corblimey has got too many books

corblimey · 08-11-2014 12:05pm

75. Illegal Procedure (Luchs). This one, not so much. It's a peek into the murky world of college football agency in the States, which is very much a case of 'everyone's doing something sort of illegal, so I should too'. Luchs then spends the last half of the book basically saying 'okay, so I did some stuff, but look at what these guys were doing!' which isn't that interesting or pleasant to read.

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corblimey · 12-11-2014 5:35pm

76. Roy of the Rovers: The Official Autobiography (Race). Very odd, and very disappointing. I was a Roy of the Rovers reader during the 80s, and still have the very latest issue around here somewhere, so I thought this would be fun. It's not really. As far as I can tell, it's basically the prose version of some of the adventures from the comics over the years with I guess some added feelings from Roy (but not many). There's a few basic attempts at humour, but after reading the marvellous I Partridge, this sort of book has been ruined for me anyway, particularly when it's this poor.

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corblimey · 14-11-2014 9:51am

77. Into Thin Air (Krakauer). I like reading about things I will never do. Sometimes I think, hey maybe some day. However, when it comes to climbing a mountain, I can guarantee it will never happen, and this account of the 1996 Everest disaster sealed the deal. Outstanding all the way through (although it could have used a little trimming on the endless biogs of the persons involved) and despite some criticism of earlier revisions, seems to be honest and true. I'll read one of the other accounts at some point to get a full picture, from the comfort of my warm couch.

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corblimey · 18-11-2014 7:41pm

78. Barrel Fever (Sedaris). I think this mostly counts as fiction, the first 3/4 of the book is entirely fictional and the stories range from the not good to the sort of ok with most of them coming down in the 'huh?' camp.

It gets better in the final 60 odd pages with a few essays about his childhood and the sublime Santaland Diaries, especially for the season that's (about to be) in it, but since I've read these before, it's not enough to save the book as a whole.

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corblimey · 26-11-2014 10:29am

79 The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap Paperback (Taibbi). Interesting if flawed book. The concept is the well worn phrase, one rule for the rich, and another for the poor. It divides its time between telling stories of the poor, the disenfranchised and the minorities getting shafted by authorities with telling stories of how nobody in the world of high finance has ever been properly punished for its various misdeeds. I'm not sure the juxtapositioning works, no matter how many times the author tries to blend the 2 worlds. Having said that, if you take the 2 subject matters as books in their own right, it's pretty good - the stories of the Lehman Brothers and Fairfax Financial are particularly good.

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corblimey · 01-12-2014 10:57am

80. Kids These Days (Perry). I was on page 60 before I realised this was fiction and I immediately started being more critical of its foibles. It's described as "hilarious" on the cover (why would they lie?!) and in several Amazon reviews, but I just got angst and confusion. I was puzzled by its tone as a piece of non-fiction, as a piece of fiction, it's just poor.

3 months since I read a good fiction novel...

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corblimey · 04-12-2014 10:53am

81. Three Cups of Deceit (Krakauer). My favourite line from the movie Sleepers is

If I ever make it onto your sh*t list, give me a call. Give me a chance to apologize.

I'm not sure what the author of the book Three Cups of Tea did to Jon Krakauer to get on his sh*t list, but he obviously never gave him a chance to apologise. I'd never heard of the original book before I read this very short investigation, and now never will. My only issue with this book is its brevity - it's more like a lengthy article from a wordy magazine than something you should pay more for. And isn't that the real scandal here? (no)

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corblimey · 04-12-2014 10:58am

82. Heat (Buford). A journalist leaves his job to learn more about cooking at the knee of Mario Batali (who?) and latterly, butchery at the knee of Dario Cecchini in Tuscany (really, who?). Buford's passion for food is evident in lengthy passages about eggy pasta and pigs livers, but I was more interested in the in-between chapters about day-to-day life in the kitchen and butcher shop. It once again confirmed my view that chefs are for the most part, frigging insane.

