A Hand Like the Raw Edge of Lightning...

Near the end of high school and throughout most of my undergraduate years I was a big fan of Louis L'Amour. I still consider myself a big fan, but having read all his books there was nothing left for me to read: Or so I thought. I came across The Key-Lock Man in the library the other day and picked it up.

The solitary rider did not fear his aloneness, for he had the companionship of the mind. He had strength also, patience beyond that of most men, and some knowledge of the wild lands into which he rode. If the men who pursued knew nothing of him, he at least knew their kind, and was stronger because of this.

It is this type of over-the-top, melodramatic, toughguy writing that endeared me to L'Amour. I consider westerns to be the man's version of the romance novel. They are formulaic, slight embarrassing to be caught with, and addictive.

"alternative" aggression may be worse than a swift kick to the back side...

I picked up an audio book at the library the other day; primarily for my wife. On my way to work on Monday, I realized I didn't have anything cued up in my shuffle, so I grabbed Odd Girl Out on my way to the car. As the father of a new baby girl, I thought it might me interesting to find out about female "alternative aggression". Interesting is not the word. I am down right frightened. It isn't popular to say this, but I had a relatively idyllic childhood. I wasn't one of the Popular kids, but I had good friends and I got to do cool things. I had a few run-ins with bullies, but nothing a few brief moments of violence didn't cure (admittedly, after 3 weeks of fear).

The stories of non-violent bullying among girls contained in this book make me very (that is very in italics, underlined, and bolded) worried. I had no idea how traumatic, life altering, and pervasive this alternative aggression is for girls. I tried to listen to it with my wife in the car and she asked me to turn it off because it made her too uncomfortable.

Along with Gift of Fear, I recommend this book to all fathers of daughters.

One crossbow please...

If the measure of a book is the impact it has on your thought process after you put it down, Stirling's Dies the Fire is quite a book. The basic premise is that some sort of "event" causes all modern (steam engine and beyond) technology to stop working; no electronics, no internal combustion engines, no guns. Sounds like an environmentalists dream, right? Think again. A delightfully chilling exercise in how society would change if we were all suddenly dependent on the strength of our arms for security and the strength of our labors for food.

For weeks after finishing this book I was nervous if was more than 5 miles from home in case my car stopped working. I also had an overwhelming desire to go out and buy a crossbow. It might be more realistic to think in terms of a collapse due to lack of oil, but this was a good read and I highly recommend it. Afterwards, you just might sleep better with a sword under your bed.

Swimming naked with the sharks...

So I just finished Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen. I had read his Strip Tease and Lucky You a while ago, but forgot how funny he can be. While I look forward to reading more of his books, they certainly don't make me want to visit Florida anytime soon.
strong women seem to be a theme in his work. It made me think of Maureen Dowd's essay in the NYT Magazine, "What's a Modern Girl to Do?". A rather rambling collection of her musings regarding feminism, post-feminism, the feminisation of feminism, and the back lash against feminism. Anyway...she quotes several single women in her article that talk about how Men are put off by strong, accomplished, powerful women (we assume these women are referring to themselves). Her sample of women, however, seem to include only those in the New York publishing scene. Draw your own conclusions.
Let me get back to my point. I am a big fan of strong, accomplished, powerful women (one in particular) and find it somewhat insulting that Maureen Dowd can claim all Men want to "marry down" based on her circle of feminine feminists.

The truth is out there...

I enjoy a good thriller as much as the next airport reader, but sometimes one craves a bit of truth in their diet. Two books dealing with special operations and clandestine operatives stand out. For those interested in the life, both books cover the recruiting and training aspects, as well as some of the actual operations.

Cold Zero is written by a former FBI sniper that was part of their elite Hostage Rescue Team. By Way of Deception provides a some what scary depiction of the inside workings of the Mossad.

the enemy is time

So, this past week my wife and kids have been out of town. While they were gone I was supposed to finish several projects around the house. What did I do instead? I read. How am I supposed to get anything done when there are so many good books in this world.
I ran across the Jack Reacher series a few years ago while wondering the stacks in the library. In a world that values the sensitive, new-aged man, there is something refreshing about a protaganist that harkens back to the days of tough, stoical men that will kick your ass. As thrillers go, Lee Child does a good job of keeping the action well paced. His books remind me a bit of Louis L'Amour; somewhat formulaic, but a fast read and very enjoyable. A good choice if you anticipating citing around an airport departure lounge for a while. You can take vicarious satisfaction as Reacher out thinks and out fights the bad guys. He is a man that just doesn't take the crap the rest of have to put up with every day of our civilised lives.

You don't know what you've got till its gone...

Another book I really enjoyed was A RETURN TO MODESTY: Discovering the Lost Virtue by Wendy Shalit. Published in 2000, I found her insight prescient and a refreshing counterweight to bombardment of exposed flesh that seemed to have reached a crescendo in the summer of 2004. In commenting on this book I must walk a careful line between sounding like a religious zealot demanding women be covered from head to toe and a letch lurking outside the local high school leering at the teenage girls.

Shalit writes intelligently about modesty and the effects of its absence. The effects she addresses in the book (according to my memory; please correct me if I am wrong) are mostly concerned with the trend of immodesty and the misery it brings to young women. I would have liked her thoughts on the effects all that skin has had on the male population as well. Either way, I think this is a book dealing with an important issue in a way that is both philosophically robust and approachable.

Get your Freak on...

So I am listening to Freakanomics on my shuffle. I have always been a fan of audio books because they open up so many additional opportunities for "reading". Got errands to run? You can read while driving. Got a fussy baby? You can read while walking laps around the couch. Time to work out? You can read while running. I have found the best way to get audio books is to check out Books on CD from the library and then convert them to mp3s. I even found some third party software called Markable that converts CD audio books to the format necessary to play on Apple's ipod (that includes the ability to bookmark). It is well worth the $15.

Jump or don't jump, just stop with the F word

So I recently finished A Long Way Down by Nick Hornsby. I really liked the film High Fidelity. I know we could all get distracted by the fact that I saw the movie without reading the book, but this is one of the rare times I haven't read the book. Besides, it would detract from my point. By now you are probably asking what my point is. My point is the F word. Now I can appreciate a good vulgarity when placed appropriately. I can even understand their judicious use in time of stress or high spirits. I can only hope that Mr. Hornsby assigned some sort of hot key on his word processor to that word to avoid a repetitive stress disorder. I thought military personnel were bad, but this set a new standard. Let's just say you wouldn't want to choose this one if you are looking for an audio book for the family road trip.

The first step is admitting you have a problem...

I realized in high school that I was different than my friends. I didn't know anyone else that would gladly stay up all night because they just couldn't stand to but the book down. While everyone else carried a walkman, I wouldn't leave the house without at least one book in my pocket (I was wearing cargo pants long before Old Navy showed up). Now I am the first to admit to a lack of "sophistication" in what I read. It has only been recently that I have learned how to leave a book unfinished if I thought it wasn't worth reading. My taste runs from Judith Martin to Orson Scott Card and back again.

Of course it isn't just books. As the blog title indicates I will read just about anything I get my hands on: Cereal boxes, bumper stickers, fine print, celebrity magazines. In fact, the only line I haven't crossed is software ULAs.

The purpose of this blog is to track in some sharable format the books I read and my impressions of those books. Most likely this site will be visited only by friends and family. A part of me hopes, however, that others will find this site and list the books they are reading. I can always use a good recommendation to feed my addiction.