went a lil crazy on the library reservations, i guess

My Favorite Books

The following is a list of my favorite books. I'll keep it up to date as I add new ones or reread the old ones. Enjoy!


(Click here to see what I've recently read.)


5.0 STARS

• Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke
• Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
• Warrior of the Light: A Manual by Coelho
• Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury
• What Kind of World Do You Want? by Lord
• Oath Of Gold by Moon
• The Time Traveler's Wife by Niffenegger
• The Alchemist by Coelho
• The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by King
• Ishmael by Quinn
• All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Fulgham
• The Last Lecture by Pausch
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Adams
• The Stand by King
• The Foundation Trilogy by Asimov

4.5 STARS

• Tuesdays with Morrie by Albom
• The Mountain Between Us by Martin
• Water for Elephants: A Novel by Gruen
• Chasing Fireflies by Martin
• Fight Club by Palahniuk
• The Holy Man by Trott
• The Culture Code by Rapaille

4.0 STARS

• How to Talk to a Widower by Tropper
• Eat, Pray, Love by Gilbert
• Do the Work by Pressfield
• Everything Changes by Tropper
• This Is Where I Leave You by Tropper
• Where the River Ends by Martin
• The Ten Faces of Innovation by Kelley
• When Crickets Cry by Martin
• The Wednesday Letters by Wright
• Maggie by Martin
• Maybe (Maybe Not) by Fulghum
• Old School by Wolff
• Now & Forever by Bradbury
• Fish by Lundin, Paul, Christensen, & Blanchard
• Wisdom 2.0 by Gordhamer
• What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 by Seelig
• Animal Farm by Orwell
• Love Is The Killer App by Sanders

7/52: Wrapped in Rain by Charles Martin

Wrapped in Rain by Charles Martin, 3/5 Stars
Though I love Martin's style and find him very easy to read, it took me quite a few chapters to get into this book. Ultimately, I found the pain that he wrote into a character whose father only paid attention to him when he felt a beating was in order to be very well done, even though I know nothing about that kind of a father-son relationship. And, as always--and this is truly what I love about Charles Martin's writings--he brings it back to love (even though it was always about love): lean on love, trust in love, love will never give up on you. Definitely worth a read. Enjoy!

READ MORE!

Book #07 = Wrapped in Rain by Charles Martin, 3/5 Stars
Book #06 = Maybe (Maybe Not) by Robert Fulghum, 4/5 Stars
Book #05 = The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt, 1/5 Stars
Book #04 = The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis, 2/5 Stars
Book #03 = Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour, 3/5 Stars
Book #02 = The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson, 3/5 Stars
Book #01 = Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, 3/5 Stars

Follow us at the Twitter hashtag #52bks52wks!

See last year's list of 53 books...

37/52:Something Wicked This Way Comes

37/52, Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury, 5/5 Stars

Drips with visual imagery. So laden with it that you are often unsure of the source... characters paint the scenery with wild, yet explicit, imagination. I admit, there are times when it is hard to keep up or understand what's going on, but I love the attention to the senses that Bradbury used to write this book. If I have one criticism, it's that I *did* get lost in the imagery at times. And though I'm one to think "out there," the author still lost me with his analogies, whether due to them being historically out-dated (the book was published in 1962), or by simply being too far "out there." I'm surprised that I'd never read this book before, and I now consider it to be one of my all-time favorites. I'll look forward to reading it again so that I may more deeply connect with the picture that Bradbury paints.

GOAL: 52 books in 52 weeks!

