Category: Books/Reviews

Cussler’s Black Wind – 50 Book Challenge


Black Wind
Cussler, Clive

If you are a Dirk Pitt fan (I am), this newest book in the line is a pleasure and a reassurance. Classic Cussler with all sorts of bad guys and good guys (of both sexes). Dirk has moved up to management and his son and daughter are taking on the reins of most of the action. Moreover, Cussler is passing the baton to his own son Dirk in this outing which they co-authored. This looks like it’s going to be one of those attempted franchise-extenders that’s going to work. I’m looking forward to the next installment.

Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate–The Essential Guide for Progressives – 50 Book Challenge


Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate–The Essential Guide for Progressives
Lakoff, George

This slim book was Lakoff’s effort to demonstrate the importance (and ultimate success) of efforts by “conservatives” to frame important policy debates in language and thought favorable to their goals. Lakoff’s point essentially is that the “facts” never speak for themselves, but depend on how they are framed and positioned. Frames tend to be set up in a “have you stopped beating your wife” kind of way so that however you respond to questions you reinforce the underlying frame. For example, if you let the argument over taxation get framed rhetorically as “tax relief,” then no matter how you argue your case you are endorsing the notion that taxation in and of itself is bad.

A series of essays on particular topics such as taxes or family values, the book suffers from a good deal of repetition across chapters. Moreover, this is a more polemical book than Lakoff typically writes. Understandable given its topic and timing, but I found it wearing after a while despite agreeing with Lakoff’s arguments and analysis. I’ve certainly bought into some of the frames that Lakoff identifies a lot more uncritically than I care to acknowledge.

A status update on my 50 book challenge.

I’ve been working on the reading side of the 50 book challenge fairly steadily. I’ve been less than diligent about posting mini-reviews as I go along. For my own purposes I wanted to take stock of what I have posted, what I’ve finished reading, and where I stand with the overall objective. Here’s a list of review that I’ve completed and posted.

  1. Heinlein’s For Us the Living – 50 Book Challenge
  2. Christensen’s Innovator’s Solution – 50 Book Challenge

  3. David Allen’s Ready for Anything – 50 Book Challenge

  4. David Gerrold’s The Man Who Folded Himself – 50 Book Challenge
  5. Dan Brown’s Deception Point – 50 Book Challenge
  6. Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress – 50 Book Challenge

  7. Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon – 50 Book Challenge

  8. John Brunner’s Shockware Rider – 50 Book Challenge
  9. Robert Wilson’s Chronoliths – 50 Book Challenge
  10. Bruce Sterling’s Zenith Angle – 50 Book Challenge
  11. John McPhee’s Curve of Binding Energy – 50 Book Challenge
  12. Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture – 50 Book Challenge
  13. John Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up – 50 Book Challenge
  14. Greg Iles’s The Footprints of God – 50 Book Challenge
  15. Steven Johnson’s Mind Wide Open – 50 Book Challenge
  16. Charles Stross’s Iron Sunrise – 50 Book Challenge
  17. Brian Arkill’s LDAP Directories Explained – 50 Book Challenge
  18. Eric Meyer’s Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Ed – 50 Book Challenge
  19. Eric Meyer on CSS – 50 Book Challenge
  20. Gregory Dicum’s Window Seat – 50 Book Challenge
  21. Todd Carter’s Microsoft OneNote 2003 for Windows – 50 Book Challenge
  22. Dvorak and Pirillo’s Online! The Book – 50 Book Challenge

  23. Charles Stross’s Singularity Sky – 50 book challenge
  24. Elizabeth Moon’s Trading in Danger – 50 Book Challenge

As far as books that I’ve finished but not posted reviews for yet, here’s that list:

  1. Austin, Robert – Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work
  2. Cadenhead, Rogers – Radio UserLand Kick Start
  3. Caldwell, Ian – The Rule of Four
  4. Carr, Nicholas G. – Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage
  5. Hammond, Grant T. – The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security
  6. Kelly, Kevin – Cool Tools
  7. Lakoff, George – Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate–The Essential Guide for Progressives
  8. Modesitt, L. E. – Archform: Beauty
  9. MORIARTY, CHRIS – Spin State
  10. Ringo, John – Emerald Sea
  11. Ringo, John – There Will Be Dragons
  12. Ringo, John – Cally’s War
  13. Stross, Charles – The Atrocity Archives
  14. Tharp, Twyla – The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
  15. Wheaton, Wil – Just a Geek
  16. Wurman, Richard Saul – Information Anxiety 2
  17. Yamashita, Keith – Unstuck: A tool for Yourself, Your Team , and Your World
  18. Zackheim, Sarah Parsons – Getting Your Book Published for Dummies

Finally, I have, as is my typical practice, here is the group of books I am in the midst of reading. Unlikely that I will finish them all before year end, but quite likely that I will finish enough of them to hit my goal. Particularly as I have some long plane rides in my near future.

