Born to Be Good

This book is the result of the suggestion of Dr. Banaji that I look into Dacher Keltner who is a professor at Berkeley. The idea was to look into power, but this book pertains to many of the reasons we do things, such as smile, touch, express awe - a whole raft of things. Interesting, but didn't come close to answering my issue of power.

He has yet to reply to my note; clearly, not Harvard material. As a matter of fact I never could find an address for this guy, I used a general mail box for his Berkeley freak fest advocacy group.

Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes

There were a few behavior issues, but mostly it was a non-investors guide for non-investing.

It did; however, reinforce several concepts already made, and as an old person reinforcement is a good thing.

Super Freakonomics

He saved the best for last. The research with the capuchin monkeys is mind boggling and the fact that the first real act of money exchange was for sex is even more impressive.

Good book, thanks for suggesting it.

Desperately Seeking Members

Shoger sent me a link to this book by a company called Legendary Marketing - the book cost $24.95. I purchased it because I have been toying with the idea of writing a book and this was more along the lines of my thinking.

However, it was simply an exaggerated marketing piece for Legendary Marketing - interesting concept. The stories were simple, but it has given me thought. This is clearly a mechanism to promote the business, but I believe that a teaching manual in this format, only constructed with some intelligence, would be interesting.

What the Dog Saw

You know - I'm not sure what the deal is with Gladwell. Yes, he's a good writer, but nothing he does is original thinking - it's all about what others have done and he compiles it. This particular book seems to me as a requirement fulfilment for a deal; like, you have a certain number of books to write and this is one. It's a compilation of articles that he wrote for the New Yorker.

O.K., it's interesting and readable, but if you don't read it read this; pages 368 & 369:

"The broader failing of McKinsey and its acolytes at Enron is their assumption that an orgaization's intelligence is simply a function of the intelligence of its employees. They believe in stars, because they don't believe in systems. In a way that's understandable, because our lives are so obviously enriched by individual brilliance. Groups don't write great novels, and a committee didn't come up with the theory of relativity. But companies work by different rules. They don't just create; they execute and compete and coordinate the efforts of many different people, and the organizations that are most successful at that task are the ones where the system is the star."

But, you already know that.

Predictably Irrational

Well written book with interesting facts about how we are irrational. Actually, there's a lot to be taken from this book. I've already quoted several research examples in conversations pertaining to work - oh, no actually it was about Tiger Woods and the predicament men of power get into - yes, there is a section on this.

OPEN

Wow, what a whiny baby Agassi is. I nearly put the book down within the first three pages because of his whining about how tough it is. Well, it never stopped, but some parts about his playing were interesting enough to continue through the book.

He wrote it himself and it shows.

The good news - it was a fast read.

The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money

Well, we know where today's policy came from. Keynes is certainly a confident fellow. Key to his theory; however, is the psychological factor of the small investor. That would be one facet that's hard to calibrate.

Bible

At about ten pages a week it's gonna take me a while, so I felt it best to remove it from the next book list. I'll wade through it, but there are other books that need to be read first.

Stoner

Very interesting book with exceptional writing - the writing had to be great because the plot was about as bland as could be.

I found that the book not only kept my attention, but moved me to look forward to reading it. And, it was just not exciting.

I've got to think about this some more - as to why this book was a reader versus a speed reader.

Blink

Interesting read on the nature of immediate thought.

On Bullshit

An excellent topic. This book just discusses a possible genesis of the term bullshit and the variety of meanings and uses.

Anyway, it was amusing and short.

How to Win Friends & Influence People

This is probably the most widely read book on this topic, it's a classic by Dale Carnegie. The information is helpful.

On Rumors

Pretty interesting book on the source of rumors and how to mitigate the long term effects - being that once the rumor starts and gains momentum the rumor becomes pretty valid.

Author was a Harvard Law Professor.

long past stopping

The author is Oran Canfield the son of Jack Canfield author of the Chicken Soup series. Well, whatever Jack was teaching did not work on Oran.

This book is like several others where the author is relating his addiction to addictive drugs - kind of an endless loop that got boring. His life is an interesting story of being placed in one non-parental environment after another.

This somewhat gives basis to my thought that you are born with certain characteristics and left to your own devices these characteristics will play out to their fullest potential. This guy has a weak character and it played out.

The Good The Bad and the Forgiven

Short read - 153 pages, 85 pages about this mobster and the rest on his journey to God; yeah, this was a gift from one of your mother's friends. This fellow was a guest minister at the church they go to, so her friend bought several books and gave one to me - through your mother.

Interestingly, the guy says he was producing $8M per week in illicit enterprises; that's impressive.

This Time is Different

Um, O.K., the truth is that all our high powered leaders are idiots prone to the same idiocy as the normal folk. Professor Rogoff, et al advocate the IMF as the international watch dog relying on governements to be transparent in their financial dealings. O.K., transparent is one thing, but truthful is entirely another.

