read a book a week

haha… oh god.. a book a week. That’s a joke. Ever since getting the 2nd gen Kindle I’ve been a book almost every three days. That thing is addictive. Damn you, Jeff Bezos!!! Thank god it has a long battery life. Reading more and watching less and less TV. Reading in line, reading while waiting, reading instead of being online… reading while walking on treadmill (I said walking, not trying to do serious cardio), etc etc There is a lot of downtime in the day that can be used for reading and there are a lot of books to be consumed! A few hundred thousand of them are free… and almost all of them are cheaper than buying at the book store. I haven’t updated this in a whle but the books are far too numerous to mention – chances are if it’s economic related, I’ve read – ping me if you’re interested.

The Woods – James Coben.

James Coben is new to me. This book was very enthralling. From the get-go there were multiple plots, lots of characters intertwining among each other’s life (not like the way Quentin does but still good) and the book was difficult to put down.

The book was about murder, spanning accross decades. There were frat boys, a stripper, a DA, lawyers, blackmail, a hippie and even some ex-KGB.

Unfortunately old habits die hard and I’m back reading multiple books at once. So I am a partial way through a few other books. The Woods made me realize why I do this—when a book is so good you don’t want it to end, but you’ve gotten into the habit of reading… you read another book to help prolong the other book. At least that’s my theory.

Wealth War & Wisdom by Barton Biggs. Yeah – still not quite finished with this book. It’s good… but lots of historical war stuff… which is not engaging for me but still great info.

Just returning from Vegas, fresh off reading far too many fictional books in the aiport/plane – I thought this one would be appropros.

This is my 3rd book by Robert Crais, the first being the Watchman (and the best of the three). This book bothers me in the same way that Demolition Angel bothers me—it’s a male author writing about a female as the main character. In both Demolition Angel and Two Minute Rule the main male charcters are bad and the main female characters are good but have psych issues/flaws. Still a decent book but I not nearly as good as Watchman.

Anyway – I spent a lot of time in airports this week so I finished off 2 books—both fiction but my non-fiction books don’t pack well since they’re larger. Maybe I should get a Kindle… ?

I forgot how much I enjoyed blowing thru a good paperback to pass the time. This book by Lincoln Child was VERY good. Kind of match.com meets War Games (remember that movie?). It’s an interesting look into AI, data mining and the human psyche. Definetely a must read.

The whole data mining/customer analytics stuff reminds me of the HBR Case Study I read recently about how companies can leverage their customer data responsibly. It really bothers me a lot… and pieces of this book keep coming back to mind—I may actually read it again, as wierd as that sounds about a fictional book.

This book by Susan Allport is, um, well it is … well, good god, it’s not anything new. A very disappointing purchase. Especially if you’ve read Pollan’s “In Defense of Food”. The US has pretty much screwed itself by stripping good nutrients out of good food and then adding back what “scientists” believe we need. In turn we, as a whole, are an extremely unfit, unhealthy and sick nation.

Of course I could rant all night about topics such as this and always bring it back to our economy… but I’ll save that for another venue. :-/

This is my 2nd book by Robert Crais and nothing like the first one I read with Joe Pike, but I like it too. Which is cool to know about a new author. It was difficult to put down which is why I read it so quickly. Wierd to have a male author writing about a female as the main character though…

I am looking forward to reading this book by Robyn Meredith as I watch the US outsource its production of anything to China and all its services to India. Saving money is good but at what cost? Does anyone actually do anything any more?

Nutrtion AND the Economy? I’m in heaven. This book by Eric A. Finkelstein and Laurie Zuckerman is on my to do list after I finish Killer Weekend, plus I’ve read so much fiction lately I’m jonesing for an economic book.