Reading Log for 2007, older

Submitted by lukeprog on Thu, 09/09/2004 - 01:41
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  1. [No] Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness by Rich Karlgaard
  2. [Liked] Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
  3. [Meh] Armadillo's Orange by Jim Arnosky
  4. [Meh] Lyle Finds His Mother by Bernard Waber
  5. [Meh] The Stranger by Chris van Allsburg
  6. [Meh] The Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg
  7. [Meh] The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity by Slavoj Zizek
  8. [Liked] Philosophy and Theology by John Caputo
  9. [Skimmed] How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff: Pleasant but very outdated.
  10. [Skimmed] The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris: Morris looks like a very fun writer. I just think every book needs a Cliff's Notes.
  11. [Skimmed] The Undercover Economist by Tim Hartford: Looks great! Maybe I'll read it later if I have time.
  12. [Meh] New American Expat: Thriving and Surviving Overseas in the Post-9/11 World by William Russell Melton: This book typifies what annoys me about how-to nonfiction. Too much of it is filler, too much of it is obvious. There are few unexpected, truly useful tips in its 200 pages. It takes 4 pages to say, "Some people abroad will hate Americans, some only hate your government." And that's why I love books by John T. Reed and Piero Scaruffi. No filler. They spend sentences, not pages, elaborating the obvious. They get to the point. They fill in the gaps left by other books, rather than repeating what has already been said a million times in as many ways as possible.
  13. [Liked] What Color is Your Parachute? 2007 by Richard Nelson Bolles
  14. [Skimmed] Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile by Daniel Nettle: A quick overview of the science and philosophy behind happiness, moods, work satisfaction, worry, placebos, optimism, etc. He dives pretty deep into issues for such a short book. After a tedious discussion of all that, he ends with the basic conclusion of positive psychology: live where your strengths match your challenges well. He ends with a Nathaniel Hawthorne quote: "Happiness is a btterfly, which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
  15. [Meh] 100 Sure-Fire Businesses You Can Start with Little or No Investment by Jeffery Feinman
  16. [Liked] A Day in the Life of Japan by several photographers
  17. [Meh] Tibet by Kevin Kling: A photography book. Much of Flickr is better.
  18. [Skimmed] lots of crappy self help books
  19. [Liked] How to Think About Weird Things by Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn
  20. [Meh] Atheism: A Philosophical Justification by Michael Martin: A highly intellectual defense of negative and positive atheism, reviewing all major (and many minor) arguments for and against god via their formal logical construction. Makes the simple very complex.
  21. [Meh] No Experience Necessary by Jennifer Kushell: Just slightly better than Home-Based Business for Dummies, but still too broad.
  22. [Meh] Home-Based Business for Dummies by Paul & Sarah Edwards: Like many non-technical For Dummies book, it's too general to offer much advice.
  23. [Liked] 50 Battles That Changed the World by William Weir: Pretty interesting, but of course Weir builds up each battle's significance too much. The selection was good.
  24. [No] Superimmunity by Paul Pearsall
  25. [Hated] Making Miracles by Paul Pearsall
  26. [Meh] It's only too late if you don't start now by Barbara Sher
  27. [Meh] Embracing Uncertainty by Susan Jeffers
  28. [Liked] Self Help, Inc. by Mickie McGee: Better than I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional and SHAM.
  29. [Meh] Super Marital Sex by Paul Pearsall
  30. [Nah] Take Time for Your Life by Cheryl Richardson
  31. [No] How to Get What You Want and Want What You Have by John Gray
  32. [Liked] I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional by Wendy Kaminer: Another rant against the self-help industry.
  33. [Meh] The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
  34. [Liked] SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless by Steve Salerno: A blistering and fun attack on the self-help industry. Nice details about its gurus, even though his arguments are poorly constructed. I recommend it not for its ability to convince you, but it's ability to help open your eyes.
  35. [No] 1000 Most Important Words by Norman Schur
  36. [Nah] Journal to the Self by Kathleen Adams
  37. [No] 101 Businesses You Can Start and Run with Less than $1000 by H.S. Kahm: So little info on each business idea as to be almost useless, doesn't list pros and cons, and many of these ideas have been destroyed by technology.
  38. [Meh] 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know by Russ Kick: Interesting list. Unfortunately: Many of the items are exaggerated. Many of the items are not being covered up at all. A few are very misleading, if not downright incorrect.
  39. [Liked] How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships by Leil Lowndes: Basically, a compilation of blog posts on body language, small talk, etc. Some of it is pretty good.
  40. [Liked] The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch
  41. [Liked] Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman
  42. [Loved] Lifescripts by Stephen Pollan
  43. [Meh] I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was by Barbara Sher
  44. [Loved] Psychological Self Help by Clayton E. Tucker-Ladd: An 1800-page psychology textbook summarizing all research - and much more - about self-help. Basically, the research guide for no-bullshit self help. Stunning, and one of the most useful books I've ever read. I hope Tucker-Ladd can keep it updated. Self help is a very new field of genuine study. Oh, did I mention the book is free?
  45. [Nah] Three Weeks to eBay Profits by Skip McGrath
  46. [Liked] The Classic Guide to Better Writing by Flesch and Lass
  47. [Skimmed] A Mood Apart by Peter Whybrow: Way too wordy.
  48. [Nah] The Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine: This an Refuse to Choose basically have the same content, and don't say much beyond, "Are you a renaissance soul? Here's how to find out. If you are, go for it!"