Data after the fact is different from reported data during an episode. There appears to be no doubt that even in the face of qualifying data the leaders make choices that go against the logic of history. But, when the data is faulty in its inception there is no chance to make appropriate decisions.

Veritas - a great concept rarely followed. Let's you and I follow it.

the scandalous gospel of Jesus

O.K., since I know nothing of Jesus this was an interesting read, but certainly well written.

It's impressive that he uses this opportunity to promote homosexuality, but only slightly and not in an overly zealous manner. He's a bright guy who must have endured a great deal.

South of Broad

I've always liked Conroy, but I must admit the anticipated book became somewhat tedious. His writing style is excellent and enjoyable.

He's a great technical writer and he moved the story; however, he ended each segment without much creativety.

Anyway, I'll read the next book.

Deep Lie

CIA spy book - easy read. He's a good author for interesting reading.

Wuthering Heights

We already talked about it.

Great book, I look forward to getting the movie.

Bright Minds, Poor Grades

Pretty much what it says. Here's the best quote that had me in tears:

Let me describe a typical situation where the parents decide to offer something to their child that they believe he wants: money. They decide to pay for grades. Any amount will do, but let us say they decide to pay $10 for every A, $5 for every B, $2 for every C, nothing for a D and fine him $10 for an F on the report card. Now, to be fair, they offer the same deal to the higher achieving sibling. At the end of the grading period, the high achieving sibling has broken the bank and the under achiever ends up owing the parents money.

Sound familiar? It still makes me laugh.

This book seems to hit the nail on the head; we'll see how it goes.

The 6th Target

Now, here's a perfect book; 394 pages of double space 14 pica print - man, I thought it was a first grade reader. Murder mystery set in SF - easy read, coupla days. The good news is there are six more of these in the series.

Absalom, Absalom

Wow, it was unreadable. I just don't get it; his sentences run forever, his paragraphs are literally pages long - he has multiple subjects within a sentence.

Even the plot was standard - grand dad comes from nothing, builds an empire and the kids are screwed up.

Somebody needs to explain to me why this guy is a great writer.

Truck a love story

This is the author of Population: 485. He's still in Wisconsin writing about his daily life. He's a pretty good writer, but uses "big words" as if he has something to prove.

Anyway, it took quite a while to read this one and I'm not sure why.

Oil

Sinclair is interesting. He preaches Socialism, but in the end all his socialist characters are losers. I'm not sure if he believed or just lamented.

This was a decent read until the end when he kinda tied everything up quickly (thankfully).

Population: 485

I was looking for another Downtown Owl and I got the life of Mike Kahl. Enough time spent on this one.

The Third Option

Series of books by an author who moves things along and appears to do his research. Deals with CIA and killing terrorists mixed with political envisionment.

The Jungle

What a great story. Interesting that all the creativity of this story is just a front for Mr. Sinclair's Socialist leaning. Turns out he's quite the social reformer.

At any rate, the story was excellent and in accord with the grammar Nazi only a couple of errors.

The Glass Castle

Ah, we're talking about success. If this is a true story then it lends credence to my uneducated theory on several issues: success, character and life are what you want them to be. I'd say each of the characters is a success in their own vision with Maureen a bit slower on the uptake of understanding. Looks like these kids were brought up under excellent conditions to formulate really adaptive strong people - and they turned out that way. Each of them led the life they chose and paid the price of that success. It'd be interesting to follow some similar families who did not have genius parents, but were just everyday grunts and see how they turn out.

Charlie is a tick away from Rex, by the way.

Killing Your Friends

I bought this because the guy is named Niven. Our little clan, with the exception of Bruce, is pretty literate. The Old Man spent decades writing drivel, Charlie has written a bunch of unpublished stuff, I'm not bad and of course our Harvard partner is exceptional. So, I thought it would be interesting to see another Niven in action.

Yikes, this guy is disturbed. Not a bad writer, some grammatical errors (yeah, now I'm searching as well), but he's one disturbed individual. Amusing read once you get past the continual disturbance.

Anthem

You know Ayn Rand is just a good writer. It amazes me how advanced in thinking she was for a woman in the 30's. What is really amazing is that many women were accepting of their roles in life. What might have been done if more thought like Rand.

Downtown Owl

Yes, Cam is correct once again. This is a well written, excellent book. I'm still thinking about the ending.

The American Dream

The author experiences the fringes of several "American Dreams", such as being a carnie, illegal alien, a pot farmer, game show contestant and other activities.

Mediocre writing, but interesting topics. He never really delves into the details of the activities, but enough to give the readers a feel for what it's about.

