Books I've Read
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This non-standard resume entry comes from the belief that you can't really know someone by just matching up their skills with your needs. I think it's critical to find out about a person's interests, not just their statistics, so I've started chronologically listing some books I've read.
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A Walk in the Woods , I first read this back in 1997 or so and loved it. However, upon re-reading it, it just wasn't quite as funny or entertaining as it was the first time. Close, but not quite. Still, anyone who has never hiked or backpacked should read it. , By Bill Bryson
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The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur , Although slightly off-color at times, the book is an excellent, eminently readable, treatise on how to start a business creatively. It's written in a light-hearted and humorous vein and will keep you reasonably captivated even if you're not considering starting a business, which I wasn't when I read it. , By Mike Michaelowicz
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The Pursuit of WOW! , I don't usually read management weenie books, but this one was passably interesting. While I appreciated the author being contrarian, some of his advice was downright irresponsible. While I might chide my colleagues to quit their job, I think it can be harmful for a high powered management consultant to demand, Quit You Job
Today! Maybe that advice works for his CEO contemporaries, but it could easily destroy a family who is just barely scraping by. Some of the book is also dated. Entire chapters are written trying to make the case to computerize. Worth reading, but not going out of your way for. , By Tom Peters
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Ship's Doctor , The author is one of only 14 people in the world (at the time) to be a Senior Medical Officer on an Air Craft Carrier. I learned quite a bit about the Navy and Air Craft Carriers in general, and the personal story of the author. Ostensibly a subject I have no interest in, the book kept me interested through the end of his deployment. The reader is even given closure on the revolving cast of characters that staff Naval Vessles. , By Capt. Terrence Riley
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Me Talk Pretty Someday , This is the 3rd David Sedaris book I've read and like the others, I find myself laughing at his true to life anecdotes that come from a highly dysfunctional upbringing. This book mostly chronicles his time in France, as well as North Carolina. Recommended. , By David Sedaris
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Harry Fig's Cartoon Boston , It's just a book of cartoons about Boston, but much like adding trivial items to a to-do list so you can check them off later, I figured I'd add it here. Not all that humorous a book if you aren't from Boston -- or if you are. , "Peter Wallace"
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The Year of Loving Dangerously , A graphical novel about Ted Rall's life that shows how quickly life can turn for just about anyone. In the current down economy, this book speaks to those of us who have experienced life changes due to unforseen circumstances not of our own doing. , By Ted Rall and Pablo G. Callejo
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Tree Spiker , A great book about Mike Roselle's activism in starting Earth First!, Rainforest Action Network, and Lowbagger.org. The book inspires action on environmental issues without being heavy handed. The book has a recurring, laudable undercurrent of preaching non-violence in all actions to protect the planet. , By Mike Roselle and Josh Mahan
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Dear Wit , The intended audience for this book seems to consist primarily of Buzz Killington of the Family Guy. Mildly witty quotes gleaned from correspondence between long past literati, congnasceti, and aristocrats engender an ever so slight sense of bemusement in the reader. Frequently, the explanation of the social situation necessary to set up the actual quote is longer than the barb itself. I gave up after 136 pages, which is possibly even longer than Buzz Killington lasted. , By H. Jack Lang
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America on Six Rubles a Day , While I remember Yakov Smirnoff having a pretty funny act years ago, the humor doesn't hold up to time like you'd hope. He has 2 basic formulas. 1. Making light of an American euphemism that's confusing to a foreigner: "On golf courses they have a ball washer. What a country!" and 2. In America they do this, in Russia they do that, "In America you shoot for being a politician, in Russia politicians shoot you!". These jokes are repeated over and over in machine gun fashion with no deeper development. The frustrating thing was that the few times he strayed from the formula, it was really funny. , By Yakov Smirnoff
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A Long Way From Home , I didn't know that much about Tom Brokaw before reading this autobiographical book that's ostensibly meant to be about growing up in South Dakota in the 1950s. Although the book was pretty interesting, the balance was a little heavy on Brokaw and light on South Dakota. , By Tom Brokaw
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Wonder Wart-Hog and the Nurds of November , This is an excellent Cartoon Novel about a super-hero called Wonder Warthog. Even 40 years after parts of this anthology were first published, the stories and humor hold up reasonably well. Recommended. , By Gilbert Shelton
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F.I.T. You WILL Make YOU Succeed! , The author sent this book to me to give out as a premium for Fitpacking participants. While the book has some basic info about being healthy, it's not very cohesively written. I found all the typos and poor usage of English off putting as well. , By Robert Jay Martin
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Tower , In the mid to late 90's, author Bill Henderson decided to buy some property in Maine and build a tower there for no particular reason. As the book progresses, one learns there are many reasons for his construction, fueled by his religious upbringing, marriage issues, deaths of people close to him, and other demons. The book is actually pretty interesting, containing practical as well as spiritual advice. Easy to read, but not necessarily a compelling page turner. , By Bill Henderson
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The Far Side Gallery 4 , I'm sad to say that the anthology of this comic strip really doesn't hold up 15-20 years after it was generally accepted that Gary Larson was the funniest genius ever to take to pen and ink. , By Gary Larson
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Ishi in Two Worlds , In 1911, a half starved Native American subsequently named Ishi, who had survived alone and undetected in the wild for many years, was found at a ranch in a remote section of Northern California. This is a sad, heartbreaking chronicle of the end of his civilization, the final Native American living in the wild. Ishi's story is fascinating because he is the main window into an extinct civilization. Ishi himself was an interesting character because of his sensibilities and how they differed from the culture to which he entered. The book is written somewhat dispassionately in an anthropological mien which neither adds nor detracts from the story. , By Theodora Kroeber
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How to be Happy Dammit , This gift book of positive thinking and light-self help was somewhat engaging, but nothing that will change your life. For whatever reason, it took me about 4 years to read this book completely. I'd pick it up and read half of it, then put it away for a year. It was more engaging than that, but not much. , By Karen Salmansohn
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An Underground Education , This book is something like A People's History of the United States only much more folksy and anecdotal, concentrating on lower-brow historical facts often concentrating on bathroom and bedroom habits of historical figures. The book could be entertaining at times debunking historical myths that most people consider common knowledge, but overall not always compelling. , By Richard Zacks
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The Book of Stupid Questions , If you enjoyed Tom Weller's prior masterpieces, Science Made Stupid and Cvltvre Made Stvpid, well, you probably still won't like this book. Out of 113 stupid questions, about 10 were amusing. , By Tom Weller
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A Monk Swimming , This book is about a post World War II Irish immigrant to New York City and his experiences on the docks and in the bars. Well, that's what it was about in the first 28 pages, because I gave up after one too many down-and-out characters got drunk too many times. , By Malachy McCourt
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The Trunk Murduress: Winnie Ruth Judd , In 1931, a woman named Winnie Ruth Judd shot her two closest friends to death. One of the friends was dismembered and both were thrown into trunks. Ms. Judd left Phoenix with the trunks and when she reached Los Angeles, the grisly remains were found in her luggage. Though she was the only one convicted in the murders, this book painstakingly details why others were involved and why there was a conspiracy to protect them. Detail by detail are listed, explained, and refuted in order to establish that Ms. Judd shot her friends in self-defense. The problem is that the minutiae is mind-numbing. I didn't really care about every single witness testimony or anything else. I just wanted to know what probably happened, which I was still about 50 pages from when I gave up reading on page 132. , By Jana Bommersbach
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Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
and it's all small stuff , This book took me about 6 months to read. It's ostensibly a quick, easy read that imparts the reader with useful pop therapy, but I just could not get through it despite the fact that the chapters are all 3 pages long or less. Mostly what I learned from this book is that the author has some pretty ugly thoughts go through his head on a regular basis, but is now able to control them by thinking about how great his daughters are. , By Richard Carlson
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Still Life With Chickens , The main reason I read this book is that it takes place in Hull, MA, where I live. The book is a light, somewhat interesting autobiography from a woman who had to move from the wealthy neighboring community to the more modest town of Hull. The author goes through a divorce, downsizes her life, brings her daughter with her and raises chickens, using them as a parable for life and personal emotional growth of a woman reaching mid-life, triumphing in the end, yadda, yadda, yadda. Easy to read, especially because of the local flavor, but if the setting of the book was elsewhere, I probably would not have read it or had much interest. , By Catherine Goldhammer
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Three Cups of Tea , This is an unbelievably good book, a must read. It's the story of an American named Greg Morenson, a one-time alpinist who attempted to summit K2, only to find his life's work building schools in the poor rural areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The book demonstrates how educating people -- primarily Muslims -- in these poverty stricken areas does more to promote peace and combat terrorism than all the force we have used in the region, especially Afghanistan. This book does as good a job as any resource in teaching readers half a world away about Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Taliban than most other sources, and it does it in a very humane and compelling way. , By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
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Eat the Rich , The title of this book is supposed to be funny or engaging or alluring, but it's none of these. And it only tangentially relates to the book. At its best, it illustrates complex economic systems with humorous anecdotes and unlikely metaphors. At its worst, it devolves into dogmatic preaching for free markets at all costs and a diatribe against every socialist more, such as equality. But in retrospect, I think the author just travelled around the world for pleasure and decided post facto to write about his drunken adventures under the guise of an economics primer. , By P.J. O'Rourke
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Judaikitsch , This is a pretty cute book about Jewish themed arts and crafts projects you can make that are fun, silly, or kitcschy. I only tried one of the projects and it took way more time than I would have ever expected and came out much worse than the book's example. But this probably reflects my abilities more than the book's sensibilities. , By Jennifer and Victoria Traig
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Wait Till Next Year , I guess it's just coincidence that I recently read another autobiography (Larry King) about growing up with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Unfortunately, this book didn't resonate with me in the same way. The author grew up in Rockville Center, not Brooklyn, had a Catholic upbringing, and had a writing style that engaged me at times, but not consistently. I really wanted to care more about the author's family and friends, but could never quite accomplish it. Still, the book is interesting and does a reasonably good job of capturing the 50s, baseball, and the culture of the day. As a bonus, the author reflects upon greater themes such as racism, suburban flight, and other important ideas that are beyond the scope of the typical autobiography. , By Doris Kearns Goodwin
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Houdini: Master of Illusion , Not a bad book about Houdini. The best part about it was that it dispelled all the mystery and false notions about his life and death. For example, he died from complications due to being punched in the stomach, not from doing a trick. Worth browsing through if it comes your way. , By Clinton Cox
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Bringing Down the House , This is the true story of the MIT blackjack team beting Vegas and other gambling casinos. No matter how hard the author tried to turn this story into some kind of fictional account, the book is still quite good. In fact, the author pointlessly places himself into the book repeatedly, a story in which he had no part. I can only imagine how much more compelling this book would have been had a different author written it. , By Ben Mezrich
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500 Nations , This book broke my heart. It details the history of Native Americans from the pre-Columbian meso-American period to the beginning of the 20th century. Millions of Native Americans were tortured, killed, sold into slavery, driven off their land, swindled, lied to, and massacred in a wholly successful attempt to destroy their civilizations, ways of life, and drive them off the land, often in the name of Christianity or for their own good. No matter how many books I read about First Nations peoples, there is always more brutality and suffering that usurps the cultures which Id like to learn more about, but are lost to history. , By Alvin M Josephy, Jr.
