an opinion. Even on statements I agree with him on (such as ethanol production in the US being a ploy to keep farm subsidies) he doesn't really give credence to what he says.

He also seems to try his best to gloss over slavery. It's barely mentioned, and even when it is, it's almost as if it's an afterthought.

This wasn't a bad book, simply disappointing. If you aren't prepared to leap into Guns, Germs, and Steel, this would probably be a good place to start. Just don't take it at face value and read some other things along with it.

[Greg]

4)

Ahhh, such a great book! I'm not ashamed to admit that the action was tense and the deaths were shocking. This is one of the greatest series I've read and I have mixed emotions about being finished with it. It's about time I've finished the series, but I feel sad and longing now that its over. I remember reading it long before the movies came out. I remember checking out Prison of Azkaban from the library in elementary school after hearing such good things about this "Harry Potter" thing and being so lost and confused after the first chapter.

Speaking of the movies, I think they did a great job with Deathly Hallows parts 1 and 2. The changes helped keep the pacing nice and smooth and the things they added were nice touches, especially Snape's extra lines and McGonagals moment of geekiness ("I've always wanted to use that spell!").

[Greg]

Holy moly, its been a while! Reading and updating have taken a bit of a back seat to things like marriage, working, and a certain game by the name of Skyrim.

5)

My wife wanted me to read this. Basically, its about how to handle the problems that crop up once you are married and the honeymoon is over. It's short, cute, and pretty funny.

[Greg]

6)


Another one at the behest of my wife. It was alright, but I wouldn't really recommend it. The style is strange (it reads as a transcript of conversations between the two authors).

Two humor columnists, one male and one female, got together to write a book about relationships. To do this, they fall into the stereotypical roles of chauvinist man and feminist woman, which gets stale after a while. Even though they state in a disclaimer at the beginning that obviously everyone's opinion will differ, its hard to take seriously in a bad way.

It tries to be funny, but those moments are few and far between, with (in my opinion) the funniest part being in the introduction.

[Greg]

7-9)


This is one of my favorite series. I made a goal to read these book and the rest of the author's works, and I'm happy to make progress.

[Greg]

10)


Yet another from my darling wife! This was actually pretty interesting. The authors talk about lessons they've learned in marriage using both personal anecdotes and examples from people they've counseled. The lessons are only a page or two long each, so the bite-size chunks make for a quick read.

Sometimes I wished they would go on longer about certain lessons, and sometimes I felt like the lesson was incredibly obvious, so it a little hit or miss. I also sometimes felt it was hard to see how exactly the anecdote provided related to the lesson.

[Greg]

11)

At long last, I am done with this series. Its simply phenomenal. The world Garth Nix reveals is incredible and certainly very unique. I strongly urge anyone interested in fantasy to read these!

My only real complaint is that Nix loves to overuse phrases that try to create tension. You will read about weapons striking where someone was only a MERE MOMENT before!!! its not funny.