Beau
I love what this book represents, and my interest levels were high going into it. I love how Warren was creative in splitting the chapters up into parts of the day, and experiences that the regular human will find themselves in day by day. However, maybe it's because I've been exploring ‘faith in the mundane' over the last few years or so (and have therefore dived deeper than I thought down the rabbit hole), but I found that this book failed to expand the conversation into any meaningful area. I don't know if it was the overly-domesticated Texan Mom examples, or the (at times) unnecessary length of the chapters, but it didn't feel succinct. It's definitely 2.5 stars for me but I rounded down, rather than up, for the reasons above.
Beautiful. These essays are still sifting through my consciousness, so it's difficult to say a lot right now. The avid sense of life throughout these pages is startling; not for what was said or declared, but rather how it made me, a living, healthy twenty something, realise how detached from my own walk I feel at times.
It's standard Gladwell; fascinating sociological insights into how peculiar things happen and why people follow one another even in the most extreme of cases (his case studies on how Hush Puppies were tipped by a bunch of cool kids in East Village, the connections between high-school shootings post Columbine, and wide-spread pseudo-sickness, and how all these areas are heavily influenced via the most unlikely of things were particularly fascinating) It took a while to get into his train of thought, at least longer than [b:Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking 40102 Blink The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Malcolm Gladwell https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1440763417s/40102.jpg 1180927] - but once that happened is was a joyous as any given Gladwell book/podcast/listen. 3 and a half stars.
Again, Sayers considers the social and cultural fabric of society at large, through the lens of Jesus, and delivers a tidal wave of observations, critiques, and ideas surrounding movements, churches, institutions, and everything in between. The second half of this book, in particular, warrants a second reading on my behalf as I feel there's a lot more to sift through. But for now I stand validated and challenged, concurrently, in a lot of my own personal reflections in how we're to abide in the Father within our ‘beautiful world' with all it's audacious promises and glorious chasms.
A great read. Charlie's coming of age is something we can all relate to (even if just a tiny facet of his journey). His story is filled with confusion, addiction, brokenness, question - and topped off with some great experiences with classic literature and music. With the screen adoption on the horizon, I'm interested to see how these essentialist characters are bought to life. If you're up for a quick, honestly portrayed insight into growing up when the world is growing up a lot faster than you, this book is for you.
An alarming look at the power of the crowd, our preoccupation with schadenfreude (even when we think it's casual), and, as always, an eye opening investigation into the power and chaos the Internet gives over to the user when we reach for our computers/phones. This book made me re-think how I respond to the witch-hunts of the modern day (the Zuckerbergs of the world et al when we think about 2018) and challenged me to consider my own actions/involvement in such seasons.
Gaiman goodness as always. An author has done his story justice when the masses title it a book for ‘Young Adults' or ‘Children' yet the story captivates the stone-hearted of adults. Follow the story of Nobody Owens, or Bod for short, as he is raised, cared for, and guarded over (by the elusive Silas) in the graveyard on the hill. Friendships are woven, and adventures are embarked upon as Bod slowly learns of his troublesome past - and goes to risqué lengths to learn of his once living family, and the supernatural assassin who disposes of them. This is an entertaining read and a great start for newbies to Gaiman's mind.
The Man Who Couldn't Stop was an eye-opening experience. OCD is something I've aways wanted to learn about, at least to a greater depth to what I know of the constant-hand-washing mental deficiency portrayed in Hollywood films (which, of course, is so far from the reality of OCD it's almost embarrassing that I've even uttered the words ‘a bit OCD' in a variety of contexts. They say ignorance is bliss.)
Adams, himself a long-term journeyman with OCD, writes about the history, ‘causes', research, and rationale that man has directed towards OCD (and OCPD for that matter) which, combined, provides a great contextual overview of what the disorder is and how we came to acknowledge it. Additionally, fascinating real-world accounts of people who have endured the anguish of severe OCD are described with great depth and empathy, giving the reader a thorough understanding of the complexity and variety of forms in which OCD hijacks the mind.
If you're interested in mental dysfunction, or the psychological thought behind the numerous attempts at understanding and treating OCD specifically, then this book is for you.
This is as close to an art/design bible as you can get. Empowering, emphatic, challenging, and brutally honest. I'll read this book once a year probably for the rest of my life. It gave clarity to thoughts that have been rattling around my head for years. It gave me hope for things I'd long since considered to be ‘the way things are'. And it spoke confidence into my being as it dwells in an industry and thought world which is often ambiguous and, at it's worst, perilous. I can't wait to dive deeper into some of the parts I underlined and give time to some thoughts I had along the way.
This is a pretty bold thesis; to forego playing at the same level as your rivals, and instead forge your own category and become the category king. This is unlike any business development book I've come across to heard about.
I want to dislike a book written by Neil Gaiman. I really want to. I don't want to become ignorant of other fine writers out there. Throughout this book, I was looking for things I didn't like.