  49. [Meh] 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself by Steve Chandler
  50. [Skimmed] The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman: Big promises. And, I just don't want to write for companies that want me to hype their products. If I can make a very meager living telling the truth, I'll be quite blessed, indeed.
  51. [Loved] The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg: Wow. Lomborg examines the statistics behind a thousand doomsday prophecies and corrects them. World trends? More world exports, higher grain yields, better Third World access to drinking water and sanitation, falling rates of infectious diseases (even considering AIDS), less starvation, environmental sustainability corresponds to PPP$, longer life expectancy, lower infant mortality, higher calorie intake, lower food prices, greater prosperity, slowly decreasing inequality, more consumer goods, more rooms per person, higher literacy, higher education, more leisure time, fewer deaths from catastrophes and accidents, more grain produced, stable forest coverage, no energy crisis, raw material prices falling, no water crisis, decreasing pollution, no acid rain crisis, no landfill crisis, fewer cancer deaths, few deaths from pesticides, no extinction crisis, no frankenfood danger, and no global warming crisis.
  52. [Skimmed] Junk Science Judo by Steven Milloy: Good for raising awareness about junk science, but it claims to train you to defend yourself against junk science. But only trained scientists can really detect junk science. And most of us aren't willing to read primary sources, anyway. If we can find them in the first place.
  53. [Skimmed] Intellectual Impostures by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont: This book has a great story. Sokal submitted a parody article of blatant intellectual nonsense, containing quotes from leading French intellectuals, to popular postmodern journal Social Text. (The article was called Transgressing the boundaries: Toward a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity.) It was accepted and published, and Sokal revealed the hoax. The point? To critique the intellectual standards of those French postmodernists and their abuse of scientific terms. These 250 pages say what, exactly, is wrong with the writings of those postmodernists. Unfortunately, this book was way over my head.
  54. [Skimmed] Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy: A parody of self-help books.
  55. [Skimmed] The Entrepreneurial Imperative by Carl Schramm: A manifesto for American keeping its lead only through entrepreneurship.
  56. [Skimmed] The Millionaire Mind by Thomas Stanley: Lots of data, but not much useful content beyong The Millioniare Next Door.
  57. [Skimmed] Cool Careers for Dummies by Marty Nemko and Paul and Sarah Edwards
  58. [Skimmed] Codex Seraphinianus by Luigi Serafini: A visual encyclopedia of an fantasy world, written in an indecipherable script. Either a surreal parody or an art book. Wikipedia.
  59. [Skimmed] Self Help by Samuel Smiles
  60. [No] The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill
  61. [No] Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
  62. [Liked] How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
  63. [Liked] The Nature of Consciousness by Piero Scaruffi: I read half the online version (only the chapters I wanted). It is a dense but readable survey of science of mind: philosophy, psychology, computer science, mathematics, biology, neurology and physics. It summarizes all major theories and then presents the reader with Scaruffi's own synthesis.
  64. [Skimmed] Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of Wholeness by John Briggs and F. David Peat: Chaos theory in math, biology, physics, etc.
  65. [Liked] Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic by David B. Currie: Just as I converted from evangelical Christianity to atheism, two friends of mine converted from evangelical Christianity to Catholicism. This book mirrored their own story, and helps explain all the Catholic things that evangelical find weird: purgatory, veneration of images, confession of sins to men not God, elevation of Mary, and transubstantiation. Maybe I can appreciate this book because it's not really an argument, just a personal story.
  66. [No] Making a Living Without a Job by Barbara J. Winter
  67. [Liked] How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
  68. [Meh] The Now Habit by Neil Fiore
  69. [Liked] This is My God by Herman Wouk: "How odd / of God / to choose / the Jews." Reply: "Though not as odd as those who choose / a Jewish God and spurn the Jews." I love that, but I'm torn by this Jewish book. On one hand, Wouk's writing is compassionate and clear, perfect as an introduction to Judaism. On the other hand, his is a biased and irrational defense of Judaism: (1) Right away he argues that agnosticism is dogmatic (compared to religion?), and that it is rational to believe in God because nature is complex (an argument from ignorance, not evidence). (2) Wouk writes that the Jews' status as a "chosen people" is not merely of their own making (in which case they'd be no different than other in-groups). The only evidence he cites for such status? Jewish writings! (3) Wouk claims that science and archaeology have repeatedly uncovered historical evidence that supports Biblical claims. True, but Wouk ignores all the evidence that contradicts other Biblical claims? And those 3 complaints are only in the first 16 pages. Nevertheless, I recommend this book for its good parts.
  70. [Skimmed] All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin: Looks delightful! Godin says marketers should "tell authentic stories", but actually he still advocates lying.
  71. [Skimmed] On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins: This contains Jeff Hawkins' theory of how the brain works. Because this is still a very open question, I prefer to spend my time on an overview of major theories of mind, consciousness, brain, and intelligence: Scaruffi's The Nature of Consciousness.
  72. [Skimmed] Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky: A semi-scholarly overview of how media corporations are basically propoganda machines.
  73. [Skimmed] The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene: A terrifying book at how to dominate everyone by lying, cheating, hurting, terrorizing, exploiting, and abusing. Sustainability, happiness, and win-win situations are not part of Greene's success.
  74. [Skimmed] The Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs: A thoughtful guide on living deliberately, deeply, and simply. Live on less, track expenses, pay yourself first, mindfulness, redefine success, rethink work and entrepreneurship, simple pleasures, simple romance, contentment, order, truthfullness, joy, patience, creativity, parenting a simple life, simplify holidays, simplify nutrition and cooking, simplify health and housing, decluttering, etc.
