Archive for the 'Books' Category
February 5th, 2006 -- Posted in Books, Cooking |
Finally got my new sunglasses - they’re pretty cool, an orangy tinge (actually make a gray day seem bright) but have anti-reflective coatings on both sides so I won’t be seeing my eyeball when the sun is behind me, and scratch resistance so they won’t suffer the same demise as my last pair. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be getting many sunny days to try them out anytime soon.
Made some interesting meals this weekend - brushetta this evening, a Thai soup last night, finished up the sweet potato pancakes this morning, and rice pudding for dessert last night. We had Ikea for breakfast on Saturday, then Lick’s for lunch, and Kraft dinner today for lunch - those were Jenn’s contributions. 
This whole weekend has basically revolved around the Super Bowl, well, at least I’ve been really excited about it all weekend. I bet halftime is almost over.
I’m reading a good book “Blood and Rust” - a collection of short stories about fighting. Somewhat disgusting, but heck, it was reviewed by Brett Easton Ellis, so what d’ya expect?
January 3rd, 2006 -- Posted in Books |
I just finished reading a book called “A Million Tiny Pieces” by James Frey. It’s an intense book about this young guy’s rehab from drug and alcohol addiction. Harsh, passionate, gripping… and I mean those in the literal sense, not simply as cliches. Anyways, so on Saturday we went downtown (bought an incredible almond ring from the Dutch Toko - regular $11, sale price $5) and stopped off at the library to pick up some books. I picked up 3 books - 2 of which had this funny binding on them where it looks like the book was a paperback and they stripped the cover, added a plastic coated cardboard layer, and then re-glued the cover on it. Is this a common practice? It looks funny, seems functional, and intrigued me. Anyways, that’s not the point of this story. The first book I have started is called Six Bad Things, by some author I can’t recall. So I start the book and I’m thinking, this book is just what I was looking for. I was afraid that after a great book like AMTP, that I was going to struggle to find a book that interested me enough in comparison to what I had just finished, while not being the same style as I don’t think I could handle a double dose of the intensity. But this book suits my mood nicely. Well, I skimmed the back cover and there’s the ol’ summary of the book and a few reviews by authors and other such no names. But wait! What’s the 2nd review? It just happens that the second review is written by a certain James Frey, author of AMTP! I could understand if it was someone famous, but this guy is only famous because of Oprah (yeah, it was an Oprah book, but not what you usually think of Oprah books), and his one book so far (I heard he has a sequel, but it’s not famous, yet). Is that not bizarre? The stars are aligned tonight, baby!
June 1st, 2005 -- Posted in School, Books |
I put the new Harry Potter book on hold at the library…. I’m number 115 on the list. Hopefully it comes in before I move…..? Good luck.
So tomorrow is graduation. I made the realization tonight that I won’t get a pretty Queen’s diploma in English like Doug… I get one in latin! Ick! And… it’s all left alignment - not even centred! Oh well, I guess that is what five grand gets you these days. If I did four years at Queen’s like Doug then I might get it in English. A couple of years ago a student discovered that they had printed the date wrong… it took a few months before anyone realized and then they had to reprint them all.
May 26th, 2005 -- Posted in Books |
I just finished reading the 5th book in the Abrams Daughters series by Beverly Lewis! Anne, it just came out if you didn’t know! It’s a good one and is the last one in the series. There is a new series coming out in November.
March 6th, 2005 -- Posted in Books |
Chief Blogging Officer (the author of “Cluetrain Manifesto”, the greatest book in my library), wrote a synopsis of Left Behind (the worst series of books that I’m ashamed to say are in my library, by marriage I must insist!).
The best quote came from a blog about Left Behind (slacktivist):
The first words of Left Behind are “Rayford Steele,” the protagonist’s name.
It sounds like a porn star’s name — and in a sense it is. The Left Behind series is dispensational porno, but it’s more than that. One of the most disturbing things about this book is the way LaHaye and Jenkins portray men, women and the relationships between them…
Our porn star hero, Rayford Steele, interacts with women just like any porn star does — minus, of course, the sex. It’s all about dominance, exploitation, titillation and the stroking of — in this case — egos.
The character Rayford Steele is, like the authors, no longer a young man. Younger authors might not have been compelled to give their protagonists names — “Steele” and “Buck” — that seem such a blatant assertion of male virility…
If you’re thinking I’m reading too much into all this, that this theme isn’t really as present in the text as I’m making it out to be, consider the opening lines:
Rayford Steele’s mind was on a woman he had never touched. With his fully loaded 747 on autopilot …
That’s more than just subtext.
