Tag Archives: Books

A Lack of Reading

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I’ve really been lacking in the book category this year. I haven’t been particularly inspired to read anything in particular (although I scanned through The Brand Gap and I’m about 2/3 of the way through The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.

For my first attempt this year, I wanted to read Love Monkey by Kyle Smith, the book on which the failed TV show (which I loved) was based.

I have not finished the book yet because I want to punch the main character in the face. There are characters you are supposed to dislike. And then there are characters that are supposed to be liked, but fail miserably because they are complete wanks.

Maybe I was a little too hopeful. I loved the show and thought it was a traveshamockery that it got cancelled. Tom Cavanaugh (of Ed fame) was brilliant on it and the casting was really great. After reading the book, I realized that they only took the characters and then a much better writer than Smith actually made them likable. Because the book namesakes are downright loathsome.

Not only that, but the main character doesn’t work at a cool record company, but at a tabloid (Smith works for the New York Post). You’d think it might make him that much more interesting, but it just makes him even more unlikeable.

Now I’d like to say that I’m not biased, but after I read about the crack that he laid on my boy Kevin Smith (see here near the bottom of the page), I lost a lot of respect for him. And then, after reading some of the reviews that Silent Bob came up with about Love Monkey’s original release on his site…stuff like:

“(Kyle) Smith has clearly taken lessons from a few successful writers of chick lit, but his boy version of Bridget Jones lacks the key ingredient: a sympathetic protagonist.” – Publisher’s Weekly

“In his first novel, Smith, the book and music review editor of People magazine, tries too hard to be clever (like Tom himself), piling witticism upon witticism and referencing numerous “in” people, places, and events. Consequently, the book seems facile rather than meaningful, at least to this reviewer, who is neither male nor thirtysomething nor a New Yorker. Libraries looking for lad lit to satisfy this demographic should purchase. Others can safely pass.” – Library Journal

“The monologues are nothing a smarter-than-average Maxim reader wouldn’t come up with” Kirkus Reviews

So anyway, maybe I’m a little biased because when you go after Kevin Smith, you offend me a little bit, but these reviews were more than telling. I’m not even sure if I want to finish it. It’s stalling me from getting to any other books, and now February is over and I’ve read ZERO books this year. That’s poor. Last year at this time, I’d read TEN.

So sad.

Kyle Smith, it’s all your fault.

Favorites of 2006

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I really liked Brian’s post about his favorites of 2006, so I thought I would drop mine onto the internets.

Favorite Book: This is a tough one. I’ve read more books this year than in any year past. If I wanted to seem all intellectual and whatnot, I’d say that The Tipping Point was my favorite read. And truthfully, it was my favorite non-fiction read of the year. Great writing and a fascinating book. However, I would probably say that my favorite book of the year was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Call me cheesy or whatever, but after reading all 6 Harry Potter books this year, I finally see what the big deal is. While I held high acclaim for several books this year (I had about 8 that scored higher than 9 out of 10 on my scale, including The Historian, which I called “the best book I’ve read in the last 5 years”), I can’t think of a single book outside of the fifth in the Harry Potter series that I enjoyed more.

Favorite Movie: OK, so the year’s not yet over, but I’m going to need to categorize my favorite movies…

Favorite Comedy: There were not a lot of terribly funny movies out there this year. Out of the few, I had a great time watching both The Devil Wears Prada and Little Miss Sunshine. Very different movies, but both were a lot of fun. However, my favorite comedy of the year was Stranger than Fiction. Honorable mentions for Clerks 2 and Thank You for Smoking.

Favorite Drama: Another tough one. I would like to retract my earlier statement that Leonardo di Caprio did not deserve two Best Actor nominations. After seeing Blood Diamond, I realized that he deserved every bit of them. Blood Diamond is excellent as was The Departed. I would give a slight edge to The Departed only because Jack Nicholson is so awesome in it.

Favorite Action: Casino Royale. Hands down.

Favorite Animated: Cars. Pixar does what only Pixar can do.

Favorite TV Sitcom: The Office is my clear choice here, but it is followed closely by How I Met Your Mother, which Alli and I have dubbed “the new Friends”.