  75. [No] Are Your Ready to Succeed? by Srikumar S. Rao: Buddhist-inspired, motivational, inactionable gibberish.
  76. [Meh] Radical Honesty by Brad Blanton
  77. [Hated] Scientology: The Funadmentals of Thought by L. Ron Hubbard: Purposefully incomprehensible gibberish. Not to mention bullshit. How are people gullible enough to buy 120 million books by this asshole? Sample: "An actual cycle of action consists of various activities, but each and every one of them is creative. The cycle of action contains an apparency of survival, but this is actually only a continuous creation. The apparent cycle of action contains destruction, but the actual cycle of action tells us what destruction is. Destruction is one of two activities. Destruction is (in terms of action) a creation of something against a creation of something else."
  78. [Hated] In the Shadows of the Net by several: Almost entirely filler. Badly applied theories.
  79. [Nah] What Are Your Goals? by Gary Ryan Blair: Basically, just a long list of questions for you to answer to clarify your goals concerning yourself, your health, your recreation, your family, your friends, your community, your career, your finances, your household, and your spirit.
  80. [Liked] Wishcraft by Barbara Sher: Sher doens't place much value in personal development. Instead, she focuses on teaching practical skills like: how to know what you want, how to set goals, how to brainstorm, how to find resources, how to network, etc.
  81. [Skimmed] The Art of Readable Writing by Rudolf Flesch: Not as narrowly focused, and therefore not as useful as Art of Plain Talk. Good stuff, but less surprising and engaging.
  82. [Liked] The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking: Concepts & Tools by Richard Paul and Linda Elder: I really like these little guides by The Foundation for Critical Thinking.
  83. [Really Liked] How to Invest $50-$5,000 by Nancy Dunnan: Offers several ways to invest each level of money: $50, $500, $1000, $2000, and $5000. It presents investment concepts painlessly and wisely. New editions come out regularly, updated with new resources, ideas, and company listings.
  84. [Skimmed] The Hard Questions for Adult Children and Their Aging Parents by Susan Piver: My parents aren't that old yet. I can't remember why I requested this book. Anyway, it's a list of important questions for when one's parents are nearing the nursing home or death, and how to ask them. Annoyingly large print.
  85. [Nah] On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt: Essay-cum-tiny-book On Bullshit is the poorly researched beginnings of a philosophy and science of bullshit, a study I think is much needed.
  86. [Skimmed] Advertising Secrets of the Written Word by Joseph Sugarman: Looks like a great little manual on writing advertising copy. If I'm ever selling something, I'll look it up again.
  87. [Liked] The Technique of Clear Writing by Robert Gunning: Old like Flesch's writings, and still great.
  88. [Liked] The Learning Revolution by Gordon Dryden and Jeannette Vos: A bit dated now, but very good. Their common-sense approach to learning and speed reading is honest and true, and their recommendations for revolutionizing the school system is great.
  89. [Meh] 50 Self-Help Classics by Tom Butler-Bowdon
  90. [No] The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Your Money by many: Honestly, I'm so dumb about money. This didn't get through to me, so I'm honestly going to start trying money books for teens. Any recommendations on how to learn money basics?
  91. [Really Liked] Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett: Fantastically fun children's book.
  92. [Liked] The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle by Jim Rohn: However cliché and purely motivational, this is actually a great little book of wise inspiration and personal success philosophy.
  93. [Meh] The Art of Exceptional Living by Jim Rohn
  94. [Meh] Cultivating an Unshakeable Character by Jim Rohn: 12 pillars to success: courage, integrity, honesty, blah blah blah. Everyone uses motivational material, including me. But it always irks me when "Succeed! Rah! Rah!" is marketed as "I will tell you how to succeed." And we are all hypocritical, but it irks me when motivational speakers admonish qualities that are opposed to their own success. For example, Rohn asks us to tell the truth always - a quality not always condusive to direct sales.
  95. [Skimmed] Changing Minds by Howard Gardner: Too dry and theoretical for my taste. Get to the point, Gardner! And don't spend 20 pages tooting your own horn for coming up with multiple intelligences!
  96. [Liked] Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman: Seligman basically summarizes positive psychology and the findings of the new science of happiness. Basically: find your strengths, maximize them, get happiness from them, and use them to produce knowledge, power, or goodness. His inspirational note at the end is from Robert Wright's Nonzero, and is a hopeful intuition I've had for a few years now: Basically, biology and culture evolves from win-loss games to win-win games because win-win games produce more success. Mitochondria that learn to work symbiotically with other cells prosper. Cultures that trade prosper better than warring tribes. And so, perhaps the entire intelligent universe is headed, haltingly but inevitably, toward the ultimate win-win reality: God. That's millions or billions of years away, of course, but I'm optimistic. It's sort of the idea expressed in Asimov's The Last Question.
  97. [Skimmed] Bill Walsh: Finding the Winning Edge by Bill Walsh: Surely football fans will squirt over this one, but I found it a hilarious, self-fellating mess of chest-thumping sports geekery.
  98. [Liked] Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers: A nicely down-to-earth look at dealing with fear, but also filled with some unfortunate rah-rah-ing. For example, you shouldn't say "I hope I will get the job" but "I know I will get the job." But that's a lie, and your consciousness can see through that in a second. Others, like "It's a disaster" changing to "It's a learning experience", make complete sense. I really like this part (paraphrased): "When I present positive thinking, people say it's unrealistic. But perhaps 90% of what we worry about never happens, so how is that more realistic? The real issue isn't what is more realistic, but: Why Be Miserable When You Can Be Happy?"
