Book Thread number ?

[SJHovey]

Re: Book Thread number ?

Smart. Neat idea.

It's a crazy business.

I went with him once to the Planned Parenthood booksale in Des Moines, Iowa. This is apparently a big one for those in this business. Held at the fairgrounds in one of the large pavillions.

We arrived at noon, so we could stand in line until 5 p.m., when the doors opened. A little fact he omitted when he extended the invite.

At 5 p.m. I thought I had found myself in front of a WalMart on Black Friday. The crush of these people as they pushed by to get to the row upon row of tables was crazy. All these people started systematically, and very quickly, going through every single book. They instantly knew which ones were worth little more than the 25 cents asked by Planned Parenthood, and which ones they would sell online next week for $100. To my untrained eye, there was no difference.

I eventually just went into the balcony of the building to watch the spectacle of it all. If I was going to get stampeded in an animal barn at the Iowa State Fair, I preferred it be by some horses as opposed to a pack of bearded used book store owners.

 

[MattS]

Re: Book Thread number ?

It's a crazy business.

I went with him once to the Planned Parenthood booksale in Des Moines, Iowa. This is apparently a big one for those in this business. Held at the fairgrounds in one of the large pavillions.

We arrived at noon, so we could stand in line until 5 p.m., when the doors opened. A little fact he omitted when he extended the invite.

At 5 p.m. I thought I had found myself in front of a WalMart on Black Friday. The crush of these people as they pushed by to get to the row upon row of tables was crazy. All these people started systematically, and very quickly, going through every single book. They instantly knew which ones were worth little more than the 25 cents asked by Planned Parenthood, and which ones they would sell online next week for $100. To my untrained eye, there was no difference.

I eventually just went into the balcony of the building to watch the spectacle of it all. If I was going to get stampeded in an animal barn at the Iowa State Fair, I preferred it be by some horses as opposed to a pack of bearded used book store owners.

In my area most of the libraries who hold used booksales, have had issues with people who come in and act much like what you describe (on a smaller scale) to just buy books to resale. It's pretty frowned upon and steps are take to prevent that from happening.

 

[leswp1]

Re: Book Thread number ?

Find out if your local library (or a Friends of the Library group) has a booksale and donate them. Much easier, it's helps a non-profit, and you can write the donations off on your taxes.

Lil les is trying to make some cash as there are no jobs to be had. So far he has found about 10$ of books out of 100 or so books.
Normally we donate to the library.

 

[jen]

Re: Book Thread number ?

Finished <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Sorcerers-Apprentices-Kitchen-elBulli/dp/1439175551/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt">The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adrià's el Bulli</a>. Really enjoyed it - and a pretty quick read. Some interesting insight into working there.

 

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Book Thread number ?

An amusing video, referencing the "GRRM is not your *****" mantra. (slightly NSFW audio for using that word)

 

[erin]

Re: Book Thread number ?

Since my last posting...

Finished:
The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life by Melisser Elliott.

Muskegon Lumberjacks-The Life of a Hockey Puck! by Jay Vandevoorde <- A children's book that UNH's Casey Thrush was a part of... learned of this at the Frozen Four.

The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm

The Book of Liz by Amy Sedaris, David Sedaris <- A play.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

The Shack by Wm. Paul Young

Currently reading: 1984, George Orwell. Somehow I've never read this before, which is ridiculous.

 

[aygwm2]

Re: Book Thread number ?

Saw the book thread, so I thought I'd post this here from a post I made in the "Detroit" bankrupt thread.

I've read several books about Detroit of late:

Mark Binelli's Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis
A look at current Detroit from the streets, from those stuck there, to those trying to make a change, with some history thrown in. Binelli grew up outside of Detroit, but his father ran a business in the city. Binelli returns to Detroit (lives in the city) in '09 untiil '12 to write the book.

John Gallagher's Reimagining Detroit: Opportunities for Redefining an American City
An academic look at Detroit's problems and ways to turn things around, with examples from other cities.

Charlie LeDuff's Detroit: An American Autopsy
Similar to Binelli's book, but a little more raw. LeDuff, like Binelli, grew up just outside of Detroit (his mother ran a flower shop in the city when he grew up) but returns to Detroit, working for the Detroit News after a stint with The New York Times. He is mostly fearless and tries to uncover as much of the corruption, vice and inequality as one person is capable of.

