Alan Files does read books.

We

2008-07-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

Title: "We"
Author: Charles A Lindbergh
Recommended by: Jason Hall (roundabout)

My friend Jason Hall works for Google (on google reader, which is amazing), and he had shared an item about Charles Lindbergh, and his involvement in making the artificial heart pump. And that got me thinking about how I don't know much about Lindbergh, so I went out and got his autobiography, and a book that was a series of essays on his life, by other authors.

I didn't know much about Lindbergh before this, so I'll recap: He was the first person to fly from New York to Paris, which he did in the Spirit of Saint Louis, in something like 33 hours, in 1927. That is what he's most famous for, but he also pushed aviation to where it is today by promoting air mail, convincing cities to build airports, and innovation in a number of aviation techniques. He was a very impressive person.

The book was pretty good, and Lindbergh comes across as very humble, but with strong passions. I was most impressed with how Lindbergh follows what he believes wholeheartedly, but accepts any situation he's put into and adapts to that new situation without being slowed by his previous way of thinking.

Another thing that seems so impressive is that Lindbergh unites humanity (that's where the title "We" comes from). Europeans and Americans are connected by his flight, and I wonder if there are many things left that can unite people (or even just Americans) as Lindbergh's flight did. I think landing a man on the moon provided a similar experience, but the number of people involved in that was huge, and it's hard to point to one person there as America's favorite son.

Recommendation: Biographies are always enlightening, no matter how the writing is, and I feel I've actually learned something for myself from the character of Charles A. Lindbergh. 8/10

Born Standing Up

2008-04-03T19:57:00.000-07:00

Title: Born Standing Up - a comic's life
Author: Steve Martin
Recommened by: Lesley (my sister)

So, after recommending Steve Martin's short novels to my sister, she picked up this book, his autobiography, and read it. I'm not sure my sister ever read his other stories, or if she had to read this for class, or what happened, but I'll throw the credit to her for recommending it.

This book is Steve Martin's short (~200 pages) autobiography , going through his life, how he got into comedy, how he got famous, and how he walked away from it. It's really interesting, Steve Martin's style is very personal, but not contrived. It feels like he's talking to you, instead of trying to make it feel like he's talking to you. Subtle difference, huge effect.

My favorite thing about this book is how moving it is. People often think that just because it's funny, comedy isn't serious. But humour isn't just a defensive trait, and it's possible to be both funny and serious at the same time. Steve Martin does a great job tying in how comedy and his life go together.

Recommendation: I loved it. 9/10

Eunoia

2008-03-06T08:43:00.000-08:00

Title: Eunoia
Author: Christian Bök
Recommened by: Ben Moss

Back to book reviews, right? Right!

It's a poetry book, but unlike anything I'd ever seen before. The first I heard about this book was from my friend Ben Moss, who has one of the poems as his instant messenger away message. I read it, and like it, but it took me a while to figure out what was odd about it, so here it is:

Pilgrims, digging in shifts, dig till midnight in the mining pits, chipping flint with picks, drilling schist with drills, striking it rich mining zinc. Irish firms, hiring micks whilst firing Brits, bring in smiths with mining skills: kilnwrights grilling brick in brickkilns, millwrights griding grist in gristmills. Irish tinsmiths, fiddling with widgits, fix this rig, driving its drills which spin whirring drillbits. I pitch in, fixing things. I rig this winch with its wiring; I fit this drill with its piping. I dig this ditch, filling bins with dirt, piling it hight, sifting it, till I find bright prisms twinkling with glitz.

The thing is, it only uses the vowel 'i'. And that's the idea behind this book. There are 5 different main sections, each devoted to a vowel. Each section contains entries like the above, but using the vowel for that section. It's really amazing how the author can have such freedom of expression while being limited to one vowel. Some of the sections are better than others, and my favorite is 'i' because everything seems more lyrical, and as you might imagine, the 'u' sections isn't very large, but it's all impressive.

Recommendation: 6/10, some of them are really good, but most of the time, it's just more impressive that someone was able to write this book.

Children of Dune / God Emperor of Dune

2008-03-05T14:28:00.000-08:00

Title: Children of Dune, and God Emperor of Dune
Author: Frank Herbert
Recommened by: Myself

Okay, I haven't been reading too much in 2008. And when I say "I haven't been reading much" I almost always mean, "I haven't been reading much besides SciFi". I finished books 3 and 4 of the Dune series last month, and I enjoyed them both a lot. Dune is shaping up to be one of the best series I've ever read, and I'll probably be at the library soon to pick up the next book.

