Legend_DIT's Book Diary

Legend_DIT

Thought I'd start one of these for 2010 - hope I can keep at it and see how many books I get through in a year.

Book 1

Reclaiming History - The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi

I have been reading this on and off for the last 3 months - Bugliosi is a prosecution lawyer who first outlines both Oswald and Ruby's lives, the events of the assasination of JFK and the murder of Oswald and the subsequent investigations which took place. (This section is titled "What Did Happen")

He then devotes sections of the book to each of the most common groups which are said to have engaged in a conspiracy to murder President Kennedy. For each one, he points out the flaws in these conspiracy theorists' logic and outright distortions of evidence. He finishes with a critical appraisal of Oliver Stone's "JFK" which was riddled with fabrications, mistruths and omissions of pertinent information in order to push an agenda of conspiracy. (This section is titled "What Did Not Happen")

Bugliosi has a very clear writing style and is obviously a very effective communicator. He appears to be very fair and criticises even those who are on the same side of the argument as him if they are incorrect on certain points. The thoroughness of his research is breath-taking. This eye for detail however leads to an unwieldy book - 1508 pages of text (not including almost another 100 pages in Bibliography and Index) makes this a difficult book to take with you on the bus...

Nonetheless, should you be interested by the Kennedy assassination this comprehensive work by Bugliosi was a fascinating read, if a little time-consuming...

Legend_DIT

Book 2

Authentic Conversations -Moving from Manipulation to Truth and Commitment by Jamie Showkeir and Maren Showkeir

I was given a loan of this book by my boss as he is a big fan - unfortunately I can't say the same. Basically, it's a pop psychology management book in which the authors (a husband and wife duo of management consultants) claim that by following their advice you will create less "parent-child" working relationships that characterises most interactions in the workplace.

While there are positive aspects in this book - such as highlighting just how much language of manipulation is used on a regular basis in a variety of ways, the authors' approach to engsging in adult-adult relationships involve initiating formulaic "conversations" that don't ring true to me - while I realise they aren't meant to be followed to the word, the tone of the conversations appeared very stilted and dare I say it “inauthentic”.

Legend_DIT

Book 3

That's Me in the Corner - Adventures of an Ordinary Boy in a Celebrity World by Andrew Collins

And so my trend of reading a book with a subtitle continues... I previously read this author's first book - a diary of his happy ordinary upbringing in 1970s Britain. He managed to make the mundane hilarious in that so I had high expectations for his latest offering.

The truth is, it's a bit patchy - Collins has had a fantastically interesting life from humble beginning as a shop boy at Sainsbury's, to writing the Rose D'Or winning sitcom "Not Going Out". In between these two very diferent jobs, he rose the ranks in NME to become Editor of Empire and Q magazine, was a scriptwriter for Eastenders, devised and performed a comedy play at the Edinburgh festival, presented a late late night movie review program, was a DJ on a BBC digital radio station no one listened to, appeared as a talking head on multitudes of programs ("I Love the..." "Top 100..." etc.) and much more as well.

The central conceit of the book is that each chapter follows a different career path in his life, with the title referring to one of the celebrities he encountered during that period in his life. Most of the time this is well handled although one anecdote is very tenuous -He was on a yacht in Cannes and apparently Will Smith was on the same yacht but Collins didn't see him.. this translates to "sipping champagne with Will Smith" on the back cover - lol! Unsurprisingly, given his profession as a journalist and a scriptwriter, the quality of writing in the book is nearly always of the highest standard. While I expected this to be much funnier than I actually found it, nonetheless it was an enjoyable read from a man who has certainly lived an interesting life.

Recommended.

Legend_DIT

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

I have been meaning to read this for some time as it is often listed as an example of great 20th century literature. I was also intrigued as I had heard reports by some that it completely changed their world-view.

I came away from the book mostly unimpressed. This may be sowewhat a function of my wholly rational critical viewpoint not engaging with the spiritual allegories within the book but I also felt that there were problems with Coelho character's being very 2-dimensional, never appearing to have more than one motivation to their every action.

Due to the book being so short I pushed on to complete it - if it was an average sized book I would've given up on it. Without giving too much away, I felt the ending was trite and didn't make me feel happy that I stuck with it.

However, my opinion is not universally shared so if you have the opportunity to read it, give it a go. Though, if you don't like it after 20 pages - trust me, it won't get better.

Legend_DIT

Book 5

Good News Bad News by David Wolstencroft.

Set in the world of British espionage, Good News Bad News is an entertaining little diversion. The pacing of the book is excellent and the author suceeds in creating an atmosphere where distrust seems the only sensible option.

However, some of the characters do at times seem a bit one-dimensional and there are many who will say that Wolstencroft tries to layer too many twists into the plot.

These criticisms did not however spoil the book for me and I would gladly choose to read Wolstencroft's second book Contact Zero.

Legend_DIT

Book 6

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

I thought this book was hilarious throughout and would highly recommend it to anyone with the slightest interest in anything related to fantasy.