And, although not specifically about Detroit, Greg Grandin's Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City
A fascinating and disturbing look at Ford Motor Company trying to establish a boomtown rubber plantation in the middle of the Amazon in the late 1920s and 1930s.

These are all very good reads for any of you interested.

Currently reading Werner Herzog's Conquest of the Useless: Reflections From the Making of Fitzcarraldo. Very interesting journal about an excellent film.

 

[JuveGG24]

Re: Book Thread number ?

In my area most of the libraries who hold used booksales, have had issues with people who come in and act much like what you describe (on a smaller scale) to just buy books to resale. It's pretty frowned upon and steps are take to prevent that from happening.

There's a giant sale in San Francisco every year for the library. The first time we went there were people with phones hooked up to small scanners strapped to their finger. They scanned every book, and threw profitable ones in a cart.

The sale goes on for a week, and the final Sunday is $1 day. We usually go then and grab anything moderately interesting. Might be why our last move was such a pain.

 

[Probert]

Re: Book Thread number ?

My recent reads

A Chain of Thunder by Jeff Shaara This second novel from Shaara about the Civil War in the West tells the story of the siege of Vicksburg. It tells of the several battles outside the town and then the tale of the siege. Told from various points of view, civilians, union and confederate soldiers and union and confederate officers it takes a unique look inside the details of the siege; Pemberton’s frustrations with Confederate theatre commander Joe Johnston for his failure to send aid and leaving his men to starve, Grant’s problems with the political General Mclerndand. A good read.

Without Fail by Lee Child The Reacher book by Child finds him recruited by one of his brother Joe’s former Secret Service colleagues who turns out to be his former girlfriend, hires him to find holes in the Vice President elects security. After finding several holes in the security Reacher and one of his ex-army friends are brought in that there have been credible threats on his life. Reacher and co try to figure out who is behind this before the politician ends up dead. Good read though parts of the plot are a bit unbelievable like some of Child’s books.

Persuader by Lee Child This Reacher book by Child finds Reacher undercover trying to find out if a DEA agent is safe after disappearing while undercover. He has a secret motive in mind since one of the outlaws he is after is a man he thought was dead from his MP days, a man who killed several of his subordinates. Good undercover cop storyline.

Tour de France 100 by Peter Cossins, This large coffee table book outlines the 100 year history of the Tour De France. A brief introduction goes over how the race started and the huge number of scandal, hint Lance Armstrong was not the first. They then have 2 pages each on what they consider the 100 greatest stages in the 100 year history. The final part has the details; jersey winners brief overview of all 100 tours.

Angels Flight by Michael Connelly When a high profile attorney who specialized in suing the LA PD is found dead, harry Bosch is called in to led the team to investigate the murder. As Harry and his team look at the large number of suspects including many fellow officers the city teeters on the brink of a riot. Can they arrest the murderer and quell the tension or will their actions make LA erupt in flames. Good novel with the typical political infighting and cowboy antics of Bosch.

A Darkness more than Night by Michael Connelly This Bosch novel finds Harry sitting in a courtroom on a high profile murder of a Hollywood producer. Ex FBI profiler Terry McCaleb is brought in to consult on a weird murder by the Sheriff’s department. As he investigates he finds a serious of weird symbols connecting the murder to Harry’s namesake the artist Hironymous Bosch and that Harry believes the murder victim got away with murder. Is Harry the murderer or is he being set up by someone who he put in prison. Good book ties in several storylines from previous Bosch novels.

John Jay Founding Father by Walter Stahr This book tells the tale of a forgotten founding father John Jay. Architect of the New York Constitution, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, signatory of the treaty that ended the Revolutionary War and the Jay treaty, forgotten by many due to the destruction of many of his personal papers at his request this helps tell his story. Jay was not a warrior his contribution to the country was as President of the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War, ambassador to Spain and one of the signatories of the treaty that ended the war along with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Coming back to the newly independent United States he served as head of the State Department and helped write the Federalist Papers and get the Constitution ratified. George Washington appointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court where in addition to being head he rode circuit, the precursor to today’s Federal Circuit Court. He helped negotiate the Jay Peace treaty with England that help further split the factions into political parties. Elected Governor of New York he served two terms before retiring. An excellent biography.