No luck.
This book is as superb as anything else Gaiman has conjured up. It's small, and an ‘easy' read. But, as Neil has encouraged us, “Don't gulp it all down. Slow down. It's a slim book, and it's written in a deceptively easy to read style, but there's a lot going on in there and every word counts”
There are some amazingly complex concepts throughout this read. He plays with the ideals of truth between children and adults, constantly exposing the holes of bias we all carry around with us. The pain of time is also explored - so much so that you'll be struggling not to look back at your childhood, as journey through the pages, and wondering where is all started going in ‘the opposite direction'...when you stopped dreaming, and imagining, and wondering.
I can't wait to give this book a second read. Admittedly it's one of the first books I'bve really wanted to start reading again as soon as I finished it the first time through. Gaiman encourages such behaviour:
“And if you get to the end and you want more, start again: the second time through you may see things that weren't there the first time.”
Bravo once again, Mr. Gaiman.
Blink is a fascinating read. I could find a more eloquent adjective, but the idea of being ‘fascinated' by something - having your eyes opened to realities that have existed for millennia, and having your perception of things significantly both affirmed and challenged - hits close to home when I look back at my reading of Gladwell's work. As I read more and more non-fiction, I'm beginning to understand the distinction between an average scholar and one who so easily draws you in to their thought world that you consume their body of work like a fiction. Gladwell uses real stories of real human beings to convey his understanding of thin slicing, perception, mind reading, and environmental awareness. He does so in such a way that Blink, whilst embedded in years of research and thought leadership, comes off as an entertaining and thought provoking read - which doesn't distance the reader via their understanding of psychology or human intuition. If you're after a book which talks about things you'd never think of, things that occur between the fraction of the second of meeting someone you've never met before - your search it over.
This book is big. It did my head in. It will require a second reading. Nonetheless, Rushkoff does that thing he tends to do best - observe society, ponder technology, consider implications, de-construct reality, and speak to great depths on fundamental parts of humanity's psyche that we often don't prod: time, morality, and everything in between. At it's fundamental best, this book is about technology and time. I particularly enjoyed the first section titled ‘Narrative Collapse' - where he looks at the current ethos of a post-Aristotelian narrative society; where the non-linear rules, and particular (and beautiful) depths of creativity, knowledge, and cognitive exploration are becoming old world attributes amongst humans.
If you're up for a long but absolutely fascinating read on technology, the philosophy of time, and current socio-tech matters, this is your book. It requires commitment, however. Simply skimming over this one is both an injustice to yourself, and hugely ironic once you reach certain areas of the book. You won't put it down and you'll more than likely pick it up for a second read to get your head around some of the huge areas Rushkoff explores. Bravo.
A great book full of short stories, parables, and essays - all from the highly creative, immense, and provocative thoughts of Jorge Luis Borges. Admittedly some of the stores can get dry, but short stories are allows to be ‘hit and miss' considering the number of them in this book. The stories are full of philosophical and societal challenges, through Borges' relentless endeavour to journey through some of the thickest forests of the human psyche.
I know, 5-stars. That's how good I thought this freakin' book was. Gaiman never ceases to amaze me. Never have I seen such a seamless ability to fuse the real-world and the fantasy-world together. When you can write a 370-page book about the sewers of London, where a protagonist learns to communicate with rats and ultimately becomes a figurehead of ‘London Below' through a series of amazing mishaps; including instances with angels, two assassins who house similar traits to a fox and hound respectively, floating marketplaces, and an existential crisis where one is burdened by visions of people who are actually himself made manifest by the dark powers of the Blackfriars...well, there's something unique and imaginatively superb about it. This is the third Gaiman book I've read and for me this is up there with the prestigious American Gods. Perhaps not as complex in nature as American Gods but equally as magical, mysterious and flat-out bewildering - Neverwhere is a book I'll definitely pick up one day many years into the future. I'll flick the pages, I'll smile, and I'll remember why the world we see isn't the only world that's out there.
The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness fits into that category of books where it's so small but so incredibly rich and insightful that it needs to be read twice a year (at least!) Keller's querying of the human heart, centring around it's ego and subsequent prideful state at times, had me reflecting on my own sense of pride and a lot of questions came up which will no doubt shape a lot of my thoughts and actions henceforth.
The Information Diet is a book about something that doesn't quite constitute such length. Johnson talks about how, in the information age, we must now learn how to shape our information consumption the same way we shape our food intake. With world of open information comes a decrease of credibility, and higher manipulation of ‘truth' (a la non-organic foods, slave labour).
In essence I love the concept but I'm not sure whether or not it's something I'm going to practice (in regards to his proposed information diet methodology). This could be for a range of things, but I'm putting my money on the fact/s a) my current reading habits aren't that bad, and b) after studying information and technology for the last 6 years, and now working full-time in the industry, I have confidence in what I'm reading, and how to tell whether or something isn't of a high standard when it comes to gathering knowledge.