  1. Agans, David J. – Debugging: The Nine Indispensable Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems
  2. Bok, Derek Curtis – Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education
  3. Camp, Jim – Start with NO…The Negotiating Tools that the Pros Don’t Want You to Know
  4. Cleaver, Jerry – Immediate Fiction : A Complete Writing Course
  5. Delisle, Marc – Mastering Phpmyadmin for Effective MySQL Management
  6. Downes, Larry – The Strategy Machine: Building Your Business One Idea at a Time
  7. Graham, Paul – Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
  8. KINDER, GEORGE – The Seven Stages of Money Maturity : Understanding the Spirit and Value of Money in Your Life
  9. Lorsch, Jay W. – Aligning the Stars
  10. McKee, Robert – Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting
  11. Mokyr, Joel – Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy
  12. Norman, Donald A. – Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things
  13. Pinker, Steven – The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
  14. Ray, Michael – The Highest Goal: The Secret That Sustains You in Every Moment
  15. Raymond, Eric S. – The Art of UNIX Programming
  16. Ringo, John – The Hero
  17. Schneier, Bruce – Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World
  18. Stross, Charles – Toast
  19. Weber, David – The Shadow of Saganami (The Saganami Island)
  20. Weill, Peter – IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results
  21. Wilson, Edward Osborne – Consilience : The Unity of Knowledge
  22. Wright, John C. – The Golden Age

Overachievement

Another great post from Evelyn at Crossroads with a recommendation for another book that looks worth reading, Overachievement by John Eliot. I’ve got a copy on order based on her recommendation.

The Last Taboo. [Michael Dell at eighteen] decided not to divulge that dream to anyone “because they probably would have thought I was crazy. But, to me, the opportunity was clear.” – Overachievement, by John Eliot That dream was to be number one… [Crossroads Dispatches]

Reading habits and The Creative Habit

I’ve been doing the 50-book challenge this year. Although I’m way behind on writing up what I’ve been reading, I think I have enough in the queue to hit the goal by year’s end. A quick count says I’ve posted 27 short reviews, I have another 6 books finished that I need to write up, and I have somewhere between 19 and 28 other books I have in various stages of completion.

For years my reading habits typically have multiple books in various stages of being read. Sometimes I get sidetracked enough on some books that I end up having to start over, but generally I find it more interesting to have multiple threads running in parallel because I then get the additional benefit of watching and reacting to how different books interact with one another and with whatever I happen to be working on at the time.

Perverse, I suppose, and YMMV.

At the same time, this strategy also allows me to plow through particular books when I’m in the mood or they resonate in some way with my immediate needs. Often that may be nothing more than retreating into a good story. I blew through about half of The Rule of Four this weekend. Certainly doesn’t hurt that besides being a good read, it’s set on the campus of Princeton and that makes it feel like a mini-reunion.

I chose to leave that on my bedside table when I headed out to O’hare this morning, however, to leave room in my backpack for Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit. I’m not done yet, but will be before week’s end. I came upon this by way of a recommendation that showed up in my aggregator a while back from Dennis Kennedy (I think). This is an absolute must read (and re-read) for any of us who has to create as some part of what we do. In my own view, that includes anyone who would even loosely describe themselves as a knowledge worker.

Among many insights, Tharp shows why most knowledge management efforts have been disappointing at best and points to how they will need to change to succeed. See Chapter 5, “Before You Can Think out of the Box, You Have to Start with a Box,” for insight into why knowledge management needs to start at the personal level, even if it must ultimately connect with those around you.

Einstein and Freud Go to a Bar, and Freud Says . . .

A review by David Gelernter of The Invisible Century which examines how Einstein and Freud went about thinking. Definitely something I intend to check out.

Einstein and Freud Go to a Bar, and Freud Says . . .. Richard Panek argues that Einstein and Freud revolutionized intellectual history by running thought experiments, not interpreting evidence. By By DAVID GELERNTER. [The New York Times > Science]

The day After Tomorrow – Best Review

I would happily contribute to bribing this fellow to do more reviews of any movies where Hollywood butchers anything to do with science or logical thought, which ought to cover most films.

The day After Tomorrow – Best Review. Here is the review written by a paleontologist who bet the world that he would not see the film unless he was bribed $100 Another Gem by Jason… [Robert Paterson’s Weblog]

We need more reviews like this. A grassroots-derived review system. [A Man with a Ph.D. – Richard Gayle’s Weblog]