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The Dilbert Bunch , If you run across this gift book, read it because it's funny, but it's unfortunately pretty short. , By Scott Adams
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How Does It Work? , The upside to this book is that you really do learn how common mechanisms, such as toasters and thermometers work. The book must walk the line of not being too simplistic, nor being too theoretical, which it does reasonably well. However the book does not always explain things well, even with the illustrations. Furthermore, the book was written in 1961, so despite being quite prescient at times, it's really dated. For example, the chapter on vacuum tubes was rather superfluous. , By Richard M. Koff
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Thank You for Being You , A little gift book that's a nice way to say Thank You. , By Bradley Trevor Greive
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When You're From Brooklyn, Everything Else is Tokyo , This book was enjoyable because like Larry King, my father also grew up in Brooklyn around the same time. While my father grew up in Eastern Parkway instead of Bensonhurst, there were still a lot of simlarities. The book was a steady stream of amusing anecdotes in which the main character other than Mr. King, was Brooklyn. A little too much name dropping of stars for my taste, but otherwise very down-to-earth and easy to read. , By Larry King and Marty Appel
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Early Bird , This was an excellent, compelling, and humorous book by a guy who tried out retirement at age 28. I identified with it because like me, he's a Jewish guy. He also lived in Century Village, a retirement community my mother has a place in. The book chronicles his interactions with retirees, their quirks, their personalities, and illustrates what life in a retirement community is really like. , By Rodney Rothman
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A Walk for Sunshine , I enjoyed reading this book by a guy who thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail to raise money for the Sunshine House for the developmentally disabled and mentally retarded. It is written in a very simple style and was often a page turner. However, there's just something about the book and the author that I can't put my finger on that put me off. Despite the quotes about the book, he seemed to have false modesty and didn't nearly possess the humor he said he did (tip-off right there). Still, a good chronicle of what thru-hiking involves and worth reading. , By Jeff Alt
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The Truth (With Jokes) , This book visibly upset me. While I was aware of the corruption, hubris, and incompetence of the Bush Administration, I could not imagine just how venal it truly is. This book is one you should read, but don't expect many jokes. , By Al Franken
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The Illustrated Origin of the Species , I picked this up because I wanted to speak intelligently about evolution when confronted by religious zealots, but found out that I didn't really care enough about evolutionary biology to finish the book, time better spent reading up on genomic research. I gave up after 60 pages. , By Charles Darwin
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The Ultimate Book of Useless Information , A somewhat interesting easy read that's more entertaining than factual. For instace, the book asserts that "The average person over fifty will have spent a year looking for lost or mislaid items." This works out to an average of a little under a half hour per day, every day of your life, even as an infant. This, as with many facts in the book, can't possibly be true. , By Noel Botham
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Cellular Automata , In spite of having no background in Cellular Automata, I found this book to be extremely accessible and clearly written with many illustrative examples. I read the book cover-to-cover and understood it all, which for a textbook is really saying something. For the layman, it helps to have a strong mathematical background as well as a keen interest in number theory, but none of this is necessary. One of the nice things about this book is that if for some reason you dont understand a topic such as say, the Sierpinski Triangle, the rest of the book is not predicated upon it, even if it is called back on occasion. Highly recommended. , By Joel Schiff
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All I really need to know I learned from watching Star Trek , Despite the title, comparisons to and gleanings from Star Trek are often just tangentially related to the anecdotes in this book. Still, if youre a fan of Star Treks original series, the book is a reasonably fast, entertaining read. , By Dave Marinaccio
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Shelf Space , Pretty interesting book about packaging design in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. The accompanying text isn't all that captivating, but is interesting enough to explain the many design examples contained within. , By Jerry Jankowski
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A Girl Named Zippy , Well I would never have even picked up this book if the title was "A Girl Named Amy" or whatever. The book is filled with vignettes of non-events from small town Indiana that were oddly compelling and often humorous. Reading between the lines exposes quite a bit of misery as well as simple joy of small town living in the early 70s. , By Haven Kimmel
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Nothing's Sacred , This mostly autobiographical book is really funny and extremely engaging, without being just a bunch of bits from Lewis Black's act stuck together. , By Lewis Black
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Black Ice , St. Paul's School had traditionally been all male and white. This autobiography was written by a black woman who pioneered diversity at the school. The author tries to establish how difficult it was to be different in a traditionally white, patriarchal environment, but can barely make the case of her hardship. Indeed it seems that most of her misgivings were internal. There just wasn't any insight as to her struggles. Plus, she recounts experiences and discussions in extreme detail even though they happened almost 20 years before the book was published. , By Lorene Cary
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Shackleton's Forgotten Men , Not many people know that during Shackleton's famed Antarctic adventure on the Endurance, another team of men was dispatched to the other side of Antarctica to lay supplies out for his traverse across the continent. This is the harrowing story of those men and their 2 year ordeal in bleak, starving, brutish conditions, continually fighting for their lives. This story chronicles their ordeal and is definitely a compelling read. , By Lennard Bickel
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Schindler's List , Although the movie was incredibly important and unbelievably well executed, the book was difficult to follow. , By Thomas Keneally
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Morrie: In His Own Words , Not to disparage an inspirational guy who died of ALS, but this book wasn't all that insightful. I think it would be a lot more meaningful to those who are dying, but as someone who still has the illusion of immortality, the gleanings about how to deal with mortality didn't resonate with me. I may re-visit this book someday, but at the moment will continue to live like a Rock Star. , By Morrie Schwartz
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Barrel Fever , David Sedaris is at his best when he writes non-fiction. Unfortunately, many of the stories contained in this book were concocted, which I didn't find all that entertaining. It started making me think that he embellishes his true-to-life works somewhat, and that was disappointing. So a lot of this book was just OK, until I reached the last chapter SantaLand Diaries which was unbelievably good, and the type of riotous invective I've come to enjoy from the author. , By David Sedaris
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This Book Sucks , An uninspired book that doesn't do justice to Beavis and Butthead -- and that's saying something. A far cry from Peace, Love, and Understanding. , By Sam Johnson and Chris Marcel
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How to Live With a Neurotic Cat , This book consists of essentially 4 or 5 tired cat jokes repeated over and over again. I got through 4 chapters and then gave up. The illustrations are pretty well done though. , By Stephen Baker
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The Beastly Book , This is a very interesting book about 100 dangerous animals, from protozoa to charismatic megafauna. Written in an entertaining, easily digestible style, children and adults alike can enjoy and learn from it. My minor gripe is that the book only really needs about 75 dangerous creatures, and in order to pad it to 100, there was a bit of somewhat lame filler. But overall worth a read. The illustrations are excellent too. , By Jeanne K. Hanson
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A Civil Action , This book was a compelling read, well researched and painstakingly detailed. It's the true story of a group of families whose groundwater had been poisoned by Tricholoroethelyne and the lawsuit against the companies that were responsible. Engaging, sad, and disturbing. , By Jonathan Harr
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Dealing With People You Can't Stand , The title of this book is a little more engaging than the book, but the contents frame difficult people, i.e. those you hate, as those in Get it Done mode or Get Appreciated mode. When borderline psychotic personality traits such as bulldozing over someone (The Tank) is viewed in the light of someone driven to 'Get it Done', strategies for dealing with said person are easier to learn. My only gripe about the book is the uber-fake examples strewn throughout the book. , By Rick Brinkman and Rick Kirschner
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Silent Spring , It is a rare book indeed that survives the test of time and is still as poignant today as it was when written, in this case 45 years ago. When Rachel Carson sounded the call against poisoning the earth with insecticides, and the government actually responded, you wouldn't have thought that spraying would continue to be used today. But with poison treatments with Abate and other chemicals for EEE, we seem to have learned little. This book is generally credited for having gotten DDT banned, as well as other extraordinarily toxic chemicals such as malathion and chlordane, which produced chemical resistant insects while indiscriminately killing plants, animals, and causing many cancers in humans. An important read. , By Rachel Carson
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The Joy of Work , While all Dilbert books are funny, this one had an extra dimension. Instead of being a collection of comic strips or a book of funny ideas and prose, this book actually gives you insight into what makes Scott Adams tick. He also presents the reader with informative secrets of how to be creative and humorous. , By Scott Adams
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Interviewing America's Top Interviewers , I never learn. The book was published 20 years ago and has become less relevant as most of the subjects are out of the public spotlight, retired, or dead. Still, the book is interesting, but it palpably demonstrates that top tier interviewers do not necessarily make the best interviewees. , By Jack Huber and Dean Diggins
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dot.bomb , This book details the rise and fall of Internet giant-to-be Value America. It's an excellent in-depth look at the Internet gold rush of the late 90's and is written in a style that delves into personalities over hard number like a business school case. I personally took away from this book that I could never survive even the lowest levels of corporate politics. , By J. David Kuo
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Don't Call Me Pig , A cute kids story about Javelinas , By Conrad J. Storad
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Pinball , It's a coffee table book containing sparse information about the history of pinball. Much of the photographs seem to be German advertising pieces instead of actual photos of pinball games. Disappointing, but worth thumbing through. , By Phil Goddard (translator)
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We Die Alone , This is the amazing tale of survival of Jan Baalsrud, a Norwegian man in World War II whose ship was sunk by the Germans. He subsequently spent the next 5 months trying to escape Norway to Sweden, suffering frostbite, gangrene, hypothermia, and cutting off 9 of his own toes. A harrowing tale of survival and humanity by those who risked their lives to help him. , By David Howarth
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Confessions of a Key West Cabby , This book frustrates you at once because, much like a cab driver, you are never sure of the outcome of what happens once your fare leaves the cab. But once you let go of that, the stories, like the island of Key West, become engaging, especially while you're in Key West. Once you leave the island, the book is less enjoyable somehow. , By Michael Suib
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His Majestys Bark Endeavor , Knowing nothing about Captain Cook save for name recognition, I anticipated learning about his global sea explorations on the ship Endeavor. Although the book was enlightening and often engaging, the text frequently devolved into two inferior miens; centuries old lists the author presented as prose and references to a full-scale replica of the Endeavor built in the 1990s. I wish more of the book had described the voyage, although admittedly one can present only what is in the surviving journals. , By Antonia Macarthur
