Category: Books

Growing up most of the kids I knew looked up to athletes or musicians, I always seemed to be interested in the two Steves who founded Apple. Can’t really explain why, but always was interested in them both and their company. There was just something cool about it, especially when I was growing up.

I kinda got away from technology for a bit in the mid nineties. I’m not sure exactly why. Apple was in pretty bad shape at the time, and a Windows world just didn’t seem very fun to me.

When Steve Jobs came back to the company, that’s when I seemed to get excited about the industry again. I remember making sure that I’d watch all the MacWorld live streams. I remember getting more excited than I should have been at the new announcements. It really was amazing to follow a company pretty much written off for dead to some how turn around and become the monster that it is today.

So when I saw another biography on Steve Jobs I picked it up without hesitation. I’ve read the Isaacson biography which was good, but this one I thought went into more depth on the guy as a person.

It was a really good book. I felt like it went into a lot more of his later life and not just the amazing tales of him being a genius-jerk during the late 70’s and 80’s.

His story of amazing rise, to fall and then to somehow even rise higher in the end is really more of a Hollywood story than real life. Very interesting book.

I do think I’ve enjoyed reading Killing Patton more than anything I have read lately. I’ve always been a bit of a fan of history, especially European for some reason.

The writing style is very interesting to me. I’ve read Killing Lincoln and the JFK book and really enjoy the story like style to non-fiction. It really makes for some exciting reading and I do look forward to more books in this style.

While I’ve read much on WWII and learned quite a bit in school, there were a lot of details that were new to me. A lot of info on many of the key generals at the time and the maps really make the western front very interesting to follow.

It’s really sad just how many people were killing one another.

The Rat was kind enough to give me Chuck Norris’ biography as a Christmas gift. We often joked about Chuck Norris back when all the hilarious Internet memes were popular. The book also belonged to her father, so I was extremely honored that she would want me to have it.

While I didn’t jump in and read it right away, I eventually made time for it a few months later. It was pretty much exactly as I’d of imagined it to be.

I cannot say it was a very good book for me. While Mr. Norris certainly has led an interesting and meaningful life, I just didn’t really get into this one.

The reluctant bragging was pretty hilarious to me. Often he would go on to sound so very modest, then follow up with proclaiming and amazing feat. It really wasn’t modest at all. I know I do that often myself when telling stories, so I guess we have that in common.

While I knew already that he was a very religious man, I was a bit surprised as to just how much religion was tied into the book. It was really was a constant the entire book. I’m glad that such faith helped him get through his life and make positive impacts. Though I don’t believe in his faith, I do agree with what he was able to accomplish using it.

Overall it wasn’t that good of a book for me, but I’m glad that the Rat was kind enough to share it with me.

A new person at the library with a nose ring recommended The Poisonwood Bible out of the blue. I’m easy to please, so I accepted the recommendation. She then said she never read it, but it was mentioned on a list she saw recently. I didn’t waver and took it home.

It started a bit slow for me and after a few chapters I thought I had gotten a “girl” book. It turned out that it was a good book, and I started to breeze through it once I got going.

I really liked how different chapters were told from different characters points of view. That’s a style that when done right I have really enjoyed in the past.

I also liked that while fiction it did revolve around historical facts. I found myself researching the Belgian Congo a bit while reading. Very interesting.

I saw a new Stephen King book at the library and figured to give it a shot. I’ve liked a couple of his other books, so why not.

I really enjoyed it. It was a bit on the dark side, but that’s to be expected of course. I’m sure glad I don’t live in on of his stories, those characters sure have it rough.

I’ve never heard of the term “the fifth business”, and now I’m trying to figure out if I know anyone who fits the bill.

The ending was a bit of a surprise even though I was expecting a surprise. So that was nice.

When I saw The Innovators, then realized whom the author was I immediately made up my mind to borrow this book from the library and give it a read. I really enjoyed Isaacson’s Steve Jobs book and already have a big interest in the history of computing.

It was a really great book. Covering the very early concepts and idea machines, to the transistor, the personal computer and the Internet. So many various aspects were touched upon.

I found the info on the creation of the transistor and microchip to be interesting. I suppose I’d known the least about this respective area compared to the other areas detailed.

It was a long book and it did take me more than 4 weeks to complete, but I did find it most interesting.