  99. [Skimmed] Web Copy That Sells by Maria Veloso: This is a "good" and useful book, but it's not what I want. It's a blueprint for conning people into buy shit, not for communicating well or helping people. A perfect product of this blueprint looks like this. It works, and the world is worse off.
  100. [Hated] The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra: A bunch of mumbo-jumbo.
  101. [Meh] Mastery by George Leonard: It's all good advice, but it's all very obvious advice. Work hard, be persistent, get instruction, push the limits of your abilities, blah blah blah.
  102. [Meh] Practicing Radical Honesty by Brad Blanton: Blanton is a bad writer. His book includes much pseudoscience (and most embarrassing, it's irrelevant to his points). He says things like "the transcendence of moralism is the main sickness of our time." Despite it's title, most of the book contains no practical tips on practicing radical honesty. To see what a good writer could do with this material, read Esquire's "I Think You're Fat."
  103. [No] The Case for Christianity by C.S. Lewis: Part of Mere Christianity. Lewis is revered among English-speaking Christians for his literary genius and accessible apologetics. He is thought to be a top-notch intellectual but very accessible. Of course, he was a kind of intellectual, but not the Bertrand Russell or Noam Chomsky kind. His defense of Christianity is blindly revered by the choir as profound and wise, when rather it is quite silly. His apologetics are especially useless today, when some very smart people (Plantinga, Craig, Swinburne, etc.) are defending Christianity eloquently even with Russell's analytic philosophy. In comparison, Lewis' arguments are childish.
  104. [Skimmed] Living More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre: A Christian frugality book based on Mennonite principles. Filled with Bible verses, poems, anecdotes, and tons of quotes from everyday people, this book's advice is too general or too impersonal and impractical ("build public transport among small towns in the U.S.") to be of much use to me. She blabs on forever and never gets to practical points.
  105. [Skimmed] Where's Mom Now That I Need Her? by Kent Frandsent: Everything young adults need to know about basic living once mom isn't taking care of them: nutritional information, shopping for groceries, cooking and cleaning basics, recipies (that are 20x more complex than ramen), laundry, clothing repair, basic first aid, when to see a doctor, and auto maintenance. I can't explain why, but it wasn't that helpful. It's a good idea, I just don't feel like it contained the "right" information, or presented it in the most accessible way. The people who need this book aren't going to read it.
  106. [Liked] Active Learning: 101 Strategies to Teach Any Subject by Mel Silberman: Despite an unhealthy preoccupation with "Top Ten" lists, Silberman's book is of great practical usefulness. Great ideas for inducing active learning: icebreakers, how to teach knowledge and skills, and how to make learning unforgettable.
  107. [Skimmed] The Pocket Book of the World by Pocket: Nice full-color maps and thick pages, but doesn't fit in your pocket and doesn't, imo, have enough place names. I'm sure there are better ones out there.
  108. [Skimmed] Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes by Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich: A layman's introduction to the findings of behavioral economics: why people aren't rational with money.
  109. [Loved] The Art of Plain Talk by Rudolf Flesch: Clarifies common writing commandments and gives a scientific approach to readability. Still excellent after 60 years.
  110. [Skimmed] Handbook of Positive Psychology by many: If you're going to seriously research positive psychology, this is the place to start. Due to its size, it should be called the Two-hand book of positive psychology.
  111. [Skimmed] The Official eBay Bible by Jim Griffith: All the same old stuff, but less of it. No.
  112. [Skimmed] Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Have I Got News for You by Liz Curtis Higgs: Terrible. Sort of a Daily Bread for women's self esteem.
  113. [Skimmed] The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf: A definitive-looking rant on how images of beauty keep women as the second class: in the culture, in the workplace, in religion, in sex, in health, and as the victim of violence. She basically says that the Beauty Myth has trapped women for centuries, and that men AND women perpetuate the myth. The solution? "Be shameless. Be greedy. Pursue pleasure. Avoid pain. Wear and touch and eat and drink what we feel like. Tolerate other women's choices. Seek out the sex we want and fight fiercly against the sex we do not want. Choose our own causes." Well, that has worked for men! But will most men find this kind of woman desirable? Or will a whole generation of women have to sacrifice being adored in order to break free, and then wait for the men to accept the change and fall in love with women free of the Beauty Myth? I don't know.
  114. [Skimmed] Body Work by Debra Gimlin: If you want a brief look at research and statistics related to women, beauty, and self-image in American culture, this is a very accessible introduction.
  115. [Skimmed] Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi: Well-researched and eye-opening, Faludi examines the backlash against feminism from all sides, but she ignores or distrusts the backlash against feminism from women themselves. In the religious, rural Midwest, I am all too aware that a huge number of women do not want to share equal power with their husbands, and certainly do not want to become "career women."
  116. [Skimmed] Making the Most of Your Money by Jane Bryant Quinn: A reference guide for stuff that changes too fast to benefit from a reference guide.
  117. [Skimmed] Simple Abundance by Sarah Breathnatch: A daybook of inspiration, filled with nuggets like this: "I want you to become aware that you already possess all the inner wisdom, strength, and creativity needed to make your dreams come true."
  118. [Skimmed] How to Pinch a Penny Till It Screams by Rochelle McDonald: Lots of good tips, many unnecessary tips, and an irritating and inaccurate system for how much money each tip will save you.