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A Brief History of Time , Like every other book of the cosmos in laymans terms genre, this book fails to answer any of the big questions in a satisfactory way. Oh sure, a reader can learn all sorts of things about how the universe is expanding, cosmological radiation, and how theoretical models indicate the state of the universe microseconds after the Big Bang, but the conclusions are completely inaccessible since theyre manifestations of equations that model observable phenomenon. For instance, referring to imaginary time or asserting that it doesnt matter / cant be determined what happened before the Big Bang leaves a reader empty. I gave up after 136 pages. , By Stephen Hawking
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Thru Hikers Guide to America , Great book thats more than just statistics about long distance hiking trails in the USA. Actually gives you a feel for the trails themselves. But more than that, vital hiker-based information such as water availability, terrain, weather and re-supply are covered in detail. My only beef is the authors insistence on expecting readers to average as many as 18 miles per day, probably to show off how accomplished he thinks he is. Still, an excellent book. , By E. Schlimmer
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Now You Know , I really wanted to be sympathetic to Kitty Dukakis plight of substance abuse, but it was often difficult to be so, especially since I wanted to see her as the charismatic character I had experienced during the 1988 presidential election. I do wish the book concentrated more on her election experience than her addictions, which I found overly pervasive. Yes, that is her reality, but the reader can only come away with so much from it. Detailing more abuses make the book no better. , By Kitty Dukakis
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Black Elk Speaks , This book is a must read, especially those who are proud of their American pioneering heritage. It details the demise of an entire civilization of First Nation peoples through the experiences of a mystical Oglala Sioux named Black Elk. As one of the last survivors of his culture from pre-Wasichu (white man) days, he relates his story as an old man, 50 years after his society was destroyed. Some of his dreams and visions and their symbolism are difficult to grasp, but this does little to detract from the sad history of a decimated civilization. , By Black Elk / John G. Neihardt
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When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops? , Excellent and hilarious book, as you'd expect from George Carlin, however this work is darker and much more curmudgeonly than usual. He also spends more effort language-bending than usual, which is funny and observant, but started getting a bit tiresome. Although I have spent much of this time pointing out scars, the book is very funny and eminently worth reading. , By George Carlin
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The Way Things Really Work , As a parody of the popular book, "The Way Things Work", this book is reasonably well done, but if you're looking for a laugh a minute, or great satire, this book isn't it. There are some very funny diagrams and descriptions somewhat reminiscent of Cvltvre Made Stvpid, but not that many. , By Henry Beard and Ron Barrett
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Dust Bowl , This is pretty much a kids book describing the dust bowl of the 1930's. It was actually a pretty good primer about a subject I never knew too much about. , By Patricia Lauber
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Crabgrass Frontier , I can't believe I'm finally done with this book, as I read it over a period of 5 months. It is a meticulously well-researched survey of the suburbanization of America. Somewhat reminiscent of Cadillac Desert, but not as riveting. Still, it's an important historical work delineating why the USA is so sprawling. , By Kenneth T. Jackson
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Lennon Remembers , It's interesting how time has a way of making seemingly momentous events irrelevant. This is a book of interviews with John Lennon from 1970 in which he frankly discusses long forgotten relationships, political issues, and cultural scandals. Readers do get an insight into Lennon's tortured existence, and there is some interesting views about his life and the Beatles, but overall, the book just isn't that relevant today. I was very heartened however, to see that he was an admirer of Frank Zappa. , By Jann Wenner
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Yikes! , I'd love to say this book is a journalistic masterpiece, but it's really written to help young teenage girls through some of their formative years. Pretty well written, but has a limited audience.
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The Rant Zone , While I generally enjoy Dennis Miller's bitter invective, it didn't play out quite as well in prose form. This leads me to believe that his allure is part delivery, and part hope that by the time you catch his obscure reference, he's already on to something else. Still, there's lots of funny lines in here and it's probably worth your time to read this book. , By Dennis Miller
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Cesar's Way , While the self proclaimed Dog Whisperer puts forth much valuable information about dog psychology which seems very useful, far too much of the book is about how great he thinks he is, dropping the names of celebrity after celebrity for no particular purpose. Still, the dog information is great and makes this book worth reading. , By Cesar Millan
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Aids Demo Graphics , This book about Aids Activism in New York City in the 1980s details dozens of important protests and media events, only it does so poorly. I gave up after 38 pages. , By Douglas Crimp with Adam Rolston
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Real Mosquitoes Don't Eat Meat , Although Outside Magazine's Wild File isn't such an amazing feature, this book, a collection of Wild File articles reads like an imponderable compendium of nature wisdom. Worth reading, but not going out of your way to obtain. , By Brad Wetzler
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Nantucket Solitaire , This is a book of mysogynistic poetry written by a Nantucket resident whose essence is defined by his conquests and alcohol. Although it seems like something I would not at all enjoy, the writing is superb and the poetry very accessible, not dumb and not overly obtuse to the point of being impossible to decipher. I'd actually recommend this book. It's a great way to explore human nature with truth and not always beauty. , By Roy Flanders
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Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim , This book is a collection of highly entertaining stories about David Sedaris' life, but I almost feel self conscious enjoying the anecdotes because of the underlying sadness and tragedy of his life. , By David Sedaris
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The Animal Rights Handbook , This book is a great primer for anyone who loves animals and suspects that humanity's treatment of them is not always very kind. It will open many eyes of those who don't think much about the hidden animal suffering behind many of our everyday habits, such as eating. For people who are already knowledgeable of animal rights, there's not too much new here. , By Laura Fraser, Joshua Horwitz
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The Black Death, 1347-1351 , This is a mostly factual depiction of the Bubonic Plague that scourged Europe from 1347-1351. The book was interesting enough, but left me wanting much more, such as how the plague affected entire cultures. Perhaps the dearth of this type of information is due to the widespread illiteracy of the era, as well as the fact that there were very few people left to chronicle the pandemic. Worth reading, but barely. , By Daniel Cohen
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Chocolate: The Consuming Passion , While this is a too cute, illustrated book about chocolate, it was surprisingly funny and informative. Recommended if you can find it at a yard sale for a quarter. , By Sandra Boynton
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Mad About The Sixties , While this book may not be the type the typical intellectual leviathan would read, it's still pretty interesting. I was actually surprised how well developed the people who wrote MAD were 40 years ago. Not all the humor holds up these days, but some of it was still pretty funny. Worth picking up if you enjoyed MAD as a child.
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The Borowitz Report , What a great book. A book like this is often just a bunch of made-up hooey, but it turned out to be excellent satire, one that gets to the heart of the matter in a funny way. The Kim Jong Il blog is not to be missed. , By Andy Borowitz
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Chutzpah , Reading this book instilled pride in being Jewish. In fact, much of the book is dedicated to the way we Jews consider ourselves 2nd class citizens in order to gain acceptance in a decidedly non-Jewish country. The book spoke to me because it is written from the perspective of a Jewish civil libertarian who eloquently encapsulates the alienation many of us feel from the current (Bush) administration. , By Alan Dershowitz
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A Life on the Edge , Excellent offering from the first American ever to summit Mt. Everest. Read about a life well lived and the amazing things one individual is capable of when they follow their passion. , By Jim Whittaker
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The Worst Journey in the World , This book should be called "The Worst Book in the World". This classic book of turn-of-the-century polar exploration seems to be a must read because of its painstaking detail of Scott's Antarctic conquest and subsequent death just 13 miles from certain rescue. However I found the book to have three limiting factors: 1) Too many daunting nautical terms 2) Too many British colloquialisms and 3) Too much vestigial language from 100 years ago. These factors combined to make the prose almost unreadable. In fact, I gave up after an 87 page introduction and 33 pages of the book because it was too obtuse to wade through. , By Apsley Cherry-Garrard
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Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man , Although the author of this book grew up in an around New York City, he decided to throw it all away for a more indigenous life by moving to Alaska. However, the transformation from city dweller to Alaskan Mountain Man is lined with humorous anecdotes, which are "Free Ranged" within the covers of this book. Free Ranging refers to relating experiences using heavy doses of exaggeration and omission, to make the teller seem more fascinating or manly. , By Doug Fine
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A People's History of the United States , While this is an important and extraordinary book that explains history from the point of view of the vanquished people in American History, I found it became difficult to stay interested in certain passages as they relate to events that happened in the early 1800s. So although it iconoclastically blasts our collective history, much of the book is dedicated to events most of us are extraordinarily unfamiliar with. Gave up after 73 pages. , By Howard Zinn
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Adrenaline Junkies and Serotonin Seekers , This is a well written book about the 5 neurotransmitter chemicals: adrenaline, serotonin, cortisol, melatonin, and insulin. The book is very accessible and although not technically detailed, gives the reader a good understanding of how these chemicals interact with your and your nervous system , By Matt Church
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Points Unknown , I gave up reading this anthology of "The Greatest Adventure Writing of the Twentieth Century" after 42 pages. Not that the quality of writing wasn't superb, it's just that I would far prefer to read the entire books that the chapters were excerpted from, than condensed smatterings that give away the essence of the adventures. , By David Roberts
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A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney , Even though this book is 25 years old and contains transcripts of broadcasts from the early 70s, it's still spot on much of the time. Usually poignant, always the curmudgeon, and often funny, you can hear his voice scream through the pages. , By Andy Rooney
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Influence: Science and Practice , Not only is this book a scholarly examination of how humans are hard wired to be influenced by certain emotional and psychological tricks, it is eminently readable. Reading this book will help you truly understand why you feel compelled to buy say, a time share. The sales person will use every psychological trick at their disposal to compel you to buy. And this book describes in great detail what these tricks are, how the manipulation works, and even how to defend yourself from them. Strongly recommended. , By Robert B. Cialdini
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You're From Where? , A book about strange USA town names that could have been interesting, but was more of an excuse for the author to yammer on about barely relevant and even less interesting tangents regarding the town's regions or general history. , By Robert T. Smith
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Journey to Tibet , When China opened the Tibetan borders to tourism in 1984, Sorrel Wilby decided upon a pilgimmage in which she walks the length of Tibet. Her reverence for the culture and desire to become a Tibetan are palpable and captivating, although at times, she over-waxes lyrical about borderline inhumane conditions such as subsisting on rancid yak butter. Still, any armchair adventure traveler with an interest in mystical culture should read this book. The sections in which she lives with nomads are the most captivating. , By Sorrel Wilby
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The Life and Times of R. Crumb , This anthology of short chapters by Crumb's contemporaries gives insight into him that could not be gleaned from reading Crumb's work alone. It's also a nice primer for understanding the genesis of the hippie culture of the late 60s and early 70s. Worth a read.
