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Probably my favorite science fiction book (and series) I've ever read. Hyperion is written in a style similar to The Canterbury Tales, in which a series of stories are told by the main characters. Each story is a gem in itself, but alude to the larger storyline. The scope of the story is ambitious - spanning time, planets religion and love.
Even 6 books I'm surprised by how much I laughed out loud while reading the latest in the Magic 2.0 series. Every book in this series has been pure fun. Somehow by introducing a handful of new characters all at once, the series gets new energy while also helping to bridge some of the odd time gaps created. Like all of the others in the series, this is a standalone book, but is best read in order. I only hope Meyer keeps writing these because I love reading them.
I've never considered myself to have a good memory. I'll remember places, directions and programming concepts, but can't remember a phone number of the name of someone I just met. This look into the competitive memory circuit around the world helped me put an image in my head of not just what's possible, but how people actually go about remembering 10,000 digits of pi. While I don't plan to exercise this muscle to the extent of people in this book, I do want to try using some of these concepts to put a few names to faces.
Your Money or Your Life is very much a financial independence classic. This focuses more your life than your money – showing the strong thread that money has on your time, your relationships and your options in life. One area that stands out to me is the idea of understanding the value of your time as it relates to money. When you buy lunch out, or even grab a latte, how many minutes/hours of your time are you paying for that experience – and is it worth it? Knowing that you're spending on what brings you the most happiness for the buck is how you drive your expenses down while driving your happiness-per-dollar up.
I didn't watch Mr. Rogers Neighborhood when I was a kid. I have no idea why – it seems like an amazing show. I've watched a few episodes since as an adult and have been amazed. Reading this had me tearing up in places at the empathy displayed by Fred Rogers throughout his life. There's something to just listening to people and telling them they're important just the way they are.
If you're looking for a book of highlights around the park, this is a great reference book. It's organized into a collection of “focused days” each revolving around a specific topic: animals, photography, kids, birdwatching, fishing, geothermal features and more. As we drove around the park, we had this book handy and combined various days to create our own schedule.
I've always been fascinated by Tibet – especially pre-takeover by China in the 1950s. Seven Years is an exploration into that coupled with a book on war (escaping it), travel, mountaineering and making friends along the way. It's quickly become one of my favorite books. While Heinrich the man is obviously shown in the best light in this book, it's hard to forget his background. He was a Nazi and husband who ran away from both to climb mountains in the Himalayas. Seven Years is in many ways the “Eat, Prey, Love” of the 50s – both with characters dashing off to adventures. In Harrer's case, he ate whatever he could find (or be given), pray to not be caught and dragged back to internment in India and fall in love with Tibet. In many ways Tibet is the main character and the cause for all good and bad within his time there.
A memoir of mother going through a breakup and talking to a therapist about it? Yeah, like I'll enjoy that. But... it was a great story! It kept me entertained, drawn to the characters and wanting to learn more. Lori writes about her past and future through the lens of person in therapy, while also exploring different timelines with different patients. This allows the story to jump around - at one time talking about death, another addiction, another grief and another loss. I don't have much experience with therapy, but this look into that world was both informative and made me want to learn more about therapy in general.
The Renegades series sounded somewhat shallow at first – from a storyline perspective. A world where various people have superpowers that form up into good and evil groups? I enjoyed how much this one expanded on the first, while starting to advance into how the groups in charge shaped society (or tried to). If I had the third book today I'd start on it immediately.
The 2nd book in the series, but the first movie to be made, The DaVinci code follows a similar line of religion vs science vs conspiracy theory as the first. In many ways I liked how many different parties there were in the conspiracy for this one, each with their own motives. The slow draw out in what could have been ended faster left me waiting a long time for the next shoe would drop.
I went in expecting a memoir about travel interwoven into someone life - which is what this was. However, it seemed disjointed, with explorations into various trips the author took over many years. The attempts to join the trips in a larger idea fell short for me. I did finish this wanting to visit a number of places I'd never seriously considered before.
