March 10-12, 2007
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling
Sometimes you read a book just to escape the real world, and I must say, that for that purpose, the Harry Potter series has always been very effective for me. The stories are fast paced and interesting enough, complete with little doses of childlike wonder and "WOW, I wish I could do that!" moments. Especially when I am a little overwhelmed with other things, they tend to make me feel a little better about the world (and a little better at procrastination.) This book managed to pull me into and through 600 some odd pages in three days over a weekend where I worked Saturday and Sunday.
I put this on my paperbackswap.com wishlist when I first joined, because while I am a Potter fan, I'm not really the obsessive type that has already preordered the last book (although after reading this one, I am thinking about it.) And it turned up, as these things tend to do in my world, at just the right time.
I do think sometimes that the books rely a little bit too much on me having remembered little details from the past books, which I haven't read for years, so the details are fuzzy at best, but I suppose that the rehashing that would be necessary to bring those less-than-true fans like me up to speed might be really tedious for those who can keep track of all the members of the Order of the Phoenix.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
I was really convinced that Harry was wrong about Snape, I really just didn't think that he was going to end up as the bad guy. I don't know why, but I thought that in the way of children and teachers, they were wrong about him, and that while unlikeable certainly, he was really on the good side. I'm, not sure why I believed that, or why I wanted to believe that, but I did, and so, while I knew that Dumbledore died at the end thanks to the help of some other spoilers, I was totally shocked that Snape killed him. I am very interested to see how she wraps that one up in the end...
Cause the end is coming... and I'm not sure that I buy into Sean's prediction "He's going to die you know..." I suppose that it's possible, but at the same time, that idea seems a little too dark for the world of Hogwarts. I hope that he doesn't. I really like the idea of Harry Potter surviving. Of course, there is always the question: What does one do for a living after defeating the worst kind of evil at age 17? It kind of makes insurance sales seem a little anticlimactic ;-)
I suppose that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed these books in the time since I read the last one. When I think back, they have been very useful procrastination tools for me in the past. I do think that I will preorder the final book, (Barnes and Noble will sell it to me, a member with the credit card, for not so much at all). At this point, what I'm debating is reading the others again before the new one comes out, so that my memory is fresh, so that the whole story can come together as one complete tale, which I think is fitting. Probably not the most effective use of my time, but fitting the compulsive side of me, and I know that I will be able to get Jannine to do it with me, which might be fun. Plus, the book is coming out over the summer, so no classes, just work, disc, and God willing, some looming medical school secondaries. Sounds like a wonderful time for some quality escapism.
Want to know what else I've been reading lately? Check out The 2007 Booklist
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
A Perfect Mess
March 12-14, 2007
A Perfect Mess
by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman
My mother gave me this book for Christmas. I think in hope of communicating to me that she loves me in spite of my messy messy ways. I know she does, but it was still a nice gesture.
The premise of this book is that we, as a culture, have gone too far in our quest for organization, and that we now seek to be more organized simply for the sake of organization, rather than because we have a good idea of what the actual benefit of this organization might be. Basically, being organized has a cost in time and resources and such, but frequently people don't consider that, and instead just quest to keep everything NEAT without thinking if that time could have been used more productively for other things. (Anyone that has seen my bedroom or the back seat of my car knows that I suffer from no such illusion, and think that my time can be better used for just about anything rather than just making things neat.)
The authors are not advocating anarchy or complete and total sloppiness, but they argue that in each situation there is an optimal level of messiness that will result in a maximization of productivity/creativity etc. and that we should quest for that. They split the existence of messiness up into many levels and different types of messiness, and talk about how a slight mess can be an advantage in everything from our desks to our thinking.
The argument is a pretty common sense one once you think about it, but I did still find parts of the book enlightening, especially as I am one of those people constantly in a quest to go from chaos to totally perfect organization. I have, since reading this book tried to introduce a little of the productive kind of messiness into some areas of my life. (For example, my MCAT studying now includes more passages unrelated to the things that I have recently reviewed.) I'm pretty sure that I haven't yet found the optimal level of messiness (Read: agenda still compulsively color coded, floor of my bedroom, less easy to find.) But I hope that this thinking might help me get there.
It is a little redundant, and if you can accept the idea that neater is not ALWAYS better, than you can probably get by with only the first couple chapters, or reading the reviews, but if mess and organization is something that you struggle with (like me) than this might be a good one to get you to calm yourself down.
Maybe I should have bought it for my mother...
Want to know what else I've been reading lately? Check out The 2007 Booklist
A Perfect Mess
by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman
My mother gave me this book for Christmas. I think in hope of communicating to me that she loves me in spite of my messy messy ways. I know she does, but it was still a nice gesture.