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corblimey · 10-12-2014 2:03pm

83. Walkable City (Speck). A user's manual of sorts for how to design the 'perfect' city, the most walkable city. A bit too America-centric and waay too much love for Portland, but very readable and most everything made sense - it helps to think of a city as an organism that is changing, developing, mutating all the time. Made me want to play SimCity.

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corblimey · 12-12-2014 11:52am

84. Boomerang (Lewis). The author takes a tour around the worst hit areas of the global financial crisis, including our own fair isle where the late Brian Lenihan takes centre stage in the catastro-f**k. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading about Iceland, Greece and Vallejo in California (way too long Schwarzenegger diversion notwithstanding); Lewis generally has an engaging and not-so-technical voice in these books.

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corblimey · 15-12-2014 10:01am

85. Insanely Simple (Segall). After reading the Jobs biography in October, I went out and got 2 more Apple-related books, hoping for less about Jobs and more about Apple. Unfortunately, this is just more Jobs. Segall uses Jobs' work ethics to springboard into management tips, none of which are particularly novel - the first chapter is basically 'keep team size small', no sh*t sherlock? And on it goes. Maybe the fact that I disagree fundamentally with Jobs' managerial style means I'll never get anything from this book. Not good.

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corblimey · 19-12-2014 1:07pm

86. In Defense of Food (Pollan). Pretty interesting account of how we got where we are with nutritionism, 'whole foods', simulated foods, etc. The author rounds up his romp through food history by listing all the ways we can start eating better (basically dropping the entire Western diet). Not entirely feasible, but I have taken some tips from it.

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corblimey · 23-12-2014 10:13am

87. Quiet (Cain). I'm not altogether sure who this book is for. Introverts (of which I consider myself one) won't be surprised by any of its content, extroverts won't consider it a necessary read for their lifestyles. Having said that, it's well researched (almost overly so in some cases with a tad too many anecdotes) and well written. The chapter on introverted children was less interesting to me than those on introverted adults, but I can see the value of both.

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corblimey · 23-12-2014 10:17am

88. How to Lie with Statistics (Huff). A 60-year-old book that is still relevant today is not easy to find, and while this suffers from its proximity to the "war years" (insomuch as it refers to World War II as 'the war', assuming its readers would know) and the archaic numbers and products used as examples, the specifics are still pertinent today. No real surprises (it's statistics after all), but no harm in a refresher course for those of us interested in that side of things.

I think 2015 might be the year I try to get a grasp on subjects I was once much more interested in, like maths and ... um applied maths.

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pavb2 · 24-12-2014 2:34am

corblimey wrote: »

77. Into Thin Air (Krakauer). I like reading about things I will never do. Sometimes I think, hey maybe some day. However, when it comes to climbing a mountain, I can guarantee it will never happen, and this account of the 1996 Everest disaster sealed the deal. Outstanding all the way through (although it could have used a little trimming on the endless biogs of the persons involved) and despite some criticism of earlier revisions, seems to be honest and true. I'll read one of the other accounts at some point to get a full picture, from the comfort of my warm couch.

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Yes quite a poignant and in some respects controversial account of the expedition the account of some of the richer fee paying climbers was an eye opener

corblimey · 30-12-2014 10:49am

89. Under the Banner of Heaven (Krakauer). I'd never heard of Fundamentalist Mormonism until I read this book, but as ever, when it comes to religion, you know there's going to be some insanity in the minds of the devotees. It's quite a small story in its framing device, but Krakauer takes us on a history of Mormonism and its violent past, although he does tend to linger more on the first few years when the blood was flowing freely than the 20th century when things got a little more civilised. Fascinating book nonetheless.

This has been a year for me 'discovering' Krakauer - I've read 3 of his books and enjoyed them all, even though they were all on very different subjects. I've added a few more of this to my new year Amazon basket.

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corblimey · 30-12-2014 10:52am

90. Double Dead (Wendig). Bought because it appeared on someone else's log and sounded interesting, but I didn't like it at all. A foul mouthed vampire wakes up in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and teams up with a rag-tag band of blah blah to whatever. I didn't like any character in this book, in particular the protagonist, which made the reading a fairly joyless activity.

