Ben Dyer

• 01/30 – 18/30 – See other entries :)
• 19/30 – The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (DONE!)

Well. Now that was an interesting three months. A strange combination of events prevented me from adding to this list. A lack of time, a lack of energy, and then reading books only to have to return them to the library half-read…I’m just happy to have been able to finish anything.

So, yeah, 11 more books in maybe a month and a half. Possible, but not gonna happen. I’ll have the week around Thanksgiving at my folks to spend some time reading, but that’s the only real dedicated time. Maybe next year.

Thanks, Dad! A wonderful birthday gift!

And it puts all other MP3 players to shame. Hey, if you want something that supports your WMA or OGG files, well, that’s your problem. But the iPod is – bar none – the best MP3 player you can buy. It’s in a class all by itself.

• 01/30 – 17/30 – See other entries :)
• 18/30 – Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (DONE!) Interesting, but I was hoping for a little more. I guess I’m just being spoiled by Malcolm Gladwell’s books, which do a markedly better job of tying everything back to a unified theory.

Speaking of Malcolm Gladwell, I’ve got The Tipping Point back. I finished half of The World Is Flat before I had to take it back to the library. I wrote down where I was and rerequested it. I had to take The Tipping Point back, but I already rerequested it knowing I wouldn’t have time to finish it, and a fresh copy was waiting for me when I got to the library. :)

So, The Tipping Point it is. Then probably The Wisdom of Crowds since that one is due back soon. My sister bought me a copy of iCon Steve Jobs too, and I’ve been wanting to read that for a while.

• 01/30 – 16/30 – See other entries :)
• 17/30 – Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (DONE!) Wow. Just…wow. This book blew me away. Occasionally, somebody will write a book that makes completely obvious and perfect sense, but not until someone ties everything together for you. This is one of those books. Understanding how things influence the brain at a subconscious level has already revolutionized at least one part of my life. (I called off a scheduled focus group I was planning because I realized that it wouldn’t have yielded us useful results based on what I read in this book.) Gladwell’s The Tipping Point is at the library and you better believe I’m looking forward to reading that one now.

Now I need to hurry. I have two weeks to read The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman, so I need to get on that right away. Especially since I am tied up with wedding-related activities (not my own) the rest of this week.

• 01/30 – 15/30 – See other entries :)
• 16/30 – The Arrogance of the French: Why They Can’t Stand Us and Why the Feeling Is Mutual by Richard Z. Chesnoff (DONE!) This is an interesting book that tries to tackle a broad subject. The argument seems to be that the French are arrogant (primarily) because their place in the world has been diminishing for decades. (The writer then ties this argument to France’s disastrous foreign policy of supporting all manner of world dictators – in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Uganda, Rwanda, etc. – as an attempt to extend France’s sphere of influence.) It’s a good argument and everything is well-thought-out. However, the book is very, very short and uses those tricks to make it feel longer than it is (the same we used in high school): large margins, double spacing, slightly larger fonts, illustrations, appendices, etc. It says that it’s 208 pages, but it feels half of that. A good quick read otherwise.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve stopped listing all the books I’ve read on each post to save vertical space. I’ll list them all again when I finish.

I’m currently also reading Gladwell’s Blink. I need to hurry up on that. I still have a large stack of other library books, too. I just got The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman in and Gladwell’s Tipping Point is waiting for me at the library right now (I’ll get it next week). Gotta hurry…

• 01/30 – Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
• 02/30 – A Voice in the Wilderness by Charles Dyer
• 03/30 – Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• 04/30 – Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
• 05/30 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• 06/30 – Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
• 07/30 – South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias by Brian C. Anderson
• 08/30 – CUSP by Robert Metzger
• 09/30 – The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
• 10/30 – Life, The Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
• 11/30 – First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
• 12/30 – So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams
• 13/30 – Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic by Andy Serkis
• 14/30 – How To Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter
• 15/30 – Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams (DONE!) I’m trying to figure out which book least fit the Hitchhiker’s Guide “trilogy”: this one or So Long and Thanks for All the Fish. Both are good, but feel out of place compared to the first three. So Long mostly focused on Arthur and added in Fenchurch, but then Fenchurch disappeared completely for the fourth book and instead focused weirdly on multiple universes and multiple Trillians. A little weird. Still pretty good though.

So, now I’m officially halfway through. Yay!

Still need to tackle Blink. Think I’ll work on that some over this extended weekend. Next in the library stack is Richard Z. Chesnoff’s The Arrogance of the French, so I think I’ll try working that in soon.