  119. [Skimmed] Love and Addiction by Stanton Peele: With research and fictional anecdotes, Peele gives his usual spiel against the disease model of addiction, then applies the concept of addiction to love, then examines the properties of addictive love, an addictive-love society, and how to escape to altruistic love.
  120. [Loved] Explaining English Grammar by George Yule: An absolutely fantastic reference for explaining English grammar, along with great discussion and exercise ideas for teachers. It requires 20 pages to explain how to assign four articles (a, an, the, and no article), which demonstrates that English was not designed, but evolved naturally from centuries of human use.
  121. [Skimmed] The Wealthy Barber by Chilton, David: Does it really take 200 pages of anecdotes to say "Put 10% of your income into savings"?
  122. [Skimmed] All Your Worth by Elizabeth Warren: Another Your Money or Your Life, basically.
  123. [Liked] Pornography in America by Joseph Slade: A dispassionate overview of pornography in America: history, moral opinions, biographical sketches, scholarly opinions, research, distribution, technology, etc. It's all here, reported and not argued.
  124. [Skimmed] America's Cheapest Family by Steve and Annette Economides: Since I read so much about frugality, there weren't any significant tips in here I hadn't already come across.
  125. [No] What Do You See When You Look in the Mirror? by Thomas Cash: Cash's attempts to downplay the advantages of beauty (and invent some disadvantages) are desperate and silly. And like most psychologists, he's too excited about self-rated tests. He then gives common-sense advice on relaxing your body, eliminating negative self-talk, discovering perceptual biases, and living a more healthy lifestyle. He fails to address the fundamental problem: (1) Both biology and culture have trained men and women for a fairly universal standard of beauty. (2) Many people cannot come close to the standard, no matter how hard they try. (3) There are significant disadvantages to not nearing the standard.
  126. [Skimmed] The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing by many: Looks great! I'll come back to it when I have some money to invest.
  127. [Really Liked] The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty with a Peasant's Pocketbook by Shel Horowitz: A great resource of hundred of tips on how to live well on a budget.
  128. [Skimmed] The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil: A dense book of futurism.
  129. [Skimmed] The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton: A bizarre, humorous philosophy picture book.
  130. [Skimmed] From Panic to Power by Lucinda Bassett: Not bad, not great.
  131. [Skimmed] Real Success Without a Real Job by Ernie Zelinski: Cartoons and inspiration; no practical advice. I don't need 250 pages to inspire me to hate work.
  132. [Nah] A Whole New Mind by David Pink: Pink argues that we are moving from a left-brain age to a right-brain age, mostly because computers and Asians can do left-brain work cheaper. So, the skills of success become more creative: function -> design, argument -> story, seriousness -> play, etc. He ignores masses of contradicting evidence, and his advice remains too vague to really be applied. Besides, what is the shift? Apple has been creating beauty and function for decades.
  133. [No] Remember Everything You Read: The Evelyn Wood 7 Day Speed Reading and Learning Program by Stanley Frank: Speed reading books and courses are crap.
  134. [Skimmed] What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting by Ted Demopoulos: aka What Everyone Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting.
  135. [Skimmed] The eBay Millionaire by Amy Jovner: Actually, a pretty good book. All the techniques of eBay are available anywhere: the "secret" that makes a PowerSeller is their supplier. This is a book of stories about how PowerSellers found their niche; their perfect suppliers. In the end, though, these stories can only inspire. You need to find your own suppliers in your area and learn how to work best with them by interacting with them personally. That's the only way.
  136. [Skimmed] The Happiness Myth by Jenniffer Hecht: Uh-oh. My constant book skimming and blog reading has left my attention span unable to deal with a full-page block of text! I only made it 20 pages into this interesting book before I became impatient with it. Where are the bulleted lists? Where is the chapter summary? After 20 pages, I skipped to the end and read the Conclusion, which I hoped would sum up the other 300 pages. Ah well. I'll just wait for The Happiness Project to be published.
  137. [Skimmed] The Joy of Simple Living by Jeff Davidson: An excellent clearing-house of simplicity living. More useful for seriously complicated lives that need uncluttering than for simple lives that wish to remain so (like mine).
  138. [Skimmed] Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande: Looks very good, interesting, and readable. Wish I had the time.
  139. [Skimmed] Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell: A good system that might work for some people, just like GTD. Some experienced cleaners don't like it, though.
  140. [Meh] 50 Success Classics by Tom Butler-Bowdon: A very useful and concise summary of classic success books. What this taught me is that nearly all success books are almost completely useless.
  141. [Really Liked] Succeeding by John T. Reed: A very unusual self-published success book. Badly formatted, and written in an unpolished, no-bullshit style, Reed frankly tells his personal story of success and the lessons he learned, especially the ones that contradict common self-help myths. The book had great advice and gave me every reason to trust the advice. He said a dozen times that he'd love to give advice on a certain topic, "but that's something I have no experience with." He also admitted that maybe these tips were just a matter of personal taste. He clearly revealed everything. So refreshing for a success book. Yet, it was badly organized and formatted. Reed offers the unusual advice of how to choose good goals, and also why you shouldn't set your goals too high.
  142. [Skimmed] Wealth on Minimal Wage by James Steamer: Steamer offers the highly suspect bait: "My wife and I have accumulated $250,000 in investments and home equity on less than $20,000 a year." His book is basically a series of lists of ways to save money, many of which are not very good techniques.
  143. [Skimmed] Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy: Lots of great tips and recipies.
  144. [Skimmed] Worry by Edward Hallowell: Not bad, but not organized well enough and featuring too many long anecdotes.
