JoeDag32

I’m trying to recall how I went about choosing to read Good as Gold when I was last at the library, but to save my life I can’t. I really think that it was a yellow colored book. I just suppose I wanted to read a book with a yellow cover this time.

As it turns out, this was a pretty interesting book. While I can’t relate directly to growing up Jewish in America, there was far too many similarities to the main characters family and my own. The crazy and dysfunctional family who was obsessed with food was all too familiar to me.

This was not at all what I was expecting it to be, and I was glad that was so. Very humorous and disturbingly dark. The author clearly wasn’t a fan of Kissinger (then again, who really was).

Sadly though this is fiction, I’ve seen way too many instances of complete fools advancing far in life. Very humorous to read it in action.

Check out the new releases a the library and I was stumped. Nothing was really jumping out to me that day. I did notice Over-Diagnosed, and being how I feel about the medical system at times figured that might be an interesting read.

The overwhelming theme of the book was very interesting. To me it pretty much just backed up with evidence, how over-diagnosing in the medical industry can at times hurt more people than it helps.

The author, a doctor always backs up his ideas with plenty of facts and studies, which is great whenever debating any topic. Some of the findings really do open up your eyes a bit.

While the idea and theme of the book were very interesting to me, I didn’t finish reading the entire thing. I think it was a bit too “medically” written, it that makes any sense. I had a hard time getting through chapters at points.

I’d of personally been just as happen reading a few pages and viewing a sample of the charts to get an understanding of what the author wanted to share. But the point is an important one and I would recommend to always investigate what are the best options for one’s own medical care and not just operate out of fear (I know it’s easier said then done at times).

Didn’t really have anything specific in mind as I visited the library last. Nothing in the new releases section caught my eye, so I just figured I’d wander into the fiction section.

I recalled NGM telling me that there was a really great fantasy series by Robert Jordan. So I figured I’d see if they had the first book in the series. I’m not sure if they did or not (pretty sure not), but did see The Conan Chronicles by Robert Jordan.

My brothers and I loved the Conan movies when we were little kids, and the comics were pretty cool too. So why not give some Conan a shot?

This book was a compilation of 3 separate stories. I read the first 2 and they were not too bad. It wasn’t great, and the formula seemed a bit predictable at times (Conan against an evil magician), but overall they were entertaining.

As usually I found my most enjoyable character a sidekick, the one eyed Hordo. Typically he’s “too old” for all this stuff, but goes along for the good fight.

A bit predictable at times, but still nice to get back to some old school violence of good against evil that I grew up with.

I was very glad when I saw that the library had the Steve Jobs biography available. I’ve been really looking forward to reading it since it’s release.

Despite being a rather lengthy book, I read through it pretty quickly. I’ve always been a big fan of Apple since we got an Apple ][ in our 2nd grade classroom. When Mr. McClaren came in to demo it to our class, it was truly one of the highlights of my young life.

The book was great. Despite already knowing a lot about Steve, there was very much in the biography that I didn’t know already. The book also wasn’t too slanted to one view in my opinion. It really seemed as though the author kept if very objective as an excellent biography should be in my opinion.

Even though I knew that Steve passed away not too long ago, it was very sad to read towards the end. Because it’s a book, I strangely was still rooting that somehow there could be a different ending.

If you have any interest in Apple, business, or just want an interesting read, I highly recommend this.

Went back to some nonfiction for my latest read. Noticed Ghost in the Wires in the new arrivals sections. Since it claimed to be about the adventures of the world’s most wanted hacker and there was a forward by Steve Wozniak it was worthy of a read.

As a web developer I found it to be very interesting. While for some reason I was expecting more of some crazy hollywood hacks (even though I know how fake they are in the movies), it was very interesting to see of off the old fashioned social engineering techniques that were used. I always tell people that most hacks are a result of human error (giving out passwords, login, etc.) and the author certainly confirmed this.

The author’s hacks were great. It’s amazing to hear of his workarounds of the phone services. Very impressive stuff. Most of it was just a little bit before my time, but I would recall hearing some of the tales as he told them.

I also really enjoyed remembering all the various tech that was so prevalent in the 80′s and early 90′s that I sometimes forget about. VMS, Sun, some really great times.

I was a little stumped looking over the recent arrivals at the library, nothing was really catching my eye. So I figured I’d stroll down the fiction section and see if anything jumped out at me. Apparently, you can’t just walk by aisles in the library and expect books to jump out, you kinda need to be looking for something specific.

I noticed a whole shelf or two of Ernest Hemmingway books. I knew he’s considered to be a great author, so why not give him a shot. I wasn’t exactly sure what to pick from the bunch, but went with A Farewell to Arms since I had read up on WWI a little while back.

The book was excellent. It bis one of the darkest and gloomiest things I’ve ever read. You really get a sense and feeling of how people felt during that time period. Nothing is over the top or greatly exaggerated, just dark and sad.

Even though you know that doom is coming, I still found myself rooting for a happy ending to this tale. The last several pages made absolutely sure that there would be not a shred of happiness to be found in this.

While not exactly an upbeat tale by any means and more of a romance story than I usually care to read, it was still a great book. I haven’t read anything of Hemmingway’s since high school and am glad that I went back and read another of his works.