Book #36 = "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury, 2/5 Stars
Book #35 = "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway, 3/5 Stars
Book #34 = "Now & Forever" by Ray Bradbury, 4/5 Stars
Book #33 = "Coincidence" by David Ambrose, 2/5 Stars
Book #32 = "The Discreet Charm of Charlie Monk" by David Ambrose, 2/5 Stars
Book #31 = "Fish" by Lundin, Paul, Christensen, & Blanchard, 4/5 Stars
Book #30 = "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin, 3/5 Stars
Book #29 = "The System's Bitch" by John Wright, 3/5 Stars
Book #28 = "Twitter Power" by Joel Comm, 3/5 Stars
Book #27 = "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by LLSW, 3/5 Stars
Book #26 = "What Kind of World Do You Want?" by Jim Lord, 5/5 Stars
Book #25 = "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" by David Meerman Scott, 4/5 Stars
Book #24 = "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, 3/5 Stars
Book #23 = "Lisey's Story" by Stephen King, 1/5 Stars
Book #22 = "My Favorite Place on Earth" by Jerry Camarillo Dunn, 4/5 Stars
Book #21 = "Wisdom 2.0" by Soren Gordhamer, 4/5 Stars
Book #20 = "Oath Of Gold" by Elizabeth Moon, 5/5 Stars
Book #19 = "The Age Of Engage" by Denise Shiffman, 3/5 Stars
Book #18 = "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20" by Tina Seelig, 4/5 Stars
Book #17 = "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, 4/5 Stars
Book #16 = "Divided Allegiance" by Elizabeth Moon, 3/5 Stars
Book #15 = "The Curious Incident of the Dog..." by Mark Haddon, 2/5 Stars
Book #14 = "The Sheepfarmer's Daughter" by Elizabeth Moon, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #13 = "Love Is The Killer App" by Tim Sanders, 4/5 Stars
Book #12 = "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk, 4.5/5 Stars
Book #11 = "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, 5/5 Stars
Book #10 = "The Finder" by Colin Harrison, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #9 = "Veronika Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho, 1/5 Stars
Book #8 = "By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept" by Paulo Coelho, 3/5 Stars
Book #7 = "Stiff" by Mary Roach, 2/5 Stars
Book #6 = "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, 1/5 Stars
Book #5 = "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, 3/5 Stars
Book #4 = "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho, 2/5 Stars
Book #3 = "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz, 3/5 Stars
Book #2 = "My Ishmael" by Dan Quinn, 2/5 Stars
Book #1 = "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, 3.5/5 Stars

READ MORE!

29/52: "The System's Bitch" by John Wright

Book 29/52: "The System's Bitch" by John Wright, 3/5 Stars

Though I've never met the author, he is a long-time friend of someone in my family, which is how his book came into my hands.

Any man married to the same woman for the majority of the time that he's been on the planet and who shepherded three daughters into the their adult lives with her... well, that man deserves to have his book read.

"The System's Bitch" is a humorous take on Mr. Wright's customer service experiences over the years. He writes with a straight-forward wit that makes getting through the book an easy and delightful process. His take on the world is one of common sense and he asks why we put up with the things we do as the desirable quantity--the customer.

Convenience has swung from the customer to the business. In other words, the business now finds it convenient to charge more for less because we accept it as a bitch of "The System."

I can relate to Mr. Wright because I have the worst customer service karma there is and I've not found what is supposed to be balancing it on the other side. For my bad traffic karma, I have good parking karma; makes sense, right? But, when my water gets shut off because the water utility changed their billing address and didn't tell my Bank ePay or DirecTV phantom charges me a buck here and a buck there for three straight months when my service was supposed to off while I was in the process of a move or when my health insurance provider fails to charge my credit card and then sends me a letter, which by the time I receive it and respond my insurance has been canceled (you couldn't pick up the phone and call me? Seriously, I pay YOU and you just let it cancel?)... well, I know what it's like to be "The System's Bitch."

The only criticism that I have of the book is that it is fully intended to be a rant, as far as I can tell. And, although the squeaky wheel, when screaming, often gets greased, I don't typically find favor in simply shouting... I always try to find a way to take one more step and relate to some way that we can make the world a better place, either through action or enlightenment.

So, let's look for him to focus on the solutions instead of the problems in his next book!
GOAL: 52 books in 52 weeks!