Favorite TV Drama: Lost has really lost a lot of steam. Even at the top of its game, I don’t think I would enjoy it more than I am enjoying Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip these days.

Favorite TV Reality: Top Chef. Always Top Chef.

Favorite TV New: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Perhaps my favorite show on TV right now. Honorable mention for the late Six Degrees.

Favorite Album: Either St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley or Continuum by John Mayer.

Favorite Event: Changing jobs. It was really hard to leave PSI, but it’s been a great experience so far. I’m really liking my new position. Also, the Chiefs making the playoffs is up there.

Favorite Home Improvement Project: I would probably say the tiling project if Alli and I hadn’t decided to make our bedroom a priority. We just got a bed, nightstands, new lamps, and drapes. Totally changes it (although we haven’t gotten the bed yet). Now we just need a new mattress.

Favorite Trip: VEGAS BABY.

Favorite Poker Night: Coming back from being desperately short-stacked to winning in the longest heads-up match against Darin at Jason’s house.

Favorite Restaurant: Pizza Shack. Would have been Chipotle if not for an AWESOME 30th birthday outing.

Favorite Present: Easily my painting.

That should be all for now. Here’s to a great 2007.

Final 2006 Reading List

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So, now that the year is coming to a close, I figured I would give you the status of my book project for last year. I reached my goal of reading 25 books in 2006 (just barely), but I didn’t complete all the ones that I set out to read a year ago. I got to most of them (most significantly, all 6 Harry Potter books), but I didn’t complete 5 on the list. Those were supplemented with 5 others.

So here’s my list in all its glory. I had a great time reading all the books (still will have a review on Skylar in Yankeeland) and I’m quite proud of accomplishing my goal, considering how busy I have felt this whole year. You can see where I really had lapses in pace that slowed me down (DWWS, particularly), but overall, I’m pretty happy with the project.

  1. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby – FINISHED 27 DEC 2005
  2. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young – FINISHED 6 JAN 2006
  3. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy – FINISHED 24 FEB 2006
  4. Silent Bob Speaks by Kevin Smith – FINISHED 11 JAN 2006
  5. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova – FINISHED 29 JAN 2006
  6. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini – FINISHED 20 JULY 2006
  7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – FINISHED (BY LISTENING) 5 FEB 2006
  8. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling – FINISHED 8 FEB 2006
  9. Son of Fletch by Gregory McDonald – FINISHED 16 NOV 2006
  10. Fletch Reflected by Gregory McDonald – FINISHED 28 NOV 2006
  11. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – FINISHED 23 MARCH 2006
  12. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling – FINISHED 13 FEB 2006
  13. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling – FINISHED 4 APR 2006
  14. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom – FINISHED 24 JUNE 2006
  15. Dinner for Two by Mike Gayle – FINISHED 5 JULY 2006
  16. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling – FINISHED 25 APR 2006
  17. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling – FINISHED 4 MAY 2006
  18. On the Road by Jack Kerouac – FINISHED 9 AUG 2006
  19. Skylar in Yankeeland by Gregory McDonald – FINISHED 27 DEC 2006
  20. Alli’s Choice – Since Alli and I are both doing reading lists this year, we agreed to each read a book that the other chose. We haven’t yet chosen for each other, but this is a placeholder for when we do. Alli picked 52 Projects by Jeffrey Yamaguchi, which I finished on October 22, 2006.
  21. Creepers by David Morrell – FINISHED 28 FEB 2006
  22. Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln – FINISHED 15 JUN 2006
  23. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead – FINISHED 7 JULY 2006
  24. Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman – FINISHED 18 OCT 2006
  25. The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd – FINISHED 8 NOV 2006

Books I Meant to Read this year, but didn’t get to:

So this is my final list. I’m pretty proud of it. I just reached my goal of 25 books, but I missed some that I didn’t get to. Obviously those will be on my list for next year (which will hopefully come out soon…I’ve already got a few that I got for Christmas that I’m intending to read). I’m hoping to read 25 again this year, but who knows what 2007 will bring.