I think that's going to do it for fiction for me.

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corblimey · 30-12-2014 10:59am

91. Catch Me If You Can (Abagnale, Redding). I didn't particularly for the movie when it came out, but reading this book now years later has put me in mind of re-watching it and giving it a fair shake. It's the story of how a teenaged Frank Abagnale travelled around the States posing as a pilot, cashing fake checks and living the high life. It's slightly unbelievable (maybe a little Hollywoodised) how he went about it (it would be impossible to do the same in this day and age) and how many times he came close to capture, but a compelling story from start to end.

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corblimey · 31-12-2014 9:22am

92. George Washington's Secret Six (Kilmeade). My ninety-second and final book for 2014 is a subject matter I've not delved into before this, the American Revolutionary War, concentrating solely on the spying side of things, and in particular the Culper Ring which divulged important strategic information to Washington throughout the conflict. Very interesting and a nice introduction to what could be a whole new branch of non-fiction for me.

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corblimey · 31-12-2014 9:36am

And that's it for 2014. 92 books read, 63 (68%) of them non-fiction. Next year, I'm going to be doing something different, so while I'll keep up this log for books I read, it won't be nearly as busy as it's been these last 2 years. Just in case anyone is looking for new reading material, here's my personal top 10 for 2014:

Title|Author
One Day in September|Simon Reeve
The Troubles|Tim Pat Coogan
Under the Banner of Heaven|Jon Krakauer
Into Thin Air|Jon Krakauer
Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune|Bill Dedman and Paul Clark
The Way To Go |Kate Ascher
Mornings in Jenin|Susan Abulhawa
World War Z|Max Brooks
What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions|Randall Munroe
Radio Times Cover Story|

corblimey · 31-12-2014 9:36am

corblimey · 10-01-2015 8:05pm

And I'm back! I'm still reading, but for the time being not at the heady pace of last year.

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns (Hosseini). Tough, touching and compelling. The main story is a little trite for my liking, but its the telling of it and the circumstances in which it exists that really raise above a lot of what I read last year, best fiction book I've read in MONTHS!

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corblimey · 01-02-2015 2:03pm

2. Secret Life of Bletchley Park (McKay). Mildly interesting account of BP during and briefly, outside of the war years. I've read enough accounts of code breaking at this point that I wanted something that told of the ordinary people doing the work, how they lived, etc. I got exactly that, but (spoiler!) the ordinary people who worked there lived very ordinary lives. The book comes alive a bit as it discusses code breaking, US relations, the final days of the war, etc, but there's better accounts of these things in books about these things. So not great.

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corblimey · 14-02-2015 9:22am

3. The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper Paperback (Ascher). My third, and final Ascher book deals with the history, building and ongoing running of skyscrapers. The section about building gets a little lost in the details, but the rest is as good as expected, and you always learn something new with Ascher books - they must be a pain in the bottom to compile.

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corblimey · 14-02-2015 9:25am

4. The Second Half (Keane, Doyle).
Step 1. Ex-Manchester United and Ireland captain Roy Keane goes to the pub with Roddy Doyle and spouts nonsense for several hours.
Step 2. Doyle goes home and writes it all in his book, grammatical errors and everything ("Myself and Dion went to a restaurant").
Step 3. People buy it as a last minute Christmas present.

Woeful, and this is coming from a fan of the man and the game.

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corblimey · 14-02-2015 9:28am

5. How Google Works (Schmidt, Rosenberg). I was hoping for a history of what went on behind the scenes at Google in the early days. What I got was a self-important management book that works on the principle of 'this is how Google does it, and look how great they are!' It all seems to hang on getting the right people for the job, which is, well I'm not in HR, but it sounds like pretty straightforward thinking to me.

This year has not been good for non-fiction so far.

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corblimey · 24-02-2015 3:16pm

6. The Onion Magazine. I'm a big fan of The Onion, Our Dumb Century is a tour de force, and I was hoping for something similar here. The Onion magazine is just like those insipid magazines they (used to?) bundle in the Sunday papers. However, this is just the covers, and basically one line of writing per page. More often than not, the writing is typical Onion-esque, counterpointing the utterly banal with the fantastical. It's a quick read, but not very funny or even whimsical, and really quite a waste of money.