Book #28 = "Twitter Power" by Joel Comm, 3/5 Stars
Book #27 = "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by LLSW, 3/5 Stars
Book #26 = "What Kind of World Do You Want?" by Jim Lord, 5/5 Stars
Book #25 = "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" by David Meerman Scott, 4/5 Stars
Book #24 = "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, 3/5 Stars
Book #23 = "Lisey's Story" by Stephen King, 1/5 Stars
Book #22 = "My Favorite Place on Earth" by Jerry Camarillo Dunn, 4/5 Stars
Book #21 = "Wisdom 2.0" by Soren Gordhamer, 4/5 Stars
Book #20 = "Oath Of Gold" by Elizabeth Moon, 5/5 Stars
Book #19 = "The Age Of Engage" by Denise Shiffman, 3/5 Stars
Book #18 = "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20" by Tina Seelig, 4/5 Stars
Book #17 = "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, 4/5 Stars
Book #16 = "Divided Allegiance" by Elizabeth Moon, 3/5 Stars
Book #15 = "The Curious Incident of the Dog..." by Mark Haddon, 2/5 Stars
Book #14 = "The Sheepfarmer's Daughter" by Elizabeth Moon, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #13 = "Love Is The Killer App" by Tim Sanders, 4/5 Stars
Book #12 = "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk, 4.5/5 Stars
Book #11 = "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, 5/5 Stars
Book #10 = "The Finder" by Colin Harrison, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #9 = "Veronika Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho, 1/5 Stars
Book #8 = "By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept" by Paulo Coelho, 3/5 Stars
Book #7 = "Stiff" by Mary Roach, 2/5 Stars
Book #6 = "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, 1/5 Stars
Book #5 = "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, 3/5 Stars
Book #4 = "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho, 2/5 Stars
Book #3 = "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz, 3/5 Stars
Book #2 = "My Ishmael" by Dan Quinn, 2/5 Stars
Book #1 = "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, 3.5/5 Stars

READ MORE!

28/52: "Twitter Power" by Joel Comm

Book 28/52: "Twitter Power" by Joel Comm, 3/5 Stars

Remember my one and only New Year's Resolution? Yeah, to read 52 books in 52 weeks... well, I'm behind, but I'm still at it.

Though Twitter Power was published earlier this year, it's already beginning to show it's age. In the wide world of the web, connections are narrower and internet time is four times faster than real time, at least I think that's how the quote goes. That said, this book would be awesome for someone that wants to leverage the connection power of Twitter, is new to the medium and doesn't have much online marketing background.

There is a fact about our culture that is not discussed in the book. Americans love to accumulate and we love to see our name in lights (ranked). I realize that Twitter is an international channel, but that doesn't mean that other cultures aren't similar to ours. We collect frequent flyer miles, credit card points, baseball cards, coasters, dolls, bottle caps... so it only makes sense that we'd want to accumulate Twitter followers, too. Quality far and away outshines quantity. Unfortunately, most of the ranking engines on Twitter weight quantity for too much and too many profiles are influenced by accumulation. Be wary of those that only care about gaining followers and not engaging because they may just want to see their name in lights.

Comm takes the time to talk about strategy in reference to quality, but doesn't get into the fact that users can now ramp up thousands of followers in a mere matter of days using follow engines. I'd love to see him address whether it's possible to glean quality from this massive influx of quantity simply from the sheer numbers of it.

There really are four parts to the Twitter day and they can be broken up into six hour segments. This analysis would make an interesting addition to the scheduled updates portion of the book. Because of the international nature of Twitter, I can promote one blog post in the morning, afternoon, evening and then overnight. Since I only grab about 6-7 hours of sleep each night, I can do all of this without using scheduled tweets. Of course, I also have no girlfriend, no wife and no kids, so that makes it a heck of a lot easier, too. It might be rewarding to see how this technique impacts traffic logs. So far, I've not had any detriment from my avid readers, partly because they are avid and partly because I engage with them throughout the day between the broadcasts.

I've taken to being very stingy with my follow-backs. Because my primary purpose on Twitter is to engage, I don't return follow profiles that are obviously pornographic, link farms and those with a very high follower to update ratio. I block them. I also avoid the celebrity profiles that don't seem to engage, they just broadcast their doings. I make a few exceptions based on my own interests; when Lance was riding in the tour, for instance.

With time on Twitter, you'll start to see accounts that are identical to each other, I've simply made a decision to avoid following them and, in fact, I typically block them. One day each week, I perform maintenance on my followers through the use of Friend or Follow to see who I'm following that's no longer following me back. This can tell you how your tweets are impacting your followers.

Because it's such a new medium, it's not as reliable as we'd like. Just last night, Tweetdeck blew up my group filters and I had to spend an hour creating them from scratch. I also suggest using Tweetake to download a text file of your followers on a regular basis... it didn't help me with my Tweetdeck groups, but it's security against Twitter blowing itself up.