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Animal Quotations , I read this book over several years. I only read it while on backpacking trips. The short quotes made serviceable reading when there was some down time in camp, but I barely enjoyed them. They were often obtuse, dull, or difficult to glean meaning from. The fact that this book was from Britain may have something to do with this. , By G. F. Lamb
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Rough Draft , In the vein of Cvltvure Made Stvpid, this is one of the funniest books I've ever read. 100 years of pop culture is viewed through the eye of how stupid things could have been if the predecessor version, in which a single detail was different, was used. Highly laden with pictures and illustrations. A must read if you want to laugh. , By Modern Humorist
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Rules of Thumb , Fairly readable book containing some good information regarding off-the-cuff estimation in many walks of life. As with many older books, several items are outdated, such as rules of thumb referring to typewritten pages or cassette recordings. Still, an easy read that can be digested in small pieces. , By Tom Parker
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Furry Logic , A cool little gift book with amazingly detailed animal illustrations that were all done as full size paintings before being published. , By Jane Seabrook
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The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde , Not too much wit or humor in this book. Some of the quotes are pretty good, but the rest mimic the sensibilities of 19th century England. Gave up after 54 pages. , By Oscar Wilde and Alvin Redman
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The Portable Curmudgeon , What a great book of quotes notable not only for their dead-on social commentary, but their worldview of humor laced with vitriol. The book also profiles many a curmudgeon, such as H.L. Mencken, which adds to the books eminent readability. , By Jon Winokur
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The Voyage of American Promise , In 1985, Dodge Morgan successfully sailed around the globe, setting the world record for the fastest non-stop solo circumnavigation. For a lengthy trip during which each day is substantively the same, the book was reasonably compelling. The author has a huge ego, as you might suspect would be required to successfully finish the trip, and that's OK, but I was turned off by his false modesty when he added it in. One other thing I found somewhat inexplicable was that after he had been out on the sea only a few days, he spoke of how bored and lonely he was, a theme he was to return too often. It was almost as if completing the voyage was more important than enjoying the 5 months he was away. , By Dodge Morgan
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The Accidental Adventurer , This is a pretty good biography about Barbara Washburn, an accomplished mountaineer and cartographer whose life is overshadowed by her husband's accomplishments. She was the first woman to ever summit Denali (Mt. McKinley) as well as a few other Alaskan mountains. While the book was often engaging, it's wacky how certain sections devolve into "we had peas for dinner that night" and other 50 year old details that pale in comparison to the woman's greater legacy, such as her work with the disabled. Nice book worth a read, but unfortunately not a riveting page-turner. , By Barbara Washburn and Lew Freedman
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Gifts of the Wild , This compendium of essays written by women about outdoor experiences was fairly interesting, however there was a certain uniformity of writing style to the essays presented. If you read this book, skip the first 3 chapters. They are by far the worst ones in the book. I can't imagine why the book was edited this way.
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Join Me! , As I was hoping, this book was pretty funny at times. It's the true story of a guy in his 20s who launched a worldwide movement for doing good deeds, just because he wondered who would answer an ad that said simply, "Join Me". Once it got going, the entire things seemed really fun, but the author must really be good at accepting rejection on his way to reaching his (at first) questionable goal. , By Danny Wallace
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The Simpsons Comics Unchained , This book seems to be a collection of about 6 stories originally published as Simpson's comic books. They're actually pretty good, often very funny and stay true to the show's characters.
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Let there be neon , This coffee-table-ish book could have been really great, but it turned out to be a disjointed set of chapters with no direction or cohesiveness. There is a comprehensive glossary of terms used in the manufacture of neon lighting, yet only a very short chapter that glosses over neon technology is included. Chapters often repeat material presented earlier and the word 'kinetic' must appear 100 times throughout the book. Still, lots of nice photos of neon signs, and despite the inconsistencies, you can learn a thing or two from this book. , By Rudi Stern
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The Joy of Not Working , This concept for this book is excellent, and there are many valuable points covered, however the text barely covers two of the most important aspects of not working: how to continue earning money and what to do about children. There is a great deal of material about how to want less stuff, which is very important in financial independence, but there aren't too many ideas about how to continue getting an income. If you are someone who is already happily unemployed, this book won't teach you much, but it will support your notion that you're doing the right thing. , By Ernie J. Zelinski
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Run Gently, Run Long , This book was published in 1974, a time when long distance running was in its infancy. The author was the editor of Runner's World, and while the book could have contained useful, informative text, it often devolved into the author making excuses for his lack of competitive longevity in long distance road races. At the time I guess it was novel to assert that full out training runs at race pace were unwise all the time, but now we just take it for granted. On top of all this, the author is an editor, but the book is poorly edited. , By Joe Henderson
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The Overnight Guide to Public Speaking , Not a bad little book that emphasizes that the key to good public speaking is preparation. So it's informative and very useful, but not overly entertaining. Part of the problem is that the book was written in 1983, so writing out a speech triple-spaced on index cards and similar suggestions seem dated. , By Ed Wohlmuth
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I love her, but
, This impulse buy is a 400 page book of complaints that men in long term relationships have about their wives, one complaint per page. The book is a fast read, but a bit sanitized so that not much new ground is covered here. Worth picking up but not going out of your way for. , By Robert Llewellyn Jones
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AMC Guide to Outdoor Leadership , This is an excellent, comprehensive, book for anyone who leads groups into the wilderness or on adventures. The book is a great reference, but is a little dry if you try to read it cover to cover. , By Alex Kosseff
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Idiots at Work , Although this book seems like it would be an excellent chronicle of workplace stupidity, it doesn't capture the essence of said stupidity nearly as accurately as say, Dilbert. It's easy to read and worth browsing, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get a copy. , By Leland Gregory
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The Leno Wit , Jay Leno didn't write this book. This may be the last biography I read, particularly about celebrities. They're always so awful in a gossipy way. Instead of providing the reader real insight into Leno's life, the book summarizes its light anecdotes with vapid conclusions like "Ah show business!". , By Jay Walker
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All Stressed Up & Nowhere To go! , I started this book about dealing with stress at a time when my life was relatively calm, but within a few days turned stressful. The book was actually pretty good about helping me deal with feelings of anxiety, although it's never as easy to do as a book will indicate. Easy to read, somewhat humorous, and occasionally inspirational. , By Bill Crawford
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David Letterman's Book of Top Ten Lists , Ten years after this book was published, the humor didn't hold up. Oh sure, most of the lists had some good jokes and the list topics themselves were often absurdly funny, but Buttafuoco is just not funny anymore, if it ever was. Anyway, disregard this review. How pathetic is it to read a 10 year old joke book and add it to the list of books you read? , By Lettermans' Writing Staff
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Explorabook , What a great book for teaching kids (and adults) science in a practical manner. The book is a product of the Exploratorium in San Francisco, a completely hands-on museum. Highly recommended. , By John Cassidy
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Zen Judaism , Although I have read and laughed through "How to Be an Extremely Reform Jew", also by David M. Bader, Zen Judaism isn't quite as funny. It's still a humorous, fast read for those of us who are Jewish and have an interest in Zen. , By David M. Bader
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Trading Spaces Behind the Scenes , This book profiles all the major on-camera talent of the show, Trading Spaces. It's reasonably interesting, somewhat insightful, and easy to read. If you like the show, it's worth a read, if not, it will be completely worthless.
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Eternal Treblinka , Holocaust escapee Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote "In relation to animals, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka." Anyone who is capable of compassion, and especially those of us with ancestors who perished in the Holocaust cannot overlook the parallels between the way we treat animals and the way Jews were treated. This book will challenge your pre-conceived notion of animals and appeal to your compassionate self. , By Charles Patterson
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Disney: The Mouse Betrayed , As I am no great fan of Disney, I fully expected this book to expose Disney's sanitized aura as a shameful sham. Though the book tries its hardest, it fails to deliver. Yes, we do learn about some of the more horribly egregious nastiness endemic at Disney, such as tolerated pedophelia and unconcern for guest safety. But this constitues only a few chapters. The bulk of the book is dedicated to deconstructing the content of wholly owned media subsidiaries of Disney, such as Miramax pictures or various record labels. The book tries to make the case that Disney should be held accountable for strong lyrics or questionable movie content of their subsidiaries. However, instead of taking offense at Disney consolidating many media into a single conglomerate, they spend their an inordinate amount of time picking apart movie dialogue and rap lyrics. The book goes on to lambaste Disney for giving benefits to gay employees, as if withholding these benefits somehow promoted a wholesome image. They also have an entire chapter about the movie Pocahontas. Because Pocahontas strays from the traditional Disney formula of complete fantasy, the uptight authors have a huge problem with it promoting environmental and Native American issues. Instead of celebrating social relevance, they lament the loss of Disney's innocence and magic. Skip this book. A good message is lost in a socially retarded value system. , By Peter and Rochelle Schweitzer
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Oh the Things I Know! , This book is loosely a guide to life, imparting the author's wisdom about it. All I can say about the book is that it's really funny. In fact, when I thought I lost the book, I got really frustrated that I was going to miss the part I had not yet read. , By Al Franken
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No Horizon Is So Far , In 2001, two women completed the first ever self-powered Antartic crossing by women. This feat was much more than a personal adventure. Their cause was to involve students around the world as part of an on-line curriculum that focused on inspiring children to fulfill their potential. The adventure seems amazing, but the book didn't always capture that sense completely. Still, a great book whose reach extends far beyond the adventure itself. , By Liv Arneson, Ann Bancroft, and Cheryl Dahle
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A Kick in the Seat of the Pants , This is a book that attempts to quantify creativity, helping readers to develop and see their ideas through to greatness. The book is actually pretty good in what it attempts to do, however the one key elements missing are motivation and inspiration. The deconstruction of the creative process is excellent, but the joy and inspiration I usually associate with creativity is notably absent. Also, the book is a little stale in that it was written 20 years ago. , By Roger von Oech
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Men Fake Foreplay , The title of this book is a bit of a put-off if you don't know that it answers the question "Why do women fake orgasms?",
The book starts out very funny as you might expect in a book where the author is a stand-up comedian. In fact, you can often readily discern bits he uses on stage. As the book progresses, the humor wanes and is replaced by his often sober views on love, marriage, responsibility, and being a man. By the end of the book, his initially profound views on relationships are served up with a born-again-like zeal, making it sound more like a self-help book. Good reading, but too jokey in the beginning and to serious at the end. , By Mike Dugan
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When To Dump Your Date , What begins as a promising look at the odd idiosyncratic reasons that people break up with each other (which actually might make an interesting book), this pamphlet quickly devolves into unorganized, often mean-spirited lists of prejudices that leave the reader empty of content.