  145. [Skimmed] Coping with Anxiety by Edmund Bourne: Relax your body, relax your mind, face your fears, get exercise, blah blah blah.
  146. [Skimmed] Women Who Worry Too Much by Holly Hazlett-Stevens: A very basic introduction to female worrying and how to combat it. Nothing new. Read the table of contents and you've read the book.
  147. [Meh] The Last Self Help Book You'll Ever Need by Paul Pearsall: A bit sloppy. Pearsall attacks the "McMorals of Self Help" as unscientific and perhaps dangerous. Too aggressively contrarian, Pearsall's slash and burn technique misses finer distinctions and the grains of truth in those McMorals. Nevertheless, an eye-opener. Self-esteem is over-esteemed, guilt is undervalued, addiction is mostly environmental, constant forced hope is exhausting. Love conditionally. This is some of the surprising advice Pearsall gives, though he expends more scientific endnotes debunking McMorals than upholding his own.
  148. [Skimmed] A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel: Looks pretty good. I'll pick it up again for real when I have some money to invest.
  149. [Loved] 7 Tools to Beat Addiction by Stanton Peele: Peele has spent his career debunking the unscientific myths of the disease and genetic models of addiction, and here presents an entirely different vision of addiction and how to handle it. This book is eye-opening, exciting, and empowering. This short book might be the best book on addiction out there.
  150. [Skimmed] eBay: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks by Julia Wilkinson: Almost entirely screenshots.
  151. [Skimmed] The Sins of Scripture by John Shelby Spong: Like Don Cupitt, Spong rejects everything of Christianity. Interestingly, he clings to a desitic god who is nevertheless "loving."
  152. [No] Teach Yourself Teaching English as a Foreign Language by David Riddell: I've never even taught anything and all this was obvious to me.
  153. [Skimmed] The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealth by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen: Hilarious. So obviously a scam from the very start, not to mention a totally failed hybrid of nonfiction and novel.
  154. [Skimmed] The Rationality of Theism edited by Paul Copan and Paul K. Moser: A nice set of essays by contemporary Christian philosophers that provide a scholarly overview of contemporary theistic thought. I'll definitely return to this one later.
  155. [Hated] PhotoReading by Paul R. Scheele: A scam.
  156. [No] The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You to Read edited by Tim C. Leedom: The book doesn't kindly and rationally invite its curious churchgoers to consider serious issues. Instead, it bludgeons them with nasty, unsubstantiated (in this book) attacks on the stupidity and evil of religion. Moreover, its a collection of excerpts and essays, not a coherant thread of thought that pulls the reader gently toward the light.
  157. [Skimmed] Beating the Street by Peter Lynch: Way beyond where I am today, mentally and fiscally.
  158. [Skimmed] eBay Power Seller Secrets by Debra Schepp: One of the most complete, well-organized eBay guides. The basic secret of being an eBay Powerseller? Find a great source and then don't tell anyone what it is. This book certainly won't tell you what it is.
  159. [No] How to Buy, Sell, and Profit on eBay by Adam Ginsberg: A basic introduction to eBay selling. Out of date. Ginsberg spends much time hawking his own products.
  160. [Skimmed] Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott: Looks pretty good. But right now I have to read books that will tell me how to make money. Maybe I'll get to it later.
  161. [Skimmed] How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren: A very old book about reading effectively. Not well-compressed or updated with the latest techniques.
  162. [Skimmed] The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko: Honestly, I was looking for a "how to get rich" book. Instead, this book told me that I am not the average millionaire. However, this is a very good book that destroys the myths of millionairedom.
  163. [Liked] On Writing Well by William Zinssser: A very good guide.
  164. [Nah] The Book on Writing by Paula LaRocque: Only 1/5th of The Elements of Style, needlessly expanded.
  165. [Skimmed] Teaching English Overseas by Jeff Mohamed
  166. [Skimmed] The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn: Packed with fun ideas for frugal living, but totally unorganized and not at all compact.
  167. [Skimmed] Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez:
  168. [No] Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki: However incorrect and evil this book is, it did succeed in making me care enough to learn how money works.
  169. [Skimmed] Off the Books: The underground Economy of the Urban Poor by Sudhir Venkatesh: An introduction to the world of underground urban economies, their costs and benefits, their dangers and protection. Venkatesh seems to have written a decent book, but it won't be new information to people who have some experience with these economies.
  170. [Skimmed] Critical Thinking by Kevin Possin: A fun and slightly eccentric introduction to logic, argument and critical thinking. Loosely organized and injected with plenty of Possin's personality.
  171. [Skimmed] Recovery Of Your Self-Esteem by Carolynn Hillman: A typical discussion of failure/success thought cycles, nurting oneself like you might nurture your child or hurting friend, etc. Unfortunately, Hillman seems more concerned about those who are very desirable but don't feel like it than with those who have seriously undesirable traits and feel worthless. It would seem the second type needs more help.
  172. [Really Liked] The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman: A fantastic overview of the drastic changes coming in the 21st century, why they are coming, and what we should do about it. It now supercedes Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree as the required text on globalization. Friedman argues powerfully that, in the end, opening up trade and business opportunities and freedom is the best thing we can do to fight terrorism, poverty, and prejudice. What about ideology? To quote Chinese reformist Deng Xiaoping, "Black cat, white cat, what matters is that it catches mice."