Speaking of Tweetdeck, there's no way that I can follow several thousand people with any degree of regularity, so I use it to filter search terms and specific types of groups into columns that are easier to track. Those that I don't follow become those that receive my updates, but may or may not engage. If they choose to engage, then I move them into an engagement filter so that I can to converse more regularly with them.

Twitter Power does a great job of covering the basics and even provides a step-by-step program for launching yourself into the Twitterverse. Much like anything else in the world, though, once you get into using the channel, you'll begin to hone your subjective approach based on the objective considerations that Comm has presented.

Follow me @zamees.

GOAL: 52 books in 52 weeks!

Book #27 = "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by LLSW, 3/5 Stars
Book #26 = "What Kind of World Do You Want?" by Jim Lord, 5/5 Stars
Book #25 = "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" by David Meerman Scott, 4/5 Stars
Book #24 = "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, 3/5 Stars
Book #23 = "Lisey's Story" by Stephen King, 1/5 Stars
Book #22 = "My Favorite Place on Earth" by Jerry Camarillo Dunn, 4/5 Stars
Book #21 = "Wisdom 2.0" by Soren Gordhamer, 4/5 Stars
Book #20 = "Oath Of Gold" by Elizabeth Moon, 5/5 Stars
Book #19 = "The Age Of Engage" by Denise Shiffman, 3/5 Stars
Book #18 = "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20" by Tina Seelig, 4/5 Stars
Book #17 = "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, 4/5 Stars
Book #16 = "Divided Allegiance" by Elizabeth Moon, 3/5 Stars
Book #15 = "The Curious Incident of the Dog..." by Mark Haddon, 2/5 Stars
Book #14 = "The Sheepfarmer's Daughter" by Elizabeth Moon, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #13 = "Love Is The Killer App" by Tim Sanders, 4/5 Stars
Book #12 = "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk, 4.5/5 Stars
Book #11 = "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, 5/5 Stars
Book #10 = "The Finder" by Colin Harrison, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #9 = "Veronika Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho, 1/5 Stars
Book #8 = "By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept" by Paulo Coelho, 3/5 Stars
Book #7 = "Stiff" by Mary Roach, 2/5 Stars
Book #6 = "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, 1/5 Stars
Book #5 = "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, 3/5 Stars
Book #4 = "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho, 2/5 Stars
Book #3 = "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz, 3/5 Stars
Book #2 = "My Ishmael" by Dan Quinn, 2/5 Stars
Book #1 = "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, 3.5/5 Stars

READ MORE!

My Suggestions for Visual Bookshelf

I'd rather you brought something to the picnic instead of moving the picnic... you know what I mean? In other words, I have this huge, fantastic list of friends (real and virtual) that have all identified themselves as being in a particular location, so let's take better advantage of it.

Here are the suggestions that I sent to LivingSocial for their VirtualBookshelf application on Facebook:

• Create a radio button for "Would like to give it away."
• Allow me to see those friends in my area that own a book that's in my "Want to read" list and vice versa.
• If none of my friends want to read a book I'm willing to give away, then allow me to post it to a bulletin board in the area or suggest people I don't know that are local and have that book in their "Want to read" list.
• Allow me to rank my "Want to read" list so that it's easy for me to grab the books at the top of my list when I want to order online or when I'm in the bookstore.

Several of you have suggested BookCrossing, but I have a hard time getting into it... mostly because there don't seem to be many users in the Kansas City area; no critical mass. And, as I said in the beginning, why move the picnic?

Travels w/ #freebook1, Stop 3!

A few weeks ago, I left a book with a note inside of it at Midway airport in Chicago. I felt great when the person that picked it up sent me an email to say that she was thankful for the gift and that the book had made its way to San Antonio, TX. [Read the full story here.] She also said that she'd be sure to leave the book for someone else when she was finished reading it.

LO AND BEHOLD, I got another email this week saying that she'd read it and left it in Reagan National airport in Washington, D.C. And, she'd left it with my same note inside!

AWESOME!

I live close to about 87 coffee shops, so I've thought about leaving books around Kansas City... but I've wondered if too local would equate to less correspondence. Oh, I am prone to over-thinking, in case you didn't know. I'm way overdue to purge the library, so I should have enough books to leave them in coffee shops, airports and anywhere else that seems cool (likely not a bookstore, however).