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corblimey · 24-02-2015 3:21pm

7. I'll Go Home Then, it's Warm and Has Chairs (Thorne). The man behind the excellent (and fictitious?) 27bslash6.com has another book out, following the success of The Internet is a Playground, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This one slightly less so. I don't know why, the trolling is still very funny in places, but there's a few more essay-type pieces in there which I didn't much care for. Not bad all in all, but I'm not sure I'll both getting the third book, diminishing returns and all.

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corblimey · 24-02-2015 3:24pm

8. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Fowler). I was about 30 pages into this book and had no idea what I was reading, so I sought out some reviews, The first one I found ruined the surprise that comes about one-third of the way through, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It gets a bit preachy about animal rights along the way, and the main protagonist is not someone I'd befriend in the real world for reasons I can't quite grasp, but it was a good read. Or maybe my spirit has been broken by my non-fiction choices so far this year.

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corblimey · 08-03-2015 9:20am

9. Survival in the Killing Fields (Ngor). Although it's basically an outstanding account of Cambodia under the Pol Pot regime, it's bookended by his life growing up and his life in America, which are a little disappointing. But for his account of 4 years spent in the jungles outside Phnomh Penh under tyrannical rule, it's the best book I've read in a while.

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corblimey · 12-03-2015 5:09pm

10. Great Railway Maps of the World (Ovenden). More a coffee table book to dip into now and then, but I read it cover to cover. Train trips when on holidays are becoming something I'm more and more interested in, and this has some great maps and short descriptions from around the world. My only issue with it is it's too small. I would've like to delve into some of the maps a bit more, but the size on an A4 page is just too tiny, A3 sized would have been perfect, I'd say.

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corblimey · 22-03-2015 2:25pm

11. Wiseguy (Pileggi). Basically the book of the film Goodfellas, one of my favourite movies of all time and discovering that I'd never read the book came as a bit of a surprise to me. The movie adaptation follows the book pretty closely, although some of the let's call them 'anecdotes' were left out. It takes the form of backstory for the most part, but Henry and Karen give first hand accounts of a lot of it. A recommended read. I'm off now to watch the movie again.

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corblimey · 22-03-2015 2:31pm

12. Fever Pitch (Hornby). A re-read of what was definitely my favourite Nick Hornby book, although me now and me when I first read it about 20 years ago are 2 very different people. Back then, I was as football-mad as Hornby was and could recognise myself in his addiction. Now, not so much, so the book comes off a little navel gazey at times. When written, it had been only about 2 years since Hillsborough and the good times of the Premiership and Sky Sports were still in their infancy, so the football of then bears very little resemblance to the football of today. Not that I'd know, I can barely tell you who plays for Manchester United these days. Still, a pretty good read.

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corblimey · 31-03-2015 7:52pm

13. Adrian Mole The Prostrate Years (Townsend). The eighth, and presumably final, Adrian Mole is a bit of a misery fest, veering from melancholy to outright depression with nary a bit of the wit and sparkle of the first 2 books -- still personal favourites of mine. There's an attempt at a happy ending in literally the last page of the book which feels more like something foisted on Townsend by her publisher. Just not a fun read at all.

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corblimey · 31-03-2015 7:54pm

14. The Shallows (Carr). I don't agree with the underlying premise that the internet has rewired our brains and made 'deep reading' something we no longer do as a species. However, the book itself contains interesting histories of various objects that have had the same effect on mankind down through the centuries (maps, watches, books) so maybe in 20 years time when we're all limited to 140 characters per conversation, this will be the source of truth.

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corblimey · 11-04-2015 2:49pm

15. America Unchained (Gorman). Dave Gorman attempts to buy a car in California and cross the USA, while not paying any money to "the man", staying in independent hotels, eating in independent diners and getting gas from independent gas stations. Nice idea, but it just isn't a very good book. It's not funny, at best it's wry in places, but Gorman seems sort of bad tempered throughout. Also, like most of Dave's books, the project has no jeopardy, so when, as they usually do, he fails to keep up his end, it has no downside, and he continues writing. Bit pointless.

