Oh, more books for you if you’re bored. I’m bored.
Glimpses of Eternity: Sharing a Loved One’s Passage From This Life to the Next
by Raymond Moody, MD
The author is a doctor so that gives him some credibility. So many people have reported that they see things when they watch someone die, a light, a mist, a vision of a deceased love one, a tunnel. This book tells their stories.
It’s a fascinating book that gives me hope about an afterlife. All of these visions were positive, healing experiences, a gentle drop into death.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)
by Agatha Christie
I remember loving this book as a kid and it holds up! Mostly. I remember gasping at who the killer was when Agatha revealed it back in the day. I didn’t gasp this time, but the second reading (knowing the killer’s identity) shows me how clever she is.
And then there were none
by Agatha Christie
I read this in one sitting. This was another Agatha book I remember loving as a kid. Fantastic premise, good execution. If you like mysteries, I’ll bet you can’t guess the killer.
Solutions and other problems
by Allie Bosch
I love this author. She wrote a great Internet comic. This is her second book. It’s a graphic novel. Cute. Funny. I love it.
The main conflicts in life are:
–Food
–Power
–What to do about the unavoidable realization that nothing is fair or means anything
I don’t know what to do about these. I just wanted to tell you.
Death Notice: A Novel
by Zhou Haohui
This is a popular book in China, but I don’t quite understand why. On the plus side, I didn’t guess the murderer until it was revealed and the premise was interesting enough, I suppose. The police are trying to find a killer who gives out a notice of the person he is going to kill, the crime the person committed to deserve death, and the date he’s going to murder them.
I don’t know why. It didn’t grab me. I kept putting it down to read other things. Maybe things got lost in translation.
East of Eden
by John Steinbeck
I so wanted to fall into this book because a friend recommended it, but I hated it. I gave it 151 pages before I gave up on it. And then I stopped reading altogether for a couple of weeks because I kept thinking I should read this terrible book some more. The author wants you to know the history of every single family member of every single person that ever existed. Gah. I still don’t think I ever made it to the main story.
The only woman in the room, a novel
by Marie Benedict
Novel about a real woman who really existed. Her name is Heddy Lamar. She was the wife of an arms dealer in Austria before World War II. She flees to Hollywood and becomes an actress and also invents some radar thing for submarines. Interesting. She’s apparently a genius.
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know
by Malcom Gladwell
I’ve read a few of this author’s books. This one is okay. He explains that we can’t really know what other people are thinking or feeling. He goes through some high profile cases and explains the stories based on where each person is coming from. Kind of interesting.
Drinking puts you at the mercy of your environment. It crowds out everything except the most immediate experiences.
Yeah, another reason not to drink. You are even worse at reading other people when you’re drunk.
When you said “good execution”, I pictured a sharp guillotine before thinking you mean the book was well-written.
You read as much as I watch YouTube. Reading is better.
Sometimes I read the internet while listening to music on youtube.
I’m definitely going to read “The Only Woman in the Room”, in fact I just reserved a copy from our local library system. As electrical engineering students we learned about Hedy Lamarr and her frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum transmission technique. I remember the professor talking about “pulling the signal out of the mud” and how it was nearly impossible to jam or intercept.
Qualcomm revived her technique to use in CDMA cellular systems as well as for WiFi and BlueTooth. They discuss it here:
https://www.qualcomm.com/research/stories/world-changing-technology
Lamarr, along with Ava Lovelace and Grace Hopper, make up three of the biggest names of women in electronics and computers.
Thanks for the recommendation, I look forward to reading it.
-Bob
Maybe you’ll understand the detailed science she explains in the book
Your starting comment on death and that it is peaceful reminded me of the Charlie Brown quote of “Some day, we will all die, Snoopy.
True, but on all the other days, we will not.” It’s good to know about the end/beginning? Anyway, dunno why, it just popped into my head after I read that. There was a movie 21 grams with Sean Penn I think that was quite good, but pretty sad around a similar concept as your book’s topic.
On books to read, considering you read Malcolm Gladwell, have you read any James Altucher? I’m about to start a new book of his Skip the Line that is supposed to be good on goals.
I also tried reading a Neal Stephenson book, Snow Crash, that was recommended by a friend. I’m finding the writing makes my brain hurt. It’s weird because I like sci-fi books. Have you read any of his stuff? if not, look at this excerpt from Snow Crash: “The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed sub-category. He’s got esprit up to here. Right now he is preparing to carry out his third mission of the night. His uniform is black as activated charcoal, filtering the very light out of the air. A bullet will bounce off its arachno-fiber weave like a wren hitting a patio door, but excess perspiration wafts through it like a breeze through a freshly napalmed forest. Where his body has bony extremities, the suit has sintered armorgel: feels like gritty jello, protects like a stack of telephone books.”
The whole book is like that. Maybe one day, lol.
I’m rushing to the defence of Neil Stephenson… snowcrash is pretty bad, but Reamde is quite good, and his books Cryptonomicon and Seveneves are not so bad. They are all a slow build however, so you can’t be too invested in a really fast paced story.
Are they long? You can do the slow build if it’s not too long. I usually only give 99 pages before I give up.
They are super duper long. About 1,000 pages each…
Eek!
Thanks for the recommendations! I’ve never read any of the authors you mentioned.
Hi ThriftyAnita, Always appreciate your book lists/reviews–for me, I’m coming to the conclusion that the older/classic-like books never fail (OK, East of Eden did–I agree), and the new stuff (Gladwell) is like they are ‘trying too hard’. My ‘mum’, a Brit, RIP, loved Agatha and read all of them–so it was great to see you enjoy her too. As a kid, I was mixed up: read all of the Tom Swift (google it) books and Edgar Alan Poe stories. Que esta bien.
I’m glad you didn’t like East of Eden either. Vindication.
Instead of reading and writing all these books, which seem like so much fluff and perennial empty searching , why not invest some time into reading Hegel’s philosophy, and then only two of his books, the Phenomenology of Spirit and The Science of Logic? An investment of six months to a year into the close reading of these two works will dispense with many years reading the ephemeral popular literature, and the proliferating field of self-help books that help no one. For example, Hegel will help you make sense of recent experience of the difference between the idea of the light blue table and the reality of it. Not advice or reproach, merely a question.
Everyone’s got an opinion
Aww, don’t be bored. Are you able to get the vaccine yet? Can you come out and play???
First dose was yesterday!
Like you, I was recommended East of Eden by a friend. Like you, I hated it. Like you, I stopped about one third through. Like you, I also previously stopped, restarted, then stopped reading it once and for all. A boring book! (And surprisingly overwrought for a vaunted author.)
Overwrought is a great word to describe it.
I don’t read a whole lot, but I like to pretend that John Steinbeck is my favorite author, so it is a little sad to hear that this book wasn’t very good.
Sorry to burst your lie. 😉
Hi!
I read a great book the other day!
Tao Te Ching
Check it out!
Thanks for the suggestion!
I recommend that you try another little known Steinbook book, Travels with Charley. He wrote this book very late in his life. It’s the story of his trip around the USA during the early 60s in a pickup truck with his beloved dog Charley. Since I’ve taken many car trips across the USA with my own dogs, I was eager to read this book, and the book didn’t disappoint me. Lots of Steinbeck philosophy in here.
Arghh – Steinbeck [sp]
I didn’t even notice it until you pointed it out!
I’ll give it a whirl.