Tag Archives: Books

A Post for 2012

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I’ve spent the last 10 days on vacation. A much needed one. When you’re dealing with agencies on a large-scale project that requires virtually all of your time, it’s good to take a break when they do.

So I spent my Christmas vacation sleeping, catching up on movies and generally laying about while I wasn’t eating.

And man, did I ever eat. Three amazing dinners to celebrate my birthday — one at Trezo Vino, one at J. Gilbert and one at Blanc Burger. Great meals all, but my waistline is definitely worse for the wear.

My birthday and Christmas were terrific: I got everything I really wanted (except more storage for my computer…I’ll just buy that myself), including two new rad pair of sneakers and a new leather messenger bag for work (it makes me feel totally grown up).

And now, it’s officially 2012. Resolutions suck, but it’s a great time to start anew and set new goals for the year. So here are mine:

  • I’m getting back onto Weight Watchers for real. We had some great success with it last year, but I stopped counting points and really lost my way. No more messing around. I’ve got 50 pounds to get to my goal weight. I’m aiming for getting there by the end of the year. Ideally, I’d like to be there by summer, but I want to be realistic too.
  • I’ve got two big website launches this year. I want them both to go well.
  • I want to find some sense of purpose for this site. Whether it’s WordPress or Tumblr or whatever…I want to post more and have more clarity in my posts.
  • I obviously want to improve my work/life balance…whatever that might mean.
  • I want to go on another adventure with Alli. It’s been too long since our Italian adventure. It’s time for another.
  • Drink more water.
  • I’d like to take another crack at reading 25 books this year. It’s been 5 years since I last did it. Look for an upcoming post with the books I intend to read this year.
  • Keep being awesome.

Now that they’re written down, I have to stick to them, right? Isn’t that the point of stuff like this? What do you plan to do this year?

What I’m…

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Wild at Heart

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Wild at Heart by John Eldridge

Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret to a Man’s Soul
by John Eldredge
RATING: 6 out of 10

I’ve been “reading” this book for quite a long time. I started it sometime in January and it took until June for me to finish. This was not necessarily the fault of the book (although it could be improved), but more the fault of it not being what I wanted to read.

Normally, I would have given up, but I really wanted to actually get through the book because I love the concept behind it – it delves into exactly what the title says. It talks about the spiritual aspect of how men need to be men…we’re built to be wild and passionate people and the world has emasculated us in a way that keeps us from reaching our full potential.

It sounds a little new-agey, but Eldredge has some excellent points in the book. Unfortunately, he struggles to string them together into coherent chapters. The ideas are there, but the book really needs some editing. (Mr. Eldredge, you can email me shane at this domain dot com if you need an editor.)

Over time, I felt like the book was repeating its key concepts instead of focusing them into specific sections. And while I wanted to really like it, I just couldn’t get over the organization of the book.

What did I miss?

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So I’m back from Jamaica.

The Jamaican Sky

Alli and I and the rest of the family have been at Beaches Negril since last Saturday. While we were there, my brother and his lovely significant other Kelly got hitched on the beach on Tuesday afternoon. Both families were there as were a bunch of Jake’s friends and we had a great time. After an all-day journey yesterday, we’re back in Kansas City, away from the island humidity.

It looks as though the internet didn’t break while I was gone, although I  did win a contest and my biography was posted on Brad’s site. It looks like everything else is as it was. 

I read two books while I was gone, finally finishing Wild at Heart by John Eldridge and quickly consuming Playing for Pizza by John Grisham. I’ll post reviews soon.

As far as the rest of the week…I’m taking the rest of the week off from work. I may tackle a redesign of my own site if I can do it quickly. We’ll see.

How are you?

My 2008 Book List

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In 2006, I read 25 books. In 2007, I didn’t read nearly as many. I’m going to try and read at least 25 in 2008 and here’s a list of what I’m going to start with. Some of these I got for Christmas, some are ones I’ve had for ages that I’ve intended to read for a while, but never got around to them. I need to finish Kevin’s book soon, so that will be my first one. It’ll be followed (in no particular order) by:

  1. Wild at Heart by John Eldridge
  2. Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins
  3. A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
  4. Spunk & Bite by Arthur Plotnik
  5. Lucky Dog by Mark Barrowcliffe
  6. Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
  7. The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
  8. Become a Better You by Joel Osteen
  9. The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
  10. The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
  11. Plum Island by Nelson DeMille
  12. Marley & Me by John Grogan
  13. Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield

Obviously, to get to 25 books, I need a lot more books. Leave your suggestions in the comments.

With the ongoing writer’s strike, it won’t be difficult to find time to read since, outside of American Gladiators, I don’t have a ton of shows to watch outside of Iron Chef America and the standard Bravo reality fare.

I’m sure that will be good for me. Less TV usually is.

Books in 2007

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In 2006, I read 25 books. Those books ranged from the first 6 books in the Harry Potter series to excellent nonfiction tomes like The Tipping Point to books about my industry like Designing With Web Standards.

I enjoyed most of the books, but I haven’t read nearly as many this year. I don’t know what it’s been, but I’ve still read plenty…I just haven’t posted many reviews. I read several books when we were in Europe and never got around to reviewing any of them officially.

  • Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen
  • Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
  • Textpattern Solutions by Kevin Potts, Nathan Smith, etc.
  • Songbook by Nick Hornby
  • The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
  • others that for some reason I can’t think of

I just finished reading Stormie Omartian’s book, The Power of the Praying Husband. Omartian has written several The Power of a Praying… books and Alli really loved The Power of the Praying Wife. It’s taken me quite a while to get through it completely, but I really thought it was a great read.

As someone who has a strong belief in the power of prayer, I really liked how Omartian wrote 20 different chapters about things to pray about for the most important woman in my life. There’s stuff in there that I would never really think of, but after reading through it, it made a lot of sense. Alli and I have started giving these two books to new married couples and I would highly recommend them to any married person. I really thought the book was great. Wherever you might be in your life, I think there’s a Power of Praying… book for you.

Still Thinking About It

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I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Tuesday and I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m just about ready to read all 750+ pages again, just to re-absorb and re-experience it in all its glory.

One thing that’s caused me to do is to devour all the information that I managed to avoid prior to reading the book – all the reviews and spoilers and such that have been splashed all over the news and internets. Today, I found an absolutely wonderful overview of J.K. Rowling’s accomplishment written for Entertainment Weekly by the king of the horror novel, Stephen King. NOTE: If you have not yet read the book, you’ll want to avoid the article…there are MANY spoilers.

But one thing that King does better than anyone I’ve seen so far is really get to the heart of what an accomplishment this series has been for Rowling. It may not get the literary appreciation and it might not ever be taught in schools, but the sheer scope of the world of magic she created and the way that her characters and their story grew as the years at Hogwarts passed was nothing short of magnificent.

I applaud Rowling for creating this amazing body of work that is appreciated by children and adults alike (although from about Book 5 on, the subject matter could be considered more adult in nature). My hope is that she will continue to write and create because she is more than just the writer who brought the world Harry Potter; she is extremely talented and can communicate to a wide range of age groups with ease, something that should be valued in a world where children and adults very often have trouble finding common ground in communication.

And for those of you who, like myself, felt like they were “too old” or “too educated” or whatever to appreciate Harry Potter and the wizarding world… I implore you to reconsider. What you’ll find in the books is a series that can be read and re-read, passed along to others, and enjoyed for many years to come. Plus, you’ll have 7 rather large books to add to your personal library and everyone knows that having a lot of books is cool.

Finished and Sad

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I finished the final chapter of the Harry Potter books last night and immediately felt remorse. It was like when Friends ended and I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to see Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey and Phoebe on Thursdays anymore…I will really miss Harry, Ron, Hermione, the Weasleys, Hagrid, Dumbledore, and all the Hogwarts gang.

I take off my hat to J.K. Rowling for such a wonderful accomplishment. Her books will be remembered for a very long time and Harry will go down as one of the most popular fictional literary characters in all of history.

While I recognize that we’re not talking about Salinger or Toni Morisson or F. Scott Fitzgerald here, Rowling will be known throughout history as the one who brought the world The Boy Who Lived.

As for what I thought of the book…it was terrific; more than I’d hoped for. And now I’m sad it’s done. It’s not the first time I’ve been sad to finish a book, and I certainly hope it is not the last. The rumor is that Rowling is working on a new series now. I’ll be certain not to wait several years before starting this series.

Until I pull out the series again, I’ll say this… I enjoyed every page.

Love Monkey: A Novel

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Love Monkey by Kyle Smith

Love Monkey: A Novel
By Kyle Smith
RATING: 3 out of 10

I mentioned it before, so it should be no surprise when I say that this is my least favorite book that I’ve read in the past year and a half.

I had high hopes for the book. It was dubbed as the male version of chick lit, and I have read a few chick lit books, specifically the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. I liked them and I was looking for something else since Nick Hornby’s last couple outings haven’t been all that great and I needed something light to read.

Perhaps it was my adoration for the TV show of the same name starring Tom Cavanaugh (of Ed fame), but I had some high hopes.

Boy was I wrong.

In Love Monkey, we find Tom Farrell, a copywriter at Tabloid, a New York – wait for it – tabloid newspaper. He’s a miserable case, which many of us can relate to…unlucky at work, unlucky in looks, unlucky in love, etc. He spends 80% of the book pining for a girl named Julia, who he meets and woos while she has a boyfriend from back home.

She’s very obviously unhappy in the relationship and he encourages that unhappiness by taking her fancy places and being witty (at least he thinks so). Along the way, she never really shows a lot of interest in him past friendship. He is, afterall, about 10 years older than her, and not very cool, despite his attempts at coolness.

Even despite this unrequited love that he claims overtakes him completely, he manages to date 3 other women at the same time, treating each of them with disdain and meanness…perhaps one of the most clueless men in the history of dating.

The book is based in Manhattan and when 9/11 happens, I was expecting a poignant turn. Not so. The main character really just brags about where he was when it happened and uses the story as a way to get laid, further cementing his place as the most unlikable main character I’ve read about in the last 2 years of reading.

The story comes to an abrupt end and you’re left thinking, “Is that all?” But wait…there’s more. A full 15 pages of information on the author, who like his literary likeness, Tom, can’t seem to stop talking about himself. Could have done without that.

Overall, I pretty much loathed this book. It was poorly written, it mixed metaphors, and the fact that it was turned into a failed (but likable) TV show is confusing, considering that it had absolutely nothing in common with the show except the characters names and the title.

Worst book I’ve read in several years. DO NOT READ THIS BOOK.