The premise of this book is that we, as a culture, have gone too far in our quest for organization, and that we now seek to be more organized simply for the sake of organization, rather than because we have a good idea of what the actual benefit of this organization might be. Basically, being organized has a cost in time and resources and such, but frequently people don't consider that, and instead just quest to keep everything NEAT without thinking if that time could have been used more productively for other things. (Anyone that has seen my bedroom or the back seat of my car knows that I suffer from no such illusion, and think that my time can be better used for just about anything rather than just making things neat.)
The authors are not advocating anarchy or complete and total sloppiness, but they argue that in each situation there is an optimal level of messiness that will result in a maximization of productivity/creativity etc. and that we should quest for that. They split the existence of messiness up into many levels and different types of messiness, and talk about how a slight mess can be an advantage in everything from our desks to our thinking.
The argument is a pretty common sense one once you think about it, but I did still find parts of the book enlightening, especially as I am one of those people constantly in a quest to go from chaos to totally perfect organization. I have, since reading this book tried to introduce a little of the productive kind of messiness into some areas of my life. (For example, my MCAT studying now includes more passages unrelated to the things that I have recently reviewed.) I'm pretty sure that I haven't yet found the optimal level of messiness (Read: agenda still compulsively color coded, floor of my bedroom, less easy to find.) But I hope that this thinking might help me get there.
It is a little redundant, and if you can accept the idea that neater is not ALWAYS better, than you can probably get by with only the first couple chapters, or reading the reviews, but if mess and organization is something that you struggle with (like me) than this might be a good one to get you to calm yourself down.
Maybe I should have bought it for my mother...
Want to know what else I've been reading lately? Check out The 2007 Booklist
Monday, March 05, 2007
A Little Catching Up to Do
So, I haven't done so well with the updating thing, and only slightly better consistently writing in my pretty journal, but I figured an update might get me back on track. Here's (at least a partial) list of the books that I have read in the last two months or so, along with some thoughts on each. I have no idea of the dates for most, so I am not going to even attempt, but here goes...
Under the Banner of Heaven
This book really pulled me in, had me thinking quite a bit. For those of you who haven't heard of it/ don't know what it's about: it tells the story of some Mormon Fundamentalist brothers who (very brutally) murder their sister in law and her infant daughter because they believe that "God told them to do it." It frames this story with a lot of other details about the history of Mormonism in general and Mormon Fundamentalism in particular. The book is by Jon Krakauer, who you may know for his other books, Into Thin Air and Into the Wild.
Now the book is good, and certainly very interesting, but I did feel from the beginning that Krakauer might not have been the best person to write it. Not only is he not a Mormon, but he is clearly not religious, and much of what he says about Mormonism, or religious faith in general is loaded with not at all veiled disdain for the faithful. He claims to have respect for Mormons, but also calls says that religious violence is the result of "those murky sectors of the heart and the head that prompt most of us to believe in God - and compel the impassioned few, predictably to carry out that irrational belief to its logical end." I'm not sure that murder is the logical end to faith in Christ...
The book does really make you think, where is the line between faith and delusion? That question is legally part of the trail for these brothers. Were they insane? They thought that they were listening to the voice of God, following the will of God. But if they are insane, than are all people who attempt to live their lives according the to will of the God that they worship insane. Clearly that's taking it too far, but where's the line? It was interesting reading the thoughts of these murderers on the Islamic terrorists. One of the brothers says something about the motivations of Osama Bin Ladin that basically parallels my belief, and says that the 9/11 hijackers were following a false prophet... and its all just a belief in something that we can't prove. I mean clearly, I think that my view of God (really against murder, all murder, all the time) is much nicer than there's, and not just nicer, I believe that I am right, or at least, closer to right than they are. But I can't really prove that's what God wants either, although I can say it gives me a more plesant way to live. It just kind of scared me that if you stuck me and this guy in a room we would agree that the terrorists are wrong, but he would think of me as just as wrong as I think of him... creepy.
Anyway, I do recommend it, because there is a lot of information, and because the book really challenges you to deal with your thinking about God and faith with the challenge of these men's seemly sincere, but also evil, belief. It also has a lot of information about polygamy and Mormon education that I found frightening and challenging, so it's good for that too. If someone reads it, I would really love to talk about it. Yeah.
A Walk in the Woods
I thought that this book was really going to make me want to walk the whole Appalachian Trail, but really, it did not do that. It made me want to go out to the Blue Ridge Mountains for about a week, and then come home to my nice warm bed. I think that the history of the trail was interesting, and I obviously people thinking about doing the trail should read this one, and Bryson's commentary is quite amusing, but the book didn't really stick with me, so it wasn't a life changer or anything.