This entry is going to be pretty unique though, first off, I'm covering 2 books, and secondly, I'm not even going to talk about them much. They fit very well in the Dune series, and both differ from the other books. It's enjoyable that the books are all so different, it lets you see a lot of sides to the author, and doesn't get old quickly.

But mainly, I want to talk about science fiction. I find that no matter what's going on, I'm always reading a scifi book on the side. I think that science fiction is really great in it's views of reality (this is also why Philip K Dick is my favorite sf writer). Science fiction can create a world that is so different from the one we're use to, it's guaranteed to make you think. A lot of people throw out science fiction, and don't give it much credit, but I find it to be one of the most challenging genres. In a society where imagination seems to take a backseat, scifi can be a great release. Reading in general will make you think, but I feel scifi makes you stretch your brain to the fantastic concepts it provides. In conclusion, pick up one of Philip K Dick's books of short stories, and when you're bored, read one. It'll be quick, and it'll make you think, what more would you want?!

Recommendation: Anyway, Dune's great. 9/10

The Interesting Narative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

2008-01-16T19:37:00.000-08:00

Title: The Interesting Narative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
Author: Olaudah Equiano
Recommended by: Who knows?

I can't really remember how I got my hands on this book, but it was really interesting. Olaudah Equiano was an African who was taken into the slave trade in 1760. He was a slave in the area around the virgin islands, and worked as a sailor for his master until he earned his freedom, and took to being a freeman sailor, and finally moved to England where he wrote this book.

The book is about his life, and he wrote it to speak on some of the terrible things he'd seen in the course of it. He makes the point that slavery should be banned though he never makes a formal case against it, he lets his witness speak. It really made me think a lot about the condition of the world then, and that slavery wasn't only bad because it made people unequal, but it also poisoned the minds and actions of people. Olaudah talks about times when as a freeman he is almost taken back into slavery, or how people would cheat him and steal his goods, because a freeman didn't really have rights protected by law.

Other than that, there's a lot of talk about his time on different boats, and how the sailing life was. The author also explains his coming to the christian faith in steps throughout his life.

One of my goals this year is to read more biographies, and I feel that autobiographies usually have a feel to them like the author is making much of himself, but this account seems a exercise in humility, because Olaudah never makes much of his own actions, but seems a faithful observer of the things going on around him.

Recommendation: 9/10, It's pretty short, and turns the wheels.

2007 Finished Reading List

2008-01-01T22:38:00.000-08:00

Alright, 2007, quite the year. I broke my own personal record by reading 39 books this year. I didn't write about all these books, but if there's anything you really want to hear about, you can comment, and I'll write a review of it, if you want.

Here's the list of Title - Author - Date Finished:

Busting Vegas - Ben Mezrich - 1/4
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera - 1/7
Itching Parrot - Fernandez De Lizardi - 1/16
Life of Pi - Yann Martel - 2/2
Fight club - Chuck palahniuk - 2/6
The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - Edgar Allan Poe - 2/13
The starfish and the Spider - Ori Brafman & Rod Beckstrom - 2/22
Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert - 3/4
Eats, Shoots, & Leaves - Lynne Truss - 3/15
Battle Royale - Koushun Takami - 3/26
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig - 4/3
Shopgirl - a nolleva - Steve Martin - 4/7
Same kind of different as me - Ron Hall - 4/16
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - 4/17
A man without a country - Kurt Vonnegut - 4/18
Ugly Americans - Ben Mezrich - 4/24
No one belongs here more than you - Miranda July - 5/30
The Golden Man - Phillip K. Dick - 6/1
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe - 7/8
The alphabet of manliness - Maddox - 7/15
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -JK Rowling - 7/31
Amarillo Slim: In a world full of fat people - Amarillo Slim - 8/4
Make Love: the Bruce Campbell Way - Bruce Campbell - 8/16
Arabian Nights: 10 selected stories - 8/20
I am Legend - Richard Matheson - 8/22
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time - Mark Haddon - 8/28
If chins could kill: Confessions of a B movie actor - Bruce Campbell -8/31
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - 9/20
The Backwash squeeze & other improbable feats: a newcomer's journey into the world of bridge - Edward McPherson - 9/28
Velvet Elvis : repainting the christian faith - Rob Bell - 10/26
The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman - 11/7
License to steal - Dennis Marlock - 11/9
The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman - 11/19
The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman 12/4
Next - Michael Criton - 12/15
A hog on Ice and other curious expressions - Charles Earle Funk - 12/26
They speak with other tongues - John L. Sherrill - 12/26
Magic in Action - Richard Bandler - 12/26

The Kite Runner

2007-09-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

Title: The Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Recommended by: Francine Ndaribamare, Aaron Kite, and my mother.