The 48 page book looks hastily thrown together, and while it can be humorous at times, usually fails to make you laugh. This book makes serviceable reading for taxiing to and from an airport terminal during a severe weather delay. , By Lois Romano
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Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies , Although the characters from this early Scott Adams book aren't nearly as developed as they are presently, the book is still a fresh, biting criticism of the business world. A funny, excellent book. , By Scott Adams
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The Hard Way , If the author could only display a smidgen of humility in his testosterone laced world, I'd consider his adventures to be a road map by which to pattern a life lived well. The book has many exciting anecdotes, usually having to do with outdoor adventures, but also touching on interesting lessons in life and family. An excellent read, if he would just learn a little humility. , By Mark Jenkins
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The Greedy Bastard Diary , While this book isn't too bad, it's not really that great. It's a poorly edited diary in which information is repeated. Often British terms or Monty Python terms are used without explanation only to be explained in a later entry that repeats an earlier idea. There's some humor and some real insight into his life, but mostly a lot of "My life is great" drivel. I ended up sending the book to a waiter from a Thai restaurant who saw me reading it and said, "It's a book about my friend Eric. He doesn't work, so he's Idle!" , By Eric Idle
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Fenway , This is an interesting coffee table book that chronicles Boston's Fenway Park with photographs and essays from people like Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski. The book is pretty interesting to a Red Sox fan, but be forewarned that the book has the not-so-hidden agenda of replacing Fenway Park with a newer baseball stadium, as wemt the popular thinking in the late 90's. , By Dan Shaughnessy and Stan Grossfeld
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K2: Triumph and Tragedy , Ten years before the climbing disaster on Mt. Everest, 13 people died on the world's 2nd highest mountain (and far greater climbing challenge) K2. Although this book isn't as dramatic or well written as Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, it's still an excellent book full of adventure and tragedy. , By Jim Curran
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America: The Book , This is probably the funniest book I have ever read, and I don't make this statement lightly. It's scathing satire that's sometimes silly, often fun, and always funny. I can't recommend it highly enough. , By Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin, David Javerbaum
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Extreme Programming Explained , While many of the ideas for improving quality of programming seem useful and novel, I have a hard time believing the author came up and refined the philosophy in a single day. Furthermore, the book often drones on with no point. Yet at other times, the book is insightful and delves into important, usually overlooked issues such as the psychological and emotional well being of programmers. Plus, I thought the bibliography was great. Overall worth reading, but the company I work with hasn't yet adopted the principles, so who knows how well they work. , By Kent Beck
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Napalm and Silly Putty , The fact that George Carlin has written a 2nd book full of funny, insightful satire and invective shows how truly talented and how vast a body of work he has produced. Even though this book is not quite as good as Brain Droppings is excellent nonetheless and definitely worth reading. , By George Carlin
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Lizards on the Mantel, Burros at the Door , This book was written about a pioneering woman named Etta Koch who lived in Big Bend and West Texas most of her adult life. Written by her daughter from diaries and faded memories, the book describes the West Texas life after World War II. Unfortunately, the book contains mostly mundane anecdotes about day-to-day frontier life. While a little of this is essential, you never really get a feel for the land and culture in Big Bend. Just when you encounter a poignant passage about say, flooding arroyos, it's interrupted by an immediate occurrence such as "I stopped to scratch an itch" or "Betsy started fidgeting in her seat". , By Etta Koch and June Cooper Price
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Lies and the Lying Liars That Tell Them , There are few people in the public arena that I admire, but Al Franken is one of them. Always funny, and uses his vast opportunities to educate as well as entertain. Other than the fact that people recognize him in public, I would like to live his life. Anyway, the book is an important diatribe exposing right wing politicians in this country for what they truly are: liars. While I cannot stand evangelical nutcases who spout hate shrouded in religion, at least they don't lie about their objectives. The current administration and their media lackeys do. And this book exposes the lies in an entertaining, humorous manner so even if your thing is supporting liars because they reduced taxes for the rich, you will still laugh at they way it's presented. , By Al Franken
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The Essential Guide to Comedy , As a former (failed) stand-up comedian, I read this book with great anticipation. While it was engaging and interesting at times, it didn't hold my interest as well as I thought it might. The book does a reasonable job of explaining the history of stand-up using highlights from several careers. But it also covers many off-topic, less interesting items such as movies made by comedians. And while the book is often even-handed, it takes too many easy shots at people like Gallagher to opine what the authors think is funny. One other note: Comedy Central is somehow related to this book as their logo appears on the cover. It's hard to say what their involvement in it was, however. Although I do note that many of the comedians whose names appear in the book are staples of Comedy Central. , By Christopher Claro & Julie Klam
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The Next Better Place , I have a strong sense that this book is a fictional fraud. It's the story of an 11 year old boy who hitchikes the country with his alcoholic, dead-beat father in search of a better life in California. Of course, California is no better than any other place they've been and they return back to Albany where his mother lives with his two sisters, only to go back out on the road again with his father. The book is well written and engaging, but only if the book is true, which I doubt. The book often states what a good storyteller the father is and how good said father is at making up things to get what he wants out of people. The author continually expresses his desire to be on the radio or in movies, not to mention how often he embellishes stories, so I wouldn't be surprised if the book was just one big lie. From the outset, the author states how he went 2 entire months without a bowel movement, which I don't even know is medically possible, much less didn't land him in the hospital. Plus he recounts in great detail names, places, and events that happened 40 years ago. And somehow, all these events involve sexual predators, thieves, and other ne'er-do-well's. Never any average people. Nah, I don't think the book is true. , By Michael C. Keith
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Cadillac Desert , Only 100 years ago, almost every river in the United States ran freely. After tens of thousands of dams were built, almost no wild rivers remain. The Bureau of Reclamation was formed to build these dams for irrigation and flood control. What began as a benevolent effort to help people live better lives has become a wholesale destruction of our entire indigenous ecosystem and the species therein, and is bringning us closer to the verge of environmental collapse. Not to mention that these programs have amounted to welfare for rich corporate farmers in the way of water subsidies and free infrastructure, all at the expense of family farmers who can't possibly compete with the prices of the corporations. An amazingly thorough and well researched book that gives you insight into the invisible corruption of our government from which you can plainly see the types of things the Bush Administration is doing now. , By Marc Reisner
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Swimming to Antarctica , Although Lynne Cox is an extraordinarily gifted swimmer who works tirelessly to improve herself, her most impressive attributes are not metric-based feats such as setting the world record time for swimming the English Channel. Her amazing swims started as feats of speed and endurance, but evolved into a tool for addressing peace. For example, she swam from the USA to Russia across the Bering Sea during the reign of Communism. While this is not only an amazing feat of endurance and marvel of thermodynamics, the real marvel was uniting two politicially divisive entities in a part of the world whose cultures were similar, but separated by politics. Highly recommended. , By Lynne Cox
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From Blues to Smiles , This book is easy to read, yet effectively addresses difficult to alter behaviors and feelings regarding depression. Although the author, who I met at a Publicity Seminar in NYC is a clergyman, the overwhelming portion of the book doesn't rely on faith to help you deal with your mild depression. , By Alan Phillip
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What is Arizona Really Like? , This book contains excellent information about Arizona, detailing all the attractions one might enjoy visiting on a trip there. However, the writing style is unengaging and often deprecates Indians (native peoples) while championing dams, mining, logging, and population growth. I couldn't take it anymore and gave up after 54 pages. , By Reg Manning
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Granny D - Walking Across America in my 90th Year , At age 89, Doris Haddock decided that she still had a lot of living to do and subsequently walked across the United States hoping to inspire campaign finance reform. This inspirational book shows what power we have to actively participate in democracy and life itself if we commit ourselves to a good and noble cause. , By Doris Haddock and Dennis Burke
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Gracie and the Mountain , Grace McNicol first climbed the 6,593' Mt. LeConte in Tennessee at 62 years old. From that time forward, she climbed the mountain 244 times. Sounds like an incredible story, but it's not. This book ostensibly culls the cream of the detailed diaries Gracie kept over the years, but even the high points are dull and unengaging. It's just a bunch of "we did this", "I did that", "lodging cost this much", and an obligatory prayer to God. There's no context, insight, or world view. Just a lot of rambling, which was really frustrating because the book keeps on saying how beloved Gracie was. It certainly didn't come out in the book though. , By Emilie Ervin Powell
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To The Edge , The Badwater Ultramarathon starts in Death Valley in mid-July and ends at Mt. Whitney, the lowest to the highest point in the continental USA. The book is an eye-opening description of the event, but more importantly delves into the psyche of what it takes to complete such an extreme adventure. Occasionally, the author delves into an area of the mind full of hallucinations and sometimes he overanalyzes and overstresses about the most minute of details, but I guess that's the obession necessary to run 135 miles in the most harsh climate on Earth. , By Kirk Johnson
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Bloom County Babylon , This compendium of the first 5 years of Bloom County shows that the comic strip did just an OK job of standing the test of time. I'm not disparaging the work, it's just that as times change, so does humor and the notion of what's groundbreaking. For instance, the political satire was well done for the 80s, but compared to This Modern World and Rall, it seems tame these days. Still, an interesting stroll down memory lane for anyone who lived through the 80s. , By Berke Breathed
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The Big Dig , Excellent coffee table book with the obligatory large full color photos. However, the text and explanations contained within are well-done and edifying. , By Dan McNichol and Andy Ryan
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Mountains Beyond Mountains , Solving the worldwide health crisis amongst the poor and destitute seems impossible, yet Paul Farmer has been trying to do this for 20 years, at first singlehandedly, and now with an international contingent he has been building all that time. This is his story, but more than that, it's a story about how the poor in the world suffer for no reason other than politics, greed, and international policy. It's the story of how the fortunes of Haitians, the poorest of the poor, are being addressed case by case and how widespread Tuberculosis is being cured in Peru, Siberia, and other places. Although this description sounds like the book is dull, it isn't and is an important read from an awareness perspective at the very least. , By Tracy Kidder