Magical Thinking
In reading this book, I found myself, for at least the first set of stories, seriously getting Burroughs and David Sedaris mixed up. Same story: gay man tells amusing stories about his childhood and young adulthood. But the later stories are much more powerful, unique and moving, in particular those about his life with his lover, Dennis, who he clearly cares for very deeply. In fact, some of the passages about Dennis rank among the sweetest things that I have ever read.
"What's painful and wonderful about somebody is loving their small things, like the way he is able to smile when he sips his wine, the way his hands fall down at his sides... The truth is Dennis has no bad qualities and no faults. When he's working late and I'm alone, or sometimes when we're in bed together, the lights off, I try to make even a small list of his faults: Things I Put Up With Out of Love. But I haven't been able to think of a single thing that I am not able to first overlook and then come to cherish." (page 222)
It probably didn't help that Andrew had driven all the way up here for the weekend, and was sleeping in the next room being generally wonderful and totally lacking in Things That I Put Up With Out of Love, because I am a lucky girl, and apparently still a hopeless romantic.
Dry
More Augusten Burroughs. This is his memoir about his alcoholism and recovery. I think that it is his most powerful book overall. While it still has the element of the absurd that was almost overwhelming in Running with Scissors it also has the honesty that so moved me in the passage that I quoted above, and throughout the whole book I felt involved. I wanted him to make it. I was rooting for him... it's good. Better than A Million Little Pieces and quite possibly more true, too.
The Orchid Thief
While I don't think that this was either the best or the most interesting book that I have ever read, it certainly got me interested in orchids, and that might be worth it, since they are pretty amazing flowers. I now look for them in places where there are flowers (some pretty ones in the Opryland Hotel) and notice them when they're around. I can sort of understand how people become obsessed, although perhaps not as obsessed as the people in this book are. Still good stuff. Jannine and I went to the Natural History Museum's annual orchid show right as I was starting this book, and now I really feel like I need to go back and look again with all the background. The book will make you appreciate a particularly interesting and complicated family of flowers. It also might make you want to see Adaptation (or see it again in my case.) I might have something to say about that when I get to it.
Attention. Deficit. Disorder.
I was hoping to really like this book, and while I do have to admit that I burned through it very quickly, I was not overly impressed. About halfway though I told Andrew that it reminded me of what would have happened if a lesser man tried to write You Shall Know Our Velocity! and while the end was better than the beginning, still, it was nothing overly special. However, I was intrigued by the trip to the Burning Man Festival, which sounds insane by certainly very interesting. Anyone want to go?
The City Of Falling Angels
This is the same man who wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and he has a powerful gift for making the location a character in the story. Although I'm sure that it helps that he chooses events in famously unique places. (MinGoGaE takes place in Savannah, GA and this is a story of Venice.) While it is supposed to be directly about the burning of a famous opera house, it is really a portrait of the city, its complexities and the people that choose to live there, and it is in that exploration that the book comes to life. I am ready to pack my bags and head to Venice to explore whenever someone wants to buy me a plane ticket. It's that kind of book. I recommend it most highly. Great Stuff.
OK. I know I am forgetting several things but I don't have the books in front of me, (including The Tao of Pooh which I read at Andrew's) but I am tried, so I think that I am going to leave it at that and go on from here. Cause I love books. Sweet.
Under the Banner of Heaven
This book really pulled me in, had me thinking quite a bit. For those of you who haven't heard of it/ don't know what it's about: it tells the story of some Mormon Fundamentalist brothers who (very brutally) murder their sister in law and her infant daughter because they believe that "God told them to do it." It frames this story with a lot of other details about the history of Mormonism in general and Mormon Fundamentalism in particular. The book is by Jon Krakauer, who you may know for his other books, Into Thin Air and Into the Wild.
Now the book is good, and certainly very interesting, but I did feel from the beginning that Krakauer might not have been the best person to write it. Not only is he not a Mormon, but he is clearly not religious, and much of what he says about Mormonism, or religious faith in general is loaded with not at all veiled disdain for the faithful. He claims to have respect for Mormons, but also calls says that religious violence is the result of "those murky sectors of the heart and the head that prompt most of us to believe in God - and compel the impassioned few, predictably to carry out that irrational belief to its logical end." I'm not sure that murder is the logical end to faith in Christ...