I’ve got some planned already, but would welcome suggestions. Put your suggestions in the comments and hopefully I will have a final intended list sometime soon.

Fletch Reflected

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Fletch Reflected

Fletch Reflected
by Gregory McDonald
RATING: 7 out of 10

Over 2 decades, Gregory McDonald wrote 11 novels featuring one of my favorite characters of all time – Irwin M. Fletcher, affectionately known as Fletch. The timeline of the books was actually really interesting, jumping around chronologically and weaving interesting characters in and out of his stories.

The last two books in the series (Son of Fletch, Fletch Reflected) are not considered a part of the Fletch series according to McDonald’s official site. The character of Fletch appears a lot in Son of Fletch (which was the last book I read), but I think that McDonald perhaps intended to create a new series of books around Fletch’s son, Jack, so he introduced him with a hybrid novel that was about half Fletch-driven and half about his son.

Fletch Reflected almost entirely focuses on Jack during the time immediately following the end of Son of Fletch. It is an interesting story in which he starts to investigate the attempted murder of an eccentric scientist who keeps all his family very close, despite their obvious loathe towards him.

It’s a pretty good book, a little better than Son of Fletch, but perhaps I’m just a little burnt on the whole series. It’s been really fun to read the whole series and see the full spectrum of what McDonald envisioned when he created the character of Fletch. It’s amazing that he was able to maintain the character and his attitude from 1974 to 1994. The only similar instances that I can think of are Ian Fleming’s James Bond (12 novels in 13 years, but the franchise has carried through to many more books) and Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt (that’s for you, Jake).

(I’m sure that there are other examples, but those are the only ones I could think of right now.)

I’m a little sad that the series slowed down and ended, but at the same time, I can’t imagine writing about the same character for that long. I don’t think I could recommend the book by itself without the rest of the series. However, it’s still a fun read, so if you like Fletch and haven’t read this book, I would definitely suggest it.

Son of Fletch

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Son of Fletch

Son of Fletch
by Gregory McDonald
RATING: 7 out of 10

When I received all 11 Fletch books from Tom and Carol (my in-laws) for my birthday a while back, I imagined myself reading all 11 books in succession in the order that they were published. (McDonald actually jumped around in Fletch’s life timeline in the order of stories he told. Fletch Won and Fletch, Too – the books that chronicle Fletch’s first and second adventures – actually were written much later in the series, coming out over a decade after the original book – the one made famous by Chevy Chase’s film portrayal – was written.

Now, it’s true, I rocked through the first 9 books in the series in rapid succession, devouring McDonald’s quick wit and dialogue like I would a Chipotle burrito. However, as I reached the end and I learned more about the final two novels in the series, Son of Fletch and Fletch Reflected, I found two things:

  1. There was about a 7-year gap between Fletch, Too (Book 9) and Son of Fletch (Book 10)
  2. You could say that the books “jumped the shark” by making Fletch a father through a previous engagement in one of the earlier stories.

That’s not to say that McDonald shouldn’t have done these things; I imagine that there was much clamoring for another Fletch novel, but after writing 9 books about the same character, you have to imagine that things might get a little stale.

As for the book, it was only OK by the rest of the series’ standards. It contained the same witty dialogue, but I found it hard to follow at some stages and I certainly entered it a bit departed from the series. Since there is a lot of reference to events that occur in other books, I had to rack my brain at times to remember things. But still, it’s a good, fast-paced novel and I enjoyed it.

I’m planning on finishing the series by reading Fletch Reflected next. It, too, is about Fletch’s son, Jack. Toward the end, McDonald received an immense amount of pressure from his publisher to use the Fletch name in the book titles, even though he wanted to make reference to Jack in the last two. (Read more about it here.)

Finishing the book made me think more about the upcoming film version of Fletch Won that is being developed. Originally it was meant to be a Kevin Smith project under the new Weinstein company, but the Weinsteins wouldn’t let Smith make the movie he wanted to, so he backed out to do other things. Now, Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence is attached to write and direct with Scrubs star Zach Braff attached to play the role of Fletch. I’m not sure this is a good or bad choice yet. I think Ryan Reynolds might have been more true to the character McDonald created so many years ago…Braff just isn’t suave enough.