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The Real Frank Zappa Book , Being a musical genius does not guarantee talent as an author. Most of the book is pretty mundane biographical details, but the last several chapters, which detail some of his social philosophies are incredibly well thought out, spot-on philosophies and observations. I loved the idea he proffered that symphony orchestras are no more than cover bands for dead composers. , By Frank Zappa with Peter Occhiogrosso
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So You Think It's New , This book's main assertion that most anything we consider a modern contrivance has roots in the sometimes distant past. Unfortunately, it doesn't deliver. Part of the book asserts that the game of football was played in England 1500 years ago. There is an entire chapter about make-up complete with sketches of naked women. It's really bizarre. Of course, the book was published in 1937, so I guess my sensibilities are somewhat different than 70 years ago. Gave up after 48 pages. , By Wilfred J. Funk
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Sandy Koufax - A Lefty's Legacy , The only thing you really need to know about this book is that Sandy Koufax didn't write it, and wasn't quoted in it. The book was reasonably good, but missed the insight that would have come from Koufax himself. The book is a bit voyeuristic and romanticizes the past, but really does a good job of describing baseball in the 50s and 60s as well as gives some insight as to Koufax's life. I'm always a sucker for a baseball book, it seems. , By Jane Leavy
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Cold Beer and Crocodiles , This is an adventure story about a travel writer who one day pulled up his roots and bicycled 10,000 miles around Australia. The book is an enjoyable travelogue, but wasn't quite a page turner. Still, the book was an excellent adventure, brimming with places I'd love to visit. , By Roff Smith
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Clutter's Last Stand , This was a really good book about clutter with many suggestions and examples about how to control it. The book also delves deeper into non-traditional forms of clutter in our lives, such as meetings and even people. Many of its salient points touch on the emotional issues behind clutter. Well worth a read. The book is 20 years old, so it's a little outdated, such as how the author doesn't need a "newfangled computer" and is happy to use his Royal Typewriter. The humor isn't very good either, but overall the book is still very useful. , By Don Aslett
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Daddy's Boy , I like both Bob and Chris Elliott but this book was not only stupid, it referred to inside Hollywood names that nobody knows. Gave up after 33 pages. , By Chris and Bob Elliott
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Finding Fish , The more I read about the world, the more misery there seems to be. This is the true autobiography of a man whose father was killed before he was born and whose mother gave him up for adoption. He was raised as a Ward of the State in a highly abusive situation, but transformed himself into a proud, upstanding, non-abusive, success. , By Antwone Quenton Fisher
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The Clustering of America , This is a book about demographics, which I guess was groundbreaking when this book was written in 1988. It could have been an excellent book, but it really turned into no more than a bunch of graphs with some redundant text explaining the graphs. I gave up after 48 pages, started browsing the graphs, and then got bored with that. , By Michael J. Weiss
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Buyways , This book details the ascent of billboards over the American Landscape over the past 150 years or so. It could have been a compelling treatise of how the landscape has become a commodity to sell. However, the prose was deliberately muddled to sound scholastic or make the book less accessible. Furthermore, the author will state a point, back it up with a dozen pertinent, annotated quotes, but never proffer an opinion. It was really frustrating. I gave up after 68 pages. , By Catherine Gudis
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Nickel and Dimed , This is a must read. The author spent the better part of a year posing as unskilled labor to see if she could "make it" on the subsistence wages offered by large corporations to the poor, immigrants, and underprivileged. The results are a sobering account of how the servile class sacrifices their own well-being and health for a pittance from the relatively wealthy class they serve. Read this book. , By Barbara Ehrenreich
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The CEO , While I typically hate and even despise fiction, this book was different. It was a really funny, sarcastic, not preachy book about corporations and their malfeasance. The author is still looking for a publisher, so if you have a contact, please e-mail me. , By John O'leary
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True Believers , This was a pretty good book about what makes people root for sports teams, especially perennial losers. Like "The Unkindest Cut", the other Joe Queenan book I've read, the text combines funny narrative with egocentrism in a melange of non-sequiters that all work somehow. Good book, but wasn't as great as it could have been. , By Joe Queenan
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Gas War , This book asserts that the main reason the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 was not to combat terrorism, but to build a pipeline to the Caspian Sea, where the largest untapped reserve of oil in the world is located. Compelling and contrarian. , By Ted Rall
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Spy High , I was actually surprised at how well done this book is. It's essentially a fake yearbook that uses celebrities as the students. After you get into the book, you really believe you're reading a yearbook because the nuances of yearbook journalism are so artfully mastered. Unfortunately, I didn't know all the celebrities lampooned in the book, and some of the humor is dated, but it was still a pretty easy read. Worth picking up if you find it cheap. , By Jamie Malanowski and Susan Morrison
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The Control of Nature , This book was somewhat frustrating. It was just barely compelling enough to keep me reading until the end. It's a book about controlling the Mississippi River, volcanoes in Iceland, and debris slides in Los Angeles and focuses on how we have tried to control natural occurences. The book is insightful but draws no conclusions and has few lessons. Plus the author unnecessarily obfuscates the prose, so that you have to figure out that "10 wheeler" means "truck". , By John McPhee
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Where on Earth? , Even though some of the content is dated, this is a great way to test and expand your knowledge of Geography. Easy to jump around or read straight through. , By Donnat V. Grillet
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Paige By Paige , Paige Davis of Trading Spaces wrote a book in journal format about a year of the show's production. Her writing is done in exactly her "gee whiz this is cool" persona. Unfortunately, the book never really delves into anything deeper than that. You never really learn anything about her life or the inner workings of the show, which made this a very frustrating read. , By Paige Davis
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Wind Drinker , This book could have been great, but wasn't. It was written by a man who rode across the USA on Horseback in 1968 (West to East) and again in 1984 (North to South). Although the author kept log books both times, it's clear that the original ride, which spans most of the book, was a dim memory by the time the book came out 30 years later. Events and moments in time are described in extremely nebulous terms, often with no context. It's reminiscent of the way a child you just met might tell you about what 'Mike' said to him that day, even though you have no idea who Mike might be. This book presents a lot of disjoint information, but does a poor job at being a cohesive story, which I'm sure these experiences were. , By Jefferson Spivey
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All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From My Golf-Playing Cats , The cartoon strip, Tom the Dancing Bug is awesome. I would highly recommend this book. , By Ruben Bolling
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Alive , The horrible, but incredible story of the survival of the Uruguayan Rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes mountains and made it out alive after resorting to their only option for survival, cannibalism. , By Piers Paul Read
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A Child Called "It" , Although many people say this book is inspirational, I just found it really sad. It delineates in painstaking detail the horrible child abuse suffered by the author, who was eventually rescued and placed into foster care by teachers and officials at school. Some people enjoy reading this sort of story as a triumph of spirit, but I find it really depressing that the abuse happens at all, especially to the extent it is written about in this book. Interestingly, the New York Times wrote an article that said some of the claims in the book were exaggerated. But if only 10% of the abuses in the book are real and the rest are exaggerated, I'm still not going to fault the author for the awful life he had. , By David Pelzer
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Touching the Void , This book describes an amazing triumph of will. The author climbed a remote peak in South America, broke his leg, fell, and was left for dead by his climbing partner, only to battle freezing temperatures, dehydration, pain, and starvation to survive. Well worth reading. , By Joe Simpson
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Class , What a great book this could have been. It's a book that analyzes the class structure in the USA. The book started out by making some interesting observations about classes and their interaction or lack thereof, but quickly devolved into chapters that amounted to no more than lists of characteristics of each class. The book hit its nadir when it described in painful detail, which social classes wear what fashion. I find fashion-based assessments completely moronic at any time, but when you factor in that this book was written in 1983, it was completely obsolete and makes the author look like a mean-spirited imbecile. Gave up after 66 pages. , By Paul Fussell
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It's Not About the Bike , What a great, inspirational book. Lance Armstrong's comeback from cancer to win the Tour de France multiple times is a truly inspirational story. This book, like Touch the Top of the World (by Erik Weihenmeyer) make you realize just how small your problems really are. , By Lance Armstrong and Sally Jenkins
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The Betrayal of America , This book convincingly describes how 5 Supreme Court justices conspired to hand the 2000 Presidential election to George Bush. The core of the book is a 20 page article originally entitled "None Dare Call it Treason", an excellent case against the corruption exhibited during the election. However, the rest of the book reads like the Talmud -- it's just commentary on the original 20 page article. Legal notes, opinions, addendums and often self-aggrandizement of the author. My suggestion is to read the original article from The Nation or read it off the internet and skip the rest of this book. In fact, I gave up after 124 pages. , By Vincent Bugliosi
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Harvard Med , This is a book about Harvard Medical School. It tries to be part history, part narrative, and part literary work. Unfortunately, it doesn't perform all that well. You really never get a great feel for what it's like to be a Harvard Med student, try though this book might. The author jumps around, occasionally trying to disseminate faux-intellectual NPR-ish haute allegories which only serves to make this book more inaccessible. The best parts of the book describe the ethical types of issues facing Harvard Med doctors. Worth a read, but best if you are really interested in Harvard or medicine. , By John Langone
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Cup of Coffee: The Very Short Careers of Eighteen Major League Pitchers , This is a book about the people who made it to the Major Leagues, but just barely. These are the players we never hear about, but who spend most of their lives pursuing the dream of playing professional baseball. The book really gives you insight as to what it takes to "make it". The 18 pitchers showcased in this book tell their stories in interview format. It's engaging, enjoyable, triumphant, and sad. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who ever thought as a kid that they might like to be a baseball player. , By Rob Trucks
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Why Nothing Can Travel Faster Than Light , This book answers many of the big questions we have about the nature of the world, space travel, paleontology, biology, and the cosmos in layman's terms. Although I already knew much of the information in the book, there were some interesting things I learned that I didn't understand before, such as the issues in cryogenically preserving dead people. As much as I wanted to love this book, I found myself struggling to pick it up because it just wasn't interesting enough. I don't know if that's a reflection on my curiosity level or the way the book was written. , By Barry E. Zimmerman and David J. Zimmerman
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Rock This , Great book comprised mainly of Chris Rock's act! I actually laughed several times while reading this book, something I almost never do. Get this book and read it. , By Chris Rock