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corblimey · 11-04-2015 2:53pm

16. 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi (Zuckoff). An in-depth account of the attacks on American diplomatic buildings in Libya in 2012. It starts off with an all-too-brief history of the region and then segues into an episode of 24 basically. It's not great, and veers into 'America, F**k Yeah!' territory way too often.

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corblimey · 15-04-2015 9:56am

17. The Princess Bride (Goldman). The movie has been on my to-watch bucket for a while now, but thought I'd read the book first. It's a fairly enjoyable romp, as they say, and fun and easy read, but I don't think much of the plot device that Goldman has chosen, creating a fictional author and book from which this one has been adapted. I thought it might have a deeper satirical reason, but according to wikipedia, Goldman did it because he ran out of steam on Chapter 2. I'll give it a pass for the story within the story, which should have stood on its own.

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corblimey · 28-04-2015 9:31am

18. The Devil in the White City (Larson). Half of this book is great, dealing with the establishment, running and dissolution of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. The other half is less so, dealing with the tale of the man widely considered to be one of America's first serial killers, H H Holmes. The connection between these 2 stories -- that they both happened in Chicago -- is tenuous at best, and each ruins the other at worst. I want a book about the World's Fair, not a mass murderer; equally I suspect people who want a book about a mass murderer are not that interested in 19th century architecture. I'll give it a pass for the World's Fair bit.

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corblimey · 25-05-2015 1:43pm

19. Think Like a Freak (Levitt, Dubner). A departure from their previous books, this one tries to impart the wisdom the authors have accumulated in the past. They try to teach the reader how to think small, make connections, be a Freakonomist basically. I'm a big fan of the great Freakonomics Radio podcast so it was a bit disappointing that so many of the show topics I've already heard were in the book, sometimes word for word. Whether the book came first or the podcast I can't say but if you've consumed one, the other doesn't add anything.

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corblimey · 25-05-2015 1:44pm

20. No place to hide (Greenwald). Quite an interesting piece about Edward Snowden and how Greenwald came to break the NSA story. It deals first with how the 2 met and the time they spent in Hong Kong. It also deals with the aftermath as the NSA various world govts and sections of the media raced to condemn and praise in equal measure both Snowden and Greenwald. In the middle of these is a dizzying chapter detailing the invasions on privacy perpetrated by the NSA which is basically wall to wall acronyms and jargon but does paint a horrifying picture of the world in which we live. I wouldn't read this if you were in any way paranoid as it will just confirm your fears but everybody else should have a look.

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corblimey · 25-05-2015 1:48pm

21. Detroit An American Autopsy (LeDuff). LeDuff catalogs some of the miseries of life in Detroit after the collapse of the motor industry in that city. He meets the bad guys - the politicians, beurocrats, the pimps and thugs - and the good guys - the policemen, firemen and workers struggling to make a difference. The divisions are very clearly delineated by LeDuff, everything appears completely black or white - there doesn't seem to be any grey there at all.
The stories are clearly newspaper stories written by LeDuff during his tenure at Detroit News and sometimes give a little more meat. I could also have done without the various familial based stories which seemed to be a desperate attempt to personalise the situation. It's quite a depressing little read signposting the decline of civilisation but if you want to know more about living in one of Americas poorest cities, it's certainly recommended.

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corblimey · 25-05-2015 1:51pm

22. The Abbey (Culver). To go from Detroit An American Autopsy to this makes for a sort of theme, with quite different conclusions. It's actually not a bad little novel, although I'm not sure that the hook of a hard drinking Muslim family man slash detective cop as the hero really adds anything to the genre. Most of it could've come from the hand of Michael Connelly and his Bosch character.
The story though is pretty good, quite original, and well paced, although it feels a bit strange that we don't meet his nemesis until we're about 90% of the way through the book.