That’s not to say I won’t go see it, because I will…just with some reservation.

The Cheese Monkeys

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The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters

The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters
by Chip Kidd
RATING: 9 out of 10

Back in June when I was attending the HOW Design Conference with my colleagues in Las Vegas, I was fortunate enough to attend a session put on by the guys at 3Dogz Creative about humor in the workplace. It was a great session and I got to get up on the stage to draw a quick logo for “DJ’s Hooker Vending Machines”. It was a traumatic experience because (unlike most other graphic designers) I can’t draw very well.

However, my participation in the class worked out for the best. I either got $50 in chips or copies of 2 books, one being The Cheese Monkeys (the other being one I haven’t read yet, but that’s neither here nor there).

Now, I’m not a knowledgeable enough designer to have known who Chip Kidd was before I read the book, but afterward, I definitely wanted to. So here’s a minor biography: Chip Kidd is considered the best book designer in the world and is as close to a “rock star” as a graphic designer will get. He has designed several of the most famous book covers, the most recognizable of which was Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, the artwork of which was subsequently purchased by the movie studio for use in branding the cinematic dinosaur franchise.

The Cheese Monkeys is Kidd’s first novel and is interesting from the outside in. Kidd waste no words or space in or out of the book. The edges of the pages even provide 2 messages that are key to the book: “Do You See?” and “Good is Dead.”

Kidd’s book is about a student who attends a state school to study Art, even though he has a large disdain from what is considered “art”. It is told in two separate semesters, fall and spring. The fall semester is used to introduce the characters and to start developing their relationships and the spring semester is the one in which we meet the craziest graphic design professor in fiction: Winter Sorbeck.

Many would say that the subject of graphic design probably doesn’t deserve a novel of its own, at least not one that would be viable to the public at large. Kidd does his best to prove that just isn’t true. Whether or not he succeeds is really up to the reader. I think this book likely resonates more with artists and designers than it would any other audience, but I could just be biased.

I really enjoyed the book, although I thought that the end was a little disjointed. Maybe if I read it more carefully, I would have appreciated it more, but I think that it was intended to be that way because of the narrator’s state of mind.

The book gave me a better appreciation for my craft and made me wish just a little bit more that I would have taken more graphic design classes instead of being a self-taught designer. Sure, there are benefits to being self-taught that give me certain advantages, but I’m at a disadvantage in other areas as well.

If you’re a designer or an artist, I would recommend this book. Otherwise, I’m not sure. Maybe if you’re interested in the insanity of creative-types. And you’re into really, really good writing and great book design.

To update you on my 2006 reading list, I’m up to 22 books now, but I’ve read 5 books that were off my list, so according to the list, I still have about 8 to finish, which would get me to 30 total for the year. That wouldn’t be too bad, in my opinion. It’s not Julie level, but it’s still pretty good.

52 Projects

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52 Projects: Random Acts of Everyday Creativity (Perigee Book)

52 Projects: Random Acts of Everyday Creativity
by Jeffrey Yamaguchi
Rating: 8 out of 10

As a part of our reading project, Alli and I agreed to pick a book for each other. 52 Projects was Alli’s pick for me.

Yamaguchi started the web site 52projects.com as an outlet for all his ideas for projects that he kept himself busy with over the course of several years. To him, a “project” is something that keeps him busy, that keeps him sane.

I enjoyed reading the book a lot. In fact, I breezed through it in one quick sitting. One quick Southwest-exit-row-middle-seat-on-the-way-to-San-Francisco-sitting. And it didn’t even take me the whole flight. It’s a cool book. Yamaguchi spends the first half of it explaining what projects mean to him, why he does projects, etc. The second half of the book consists of all the projects, as well as variations of the projects that he has heard of or thought of.

For fueling creativity, it’s a great book. There’s were some projects in the book that didn’t interest me at all, but there were a lot that did, too. The projects range from writing to photography to crafts and letter-writing. I leaned more toward the photography projects, but I also liked a lot of the writing projects as well. One of my favorites:

Buy a 12-pack of the crappy beer that you used to drink in college and send one to each one of your college drinking buddies with a note that tells them a date and time that they must shotgun the beer all at the same time.