The Book of Vice

Interesting brief look at several activities that are considered vice. I read the book with an interest in understanding what vices might be, since I have none.

You know, writing styles are different. The book was interesting; however, the writing style was very good. Writing quality does make a difference.

Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs

Yep, no question this boy can write. I'm looking forward to his new book - the one that Cam can get, but we backwards Californians can't

Scratch

Continuation of the other golf books. This one is interesting because it makes fun of myriad equipment choices, but the reality that it's only hard work and practice that makes a difference.

Child 44

Cam's right, this was a well written and interesting book. However, we both agree that the ending, while nice, is not the appropriate one for the story.

Death of a Salesman

Great play, movie and book. Willy Loman is every man's nightmare - it could happen to us. You grind and grind and pretty soon you're a Willy and don't even know it. This is where family communication is important - sooner than later. And, don't forget to load the gun.

Notes From Underground

Wow, those were 130 tough pages. Let me know if you've read this one and what it was about.

Senior Moments

My senior moment happened when I failed to remember to screen these books better.

Senior Moments is a bit of a joke book, although not very funny. Actually, it's interesting that this even got published.

The Foursome

Another golf book. An amusing look at golf and pressure.

The Whole Truth

Typical CIA sort of fiction/action read.

The Green

This is a golfer book. A group of fictional characters playing in the Ryder Cup. It's an easy read and relatively fast paced.

I've read this several times before, I like the hustler character. There are points in this book that do pertain to real life.

Anyway, it's an amusing read.

More Sex is Safer Sex

Well, this was thought provoking in a minor fashion. His ideas were certainly interesting; however, I did find his fact based analogies stretched a bit.

There were areas that gave cause for some good thought and did add to an understanding of the world as it pertains to economics - everything has a price - now that's a good thing to understand.

The Reader

Man, I have got to screen my selections better. However, it was just over 200 pages.

The Things They Carried

O.K., I agree with Cam, this was a good book. It was well written and interesting; however, her point that it was not true takes away from the value.

Slaughterhouse Five

O.K., Kurt, I don't get it. Interesting history assuming that what he opened with is correct.

Hold Tight

Easy entertaining read; very typical of this factory author.

beautiful boy

The book chronicles the life of an addict from birth through early twenties as seen by the father. The author relives all his feelings during the never ending ordeal. The son still has not broken the spell of addiction.

My take-away is not much different than my thought prior to reading. Pretty well written, but an awful lot of whining.

The Kite Runner

Perhaps I missed something.

This is a very interesting book from a potentially historical standpoint, but from a joyful read - meaning for me that it moves, has a good story line and somebody must win - it sucked! Let's follow the loser - hell, I like Assef better'n Amir and Hassan is an absolute hero.

Watch Slumdog Millionaire.

July, July

Well, if that's what real folks are like then I'm particularly happy that I don't socialize. My goodness, the constant whining.

It was entertaining and under 400 pages.

To Kill A Mockingbird

What a great story. Nelle Harper Lee is an outstanding writer, I'm sorry that I'm unable to locate anything else she may have written. Interesting that she goes by Harper rather than Nelle, I assume that's to allow someone to think it's written by a male, perhaps a 60's thing.

I've never read a book after seeing the movie, so I have no comparison, but in this case I think it helped me to enjoy the story by reading it through the voices of Gregory Peck and the other actors.

Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut

Is there a limit to the amount of drugs a person can do? Where does this guy come up with this stuff?

I mentioned previously that Vonn appears to be prescient; on page 211 he describes Reverend Wright – well, actually the name is Wainwright, but really close – from Chicago, IL and his relationship to the President. He further goes on to use gravity to crush people and that the Chinese control it. Wow, what parallels to our current world – with some relaxed interpretations.

Five Finger Discount

Well, it was a family history, less than exhilarating, but her style was readable. Perhaps I should write about my childhood and all the feces I’ve consumed – and, no it was not intentional, just the benefit of a dairy farm and older brothers.

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

"He wrote a story one time about an optimistic chimpanzee who became President of the United States." Wow, he wrote this back in 1973; we recently had a terrible incident about a comic and a monkey reference. Was Vonn prescient or will he be burned at the stake? Ah, who cares, his writing certainly had some flair in this little gem.

O.K., I just looked, he died April 11, 2007 at age 84, so he won't be burned - or maybe he already was. Perhaps he's taken his Galaxie somewhere special.

I look forward to reading further from Vonnegut.

gods behaving badly by marie phillips

O.K., this book was pretty good. Phillips ability to put Greek Gods in current times was very entertaining.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Oh, man, a thinker. I'm normally a person who likes order; I want some thoughtful action and an ending that fits with the action - so this book would not normally fit the bill.

However, these stories were fascinating in their realistic simplicity.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers is a paper on what is required to become very successful at something - it makes no difference what the something is, the requirements for succes are the same.