  173. [Meh] Bible Stories Your Parents Never Taught You by Mike Earl: This free audiobook tells Bible stories of Yahweh's (and Jesus') evil, ugliness, injustice, and absurdity. For someone who is unaware of these stories, this book may be an eye-opener. Earl makes many great points, and pokes major holes in religious illogic, but it's not the best resource for such discussions.
  174. [Liked] Simplify Your Life by Elaine St. James: These days, these tips are all over the productivity blogs. Still, great advice!
  175. [Skimmed] The Success Principles by Jack Canfield [re-read]: I agree with only about half the advice in this book. But generally, Jack Canfield wants to lead people where I don't want to go, so it's simply not a book for me.
  176. [Skimmed] The Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner [re-read]: It's a common rant that Americans fear the wrong things. Glassner basically substantiates this rant with 5 years of research. Unfortunately, this hasn't stopped Americans from fearing the wrong things. If anything, I'd estimate things are much worse now after 9/11. Anyway, I'm not sure the book is too relevant, now. What people fear changes a few times a decade, and the real lesson is to simply investigate whatever you're being told to fear.
  177. [Skimmed] The Story of Philosophy by Bryan Magee: The book is big on pictures and small on content, and it misrepresents key ideas and figures of philosophy.
  178. [Skimmed] The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric by Sister Miriam Joseph: Updated from the 1930s but still behind the times in structure and even content.
  179. [Skimmed] The Twilight of Atheism by Alister McGrath: Only an unnecessarily expanded version of his original lecture. McGrath tries to dismiss atheism as autonomy-seeking, an angry reaction to religious oppression, etc. His rebuttals of atheism are childish ("you can't disprove God, so atheism is a faith just like religion"). His arguments for the recent decline of atheism are especially unconvincing.
  180. [Skimmed] Thinking with Concepts by John Wilson: A dry work on the philosophy of conceptual analysis.
  181. [Skimmed] Rational Choice in an Uncertain World by Reid Hastie and Robyn Dawes: A thick work of science and theory. I just wanted a quick and dirty ride.
  182. [Skimmed] Thinking from A to Z by Nigel Warburton: A dictionary of critical thinking terms and phrases. A reference, not a guide to critical thinking.
  183. [Skimmed] Your Memory: How it Works and How to Improve It by Kenneth Higbee: A thick expansion of the ideas in The Memory Book, annotated with research and explanations of memory processes.
  184. [Skimmed] How to Argue and Win Every Time by Gary Spence: Spence is a vigorous writer, and his book is as abrasive as the title.
  185. [Meh] The Thinker's Way: 8 Steps to a Richer Life by John Chaffee: The first chapter is almost a manifesto for my new freethought life, but Chaffee tries to cover too much too superficially to be of serious use. Each subsequent chapter is less interesting than the previous.
  186. [Loved] Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath: In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell wrote about what made social phenomena leap from small groups to big groups. One element was stickiness. This is a sequel by two expert stickiness-researchers, written lovingly in the Gladwell style. It is as fun and inspiring as Gladwell's classic, and more immediately useful.
  187. [Liked] The Elements of Style by William Strunk: This tiny book of writing commands has influenced so many guides that its style now seems commonplace. Its wisdom remains simple and accessible. These techniques are automatic for good writers.
  188. [Liked] The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas: [thoughts]
  189. [Liked] Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist by Dan Barker: Though merely a collection of perviously published essays and song lyrics, Dan's story is compellingly told, Christianity compellingly rebutted, and freethought compellingly defended. One of my favorite passages concerns Dan's appearance with many theists on Phil Donahue's show. When an audience member asked Dan if he taught his children what he'd been sharing about atheism, ugly biblical morality, etc., he replied, "No. I tell my kids to use their own minds, to look at all the facts, to question authority whenever necessary, to let no one tell them what to think, not een me, their mom, their teacher, their minister. They have a good mind." Is teaching your kids how to disagree with you an emerging strain of wisdom for a new era? I hope so.
  190. [Liked] The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by Bobby Henderson: A delightful, satirical criticism of religion and especially Intelligent Design.
  191. [Liked] Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini by Mark Leyner: A fun diversion.
  192. [Liked] Why Do Men Fall Asleep After Sex?: More Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Whiskey Sour by Mark Leyner
  193. [Liked] The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher: An inexhaustible mine of page designs, art, anecdotes, quotes, oddities, and stories.
  194. [Meh] Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking by D.Q. Mcinerny: Not a particularly fun or well-developed introduction to good thinking.
  195. [Meh] Linked: The New Science of Networks by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi: Barabasi surveys the short history of the new science of networks, and is one of a score of writers who, to my knowledge, is trying to imitate The Tipping Point style. Not as applicable for the everyman as it promises to be.
  196. [Meh] Mind Performance Hacks: Tips & Tools for Overclocking Your Brain by Ron Hale-Evans: Basically a blog in a book, but not actually as useful as Lifehacker or Zen Habits.
  197. [Liked] The Dawkins Delusion by Alister McGrath: McGrath totally and rightly dismantles The God Delusion. Strangely, Dawkins' interview with McGrath is reversed; McGrath is unable to coherantly answer Dawkins' concerns or give reasons to believe in God, and the purpose of the book is not to erect rational Christianity in place of The God Delusion, so this is not a resource for comparing atheism and theism. There are great Christian freethinkers out there; science and reason are not only on the side of atheism.
  198. [Nah] God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens: Hitchens' wit is in full force, but his book is mainly an account of the worst of religion and the best of humanism (and sometimes the best of religion accredited to humanism), ignoring the best of religion and the worst of humanism.