It just made me think my best friends and how much they’d love that (although since almost all of them live in the KC area, we could just do it on a Saturday night).

This is definitely a book I’ll come back to…it could be very inspiring and useful for spurring creativity down the line when I find myself in a funk.

One of my favorite things about this book, though, was that Alli had read the book before me and had taken notes in the margins and highlighted stuff for me that she thought I would like or projects that she thought she or I or we might do. That made it a really personal reading experience for me and that was my favorite part of it.

Designing With Web Standards

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Designing with Web Standards (2nd Edition) (Voices That Matter)

Designing with Web Standards
by Jeffrey Zeldman
RATING: 8 out of 10

Ever since I became a web designer, people have been telling me to read this book. DWWS is considered by many to be the seminal tome on how to design sites using CSS, XHTML and a collection of standards set forth by the W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium).

Since I’m a self-taught designer, I am always anxious to read anything that will help me to become better at my job. Thanks to my good friend, Kevin, I didn’t have to buy this book or go to a so-called “library” to pick it up. He had a copy of the newly released second edition for me to borrow.

I’ve been reading this book for what seems like ages and I haven’t breezed through it, but that’s not because it’s a bad book. It’s a great book, in fact. Other things have been going on that have put my reading at a snail’s pace. Plus, I haven’t exactly been diligent about getting into the gym (where I do most of my reading). If I had, I would have finished this book and at least one other by now.

So to the book: Zeldman is a former-copywriter-turned-designer who has literally written the book on the latest revolution in web design, which is to part with presentation, table-based designs in favor of semantic design that separates presentation from structure. Using the suggestions put forth by Zeldman is better for the Internet. It saves bandwidth and ensures that your web sites play well in all browsers.

Zeldman is a great writer and he makes this topic understandable and interesting. Not only that, but he gives you the reasons why it is important, which books sometimes forget to do.

DWWS is a very grood book and I suggest it to anyone who designs web sites. I also suggest reading his personal web site and his side project, A List Apart.

On the Road

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On the Road

On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
RATING: 9 out of 10

I first started reading this book in August of 1998 on a flight to West Palm Beach, Florida. How might I remember that 8 years later? Well, when I opened it a few weeks back, I found my airline ticket tucked in the book, perfectly preserved for my discovery.

After I got a few pages in, I realized why the 21 year-old Shane couldn’t get through the book. I had no ability, no frame of reference, to relate to the material. 29 year-old Shane got it.

We all decided to tell our stories, but one by one, and Stan was first. “We’ve got a long way to go,” preambled Dean, “and so you must take every indulgence and deal with every single detail you can bring to mind – and still it won’t be all told.”

Although this passage doesn’t occur until much later in the book, it really encapsulates a lot of what the book is about and how it was written. On the Road has been classified as the voice of the Beat Generation of the mid-1950′s. It details Kerouac’s semi-autobiographical story of his travels with Neal Cassady across the United States. Kerouac is realized in the character of Sal Paradise and Cassady serves as the backdrop for his tragic hero Dean Moriarty.

Sal and Dean meet through mutual friend Carlo Marx (fictional version of beat poet Allen Ginsberg) and they become friends over several years. The nature of their relationship is symbiotic. Sal wants someone to listen to, Dean needs someone to talk at, to experience life with, to “dig” everything with.

But then they danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, made to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”

My favorite passage of the book. It really encapsulates the essence of Sal and why he follows Dean around all over the country. This is the type of thing I want to write. It sounds rhythmic out loud, yet isn’t sing-songy. It’s just perfect prose.

I found this book really intriguing. While I couldn’t identify with the lifestyle the characters live in the novel, they fascinate me. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to start hitchhiking from New York without enough money to make it to Denver. The concept of riding a flatbed truck from Omaha to Cheyenne just is insane to me. But it makes sense to Dean and Sal. They had places to go and people to “dig” and they had no cares on how to get there.