It feels just like reading a book (apparently there's some kewl technology involved), so I have no problem reading for six hours on a train ride, which wouldn't be feasible on a computer (headache and brain melt), and it's much easier to carry around the complete Game of Thrones series on the kindle than in my backpack.
Paid Amazon product placement over: time to get to the actual books I've been reading. First, the non-fiction.
Highly recommended: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. This book tells the stories of ultra-marathoners and a lost tribe of super-duper long distance running Indians in Mexico, but at the same time, it turns conventional running wisdom on its head. McDougall argues convincingly that the solution to our nagging running injuries is a return to barefoot (or near-barefoot) running, rather than more expensive orthopedics. His modern-day studies and examples (Roger Bannister ran the 4-minute mile training with not much more than a piece of rubber between his feet and the track) combine well with a telling of our evolutionary history as marathon-running predators.
Recommended: Those Guys Have All the Fun by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. An oral history of ESPN? Aw yeah. For someone who loves ESPN, this interesting history of ESPN was quite entertaining. The beginning of the book is great, and the middle section is pretty good, but the end of the book starts flagging when it transitions from the story of a growing business to an account of pretty much every controversial thing that happened at ESPN over the last ten years. Hearing about every time an ESPN anchor said something he had to apologize for wasn't quite as entertaining as the rest.
annnnnd now: FICTION.
Highly recommended: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. AWESOME book. It's a slightly fantastical tale about a dude and his lost cat, his love life, and the Manchurian War. The whole movement of the story is good, but a few individual scenes (the Lieutenant's Manchukuo stories and the dream sequences) really push this one over the top. This book reminds me a lot of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, another of my favorite authors, with its own style of magical realism.
Highly recommended if you have loads of free time to kill: the Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin (now a major HBO TV program!!!!). The series is technically called "a Song of Fire and Ice," but now that the HBO series has started, everyone will know it as Game of Thrones. Plus Game of Thrones is a much cooler title to begin with. The first three books are awesome: fast-paced, war, incest, etc. etc. Big things happen to compelling characters. Things stall in the fourth book when the focus shifts to two boring things: court intrigue and running around in the countryside away from or with bandits. However, the fourth and fifth books are still good, just not as mind-blowingly awesome as the previous ones. I have high hopes for the rest of the series.
I read some other books, but those are the ones that made the final cut of greatness. One final note: in an effort to make myself blog/write more, I will be doing one blog post each of the next four days. Even if it's just a picture of me sticking my tongue out at you, I will have four more posts.
Just found your blog thanks to fb newsfeed. You gotta read The Hunger Games if you haven't already. The books are super easy reads, about a 7th grade level, but they're pretty interesting and suspenseful. Have fun with your cucumbers in Belgium.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree with above, highly recommend all Hunger Games books
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