He goes on to provide an interesting analysis of the portrayal of women and marriage in the first 3 pages of the book. One of the commenters on slactivist, describes the books as “a Danielle Steele novel without the redemption of sex.”
There’s more interesting reads, but in the end it just feels silly and not worth the effort to think about any further.
February 10th, 2005 -- Posted in Books, General |
I just read to today that a new Left Behind book is being released March 1st. It is called The Rising. It’s all about what happened before book 1. Who was Capatain Steele’s first love? Was Nicolae a nice kid? NOOOOOOO!!! The series was torturous enough! Make it stop!!!
January 30th, 2005 -- Posted in Books |
I finally read “The Da Vinci Code”. I had it on hold from the library for several (4-5 months) and it finally came in. I also had the audio book (mp3) but without a portable mp3 player (yeah, Jenn bought me one for Christmas and I traded it in, thinking I wouldn’t use it) it’s just not as feasible. So here’s my analysis (don’t worry - no spoilers): it’s a simply written (kinda like the Left Behind series), fast read but without any intellectual hold, with frequent predictabilities but an underlying interesting premise. I was a bit disappointed in it, as I was hoping for something that would challenge me a bit more, but it was comparable to watching a silly but entertaining movie - sufficient for what it was made.
January 20th, 2005 -- Posted in Books |
Oh this is fun: WORDCOUNT / Tracking the Way We Use Language /
December 30th, 2004 -- Posted in Books |
I finished reading Douglas Coupland’s newest book “Eleanor Rigby” earlier this week. It went much too fast, in spite of intentionally only reading 10-20 pages in a sitting. It was one of those books that it’s better to go slow and savour the plethora of literary beauty than to speed through out of gluttony. I’d have to say it was one of his top 2 or 3 books. One of the primary themes was loneliness - and who can’t identify with that?
It was kinda neat how I got the book in the first place. We went to the library before heading down to see Jenn’s parents, and I always check out the “New Books” rack first. I didn’t even know that he had a new book out, and usually I’ve got it on hold as soon as it’s available to be put on hold (weeks or months before it arrives), so it was a huge surprise. Shocking!
… But that’s what family memebers are for. We crave them and need them not because we have so many shared experiences to talk about but because they know precisely which subjects to avoid.
October 31st, 2004 -- Posted in Shopping, Books |
Well, I logged into Chapters.ca today and low and behold, they sell used books now. They have revamped their website a little and it includes used books…. and iPods.
EDIT: Well, just looked up a used book… and Alibris is the seller. Interesting.
October 20th, 2004 -- Posted in Books |
Does anyone have any good ideas of where to get an out of print book? I have checked all the usuals… Chapters, Amazon, Barnes and Noble. There is one copy on e-bay but just in case I get outbid… was looking for another option.
September 23rd, 2004 -- Posted in Books |
Finally our public library carries books by Chuck Palaniuk (author of Fight Club and Choke). I got another one of his (Survivor), though it’s not his newest one. And I also got “A Complicated Kindness” (recommended on CBC, and top seller for a few weeks). When not fixing computers and basking in the sun, I’ll be reading (or watching and listening to Anthony Burger twinkle his fingers on the ivories).
July 1st, 2004 -- Posted in Books |
I just finished a book by R.M.Paterson called “Dangerous River”. It’s a voyageur (not voyeur) book about canoeing/trapping/camping/surviving on the Tahanni River in the Yukon. It started out pretty factual, but then the stories got hilarious. It made me want to quit work and go camping for the summer somewhere like Algonquin.
My other book is The Singing Wilderness by Olsen. It’s such a beautiful book about life in the wild… seems to really exemplify what I’ve been desiring/feeling lately.
On the bedside table includes “You Remind Me of Me” and … I can’t remember the other one. If they’re good I’ll write reviews then. It’s so nice to have a few good books on the go. For a while there I wasn’t getting any success.
June 29th, 2004 -- Posted in Books |
Well, I just finished reading the last book (or so I thought) in the Left Behind series. It is book number twelve and called “The Glorious Appearing”. The funny thing is, is that I haven’t read books 7-11. I just saw this one in the library and wanted to know how the series ended. The series was originally supposed to have seven books but when they kept writing - it appeared as a money making scheme - I stopped reading the books. Anyway, I was able to follow the final book with few problems. A few more people had been added to the story line and a few more were missing but other than that, it was easy to read. Soo… as I was saying, I thought it was the last book but I noticed in the front cover it stated that a prequel and a sequel were on their way. When will this series end???