Well, a bunch of people have recommended this book to me, but I've been pretty hesitant to pick it up. It's about Afghanistan, and my last experience with Afghanistan was Rambo 3, and that movie was really boring for the first like 40 minutes. (sidenote: I hear that Rambo 3 picks up at the end, and he blows up a horizon, or something like that) Anyway, I finally decided to give this book a go.

The story is about the life of a boy who grew up in Afghanistan, and then flees the country with his father after the political structure of the country starts to fail. Also, the story involves the boy's best friend, who is his family's servant, and the events that bring them apart. The story also has some pretty dark spots.

I really liked all of the characters in this book, I thought they all had very strong presences in the story. The main thing I didn't like was that the main character never really seems to change. In the story of him growing up, and into his adult life, he pretty much always acts the same way. And I guess it's a type of character development to have the character always fall into the same traps, but I enjoy a more dynamic development, involving epiphany and change. I also really enjoyed the ending of this story, I thought it was very strong, building up from the whole story, without the need for any shock value.

Recommendation: 7/10, If it's between reading this book, or watching Rambo 2, I'd watch Rambo 2. Because Rambo blows up a waterfall in it.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

2007-09-10T14:28:00.000-07:00

Title:The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Author: Mark Haddon
Recommended by: none, a table?

When I went into the bookstore to get I am Legend, there was a table with books on it, a common sight in a book store. And there were a lot of books I'd read and liked, and since they were all on the same table, I saw this book, and then rented it from the library the next day. (Yeah, I pretty much only use bookstores as convenient browsing sites for books.)

The story is about a mildly autistic kid, who's trying to figure out who killed a dog in his neighborhood. But the book isn't really about that at all, the kid himself is writing the book, and it's really cool to see into his mind and how he thinks about things. The kid is also good at math, and there are some fun math bits thrown into the book. Also, it all takes place in England, so that makes it a little more exciting, somehow. Also, the kid likes outer space and machines and math, so I guess I'm a little biased on the topics.

Note to clarify: This book is fiction, the author is not autistic, but he does work with autistic kids.

Recommendation: 8/10, it's a quick read, and has some well done character development.

I am Legend

2007-08-23T14:10:00.000-07:00

Title: I am Legend
Author: Richard Matheson
Recommended by: Andrew Sharp

I was talking to Andrew Sharp about that new Will Smith movie coming out (what are the odds he'll make a song for it? high.) It's called I am Legend, and it's based off this book. Andrew was the one who informed me that there was a book, so I started searching for it at my local librarys and across OhioLink (it's a big network connecting a lot of libraries in Ohio). I couldn't find a copy, so I actually went out and bought it, cause I was really interested.

The story is about a future where a plague has turned it's victims into what appear to be vampires. The main character is all alone in LA and has holed up in his house at night, and during the day he hunts down these vampires. The main character eventually searches out what causes the plague, and tries to scientifically find out why vampires react to garlic, crosses, and if the only way to kill one is with a wooden stake.

I really enjoyed this book because it wasn't a horror story at all. I'm not a big fan of scary books, or movies, and the writing in this was great because it focused a lot on the main character's human element, which is the very thing seperating him from the vampires.

Recommendation: 9/10, this is the best vampire book since Dracula, maybe better.

Make Love: The Bruce Campbell way

2007-08-20T06:28:00.000-07:00

Title: Make Love: The Bruce Campbell way
Author: Bruce Campbell
Recommended by: Jason Hall (double indirectly)

My buddy Jason works on google reader, and he got me using it, and I think it's great. Anyway, one of his shared items on google reader was about Bruce Campbell, and it made me decide to check out any books Bruce Campbell had written. (Shared items are pretty great, if Jason reads something exciting from his google reader subscriptions he can share it, and then people who read his shared items can read it too.)

This book was about Bruce Campbell making it big. (If you don't know who Bruce Campbell is, he was in a lot of B-movies.) So in the book, he gets to be in a big budget romatic comedy called "Let's make love" with A-list actors like Richard Gere. As filming for the movie goes on, and Bruce sugests some ideas, the movie quickly becomes full of B-movie type gags, and gets a little out of control.

The story is really entertaining, it starts out pretty believable, but by the end of the book, everything is crazy and out of hand. But this happens in such a gradual way, that I didn't even realize how crazy it had become until I stepped back and tried to explain the story to my friend Mark. I also really enjoyed this book since it was one of the first really funny books I've read this year.