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corblimey · 25-05-2015 1:53pm

23. The Burst of Creamup (Tvcream). Tvcream is a website dealing with what they call the cream years of popular culture loosely the 70s, 80s and the early 90s. Basically my formative years. This "e"book covers some of their writing from the early noughties and runs the gamut from television to music to radio to movies, all delivered in their own inimitable style which largely consists of run on sentences and nicknames for everybody. It's impenetrable in places but mostly very good and as I say I'm the target market really. It was also nice to find out the name of that song we used to watch on hard rotation on Super Channel while in college (Hello by Twinkle, but don't Google it)

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corblimey · 25-05-2015 1:55pm

24. Jony Ive, the Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products (Kahney) [Why yes, I was on holiday, how did you know?] The book I wanted when I originally read the Steve jobs autobiography, this concentrates on the stuff Jony, an integral part of Apple's success, designed for the company. There's quite a bit o filler about his co-workers & their histories and Jobs' presence and supposed ingenuity is on display for most of it.
I was also going to complain that for a book about design some illustrations wouldn't go astray - I found myself breaking off from reading to Google pictures of the various machines and whatnot Ivey designed during his career. However it turns out the last 100 odd pages are all illustrations and photos. Would've been good to have the described products right there as their various aspects were being discussed in words and maybe this was a quirk of the electronic version I read, but at least they were there.

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corblimey · 25-05-2015 1:58pm

25. Armchair Nation (Moran). A highly recommended history of British television from its first presentation on a screen measuring just 1.5" by .5" through its spread across the country, the advent of colour, cable, satellite and inevitably the reality laden dross we have in the 2000s. There are some odd diversions along the way like several pages about 80s show crossroads and constant references to 50s Gilbert Harding. It also gets a little self important and pompous in places (or to be technically accurate, it quotes people who are a little self important and pompous) but it's easily the best book I've read about television and looking good for book of the year.

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corblimey · 21-06-2015 2:28pm

26. Dear Luke, We Need to Talk (Moe). Made up letters and memos connected with cultural events, both fictional and non-fictional. Funny for the most part, although quite a few of them go on far too long, and some were meaningless to me, not being familiar with Gilligan's Island or Twilight. The ones that were simple and concise though often hit the mark though (like the one to Billy Joel, the Piano Man and the eponymous letters to Luke Skywalker from Darth).

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corblimey · 21-06-2015 2:34pm

27. Console Wars (Harris). I was a Sega kid growing up, I remember hiring a Mega Drive from Xtravision every weekend I could and staying up all night playing games. This book covers this period, with Sega the young upstarts against the evil empire of Nintendo. It's not in the least bit impartial, but I still have a soft spot for them (I currently own 4 Dreamcasts) so I didn't mind too much, although it got a little wearing towards the end. I was surprised by Sony's involvement in the era too, I had always considered the PSX to be a sort of afterthought when consoles started making tons of money, but Sony are right in the middle.

One thing that annoyed me (apart from the Nintendo bashing) was the writing style, it's done in the style of a novel, and purports to describe what people were thinking and describes conversations between people as if they were transcribed. I'm not sure I believe most of the details, but the business and public side is a lot more dependable.

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corblimey · 26-06-2015 2:54pm

28. Dominion (Sansom). I really like the premise of this book, what if Churchill had never been made Prime Minister and engaged in war with Hitler in 1939. The alternate history that is painted by Sansom is quite believable and there are some nice touches throughout. I have one problem with the book though which I won't spoil for those who want to read it:

The main protagonist has absolutely no effect on the story. He does some stuff, but in the end, the alternate history ends without his input

That said, I did enjoy it, although could've done without the constant backtracking as he explained what each major character was doing while you were reading about a different character. It made the timeline a little hard to follow.

Uh, maybe I didn't like it as much as I thought

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corblimey · 01-07-2015 1:00pm

29.The News: A User's Manual (de Botton). Quote, Alain de Botton explores our relationship with 'the news' in this book full of his trademark wit and wisdom, end quote. Zzzz.

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corblimey has got too many books

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