I've looked at the book trading services and they always come back to the same thing... an eye for an eye, put one in and get one out... I just want to give my book away and there's no service that helps me to do that and make a connection with someone that's thankful to receive them. I've lobbied LivingSocial to help me to match my "own it & finished reading it" list with local friends that "want to read" the same book, but that connection thread doesn't yet exist (and doesn't help them earn affiliate dollars on Amazon).

If anyone else tries this, please be sure to let me know what happens!

27/52: "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by LLSW

Book 27/52: "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by Levine, Locke, Searls, Weinberger, 3/5 Stars
A relic, having been printed in 2000, but I can definitely see how this book had an impact at the time and has shaped business strategy since. However, for me, it carried a tone that was, at times, lecturing and came off as very scientific. If you've read any of my reviews of late, you'll know that right-brained books that allow the back of my head to wander/wonder get better ratings from me. Yes, it's my review and I'll write what I want to. So, when the Cluetrain is forcing me to get on board and I've no choice over my destination, I kinda have one foot on the train, but one foot swinging from the side in case something more interesting comes along.

"Chat, email, home pages--all reinforce our feeling that not only is it easy to enter into discourse with others, but also that we're by-god entitled to wade into the conversation stream."

And once we enter into it, we better be authentic, pay attention and prepared for anything to happen. Word.

GOAL: 52 books in 52 weeks!

Book #26 = "What Kind of World Do You Want?" by Jim Lord, 5/5 Stars
Book #25 = "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" by David Meerman Scott, 4/5 Stars
Book #24 = "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, 3/5 Stars
Book #23 = "Lisey's Story" by Stephen King, 1/5 Stars
Book #22 = "My Favorite Place on Earth" by Jerry Camarillo Dunn, 4/5 Stars
Book #21 = "Wisdom 2.0" by Soren Gordhamer, 4/5 Stars
Book #20 = "Oath Of Gold" by Elizabeth Moon, 5/5 Stars
Book #19 = "The Age Of Engage" by Denise Shiffman, 3/5 Stars
Book #18 = "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20" by Tina Seelig, 4/5 Stars
Book #17 = "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, 4/5 Stars
Book #16 = "Divided Allegiance" by Elizabeth Moon, 3/5 Stars
Book #15 = "The Curious Incident of the Dog..." by Mark Haddon, 2/5 Stars
Book #14 = "The Sheepfarmer's Daughter" by Elizabeth Moon, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #13 = "Love Is The Killer App" by Tim Sanders, 4/5 Stars
Book #12 = "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk, 4.5/5 Stars
Book #11 = "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, 5/5 Stars
Book #10 = "The Finder" by Colin Harrison, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #9 = "Veronika Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho, 1/5 Stars
Book #8 = "By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept" by Paulo Coelho, 3/5 Stars
Book #7 = "Stiff" by Mary Roach, 2/5 Stars
Book #6 = "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, 1/5 Stars
Book #5 = "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, 3/5 Stars
Book #4 = "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho, 2/5 Stars
Book #3 = "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz, 3/5 Stars
Book #2 = "My Ishmael" by Dan Quinn, 2/5 Stars
Book #1 = "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, 3.5/5 Stars

READ MORE!

14/52: "Sheepfarmer's Daughter" by Elizabeth Moon

Book #14 = "Sheepfarmer's Daughter" by Elizabeth Moon, 3.5/5 Stars
Just finished book one of the "The Deeds of Paksenarrion" trilogy ("Sheepfarmer's Daughter"), and although many people praise the work for Moon's technical perfection in the mannerisms and tactics of mercenaries, I find all that detail to fly in one ear and out the other giving it a real repetitive nature. Fortunately, Paks' inner turmoil as she is passionately in self-denial about accomplishing her dreams has captivated me and I can't wait to start the second book.

I think we all struggle to invent/reinvent ourselves and often must deal with the loyalty versus ecstasy conundrum when we begin to realize that we really can accomplish our dreams... sometimes to the dismay of those that have helped us to do so because we have to leave them behind.

GOAL: 52 books in 52 weeks!