The book does really make you think, where is the line between faith and delusion? That question is legally part of the trail for these brothers. Were they insane? They thought that they were listening to the voice of God, following the will of God. But if they are insane, than are all people who attempt to live their lives according the to will of the God that they worship insane. Clearly that's taking it too far, but where's the line? It was interesting reading the thoughts of these murderers on the Islamic terrorists. One of the brothers says something about the motivations of Osama Bin Ladin that basically parallels my belief, and says that the 9/11 hijackers were following a false prophet... and its all just a belief in something that we can't prove. I mean clearly, I think that my view of God (really against murder, all murder, all the time) is much nicer than there's, and not just nicer, I believe that I am right, or at least, closer to right than they are. But I can't really prove that's what God wants either, although I can say it gives me a more plesant way to live. It just kind of scared me that if you stuck me and this guy in a room we would agree that the terrorists are wrong, but he would think of me as just as wrong as I think of him... creepy.
Anyway, I do recommend it, because there is a lot of information, and because the book really challenges you to deal with your thinking about God and faith with the challenge of these men's seemly sincere, but also evil, belief. It also has a lot of information about polygamy and Mormon education that I found frightening and challenging, so it's good for that too. If someone reads it, I would really love to talk about it. Yeah.
A Walk in the Woods
I thought that this book was really going to make me want to walk the whole Appalachian Trail, but really, it did not do that. It made me want to go out to the Blue Ridge Mountains for about a week, and then come home to my nice warm bed. I think that the history of the trail was interesting, and I obviously people thinking about doing the trail should read this one, and Bryson's commentary is quite amusing, but the book didn't really stick with me, so it wasn't a life changer or anything.
Magical Thinking
In reading this book, I found myself, for at least the first set of stories, seriously getting Burroughs and David Sedaris mixed up. Same story: gay man tells amusing stories about his childhood and young adulthood. But the later stories are much more powerful, unique and moving, in particular those about his life with his lover, Dennis, who he clearly cares for very deeply. In fact, some of the passages about Dennis rank among the sweetest things that I have ever read.
"What's painful and wonderful about somebody is loving their small things, like the way he is able to smile when he sips his wine, the way his hands fall down at his sides... The truth is Dennis has no bad qualities and no faults. When he's working late and I'm alone, or sometimes when we're in bed together, the lights off, I try to make even a small list of his faults: Things I Put Up With Out of Love. But I haven't been able to think of a single thing that I am not able to first overlook and then come to cherish." (page 222)
It probably didn't help that Andrew had driven all the way up here for the weekend, and was sleeping in the next room being generally wonderful and totally lacking in Things That I Put Up With Out of Love, because I am a lucky girl, and apparently still a hopeless romantic.
Dry
More Augusten Burroughs. This is his memoir about his alcoholism and recovery. I think that it is his most powerful book overall. While it still has the element of the absurd that was almost overwhelming in Running with Scissors it also has the honesty that so moved me in the passage that I quoted above, and throughout the whole book I felt involved. I wanted him to make it. I was rooting for him... it's good. Better than A Million Little Pieces and quite possibly more true, too.
The Orchid Thief
While I don't think that this was either the best or the most interesting book that I have ever read, it certainly got me interested in orchids, and that might be worth it, since they are pretty amazing flowers. I now look for them in places where there are flowers (some pretty ones in the Opryland Hotel) and notice them when they're around. I can sort of understand how people become obsessed, although perhaps not as obsessed as the people in this book are. Still good stuff. Jannine and I went to the Natural History Museum's annual orchid show right as I was starting this book, and now I really feel like I need to go back and look again with all the background. The book will make you appreciate a particularly interesting and complicated family of flowers. It also might make you want to see Adaptation (or see it again in my case.) I might have something to say about that when I get to it.
Attention. Deficit. Disorder.
I was hoping to really like this book, and while I do have to admit that I burned through it very quickly, I was not overly impressed. About halfway though I told Andrew that it reminded me of what would have happened if a lesser man tried to write You Shall Know Our Velocity! and while the end was better than the beginning, still, it was nothing overly special. However, I was intrigued by the trip to the Burning Man Festival, which sounds insane by certainly very interesting. Anyone want to go?
The City Of Falling Angels
This is the same man who wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and he has a powerful gift for making the location a character in the story. Although I'm sure that it helps that he chooses events in famously unique places. (MinGoGaE takes place in Savannah, GA and this is a story of Venice.) While it is supposed to be directly about the burning of a famous opera house, it is really a portrait of the city, its complexities and the people that choose to live there, and it is in that exploration that the book comes to life. I am ready to pack my bags and head to Venice to explore whenever someone wants to buy me a plane ticket. It's that kind of book. I recommend it most highly. Great Stuff.
OK. I know I am forgetting several things but I don't have the books in front of me, (including The Tao of Pooh which I read at Andrew's) but I am tried, so I think that I am going to leave it at that and go on from here. Cause I love books. Sweet.
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