As time went on, I shifted my reading habits from strictly political and related to the War on Terror to all manner of topics including but not limited to business books, environmental/health, energy, sociological, technological and a whole host of everything non-fiction in between.
Though I graduated from Fordham University in 2004 with a MA in social work, I’ve since (up until I got married and time for intellectual pursuits became a fleeting temptress) I’ve even spent a period of months, usually over the summer, concentrating on specific subjects I decided to teach myself such as the complete history of Christianity and the history of post-Communist Revolution Russia.
Along the way I’ve come across some fabulous writers whom I’ve become a big fan of such as Jared Diamond, Rodney Stark, Edwin Black and Charles Pellegrino. Usually after I read a book by any of the above authors I run around to everyone I know and tell them about said book. I typically gush with swooning girlie delight about how great these books are and how much I’ve learned from them.
That’s how I got started reviewing books for a quasi-living. I would read a book a week and it was nothing to bang out a review for each book and publish it where I could. For a while there I was even getting paid for it. However, after this summer my new life as a married man caught up with me and the pace at which I read books slowed down to maybe a book every other week if not more. The reviews for said books suffered as well, especially since I started doing the radio show.
Occasionally I’ll still get sent a book by publishing house or author and then I’m compelled to read and review that book, putting off whatever reading I was doing just for the sheer joy of it. All of this led me to decide that instead of shirking said reviews or trying to write a ton of them before the end of the year, I would simply just give a number of short reviews for the last few books I’ve read.
A View from the Cheap Seats: Advice and Opinions on Life's Little Issues...from a Kid by Ryan Latimer
I was considerably remiss by not reviewing this book when it was originally sent to me a few months ago. In and of itself, its existence is a remarkable feat. It is advice book written by fellow 411 columnist and self-proclaimed “kid” Ryan Latimer. I’ll give this young man credit, he’s done one thing in his short life that I’ve yet to do by 30 and that is write his own book. That alone should inspire people to read it. It is not every day a youngling from Battle Creek Michigan bucks the system and does something so completely unorthodox as write an advice books.
It’s an interesting dynamic because in this day and age, the 18 – 35 age bracket is the most sought after market yet nobody gives a damn what any of said people actually think or say (unless you follow the blogs). As someone right in the middle of that market, Ryan is keenly in touch and able to speak sophisticatedly to said demographic. Latimer covers politics, health and eating, mental health, deleterious media influences, and a host of other issues relevant to my generation and those younger than us. Latimer speaks in a familiar voice that is both wise as it is familiar.
If you are looking for that special something in the bookstore for your loved one but Dr. Phil is not exactly your bag, I would highly recommend, “A View From Cheap Seats” by Ryan Latimer.
The Battle for Azeroth: Adventure, Alliance, and Addiction in the World of Warcraft Edited by Bill Fawcett
This is yet another neglected title given to me to review by 411Mania. I actually really liked this title a lot. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book I reviewed from this series, “The Psychology of the Simpsons” and though I don’t play World of Warcraft, I do know people who do and I was more than a mite curious as to what all the fuss was about.
My first introduction to the world of on-line role-playing games was when I asked a friend of mine innocently enough, “I’ve played Civilization and I really liked it, do you think I would enjoy EverQuest as well?” He answered, “Dear God no! Don’t do it. You’re already too addicted to video games…there’s a reason they call it EverCrack!”
That’s the essence of “The Battle for Azeroth.” It is an all encompassing guide, complete with the history of multi-player on-line role playing games, to explain why people play this thing, how they get addicted, what are the in’s and out’s of the WOW subculture and just what kind of dork plays this game in the first place.
Just like the other books in the BenBella series, it’s an anthology of different essays, written in a myriad of styles that tackle varying subjects. That’s the first section. The second section is strictly a player’s guide. I was much more interested in the first section but if you are an avid player, I would imagine that the second section would be indispensable.
I’ve already gone and forwarded a copy of this book to one of my friends who is both a psychology major as well as a gamer and of WOW. I would heartily suggest buying this for your favorite role-playing geek, if you can get them off the computer for any great length of time.
Shopportunity!: How to Be a Retail Revolutionary by Kate Newlin
I spoke about this book briefly on my radio show. I found this gem in the business and marketing section of my local chain bookstore. I was a bit leery when I picked it up at first but my wife standing right behind me and had demanded that I buy a book from some place other than the Current Events or Politics section. “Shopportunity!” is a unique idea in that it focuses solely on the value of the shopping experience itself.