Book #13 = "Love Is The Killer App" by Tim Sanders, 4/5 Stars
Book #12 = "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk, 4.5/5 Stars
Book #11 = "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, 5/5 Stars
Book #10 = "The Finder" by Colin Harrison, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #9 = "Veronika Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho, 1/5 Stars
Book #8 = "By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept" by Paulo Coelho, 3/5 Stars
Book #7 = "Stiff" by Mary Roach, 2/5 Stars
Book #6 = "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, 1/5 Stars
Book #5 = "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, 3/5 Stars
Book #4 = "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho, 2/5 Stars
Book #3 = "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz, 3/5 Stars
Book #2 = "My Ishmael" by Dan Quinn, 2/5 Stars
Book #1 = "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, 3.5/5 Stars

READ MORE!

11/52: "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Neffenegger

Book #11 = "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, 5/5 Stars
My reawakening is because of this book, "The Time Traveler’s Wife," and because of you. My heart is opening up, once again, to the prospects of love, to the idea of love, the pangs and passion of love. The roads that I'm traveling bring me nowhere closer to you, but at the same time, they are teaching me so much about you. For several days I couldn’t put this book down. At the end of five hundred plus pages, I'd become the main character, you'd become the love of my life; with all of our great ups and downs--more ups than downs--a lifeline extended from this book and plugged into my soul at the point where it called your name... from there onward, I laughed and ultimately cried... twice.

Lifeline connection? Yes, the point where the proof was evident that this book is analogous to who we were, are and will be together. It’s a feeling in the bones where they have been tuned and resonate all at once. WHAM! That point. “Oh shit,” I said, and you’ll say the same when you read it.

GOAL: 52 books in 52 weeks!

Book #10 = "The Finder" by Colin Harrison, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #9 = "Veronika Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho, 1/5 Stars
Book #8 = "By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept" by Paulo Coelho, 3/5 Stars
Book #7 = "Stiff" by Mary Roach, 2/5 Stars
Book #6 = "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, 1/5 Stars
Book #5 = "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, 3/5 Stars
Book #4 = "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho, 2/5 Stars
Book #3 = "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz, 3/5 Stars
Book #2 = "My Ishmael" by Dan Quinn, 2/5 Stars
Book #1 = "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, 3.5/5 Stars

READ!

A Gorilla Quote To Live By

There are people who believe that books are a sacred entity... it probably stems from the "good book" itself, aka The Bible. Me, on the other hand, I write in my books and dog-ear the pages that inspired me or that have quotes that I want to write in a document that I keep and call "random writings." These writings are some that I've written and some written by others... they are all kinds of strange things.

Anyhow, I was going back through "My Ishmael" today and I'd dog-eared one page with this quote:

“All of you must be teachers, whether you’re lawyers, doctors, stockbrokers, filmmakers, industrialists, world leaders, students, fry cooks, or street cleaners. Nothing less than a world of changed minds is going to save you—and changing minds is something every single one of you can do, no matter who you are or how you’re situated. If you can’t reach a hundred, then reach ten. And if you can’t reach ten, then reach one—because that one may reach a million.”

Yes, you said it Daniel Quinn. I'm in.

UPDATE 3/10: I thought about this post a lot since I wrote it. I asked, "Is this how I live my life? Do I try to change minds?" My answer was a resounding, "YES!" The mind that I most often try to change is my own. I've recently read several books that talk about how people do things because that's they way they're done... it's like cultural groupthink... but I resist the "way things are supposed to be" because I don't see that they are doing anything to make the world a better place. People don't smile at each other as they pass on the sidewalk. People get married because they think that's what they're supposed to do--and when they don't, then something "must be wrong with them." People drop their cigarette butts on the street in plain view, without even trying to hide the blatant littering. We need to change the way we think and take some ownership of our actions. When people come to me with their problems, I try to help them step outside of things and look at the big picture. Is this really the right thing for you to do? It doesn't matter if you've invested years of time into something... dedication doesn't make it worthwhile... what matters is that it is right and it is good. Yet, so many people are unwilling to throw in the towel because they spend too much time looking backward, giving value to wasted time, instead of looking forward to make the most of the time they have left.

I'm done rambling, but this is a good direction for a future column, eh.

KC Public Library, please note that I'm not the one that writes and dog-ears the pages in your books!