• 01/30 – Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
• 02/30 – A Voice in the Wilderness by Charles Dyer
• 03/30 – Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• 04/30 – Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
• 05/30 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• 06/30 – Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
• 07/30 – South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias by Brian C. Anderson
• 08/30 – CUSP by Robert Metzger
• 09/30 – The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
• 10/30 – Life, The Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
• 11/30 – First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
• 12/30 – So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams
• 13/30 – Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic by Andy Serkis
• 14/30 – How To Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter (DONE!) When a liberal writes a book that is baitingly inflammatory, they are “entertaining and insightful.” When a conservative does the same, she is “arrogant and juvenile.” Such is the logic of the left side of politics, apparently (Coulter devoted a full chapter to Democrats’ double standards). You have to have thick skin to be a conservative sometimes, so it’s nice to read some impassioned writing that I can mostly agree with.

However, with all politics, I need to take it in low doses to prevent vapor lock. (This is why it took me several weeks to read.) So, I’ll be skipping the political stuff for a few books.

The library wants Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink back pretty quickly (unlike the other books of theirs I have which have become semi-permanent fixtures on my shelves), so I’ll probably read that next. Mostly Harmless remains bathroom reading, but it’s a very light read, I’m already halfway through it.

One more and I’m halfway through! (Just in time for the halfway point of the year!)

• 01/30 – Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
• 02/30 – A Voice in the Wilderness by Charles Dyer
• 03/30 – Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• 04/30 – Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
• 05/30 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• 06/30 – Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
• 07/30 – South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias by Brian C. Anderson
• 08/30 – CUSP by Robert Metzger
• 09/30 – The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
• 10/30 – Life, The Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
• 11/30 – First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
• 12/30 – So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams
• 13/30 – Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic by Andy Serkis (DONE!) OK, now I’m starting to cheat. This book is so short and is heavily illustrated, but I’m swamped and haven’t had much reading time. I now have half of the local library sitting in my living room.

My current goal is to send at least one book back to the library this week. We’ll see…

PROS:

• No longer have to spend extra money to buy a car with automatic transmission.
• Saves money on gas.
• Downshifting instead of braking when passing through a speed trap lowers speed while eliminating telltale sign that you were speeding (i.e., brake lights).
• Downshifting gives you extra power in situations where you need a burst of speed (e.g., yellow light).
• It’s a lot more fun.

CONS:

• You can’t drive with a drink or cellphone in your hand.

Except, of course, that’s not a con.

• 01/30 – Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
• 02/30 – A Voice in the Wilderness by Charles Dyer
• 03/30 – Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• 04/30 – Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
• 05/30 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• 06/30 – Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
• 07/30 – South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias by Brian C. Anderson
• 08/30 – CUSP by Robert Metzger
• 09/30 – The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
• 10/30 – Life, The Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
• 11/30 – First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman (DONE!) Best business book I’ve ever read. Most business and managerial books are crap: overstating the painfully obvious. (Worst offender: Who Moved My Cheese? “Change happens and is inevitable. You need to adapt to it. Wow, I never would have thought of that.”) But this book gives real definition and meat to how to be a great manager of people: hiring them, retaining them, making sure they’re happy, productive and in the right role for them, etc. I can’t praise this book enough.
• 12/30 – So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams (DONE!) OK, that completes the rereading of the older book I have. Now to get Mostly Harmless from the library.

Still trying to remove the backlog on the reading front, though. The remaining library pile is next.

• 01/30 – Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
• 02/30 – A Voice in the Wilderness by Charles Dyer
• 03/30 – Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• 04/30 – Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
• 05/30 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• 06/30 – Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
• 07/30 – South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias by Brian C. Anderson
• 08/30 – CUSP by Robert Metzger
• 09/30 – The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
• 10/30 – Life, The Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams (DONE!) Uh-oh. Backlog is catching up to me. Books are moving to back burner to finish work load and CD and DVD backlog. I’m consuming far too much media!

Shoot. What do I have now? Uh…still trying to find time to finish First, Break All the Rules. Of course, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is up. Two Ann Coulter books, A Smile in the Mind by Beryl McAlhone & David Stuart and The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki make up just the LIBRARY pile.

Hoo boy.

• 01/30 – Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
• 02/30 – A Voice in the Wilderness by Charles Dyer
• 03/30 – Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• 04/30 – Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
• 05/30 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• 06/30 – Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
• 07/30 – South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias by Brian C. Anderson
• 08/30 – CUSP by Robert Metzger
• 09/30 – The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams (DONE!) What can I say? Still great the third time around.