Recommendation: 9/10, If you've ever liked anything that had Bruce Campbell, you'll like this.

Robinson Crusoe

2007-08-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

Title: Robinson Crusoe
Author: Daniel Defoe
Recommended by: John Jencson

This book also came recommended in the conversation with John Jencson about reading the classics. Always a good idea.

This book is about a man who grows up in an upper middle class type of family, but is intrigued by the sea, and leaves to make his fortune at sea against his father's wishes. He gets shipwrecked alone, and lives for more than 20 years on an island. He's pretty clever in how he makes his life easier on the island, and how he stays busy with the grand projects he undertakes.

Maybe my favorite thing about this book is his faith, how he leaves it as a youth, and returns in times of trouble, only to lose it when the danger's past, to his finding full comfort in it. What I really like is that the book seems to reference the topic of faith in such an easy way. It's clear that it's not what the book is about, but it's also clearly a part of the character. I thought both The Itching Parrot and The Count of Monte Cristo both did a great job with this too. It's probably due to the fact that these books all came from a couple hundred years ago.

Anyway, it was a great book, my only complaint was that the only copy I had was from like 1960. And since I'm a big fan of early modern english writing, I felt I missed out since I had a "updated" translation.

Recommendation: 9/10, It's a great story, and connects the reader well with the main character.

The Golden Man and other short stories

2007-06-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

Title: The Golden Man, and other short stories.
Author: Philip K. Dick
Recommended by: Myself

About 80% of the time, besides just reading regular books, I'll be reading some collection of short stories. I love short stories, and science fiction ones especially because they're easy to read, they're quick, and sf ones usually mess with your mind just a little bit, everything you want.

Anyway, with the movie 'Next' coming out, I read the book containing that short story. And it's a pretty good collection, including one of my favorites, and one of Dick's few pieces of fantasy, "The King of the Elves." Reading this book also inspired me to buy the full collection of Philip K. Dick's short stories. Philip K. Dick, if you don't know, was an amazing science fiction writer, and a good number of his stories were made into movies, including the world's best movie, Total Recall.

Recommendation: 8/10: short stories, science, and... wait for it.... fiction! Yeah, nothing like fiction to take that edge off of science. Science says, "Flying cars are unpractical and won't happen." Science fiction says that those very same cars are piloted by robots!

The Count of Monte Cristo

2007-06-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

Title: The Count of Monte Cristo
Author: Alexandre Dumas
Recommended by: John Jencson

My buddy John and I were in a book store in Texas, at a frisbee tournament, and we were talking about great classics, and he said he really enjoyed this one. So I decided to read it.

And I was impressed throughout the entire book. First off, the actual book that I had was from the Ohio State library, and was printed in 1914. It was awesome, it was in it's own case to preserve it, and it had all the old fashion spellings of words, and pictures ever 70 pages or so. It was by far the oldest copy of something I've read.

The story is about a young man heading upwards in the world, when he gets set up and imprisoned by his jealous 'friends'. He eventually escapes the jail, amasses a fortune, and seeks his revenge. And most of the story is contained in that revenge, which is not so much wild or violent, as it is well planned and just.

And the story is amazing, I love how the author dealt with the main character's mindset. And the way everything develops through the story, from the first generation of characters to their offspring. The book also contains what I think is the best scene in a book I've read, which is where the Abbe Busconi talks to Cadderouse, at the Count's mansion.

Recommendation: 10/10, This is the second best book I've read this year. The Itching Parrot being #1, and it was also amazing. But this one is definitely worth your time.

No One Belongs Here More Than You

2007-05-31T23:11:00.001-07:00

Title: No one belongs here more than you
Author: Miranda July
Recommended by: Ben Moss (kind of)

Ben Moss linked me to the author's website (http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/) and that made me think, I really like short stories, and I like this website. So I checked out the book and read it. Side note: I was the first person to check it out from my library, the date stamped on the edge of the book by the library was the day I picked it up, it was a cool feeling.

The book was pretty good. I really like the way she writes, and I love short stories, there's so much to think about in small chunks. The way she writes really reminds me of my friend Kelly's blog. But.... there was one thing, just one thing. Almost all of the stories ended up being about homosexual relationships, and I just wasn't expecting it. Seriously, a story would go on for like 10 pages, just talking about some person, and their life, and how they really like to eat soup, or repair radios or whatever people do, then the next thing you know, they're in a homosexual relationship, I just always never saw it coming.

Recommendation: 6/10, I really did like her writing style, but the website was more awesome than the book, so I feel (slightly) tricked.