At first I thought I'd read the book before, but it's 2008 original publication tells me different. The book is really a culmination of other peoples research as evidenced by the copious Notes in the back of the book - perhaps that's why I thought I'd already read it, because I'd already read the primary material.

At any rate this book summarizes the requirments for being very successful. Guess what, the primary requirement is hard work.

O.K., next story.

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

This was an interesting read because Dr. K. is a hero of mine and one of whom I hope will live long enough for me to visit - I know Cameron has this plan in mind.

At any rate, I thought Vonnegut is brilliant in his absolute simplicity.

A great read, perhaps too short, but probably not.

The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway

"Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer in the twentieth century..." according to the cover of the book. His style is certainly straight forward.

The book was a winding biography of a very interesting person. It's a good read and I look forward to other Hemingway work.

Gang Leader For A Day

This fellow spent six years visiting within a community of thousands of poor blacks. What is amazing is that the culture, while destitute, mirrors normal society.

The sub culture created their own form of currency, handle their own transportation, protection and policing. It’s rudimentary, but seems fair and equitable – the strong take advantage of the weak – up to a point, sometimes the strong protect the weak when it is most beneficial to the strong. It’s so basic that the constant is that everyone takes care of themselves, because they can hardly afford anything else.

The Associate by John Grisham

Finally, a great book – 373 double spaced 12 pica pages of easy thoughtless reading, what a joy.

Typical Grisham, I was looking for an ending with a little more thought. But, hey, a two day read was helpful.

Where're those Bob books Drew used to read.

Mr. T vs Chuck Norris

Ask not for whom Mr. T. pities; he pities thee.

O.K., I didn’t really read this book; however, in the interest of trying to keep up I gave it some thought.

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

Good read; light, but maybe relatively truthful. It’s just a period in the life of some creative marketing folks who run through normal business happenings. However, in Mr. Ferris’ first book he’s funny in a true manner about how people interact; at least I found it interesting because their life style does not parallel mine.

Dreams From My Father

We have a very angry black man with a specific black agenda as our president and he’s very smart. So smart, in fact, that I believe his desire to bootstrap the blacks into equality will benefit all.

However, here’s his problem:

“They understand business, what it means to cooperate. They pool their money. Make each other loans. We don’t do that, see. The black merchants around here, we’re all like crabs in a bucket.” Further from Foster, former president of a local Chicago area Chamber of Commerce. “Maybe you can’t blame us for being the way we are. All those years without opportunity, you have to figure it took something out of us.”

“It’s a losing battle unless you do like the Koreans – work your family sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. As a people, we’re not willing to do that anymore. I guess we worked for so long for nothing, we feel we shouldn’t have to break our backs to survive. That’s what we tell our children anyway.”

Certainly an interesting take on the plight of the black culture - to know the answer and deny it, well, you reap what you sow.

In Africa Obama finds a familial culture, poor as dirt, but prideful. The destitution is unbelievable; the comparison to the poor blacks of America is startling. Yet, the familial pride of the African is perhaps necessary for existence. The pride seems to be a deep core factor – they certainly appear to have nothing of a tangible nature to be proud of, perhaps they’re proud of the fact that they remain proud even in the life of destitution.

This is an important book because it’s clear that Obama has an agenda. His book chronicles an amazing life of travel and learning. He’s a phenomenal person; I believe he may well have the basic decency to help us all by helping his heritage. Although it is interesting that he champions the black man at the disadvantage of the white when he’s half white. It’s also interesting that his father carried such a high level of impact when his actual time spent with the boy was only weeks.

At any rate, he does write well and it was a good read; although, I found his African experience to be a bit slow.

Sanctuary by Faulkner

"Then I saw that it was so terrible that there were but two things to do: tear it up or rewrite it." so said Bill about his book; I'm not sure that he made the correct decision.

Just like there may not have been incest between Catherine and Heathcliff; Temple may not have been raped - could have been an early stage of making a pipe, we could ask Clinton.

Wow, Sanctuary is quite the degenerate book. The good news is that in the 1930's authors left a great deal to the imagination, which kept me guessing throughout.

I'm still not sure what happened to Gowan - poor boy probably moved to Alabama, might have been a neighbor.

I'll continue to think about Sanctuary, but I'm going to read something a little easier. I will return to Faulkner.

Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas

O.K., good read. The author has done some homework and has the everyday murder mystery set in olde London.

This read was entertaining, although at the end it tied together by simply explaining things.

I believe the author has begun a series and I'd continue to read his work.

Filth

This book was a NY Times recommendation. It was brutal. The language was difficult and the overriding feature was simply the depth of degradation that the author could sink to.

To be honest, I sped read a bunch to see if it had any redemption - it did not. It is the only book that I've actually read and then thrown in the trash.