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Publicity Stunt , Pretty cool book about the history of publicity stunts, media events, and street bally. While the book has inspired me to pursue my predilection for creating media events, I found that the book was overly heavy on Hollywood promotion. If you're not a big fan of movies or Hollywood, most of the stunts and PR they faked wasn't so incredibly intelligent, especially because they had a lot of money to blow, which the typical person reading the book doesn't. , By Candice Jacobson Fuhrman
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The Hidden Forest , An amazingly good primer on Ecosystem diversity and the importance of old growth forests. A great layman's primer in forest ecology. The book explains many of the interdependencies of a forest ecosystem through scientific data gathered over 35 years at various sites. If only everyone in the Bush administration could read this book. , By Jon R. Luoma
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The Wrath of Sparky , Even though the cartoons in this book are 9 years old, the biting political satire is still funny. That's a testament to Tom Tomorrow's talent and acuity. , By Dan Perkins
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America's Dumbest Criminals , Mediocre book about dumb things criminals have done. The book sounds like a good idea, but half the chapters are variations on "criminal implicated himself". The other half seem to involve drug busts. I think most drugs should be legalized, so the chapters read to me like police harassment instead of dumb criminals. For instance, a guy getting high who offers a cop (who defiantly said he wasn't a cop) a joint sounds like a nice and trusting guy, not a dumb criminal. , By Daniel Butler, Alan Ray, Leland Gregory
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The North American Indians , This is a photo book containing Native Americans from the late 19th century. While the pictures are really interesting, they are almost all older men taken in portrait fashion , By Edward S. Curtis
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Work Naked , This book is probably interesting but it seems to try to make the case that telecommuting is a desirable thing in today's workplace. The thing is, it does it in an unengaging business wonk style. Maybe this is news to people who went to business school in 1940, but for those of us who already telecommute, there's nothing there. Once again I was duped by the title. I gave up after 22 pages. , By Cynthia C. Froggat
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Your Money or Your Life , This is a great book about how to become financially independent. It's not about how to make millions of dollars, it's about how to structure your life so that you maximize the time you have to do what you really want, rather than the money you have to buy all sorts of things you really don't want as much as you think you do. The plan laid out in the book is really sound except that the program itself will consume your life if you follow it the way they tell you to. Who has the time to go through everything they own to determine just how much you have? Who can possibly go back over their life and figure out exactly how much money they've made in their lives? Still, the book is very good and even touches on many important philosophical points about your attitudes about work and money. , By Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
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The Champion Pig , This is mostly a book of photographs that the author calls "Great Moments in Everyday Life". It was nice to look at in the bathroom. , By Barbara P. Norfleet
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The Long Walk , If this story is true, it is one of, if not the most incredible survival story I've ever read. It details the escape and subsequent trek of 7 men (and one woman) who left a Siberian prison camp in 1940 and walked all the way to India with the few articles they could take from the prison camp, which was not much. There is debate as to whether this story is true or not. The odds against survival were astronomical, so much so that there is a debate as to whether or not the book is true or not. For instance, many members of the escape party went 12 days without any water in the Gobi Desert. Furthermore, they walked during the day-time, and they walked at least 10 miles per day. Of course they may have gone 3 days without water and hallucinated that it took them 12, but these types of claims (including the sighting of 2 Yeti later in the story) make you wonder about the book's veracity. , By Slavomir Rawicz
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Weird Hikes , Although the title is misleading in that the hikes were not all that weird, the book was still enjoyable to anyone who enjoys anecdotes about the hiking experiences of others. , By Art Bernstein
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The Max Ward Story , A really eye-opening book about a self-made aviation pioneer who brought air travel to the Northern Territories in Canada. If this book and "We Were Not the Savages" are any indication, Canadian bureaucracy must be incredibly corrupt and venal. Anyway, this book is pretty inspirational and informative and is great for aviation lovers. I gave up after 297 pages because the last 35 pages of the book were missing!! , By Max Ward
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Imponderables , This is a fairly interesting book that answers questions which seem to make no sense, such as "What kind of fish is a sardine?" (It turns out that a sardine can be any of several species of fish.) The book is reasonably engaging, but some of the information is dated, for example the Imponderable about the pricing strategy of leaded vs. unleaded gasoline. , By David Feldman
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The Geography of Nowhere , This book delineates in straightforward fashion how the automobile and urban sprawl are responsible for an overwhelming amount of society's ills, particularly the loss of community. It shows how well intentioned zoning laws actually forbid good city planning. My only beef with the book is that it's overly dedicated to architecture, but the important messages are clear and poignant. , By James Howard Kunstler
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Ultimate High - My Everest Odyssey , As difficult as summiting Mt. Everest is, Goran Kropp did it without supplemental oxygen or help from Sherpas. Furthermore, he bicycled to Mt. Everest and back from Sweden. Truly an inspiring book. He unfortunately died in a climbing accident earlier this year (2003). , By Goran Kropp and David Lagercrantz
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SeinLanguage , Although not every bit in Seinfeld's act has withstood the test of time, this book is a wealth of clever, funny material that is definitely worth reading. , By Jerry Seinfeld
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We Were Not The Savages , Wow. What a powerful book. Everyone knows about the imperial colonization of the Americas, but it's easy to forget how our manifest destiny was genocide, and how we continue to unwittingly perpetrate cultural genocide on Native Peoples because of racist biases that permeate our culture. This book delineates the specific horrors visited upon the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia. It's different than other books of its kind because it explains what happened in the White Man's own words. The book is an incredible consciousness raiser, but from a readability standpoint, it often delves heavily into legal issues and verbiage from several centuries ago that are difficult to comprehend and aren't always explained in the context of the time. Still, it's an important book that everyone should read. , By Daniel N. Paul
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Wise and Wacky Proverbs , Iconoclastic book about the origins of various common proverbs. Sometimes informative, sometimes whimsical, usually seeks to debunk the proverb. Easy read but not all that amazingly insightful. , By Jim Anton
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The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat , The deceptive title adds insult the injury of reading this book. Yes, the book had several interesting anecdotes about various illnesses such as amnesia and Tourette's Syndrome, but it never really proffered any conclusions about the diseases. In other words, the stories are told, but you are given nothing to hold onto except that some patient the doctor once treated heard songs in her head all day long. Yet at the same time, some passages were very detailed, scientific, and beyond the scope of the layman. I gave up after 148 pages. , By Oliver Sacks
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What Do You Care What Other People Think? , Excellent book, as you'd expect if you're a Feynman fan. He has an engaging style, good humor, and looks at life with a refreshingly clever eye. This book is heavy on his participation in the Space Shuttle Challenger blue ribbon commission, but has many other anecdotes to accompany this chapter in his life. Definitely recommended. , By Richard P. Feynman
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Understanding Comics , This is a book I really wanted to love. And I did. It's a book of comics about comics. It explains the genre thoroughly from the perspective of a cartoonist and does an excellent job of it. But the book spends far too much energy asserting that comics are art. If you don't already think they're an art form, this book won't convince you, and if you do, it's a waste of breath. Amazingly good and disappointing all at the same time. , By Scott McCloud
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Living With Cannibals and Other Women's Adventures , I really liked this book and the way it was written. For each pioneering woman whose life was detailed, the book also has a corresponding chapter for her modern day counterpart. The thing I didn't care for that much was how National Geographic centered the chapters are. But for anyone who wants to read about exploration and adventure through the experiences of women, this is a great book that does so. , By Michele Slung
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Letters From a Nut , This book is really just a ripoff of The Lazlo Letters by Don Novello. The letters in this book are funny, but they're not as effective as Lazlo, since you can immediately spot them as phony. It's worth a read if the book lands in your lap. , By Ted L. Nancy
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Alone At Sea (The Adventures of Joshua Slocum) , This is a pretty interesting biography about Joshua Slocum, the first person to circumnavigate the world solo. It is packed with background information about the old sailor but unfortunately did not cover the information in his autobiography, "Around The World Alone". So what you get is a lot of auxiliary information, a fair amount speculative, about his life. It's an interesting book, but it's more like perusing a museum than living an adventure. , By Ann Spencer
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Rebel Without a Crew , As someone who has produced a few short films, I could really relate to this book. Interesting read about a guy who independently made a movie for $7000 and became a nationally recognized filmmaker in the process. , By Robert Rodriguez
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Farthest North , A pretty good read and an excellent primer for anyone interested in North Pole Exploration. Many excerpts from explorers' journals which, when unclear are summarized by the author. Occasionally, the author shows bias by deeming certain expeditions successes and others failures. Would be a much better book if a few photos of certain physical phenomena where illustrated. , By Clive Holland
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The Pocket Encyclopedia of Aggravation , What a great concept for a book, but unfortunately, it doesn't quite deliver. Sure, dentist drills are aggravating, but the choices of subject matter were too common. It would have been much better if more chapters were like the "song stuck in your head" chapter. Nice illustrations, but the book was too clinical. , By Laura Lee
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Are You Dave Gorman? , I highly recommend this book. It's funny, well written, and a travelogue all in one. It's about a guy named Dave Gorman who goes around the world looking for people named Dave Gorman. You will not be disappointed. , By Dave Gorman & Danny Wallace
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Naked Pictures of Famous People , First, this was a book unlike any I've ever read. Its format strayed from the norm and is difficult to find something to compare it to. I love this originality. However, the prose itself was inconsistent. Very funny at times, puzzling at other times, and occasionally unenjoyable. , By Jon Stewart
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I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me! , Even if you've never had any kind of therapy or been in any type of 12 step program, this book is very funny. Whereas the Saturday Night Live character gives you an idea of what to expect from the book, it can't fully develop the character the way this book does. Definitely worth a read. , By Al Franken
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Frost on My Moustache , What a stinker this book was. After struggling through about a dozen gossipy non-engaging pages, I finally read the back cover to figure out what the book might be about. I gave up after 17 pages. , By Tim Moore