I also wasn't the biggest fan of the American politics commentary throughout the book. Admittedly yes - the man use to work for Blue State Digital (the people behind Obama's 2008 and 2012 political campaigns) but I wasn't expecting the volume of references.
3.5 stars. ‘Them' is a quirky investigation into the bizarre world of extremists and conspiracy theorists. I didn't find this as insightful as ‘The Psychopath Test', but that might have something to do with the disturbing and more direct application points of that book - versus the distance I feel, from a social point of view, from the global elite and their secret societies which Ronson explores in this account. This book isn't entirely baked in theory; there are some very real experiences Ronson reflects on which shakes up one's views of the 1%, which led to some interesting background reading escapades I embarked on.
One of the most fascinating yet disturbing books I've ever read regarding mental instability. At several points throughout this book I found myself wondering if I was reading something akin to a fantastical horror novel rather than an inquiry on psychopathy. A brilliant exploration of the human mind when things aren't functioning as they should be.
Great book for beginners to web design, UX and any form of digital development. Whilst the book is a few years old (which, in the digital world, means really old) Krug's design laws are still as applicable today as they were ten years ago. Many web professionals undermine the importance of design in everyday concept development and consider it something only specialised design professionals should deal with. Whilst there's an element of truth in that (developers are most certainly not designers) Krug points out the importance of at least ‘thinking' like a designer and considering some basic yet powerful methodologies that turn the web into a prettier, spaced-out place - where words are ‘omitted' and navigation is as simple as can be. Check this book out if you're interested in heading towards Internet-based work or you're a self-taught web professional who missed out on learning some of those basic design and UX principles.
This book did a great job at painting Steve Jobs in a refreshingly human way; brilliant, innovative, narcissistic, imprudent. It also traversed the golden age of technological innovation in the computer industry in a way that filled me with wonder (causing me to look at the digital landscape of 2020 and yawn in response), and left me semi-nostalgic for those childhood years when new inventions were happening and products were painstakingly curated. From a product perspective Jobs is a true inspiration - a staunch believer in absolute simplicity and human-centric design - heavily influenced from those impressionable meets with the Bauhaus school of design. His philosophy of highly controlled hardware and software unity is delicately outlined and counter-balanced with the (kind of) open-source approach from Microsoft et al, which also took the book into the territory of his many business adversaries. His saving and reinvigorating of Pixar was another pleasant history lesson (a company he often isn't associated with) which was a nice break from the corporate backdrop of the biography.
Great little book that provides a contextual overview drugs in culture (and up until) 1969. Would love to see a revised edition with a modern-day analysis to see how our perception has changed - and how modern day users interpret their addiction.
John Ruskin was one of the most important art critics of the Victorian era. He writes about art the way Kant wrote about metaphysics, or the way Gaiman writes about fantasy-based modern societies: with passion, and believability. This book isn't a ‘start to finish' account of one particular subject. Rather, it serves as a collection of several essays and collections of public accounts (my personal favourite being his inaugural address at the Cambridge School of Art - 1858).
Ruskin was years ahead of the crowd. He speaks of the diminishing ‘perceived' value of art and creative projects way before we arrived here in 2013. Ruskin also takes the time to critique the reasoning behind why people make art, and why those who step into any creative process with monetary or narcissistic-based intentions are doomed for failure.
There are many quotes in this book, but here is one of my favourites:
‘There's no way of getting good Art, I repeat, but one - at once the simplest and most difficult - namely, to enjoy it. Examine the history of nations, and you will find this great fact clear and unmistakeable on the front of it - that good Art has only been produced by nations who rejoiced in it; fed themselves with it, as if it were bread; basked in it, as if it were sunshine; shouted at the sight of it; danced with the delight of it; quarrelled for it; fought for it; starved for it; did, in fact, precisely the opposite with it of what we want to do with it - they made it to keep, and we to sell'
In The Vertical Self, Mark Sayers literally rips apart culture and exposes it for what it's (most of it) worth; a shallow expression of an identity that was once in Christ. Sayers' experiences as a minister in Melbourne, Australia has led him to believe that the body of believers are currently experiencing an ‘identity crisis' whereby we look to others, cultural trends/clichés, celebrities, musicians, artists for identity (the horizontal self) - rather than acknowledging one's true identity in Christ; that is, a perfect creation, instructed to shine the light of Jesus and stand out (for all the right reasons), which he titles ‘The Vertical Self'. Sayers' ability observe culture is astonishingly insightful, and challenged me personally to step back and look at who I am: who I claim to be in the flesh, the image (or identity) I cultivate in the online world, and where I look for confidence, validation, and hope. This is by far the best Christian book I've ever read and would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Christian perspective on culture, and where the pitfalls may come if we choose to immerse ourselves in sub-cultures which don't have Christ as their foundation.