Reader’s Notebook, November 2010
A bit of a light month, between my pseudo-novel writing and basketball season beginning. I’ll probably match my November total by Monday. Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden’s Oakland Raiders – Peter Richmond. This is a terrific look back at the legendary Oakland Raiders teams of the 1970s. It explores their entire history up until…
Reader’s Notebook, October 2010
I slowed down a little last month. Not much, though. The Shallows – What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains – Nicholas Carr. The internet and high tech are changing the way we access information. And anyone who spends even a little time surfing the net has stories about how their attention span seems to be shrinking, or how…
Reader’s Notebook, September 2010
I was in the zone. I was crushing books, knocking them out at better than a book-a-week pace. Then I ran into a wall. I still got some things done last month. The 80-Yard Run: A Twenty-Week, Coast-to-Coast Quest for the Heart of High School Football – Theron Hopkins. A buddy who is deeply involved in high school football recommended…
Reader’s Notebook, August 2010, Part 2
And now the books of August. Star Wars: The Lost Tribe of the Sith – John Jackson Miller. These sucked. They were actually four small mini-books strung together to tell another story in the endless Star Wars novel world. They were free, so I figured what the hell. Sometimes you get what you pay for. There was nothing compelling about…
Reader’s Notebook, August 2010, Part 1
August was a busy month, reading-wise. I threw a wrinkle in my reading, as well, so the month gets two Reader’s Notebook posts. In Part 1, I discuss why I read what I read. Part 2 will cover the books themselves. I’ve begun running into the big downside of the Kindle: the expense. I had been rolling through books so…
Going Through The Bones
I’ve been doing some closet and attic cleaning this week. Digging through old boxes of stuff, looking for things that can/need to be thrown away, or items that can be sent to my sister-in-law for her up-coming garage sale. I dug through a huge pile of Far Side books that I’ll be flipping through in the next few weeks. Those…
Awkward Parenting Moments
There was a situation I ran into a few times before I became a parent that I never really knew how to handle. It always involved a child who had an older sibling who was either learning to read, or had just mastered reading. I would say to the younger child, “Let’s read a book,” and that child would soberly…
Reader’s Notebook, February 2010
28 days, three books. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman – Jon Krakauer. Most of you should know Tillman’s story: an NFL player looking at a lucrative, long-term contract turned his back on professional football and joined the Army Rangers in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. After he died in combat in Afghanistan, he…
Reader’s Notebook, January 2010
A hot start to the new year. God Save The Fan – Will Leitch. Along with Bill Simmons, Leitch is one of the founding fathers of internet sports journalism. The creator of Deadspin, Leitch mainstreamed irreverence and snark in sports writing. The cover claims that this is his look at all the things that are ruining sports, from ESPN to…
Reader’s Notebook, December 2009, Part 3
The final installment in my review of December readings. Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music – Greg Kot. For months I’ve been mentally drafting an essay about how music changed over the last decade. As I thought about it, I’ve read numerous articles, columns, and now a book about the same subject. So I’ll try to share my thoughts…