What the Dog Saw - Preface

I'm going to read Malcolm's Gladwell's: What the Dog Saw.

Not looking forward to it at all.

I hate Malcolm Gladwell.

Why am I reading it? I'm not even sure man.

The Greatest Show on Earth

I love evolution.

Beautifully simplistic and infinitely complex.

I recall hearing as a child that whales were mammals. I never truly understood the significance of this. We hear about why we classify whales this way. Something about hair, nursing young with milk, having hand-like things, needing to breathe air (not uniquely mammalian, I know), etc. I was like so what? It wasn't till I realize what whales being mammals truly meant. It meant that long ago there were descendants of whales that lived on the land and decided (for whatever reason) to live in the sea.

I think things like that blow my mind.

Dawkins has a bone to pick in this book. With good reason as well. There is an intended anti-intellectual movement going on in this world. It is attacking science because it goes against their beliefs. It's really sad to see. These are not new arguments. These are not people playing in the same field as all these evolutionary biologists. They use political games and inject their message in other ways.

Anyways, I'm enjoying the book so far. I'm taking my time with it. Non-fiction books just don't flow as well.

Finished Five People You Meet in Heaven

So I'm done.

I don't think I enjoy 'fate' book any more. I didn't enjoy the Alchemist at all. I suppose there was a price to pay for my atheism. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy books where it all wraps up. I like books where things chain together. I just don't like books that like to insert meanings into things. That isn't exclusive to books with religious undertones. It goes for Carl Sagan's Contact too.

Anyways, I'm done the book. It's a light read. Pleasant. Although, unfulfilling if you're not willing to buy what they're selling. Still a decent story 3/5.

New Books!

I couldn't freaking help buying:

1. The Greatest Show on Earth
2. What the Dog Saw
3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Richard Dawkin's book is supposed to be SO dense that it'd take multiple readings just to understand everything he's saying. I spent a lot of time listening to evolution lectures and debates. I usually mention archaeopteryx or the fact that we share a lot of DNA with apes. That a fusion in our chromosone had occurred were two telomeres fused. Usually I announce these findings with a deadpan response. In other words, they haven't done enough research to reply. I haven't done enough research to advocate quite frankly but listening and reading has given me enough ammo to parry bad arguments very quickly. Russell's teapot takes care of most of these arguments anyway.

So ... why am I reading the Greatest Show on Earth? I'm not sure. I'm a big fan of Richard Dawkins and his bravery. Though, I must admit that I could barely get through the Selfish Gene. It didn't open my eyes at all. It was a bit tiresome to read. The God Delusion was rather good. But I got that on audiobook. On audiobook it is splendid.

Anyways ... so why #2? Because apparently a lot of these people love Malcolm Gladwell and Richard Friedman and the Freakonomics guy. These worthless clowns write stupid extrapolations from simple things and act as though they're profound thoughts. Why did I buy it? Because every single other idiot is going to want to talk about it. I need to read what they're reading so I can take a look into what their motivations are.

#3! I know nothing about this book. Only that Lisa is reading it (just joking! she doesn't read ... evidently). I'm probably going to give this book away after I'm done reading it.

Anyways, Robert's out.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven (1)

I'm reading the Five People You Meet in Heaven right now.

I guess it's an interesting juxtaposition that I'm reading this book alongside reading Richard Dawkin's "Greatest Show on Earth". Yes, the "Greatest Show on Earth" is not like the God Delusion in that he's not slamming religion. He's fighting creationism and intelligent design.

Anyways, back to the Five People You Meet in Heaven. It's an interesting story. It's a very quick book as I'm 60 pages into it right now. I seems interesting so far. The depiction of heaven is about what I expect. I don't think the author realizes that though. Heaven isn't ever depicted as clouds in the sky with an old man and harps. Heaven (similar to aliens) are usually depicted with some fuzziness and inner meaning. A lot of that stuff.

It case anyone is wondering. The Five People You Meet in Heaven is about an elderly gentleman's death. It's not surprise, I assure you. He meets the five most important people in life. I'm on the third person, thus far. The stories are interesting. You get a good feel of the character and their stories. I'm enjoying it so far. You feel for the main character. You relate to them and his purpose in attempting to find whether his death was in vain.

I say, it's a good read, so far.

Banned

I know it's stupid to put books we'll never read on this list but I'm just putting this out there:

MITs Sci-Fi society put this out there ... and ... I think they've made a good point.