I laughed, I was confused, I wanted more from some stories and less from others. This book is actually a series of short stories about colonization of Mars. The stories are mostly funny, usually in a misunderstanding kind of way. Some stories reminded me of Twilight Zone episodes, while others of romantic comedies. Considering when this was written, it's held up amazingly well.
When I was in high school, they released a TV miniseries if The Stand that I watched. I always thought it was the best end of the world/virus take I'd seen. Not because it's realistic or gritty, but because it frames the story with great characters battling good and evil.
When I read the book, I wondered how closely it would follow the miniseries. Turns out the show was a near scene for scene recording of the book (one of the bonuses of making it 6 hours).
What's amazing to me about The Stand is that it follows so many characters storylines so well. It would be easy to get lost with that many characters, but somehow they fit together in a way that I didn't feel overwhelmed. Add to that a story that had me on the edge of my seat and I see why this is considered one of the best sci fi books of all time.
This short story published in the New York Times in 1938 follows Walter Mitty as he is driving his wife to a hair appointment and running a few errands. During this afternoon out, his mind wanders to adventures, legal cases, sporting events and more. While completely different from the recent movie, the idea is still novel as a story today.
As good as the advice in this book is, it's hard to consider it groundbreaking. Part of that could be due to the prominence of these ideas in culture today. The 4 agreements are quite simple:
1. Be your word (treat agreements as unbreakable)
2. Don't take anything personally (it's not about you)
3. Don't make assumptions (expectations without an agreement are assumptions)
4. Always do your best
This is a short take on these ideas and why with just these 4 rules you can live a happier, more productive, more fulfilled life. In my past job, we did quite a number of personal development/self-help talks and exercises. The idea of agreements/expectations was a big one, so those two on this list felt directly out of that. “Don't take anything personally” reminds me of stoicism, and “always do your best” is good advice for a 1st grader on up.
While not revolutionary, these are good reminders and inspiration for sure.
I never fully understood the movie. There are long scenes without any explanation, chimps jumping up and down, unusual scenes without context. Reading this book added that context in every case. Any places I was confused or had questions have now been answered. The book is actually really good sci fi - a precursor to Interstellar or Contact I'm more ways than one. Great read by itself, or even better if you want to understand more from the movie.
Books on creativity are inspirational for me. They often give me that nudge to continue working on, thinking about or making progress on a passion project. I went into Big Magic looking for that same push, but it somehow fell short. This falls between a memoir about how Gilbert writes and a her own (somewhat unique take) about how creativity grows and spreads between people. While I'm usually able to take inspiration from a book like this, I was left more wanting to read “Eat, Prey Love” than feeling anything relating to creativity.
I enjoy reading takes on minimalism from different countries. This Swedish take is one of the closest to my own personal style than any that I've seen (even more than Konmari). It's not as catchy, but the concept is clear: life a life with an amount of stuff that you won't burden those who come after you with the weight of your stuff.
Having gone through my moms things when she passed (and she went through her moms things when she passed), this concept is quite prominent for me. For those who have never had the misfortunate of sorting through a loved ones life, it's a heavy burden to bear. Finding time to slim down pays dividends now for the living, and later for those still alive.
A 30-year decides to take a bike trip from Oregon to Patagonia with only what he can carry and a friend. This may sound like a sequel to Motorcycle Diaries, but it's actually a modern-day adventure with millennials spending time on Intagram.
The drive for travel and adventure gets people moving in different ways. For this author it meant announcing to his friends and coworkers he was going to undertake this adventure - and following trough on it.
While many books of this genre are journeys to “find myself” it felt more as though this were a journey to just do something cool and instagram worthy. To enjoy doing it for sure, but that was more the drive. I felt I could very well empathize with the narrators sometimes controlling behavior and over planning, which can be a hinderance to just enjoying the moment.