A Modern Life of Books
Posted in Books on Jun 11th, 2010
When I buy a book, I am effectively buying water (the content) and a bucket (the actual book, with all it entails). I am taught that most of the value is in the bucket, because that’s what pricing is keyed off of. Hard vs. Softcover establishes the price, not the quality of the content. I […]
Posted in Books on May 13th, 2010
I don’t buy books anymore, at least not the way I used to. I mean, I still buy books. In fact, looking at Amazon I’ve bought 14 books in the past 30 days, not counting ones I’ve gotten for free. Of those, 3 of them were physical books, and the rest were all e-books. I am […]
Posted in Books on May 2nd, 2009
I am still wrestling with my opinion of The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It by Joshua Cooper Ramo. It is both a very good and a very annoying book. To explain that contradiction, I’m going to talk a little bit about Clausewitz […]
I just finished Atul Gawande’s Better on a friend’s recommendation, and I owe that friend a drink (or perhaps one of those terrifying japanese sodas she likes). Better‘s subtitle is “A surgeon’s notes on performance”, and that speaks directly to the hook. Gawande is a surgeon, and that fact shapes his perspectives and arguments as he […]
Posted in Books, Paperhack, Productivity on Jul 31st, 2008
I stopped by Staples today to pick up some paper for my new printer (a Brother HL-5250DN, which I am very happy with) and took a little bit of time looking at the planners. Now, I had actually been looking to find a case that would suit the iPDA, and had no luck on that […]
Posted in Books on Dec 31st, 2007
Back in November, I heard Nigella Lawson on NPR talking about her new cookbook, Nigella Express. It was a good enough piece that I scribbled the title down and tossed it onto my Amazon wishlist, where my wife found it and grabbed it for me for Christmas. It went in the stack until this morning […]
Posted in Books on Dec 30th, 2007
So, I picked up the new Jim Cramer book, Stay Mad For Life pretty much as soon as it came out. Now, I am already a big fan of Cramer — I catch his show, Mad Money, on CNBC whenever practical, and I’ve read an enjoyed his previous books, Real Money and Mad Money. I’ve not […]
Posted in Books on May 9th, 2007
“Jim Cramer’s Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World” (James J. Cramer) A month or two back, I had no idea who Jim Cramer was. It was only when my friend Morgan’s father was visiting that I was introduced to this peculiar sort of celebrity. See, Morgan’s dad wanted Morgan to see an episode […]