While studying English in college I was once (let’s be honest this happened pretty regularly) challenged about the usefulness of my degree. I recall one conversation when I was studying mythology of some kind where I was asked if studying mythology was a waste of time. The person asking me made a living from logging. […]
Archives for 2017
Book Review | The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
2017-04-14 · by ·
Meh. I will now write a soap-boxy rant review about this book; that I imagine almost no one will read, but it will at least make myself feel better. This book has over 700 pages. I’ve read a good armful of 600+ paged fiction books. After thinking about it for awhile, I decided that about […]
Book Review | Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
2017-04-06 · by ·
Several years ago I went on a trip to Hawaii. For my beach reading, I brought along Alan Greenspan’s autobiography, Age of Turbulence. It was a giant book. It wasn’t light reading, and I think I spent the whole trip reading it in between naps on the beach. It was good. It just wasn’t the […]
Book Review | H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
2017-04-02 · by ·
Beauty and tragedy and death and renewal and nature… H is for Hawk is a beautiful memoir by naturalist Helen Macdonald. Ten points to Benjamin, who recommended it to me. I read it as part of my UK reading challenge, and while it’s not directly about the English, it is a snippet-sized view of England […]
Book Review | The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin (Hainish Cycle #4)
2017-03-20 · by ·
I take a certain delight in reading the books that define, change, or readjust not only an entire genre but a generation, as well. Generally, we call them “classics” and there’s something almost archeological about losing myself in the books that had that impact. For a moment, there’s that sense that I am communing, or […]
Brief Thoughts | Between the World and Me by Ta-Nahisi Coates
2017-03-19 · by ·
Recently, I finished reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It’s a short book and reads fast. A letter to his son, Coates’ voice is intense and direct. I’m still processing Coates’ message. I admit that I find it distinct from my own life experience, a view of America and the world rooted […]
Book Review | Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez
2017-03-14 · by ·
Have you ever bought a book from a Facebook ad? I can now say that I have. For a period of time shortly after its release, I noticed a regularly placed ad in my Facebook news feed for Antonio Garcia Martinez’s exposé on Silicon Valley titled Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon […]
Book Review | Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West by Hampton Sides
2017-02-20 · by ·
The history of the American Southwest isn’t a story that gets told along with the marquis narratives of American history. Unlike the American Revolution, the founding era, the Civil War, or World War II, where it is relatively easy to find excellently produced and superbly written book-length accounts of historical events and figures, you have […]
Book Review | A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
2017-01-30 · by ·
Quite possibly, A Darker Shade of Magic is one of the most surprisingly entertaining fantasy novels I’ve read in a while. Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind may be more beautiful, Vyleta’s Smoke more mysterious, and Butcher’s The Aeronaut’s Windlass more adventuresome, but Schwab took me completely by surprise with an even mixture of all […]
Book Review | QB: My Life Behind the Spiral by Steve Young
2017-01-29 · by ·
I can’t honestly say that I like sports as much as the next guy. This isn’t because I don’t like sports, but I find that most guys like them more than I do. I can say that I like reading biographies and autobiographies more than the next guy. On a regular basis, I try to work […]