A Man Without a Country - Kurt Vonnegut

2007-05-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

Title: A Man Without a Country
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Recommended by: Glenn Files (my father!)

This book as well was not so much recommended as one day my dad came up to me, and told me that he had found this book in a cheap book sale. Anyway, both my father and I are big Kurt Vonnegut fans, but I was kind of weary of this latest book that had come out.

The book took quite a different route from much of Vonnegut's other work, because this book was closer to a set of memoirs than the usual fare. It was still pretty well done, and I feel Kurt Vonnegut's writing is amazing, reading the book seems more like a conversation than anything else. Still, as far as it goes, I don't much like books making political points, and enjoyed this far less than the average Vonnegut.

Recommendation: 6/10, it felt like a good insight into the mind of Vonnegut, and like you were hearing it from the man himself, but, given a pile of his books, it would probably be the last one I would pick up.

Shopgirl - a novella

2007-04-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

Title: Shopgirl - a novella
Author: Steve Martin
Recommended by: Myself

And by recommended by myself, I mean that I was at the library trying to find CD's of Steve Martin's stand up, and found books he wrote instead. I read 'The Pleasure of my Company', and really liked it, so I thought I'd give his first (short) book a try.

I didn't think too much of this book, it was pretty average, although Steve Martin does an excellent job at single characters, and their mindset. That skill is what makes 'The Pleasure of my Company' such a good book, since it is about a obsessive compulsive half crazy main character. But in this book on relationships between basically 3 characters, it didn't seem very useful. My problem is more to do with this book's subject than the way it's written. This book is about a 28 year old woman, and her relationship with a 50-something year old man, and how they grow and what they learn through each other. It just didn't seem very fun to read, or challenging to think about.

Recommendation: 5/10, a quick read, not too noteworthy, but an interesting style of writing. But listen, if you're going on my recommendation, then just go read 'The Pleasure of my Company'.

Battle Royale

2007-03-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

Title: Battle Royale
Author: Koushun Takami (translated from Japanese to English by Yuji Oniki)
Recommended by: Andy Theiss

This book's about an oppressive government that runs a "Program" once a year, where one class of 40 students is selected , they're given weapons, and they battle each other to the death. This book follows one class's participation in "The Program". It's a pretty long book, but it reads really quickly, and is full of action. And it's not just flash and gore, the book deals pretty well with the state of mind, paranoia, and fatigue of all the students.

Andy Theiss let me borrow this book on a plane trip, and I felt I couldn't get enough time with it. I'd sit down to start reading, and time would fly by.

Recommendation: Pretty intense while also being thought provoking! 8/10.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

2007-03-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

Title: Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Author: Lynne Truss
Recommended by: Matt Welty (Through Facebook)

I started reading books that were listed as my friends "favorites" on facebook. I mean, I trust my friends, and they have to like the book enough to list it. This book was on punctuation, and it wasn't that hot. The lady spent a lot of time being angry about people doing crazy punctuation errors like using a comma instead of an apostrophe. She was also British, so maybe things are a little crazier in the writing system over there, anarchy among the semi-colons. I learned a lot about how to use what in different situations, punctuation-wise, but I couldn't get over this lady's attitude.

She didn't seem to realize that language evolves, and even though she would mention ways that it had changed, she wanted to hold on so tightly to her view of punctuation. But it was her anger at the incorrect punctuation that bothered me. So what if some people use it incorrectly, it'll change. The last chapter of the book was really interesting though, talking about the effects caused by the internet, and how ideas (like punctuation) travel so quickly, and change rapidly.

Recommendation: If you love punctuation, and witty sayings about it, you'll love this. Otherwise you'll probably enjoy looking at this picture infinitely more. 6/10

Dune Messiah

2007-03-08T21:24:00.000-08:00

Title: Dune Messiah
Author: Frank Herbert
Recommened by: Myself

Well, try as I might against it, the first book I'm posting about is science fiction. Ah, SF, my true love. Anyway, I realized one day that I'd never read the Dune Chronicles. So I read Dune last year, and I really liked it, and this book didn't disappoint in the series. It progressed the world of Dune, and made you really believe Muad'Dib is the man, and that the spice is life. Also, Herbert's way of writing really makes the reader feel that they are inside the heads of the characters, through the confusion, triumphs, failures, and prescience.

Recommendation: Dune's timeless, 9/10.

Not quite yet

2007-03-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

Here I hope to post book reviews, about the books I read, something along this fashion:

Title:
Person who recommended:
What I thought:

It'll be a blast people.