Onward to Life, The Universe and Everything. The More Than Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide is my bathroom reading material, so it’s slower than everything else. My regular reading is slowing down because I’m busy with a number of things, but I’m halfway through First, Break All the Rules and I’ve got another Ann Coulter book coming today.

• 01/30 – Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
• 02/30 – A Voice in the Wilderness by Charles Dyer
• 03/30 – Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• 04/30 – Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
• 05/30 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• 06/30 – Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
• 07/30 – South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias by Brian C. Anderson
• 08/30 – CUSP by Robert Metzger (DONE!) – The first review of this book on Amazon states that, “there are so many ideas in this book that you almost need a road map.” This is very true. I got lost a number of times and I’m still not completely sure I understand what happened, but there were quite a few interesting ideas in this one.

Still reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. I’ll finish that someday. Now from the library: the managerial book, First, Break All the Rules and Ann Coulter’s Treason.

• 01/30 – Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
• 02/30 – A Voice in the Wilderness by Charles Dyer
• 03/30 – Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• 04/30 – Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
• 05/30 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• 06/30 – Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis (DONE!) – What should be the most influential book on baseball is still by and large ignored by most of professional baseball. I sure wish my Texas Rangers would read it – they could learn a lot from our division rivals.
• 07/30 – South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias by Brian C. Anderson (DONE!) – And in half a day, too (came from the library this morning)! A decent synopsis of the growth in right-wing political discussion in the past ten years or so, but nothing that anyone who regularly reads the right-leaning blogosphere wouldn’t know. A short read, though.

Still reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. CUSP by Robert Metzger and South Park Conservatives came from the library today. I’ve got a lot of reading to do!

UPDATE: Maybe I should start shooting for 50… Well, no point in jumping the gun yet, let’s finish what I have first.

• 01/30 – Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
• 02/30 – A Voice in the Wilderness by Charles Dyer
• 03/30 – Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• 04/30 – Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell (DONE!) – (Transplated from my blog.) Vowell is an unusual fan of American history in that she is enraptured with the history surrounding the United States’ first three presidential assassinations—Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. What follows in Assassination Vacation is an almost ghoulish history lesson surrounding some of the darkest moments in American presidential history, some remembered and some tragically forgotten. However, Vowell writes with a dark sense of humor and the book becomes part history lesson, but also part insight into Americana itself. She also interjects some of her personal political views into her story, but at this point, I tune out most of that from everybody anyway, so it doesn’t hamper my enjoyment of the book as a whole as it might have in, say, March of 2003.
• 05/30 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (DONE!) – I decided to go ahead and finish this today, too. I’ve read this several times since I first bought the More Than Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide (ironic, because it was printed prior to the release of Mostly Harmless and is, thus, incomplete) in high school. The book’s pages are yellowing, but the content is as wonderful as ever.

Also currently working on finishing up the Hitchhiker’s Guide “trilogy” again and I just got Moneyball from the library.

• 01/30 – Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
• 02/30 – A Voice in the Wilderness by Charles Dyer
• 03/30 – Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (DONE!) -
  An excellent sci-fi novel. The book is a quick read and easily digestable (reminded me of Asimov in this regard), but one that I can’t put down. Read this in less than two days.

So, yeah, I’m a little behind. I get into reading grooves rather than read on a regular basis, so I try to get as much out of it while I’m in a groove.

Got plenty of invites (I think all Gmail users do now). Comment if you want one.

Today is the second year anniversary. Me and my friend started the company on March 1, 2003 and here we sit two years later.

Finances still suck and we’re still fighting for work, but we made it. And that means something.

Wild at Heart by John Eldredge (1/30) – One of those books that redefined my Christian walk. Amazing.
A Voice in the Wilderness by Charles Dyer (2/30) – OK, this one is sort of cheating. I’ve read it before, it’s short and it just happens to have been written by my father. But it’s still a great book.

• Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy
• Pure Baseball by Keith Hernandez (baseball season approaches)
• A Fish Out of Water by George Barna
• The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea: 1895-1910 by Peter Duus

And these are just a few things on the shelf. Reading only thirty books this year won’t even get me close to putting a dent in my “to read” pile.

Yes, I’m serious.

And, yes, believe it or not, there is contention over the title: http://www.worldslargestthings.com/minnesota/mntwine.htm