Newlin put into words something I had been feeling for quite some time but never really knew just what it was I was feeling. As I stated on my talk show, when I was on the hunt for certain kinds of comic books or record albums, there was an inherent joy or thrill of the hunt as I took road trips to select stores in order to purchase my desired plunder. This was opposed to the complete lack of joy or thrills from finding the same items at any BestBuy or Tower Record’s or whatever chain store happened to be within a 20-mile radius of my house. Newlin examines just how normal both of these feelings are and the shopping experience has devolved into simply a race to the bottom in both prices and service.
Now gentlemen, maybe you have that special someone who loves to shop and more to the point, that special someone also likes to read. Other than a diamond bought with blood money and the life of a faceless African, the perfect gift for your honey bunny is simply “Shopportunity!” by Kate Newlin.
Internal Combustion: How Corporations And Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives by Edwin Black
This is probably in my top ten for the year. It’s a featured book in my Progressive Conservatism University On-Line Store and it is one that I bought and read almost immediately instead of shoving in my to-be-read drawer like I normally do. Edwin Black attracted me to his work with his stellar non-fiction piece about eugenics in America, “War Against the Weak.” However, this is his most ambitious and timely work to date.
There are at least a million books about oil and why we should not be so dependant on it. What makes this one stand out is it strictly about how American corporations and their cronies in government scuttled the electric car 100 years ago and purposely stuck us with oil dependency (thank you Rockefeller). It’s the most comprehensive and informative book on the subject of oil addiction and the automobile industry to date. Black spells out very plainly that we could have had the electric car at the turn of the 20th century, even before the advent of the internal combustion engine. He shows the reader how we lost it through a series of unfortunate and sometime ludicrous events. Much like the documentary about how we lost the modern electric car in the 90’s, consumer stupidity was as much to blame as corporate shortsightedness. Government was the lackey here.
Black ends the book with a chapter on hydrogen cars that adds to the list of people advising against dependence on this red herring technology. Black, a journalist by trade, is in the tank for electric and explains in vivid detail why he is an advocate for reclaiming this highly usable technology.
For your conspiracy theorist, anti-Republican, or just automotive history buff, this Christmas, give him or her the gift of knowledge, buy them one of the best books on the market today, “Internal Combustion,” by Edwin Black.
…and finally
High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health by Elizabeth Grossman
After I read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” I ran around announcing that there was corn in everything a la Abe “Grandpa” Simpson from the Simpsons. Unfortunately for those around me, after reading “High Tech Trash” I’ve added a number of toxins found in the electronics my wife and I use on a daily basis to go on shouting about. Oh you have no idea what cancer causing elements are lurking around you. It really is true what they say, life itself does cause cancer.
“High Tech Trash” not only covers how electronics are disposed of, which causes pollutants that can cause a variety of diseases, not the least of which are autoimmune disorders that have made my wife’s life darn near unlivable, but it also covers how these high tech goodies (cell phones, computers, TV’s) are created in the first place. No matter which end you are investigating, both are high contributors to pollution and disease.
Grossman spends much of the book outlining what is and can be done to recycle your used high tech goods without causing minor 3 Mile Islands everywhere man has a presence. It’s not at all a panty-wearing, tree hugging, liberal corporate hate-on book. In fact, Grossman names businesses as the solution, should they see the profit in it, to eliminating the billions of metric tons of trash we’re piling up exponentially year after year.
For those that are techies as well as nature lovers, or even those just concerned with their health, I would advise you to put “High Tech Trash” under their Christmas tree.
Well that just about wraps up this survey of books I’ve read since October. Hopefully next year I’ll get back into the swing of book reviewing.
Some titles I have on deck or I am reading now are, “Where God Was Born,” by Bruce Feiler, “The Victory of Reason” by Rodney Stark, “The Long Tail,” by Chris Anderson, “The First Human,” by Ann Gibbons, “Sweet Deception,” by Dr. Joseph Mercola, “Social Intelligence,” by Daniel Goleman, “State of Denial,” by Bob Woodward, “The Looming Tower,” by Lawrence Wright, “The Emperors of Chocolate,” by Joel Glenn Brenner, “Chindia,” Edited by Pete Engardio, and finally “Fish on Friday,” by Brian Fagan.
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