Born to Run

I started running. I'm running a solid 4km once a week in a little over 20 minutes. Pretty hard to push myself but I want to go 6km soon. I have to train my body though. I barely finished 4 before ... but now I can clear it fairly well. I want to do the same thing but with 6km .... I just have to change my route. I feel as though I shouldn't finish my route every time. I feel as though it's mostly mental.

Anywho, here's a book about running that apparently a friend told me about:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Born-Run-Ultra-running-Super-athlete-Tribe/dp/1861978235

Kitchen Confidential: Complete

I just finished Kitchen Confidential.

The last part of the book felt like Anthony running through the highlights of fine dining. He was going through the stuff he'd think about for a night's service. He'd talk about the best names in the business. He also spoke about his Japan trip which gave me a preview into a Chef's Tour.

This was really well enjoyed. I dare say I'd love to read it again.

I am utterly convinced at this point that the best chefs in the world are french though: Robuchon, Riper, Keller, Boulud ...

Utterly amazing. What's next on my list? I'm not sure. I do know I'm smoking Seto's ass though.

Kitchen Confidential: Chef of the Future

I like the book so far. I haven't read very many non-fiction books like this. I think the only other book prior to this would have been "Surely, you're joking Mr. Feynman!" This book is interesting to me because I very recently got into looking at the cooking world. It's nice to see names like, Eric Ripert and La Bernadin ... Gale Greene ... and know what they're referencing. What's nice about this book is that it's honest. Not in the story itself because I wasn't there. But the tone feels as though you're speaking to a friend about what he did. He embellishes a little bit here and there but you can tell that they're making an earnest effort about describing what had happened. It's nice to see them talking about cooking and starting a restaurant and I see how it parallels how some technical startups turn out. He also had a good phrase that a good line cook is not creative and some of the best chefs are simply technicians. I'd like to think about that in coding sometimes. You do need a few creative people, but you need the workhorses who can buckle down and get results. People too creative can cause problems a lot of the times. It's nice to know that I'll never order fish between Saturday to Monday and to check the bathroom first of a restaurant before dining. I've heard of the bathroom test before, I'm almost positive that people took it off this book and used it as if it were their own.

Anyways, very entertaining read and I'm very much enjoying it right now.

Second!

This is Seto (aka. Lisa) reporting in!

First thing: blogging about my opinion on books is not going to be an easy task for me. Reason is I have difficulty translating my thoughts into words. I often hear that practice makes (almost) perfect so maybe this blog will help. So without further delay, here is my list!

1. The Tales of Genji
2. Snow Country
3. How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness
4. His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass)
5. The Angel's Game
6. Brand Sense
7. The Five People You Meet In Heaven
8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
9. The Girl Who Played with Fire
10. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
11. Kitchen Confidential
12. Inkworld Trilogy (Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath)
13. No Longer Human
    

Titles in bold means I've read it. I just wanted to put down all the titles in the trilogy for completeness sake.

I know the list doesn't have much diversity. Hopefully that will change in the coming months.

Here's a graphics novel list just so Rob can expand his horizons. (^_^)

1. Fruits Basket (23 Volumes)
2. Nodame Cantabile (23 Volumes)
3. Ouran High School Host Club (15 Volumes)
4. Ze (Yaoi) (~_^)
   

First!

My name is Robert and I will be partnering with my cohort Lisa and doing an overseas book club as it were. This is going to be completely baffling to besides us. This is probably going to be a mix of an essay written 3 hours before it's due and an IM chat.

What we're going to do is make two lists of books. Pick a book that tickles our fancy from either list and blog about it.

I've read a decent amount of books in my life. Not nearly as much as an average reader but much more than your average person.

In any case, here is what I have:

1. The Rape of Nanking
2. The Man Who Only Loved Numbers
3. Bringing Down The House
4. What Do You Care What Other People Think?
5. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
6. Kitchen Confidential
7. Snakes in Suits
8. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
9. Haunted
10. Black Markets: The Supply and Demand of Body Parts
11. A Game of Thrones
12. My Sister's Keeper
13. The Golden Compass
14. The Glass Castle
15. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
16. Snow Crash
17. The Moral Animal - Why we are the way we are
18. One Hundred Years of Solitude
19. Solar

I think it's an intriguing mess of books.

Anyways, Seto, I'll pass the ball off to you and let you run with it.