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Riddle Of The Ice , A pretty interesting book about global climactic issues and how they relate to anomalous ice cover between Labrador and Greenland. Ostensibly written as a travel journal, but not much adventure here. Still, a nice overview of some of the climactic issues vexing the Earth. , By Myron Arms
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The Boy Ain't Right , If you're a King of the Hill fan or a Texan, this is a pretty good, humorous read. Many illustrations, great bathroom reading. , By The writing staff of King of the Hill
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Life of Pi , I read this for a book club meeting I never got to go to. It's was pretty enjoyable as fiction goes, but just like every other work of fiction, it turns into an arcane piece of obtuse parables that make you feel used and manipulated and make you hate any germane point the author tried to make. The book was pretty good and enjoyable, but really, it's just crap someone made up. , By Yann Martel
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Fast Food Nation , This is one of the best, and most important books you can read. If globalization and subservience to corporations in any way bothers you, read this book. A fast, disturbing read. , By Eric Schlosser
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Around the World in 50 Years -- The Travelmart, How it All Began , To be honest, I only read this book because I met the author (who has been a travel agent for over 50 years). She said that if I bought her book, she'd give me some old barf bags that she might have collected over the years, which turned out to be just one really common Lufthansa bag. The book was not too interesting, by the way. , By Marge Lawson
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The Selfish Gene , An amazingly good and probably pretty important book for those interested in evolutionary theory. Although the text can be slow at times, the book not only proffers evolutionary ideas which we now almost universally accept, it also touches upon societal issues such as socialization and even war. Steven J. Gould fans will enjoy this book as will game theorists and those with intellectual curiosity. , By Richard Dawkins
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Touch The Top of the World , The inspirational story of a man who scaled Denali, Aconcagua, and Everest. While these are incredible feats, consider that he's blind. , By Erik Weihenmayer
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How to Get More Out of Being Jewish Even If: You are not sure you believe in God. , This is a feel good book for non-practicing Jewish people who feel a connection to the Jewish community but can't really explain why. It may or may not make you more spiritual, but it's an interesting read. , By Gil Mann
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A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg , Great book of adventure stories that share no common theme but are all interesting or compelling nonetheless. , By Tim Cahill
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Jihad vs. McWorld , This book, published in 1996, is a detailed analysis of the ways in which Capitalism subverts cultures and nationalities and why Jihad thrives off its negative aspects. The book is scholarly in tone and perceptive in its assertions, but often arcane and non-engaging to the layperson. In fact, I gave up after 196 pages. , By Benjamein R. Barber
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The Complete Book of Beer Drinking Games , I actually received this as part of an eBay auction for another item. It was actually still reasonably funny, although I'm sure it would have been a lot funnier if it was 1981 and I was 20 , By Andy Griscom, Ben Rand, and Scott Johnson
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Disgrace , Man I HATE fiction. Stupid insecurities from the author's life splayed out for the reader. What a pity because the text is written in an engaging, compelling style. It's just the story is moronic drivel. , By J. M. Coetzee
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Living the Good Life , Even over 50 years after it was first published, this is an amazing book about a dream many of us have: Moving away from it all (in this case Vermont) and living a simple, self-sufficient life. , By Helen and Scott Nearing
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How To Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less , Lacia Bailey wonders why this book is 120 pages long. Interesting book with good points. Worth a read. , By Milo O. Frank
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Demonic Males (Apes and the Origins of Human Violence) , Interesting anthropological study of violence in our prehistoric family tree and analysis of how this violence is to some degree instinctual. , By Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson
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Steal This Book , I think this should be required reading for any student. While most of the information is currently dated and useless, it gives amazing insight as to what the Vietnam War years were like for people entering adulthood at the time. , By Abbie Hoffman
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Newjack (Guarding Sing Sing) , A fascinating book by a man who spent a year in Sing Sing Prison as a corrections officer. , By Ted Conover
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Stupid White Men , Great book, sometimes unfair, but the people he lambastes have no compunction about being unfair. Definitely worth reading. , By Michael Moore
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Reason For Hope , A fascinating autobiographical account of Jane Goodall and the Chimpanzees of Gombe. The book keeps on tying her experiences to her spirituality although I found those parts less compelling than her accounts and assertions about the fundamental nature of primates and humans. , By Jane Goodall
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The Guilt Trip (A Humorous Guide to Business Travel) , A mildly jocular book about how difficult business travel is. Not worth the short time it took to read. , By Lin Crandall
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The Buddha From Brooklyn , This was a book I could not put down. Although it's easy for a westerner to be disturbed by how people will devote themselves to a Buddhist Lama where the leader ultimately benefits, its far more disturbing to know that every religion has such fanatics who do the same, and we as a society think nothing of it. That's frightening. , By Martha Sherrill
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Steal This Urine Test - Fighting Drug Hysteria in America , Although dated, it shows how easily in retrospect, that we as a nation have willingly given up our privacy and rights to address a minor corporate problem. The corporate overlords can now tread on many of our rights with impunity. , By Abbie Hoffman
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Gilda Radner - It's Always Something , While the now deceased author was a talented comedian, and someone who has brought a lot of national attention to cancer by this book, there are much better books by people with cancer, albeit with a lower profile. , By Gilda Radner
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Animal Happiness , A collection of short stories, anecdotes, and parables by an author with a lifetime of experience with animals. It seems the prose was often deliberately obfuscated to make the stories less accessible, because each chapter has something to say -- it just doesn't say it well. I gave up after 111 pages. , By Vicki Hearne
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Paddle to the Amazon : The Ultimate 12,000-Mile Canoe Adventure , What a great adventure book. A page turner that I didn't want to put down because it was such an amazing Odyssey. Much better than his next work, Paddle to the Arctic, with a better ending. , By Don Starkell
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Sea Otters, A Natural History and Guide , Mildly informative, very mildly enjoyable. Although the book contains a lot of information about sea otters, it's not all that interesting, and much of it is dated. , By Roy Nickerson
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Couplehood , A fast, reasonably enjoyable read. Seems like most of it was taken from the author's act. , By Paul Reiser
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Steel Spine, Iron Will , An inspirational story of a man who overcame paralysis from an aviation accident. A great read for anyone who feels sorry for themselves. , By Rod Lewin
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Brain Droppings , I almost always give away books I've read. I'm keeping this one. , By George Carlin
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Holdfast - At Home in the Natural World , This is a pretty cool collection of essays about the natural world. The author does her best to explain natural phenomena as philosophical parables. A little abstract at times, but well written. , By Kathleen Dean Moore
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Just Tell Them I Survived! Women in Antarctica , Gave up after 17 (!) pages. I would love to read a book about women in Antarctica, but this poorly written book might better be named "Troubles Women Encountered in Antarctica as a Result of Gender". I would love to have read about women's triumphs, but this book dwells on problems. Not to mention that it's written in a completely non-engaging style. Even skipping ahead and skimming did nothing to interest me. A pity because I'm sure the stories that could be told are fascinating. , By Robin Burns
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The Big Book of Jewish Humor , Although 20 years old and a little out of date, the book does a great job of giving insight to Jewish humor. Easy to browse or read cover-to-cover , By William Novak & Moshe Waldoks
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Resist Much Obey Little - Remembering Ed Abbey , The book is a collection of writings ABOUT Ed Abbey. While it was interesting to read the perspectives of his colleagues, I suggest just reading Abbey himself. , By James R. Hepworth, Gregory McNamee, and many others
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When Penguins Attack , Cartoon satire at its finest. Read this book, you will laugh out loud at our serious problems. , By Tom Tomorrow
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To America and Around the World (The Logs of Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan) , From their logs and our retrospection, these explorers were bloodthirsty and motivated by greed, religious fervency, and unspeakable violence. Yet in the context of their time (Torquemada, the Spanish Inquisition) they were downright peaceful, brave adventurers. Although they might perhaps be forgiven for trivializing Native Americans as property, the modern day commentators who wrote this book, must be held culpable for their obsession with assigning "discovery credit". , By Christopher Columbus, Antonio Pigafetta (Ferdinand Magellan's Scribe), Adolph Caso, Marco Giacomelli
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Penguin Soup for the Soul , This Modern World is far and away one of the 3 BEST strips around (with Rall and Tom the Dancing Bug). Dan Perkins deserves a Pulitzer Prize , By Tom Tomorrow (Dan Perkins)
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Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do , Consensual or victimless crimes cost society big and mandatory punishments are far disproportionate to the "crimes" which are usually morally legislated in nature. Nonsensically prosecuting people whose main victims are themselves clogs up courts, costs taxpayers money, and allows real criminals to go free. , By Peter McWilliams
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What Kinda Cactus Izzat , What a cool book of, well, cactus identification. Not at all detailed or in depth, however the information is presented clearly and whimsically with illustrations making this a pleasure to read. , By Reg Manning
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The Legacy of Luna , This book is a MUST READ. Even the most hardened extractive industry capitalist should develop some sympathy for Julia's cause, Luna. This book will gravely sadden and perhaps infuriate you. , By Julia Butterfly Hill
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The Hole in the Universe , Gave up after 200 pages. Author does a nice job of making cosmology somewhat accessible to the layman, but fails to convince readers of substantive assertions derived from experimental observations not provided or explained. This is more due to the fact that mathematical abstractions such as imaginary time mean nothing to anyone, other than the notion that some equations with no counterpart in reality can model these abstractions. , By K. C. Cole
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A Negro Explorer At The North Pole , A very humble, understated autobiography from a man who, as one of if not the first men to reach the North Pole, could easily have been egotistical and boastful but wasn't. , By Matthew Henson
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A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again , A fascinating, intellectually stimulating book that skewers modern culture in a long overdue manner. Occasionally too obtuse and esoteric to make its point. , By David Foster Wallace
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Naked , What a sad, depressing life the author has had. He has turned his suffering into excellent literature. , By David Sedaris
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