  199. [No] The Hidden Face of God: Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth by Gerald L. Schroeder: Because this book significantly influenced noted atheist philosopher Antony Flew's conversion to deism, I thought it might contain some new, exciting theistic arguments. It does not. Schroeder, a Jewish scientist, merely plays all the old teleology cards. Basically, he argues that because the universe operates so mathematically and seems to have so much information embedded in it, therefore Yahweh must exist. This is an absurd leap, and one he never explains. He notes how the universe is mathematical or how science has yet to explain why something is as it is (science, of course, asks how questions), and then quotes Bible verses as if the two were relevant. Schroeder uses the same information to argue for Yahweh that others may just as well use to argue for any creator God, or that the universe is a holograph. Most disturbing, Schroeder seems to be as poor a scientist as Dawkins is a philosopher. Will no one write an even-handed account of the current, fierce theism/atheism debate?
  200. [Liked] The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History by J.R. McNeill and William H. McNeill: This is much better than Blainey's history, but neverthless completely overlooked the rising oceans at the end of the last ice age and other significant events. I actually ended up liking its refusal to dwell on individuals. The last chapter (the world since 1918) should be required reading in high schools so that students have some idea of what the hell is happening in the world, where we came from, where we should be going, and what the important issues really are.
  201. [Liked] Beyond Numeracy by John Allen Paulos: I just read the few essays I wanted. The essays are very short and fun, and cover a very broad range of topics within mathematics.
  202. [Meh] A Short History of the World by Geoffrey Blainey: I cannot imagine the difficulty of squeezing the history of the world into 450 pages, but I was not particularly impressed by this attempt. The choices for extended pondering and omission seemed bizarre to me (settlement of Madagascar got 1 page, Plato 1 sentence, and Jesus 15 pages), and there was no overarching theme that made sense of the "story." Then again, perhaps that's best: world history probably isn't thematic like a mythic story, and treating it as such would only limit our view of history.
  203. [Meh] The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn: This is one of those ideas that has profoundly affected the way intellectuals think of science, humanity, and reality, but not the way the rest of us think. Last time I checked, we don't teach a post-Kuhn view of science in science textbooks, but we do teach Big Bang theory, which came in to academic dominance about the same time. Kuhn's impact on thought was huge, but today there is little reason to read his original work instead of a good outline or the Wikipedia entry. My opinion? While it's important to recognize that science (and mathematics) are not so purely giving us cumulative access toward Truth as we'd like to think, I don't agree that theories before and after a scientific revolution are not comparable. New, successful theories really do provide more explanatory scope and power and do predict more experimental results than older theories. And you know, it's rather funny to me that Kuhn's model for telling the story of science was the 'Copernican revolution', that Kant came to similar conclusions about science through philosophy (not history) in what came to be known as his 'Copernican revolution', and that the original Copernican revolution provides such an epitome for the value of science in the face of these skeptics; the progress of science from a flawed view of reality to a flawed but slightly better view of reality.
  204. [No] Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris: The latest atheist surge has produced a variety of works popular even in the last bastion of fundamentalism in the developed world: the USA. Dawkins' The God Delusion is a long, angry rant with as much blind rage as clear sense. Dennett's Breaking the Spell is a lay/academic work taking one more step towards an evolutionary understanding of religion. Hitchens’ God is not Great is a classy diatribe against religion with the wit of Chesterton and Twain. Harris' letter (called a book only because it is bound) is the runt of the bunch. It's messy, unfair, and devoid of new insight. It might as well have been a blog post. Indeed, far better atheist reading can be found on the Internet.
  205. [Loved] Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos [re-read]: Reading and practicing this once a semester would've been more beneficial to me than the upper algebra, trigonometry, geometry, and calculus I learned instead in high school. On a shortlist for accessible books for developing clear, productive thinking. I wish he would've dealt more heavily with the most pervasive innumerate practice: religion. And where is our logarithmic safety index? I'm tempted to make one myself.
  206. [Meh] Doubts and Loves: What is Left of Christianity by Richard Holloway: Another skim read. Bishop Holloway attempts to salvage the good of Christianity while lettings its evil and unreality fall away. This seems unnecessary since the parts he salvages are religious only in origins (in the same way higher education is religious in origin). The book's contribution to me was its pointers to other writers, like Thomas Kuhn.
  207. [No] Taking Leave of God by Don Cupitt: The world's most radical theologian wants to retain the spiritual quality of Christian life, while dumping its unmaintainable doctrines and institutions. He starts out by debunking the common arguments for God's existence, and then lays out a path for spiritual living in a post-Christian age with a kind of Christian Buddhism: a lifestyle of Christian content but Buddhist form. Much of it was over my head.
  208. [No] The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins: Dawkin's is a mad dogmatist for scientism like the worst of Christian fundamentalists. Stick to writing about the beauty of evolution, Dawkins.

  210. My computer died and I lost tons of data. I read several books here, but I can't remember which ones.

  212. [Liked] Letters From a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father's Questions about Christianity by Greg Boyd: [thoughts]
  213. [Liked] The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide by Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz: [thoughts about the last four entries]
  214. [Meh] The Challenge of Jesus by N.T. Wright
  215. [Really Liked] The Calvary Road by Roy Hession: [thoughts]
  216. [Meh] Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon: [thoughts]
  217. [Really Liked] The Armchair Economist by Steven Landsburg: [thoughts]
  218. [Liked] Dissident Discipleship by David Augsburger: [thoughts]
  219. [Liked] The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an translated and edited by Abdullah Yusuf Ali: [thoughts]