Private Games by James Patterson This Private novel tells the tale of a madman named Cronus and his Furies who are wreaking havoc on the Olympic Games in London killing all those who they believe have besmirched the spirit of the games. Peter Knight private detective teams with Jack Morgan Privates founder to try and find them before the games are ruined, ok read.

City of Bones by Michael Connelly This Harry Bosch book starts with harry being called out on New Year’s Day to investigate a set of bones found on a hillside. After investigating they find out that they have been buried there for around 20 years making it an ultimate cold case. When their lead suspect commits suicide they wonder if they will ever be able to take this one off the board. Good book from Connelly not as much LAPD politics as some of his previous books.

Deep Black: Dark Zone by Stephen Coonts, Jim DeFelice This is the Third Deep Black book by Coonts and finds the team trying to prevent several catastrophe’s in France. It starts in London when they prevent a mugging and the contact they are trying to meet is murdered and then continues on the other side of the English Channel when they discover a bunch of Muslim extremists are going to attack the Eiffel Tower. Ok read.

Zero Hour by Clive Cussler, Graham Brown This Kurt Austin adventure finds Kurt in Australia on “vacation” after stopping an attack near the Sydney Opera House he is drawn into helping the Australian government stop an imminent terrorist attack on their soil. Kurt and Joe must go with an Australian scientist to try and stop her mentor from unleashing his vengeance on the world. Ok read.

Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Utopia Experiment by Kyle Mills This covert one book finds John Smith involved in evaluating the newest US military hardware a computer system hardwired to the soldiers brain. Teaming with Randi Russell who believes that this is too good to be true Smith finds out some disturbing news about the merge, can they stop it before it is too late.

12th of Never by James Patterson This Women’s Murder Club book starts with Lindsey Boxer going into labor and having her baby. She then is preoccupied most of the book with the babies health problems. Yuki has a big case she is trying and Claire is suspended when the body of a murdered NFL star’s girlfriend disappears from the morgue. When Lindsey returns she is placed on a case where a man seeing visions of murders which eerily come true and a serial killer from her past says he will lead them to the bodies if Lindsey is involved. In typical Patterson fashion these cases are all wrapped up in a book you can read in a day.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Book Thread number ?

How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In - Jim Collins

An interesting op-ed/analysis of the decline of companies like Ames, HP, IBM, Bank of America (80s/pre-buyout), Circuit City, and how some of them recovered, while others died.

 

[MattS]

Re: Book Thread number ?

A bunch of reads since I last posted:

Watership Down by Richard Adams

The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry - A typical spy thriller. Good read.

Kraken by China Mieville - Horrible book. Don't wast your time.

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card - A decent fantasy novel set in current times about a young gate (portal) maker.

The Whole Truth by David Baldacci - A pretty poor book about an agent who in typical fashion tried to save the world. One of Baldacci's worst.

The Informationist by Taylor Stevens - A unique read about a woman who uses her gifts to gather and decipher information and the adventures it takes her on. Set in Africa which in unusual.

Adrenaline by Jeff Abbott - About a CIA agent whose wife is turned and his efforts to clear his own name. Good book.

Private London by James Patterson - About the adventure of a private investigator. Solid read.

Deliver Us From Evil by David Baldacci - Second book (The Whole Truth was first book in series) in the Shaw series. Decent read. Another save the world type spy thriller.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson - About the 1896 Worlds Fair in Chicago and the "first" recorded serial killer in the United States. I found the building of the Worlds Fair portions to be tedious and boring. I did enjoy the portions about the serial killer. I guess that says something about me!

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer - Fantasy novel set in modern times about a boy genius and his kidnapping of a fairy. Light summer read and quick. Pretty good.

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen - Excellent read (although a bit predictable) about a police officer in Denmark who investigates cold cases. (book is translated from Danish and that is where the author is from so I found the Danish culture very interesting)

Gideon's Sword by Douglas Preston and Lee Childs - Pretty good read in the typical Preston and Childs mold.

 

[jen]

Re: Book Thread number ?

Finished The Girl Who Played with Fire - excellent. I couldn't wait to finish it. Liked it better than the first one.

Also read Speaking from Among the Bones (Flavia de Luce #5) - a lot like the other ones. Entertaining read, but the line at the end was a shocker. The next one better come out soon and explain it.

Up next:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/52-Loaves-Relentless-Pursuit-Meaning/dp/B00509CSHO">52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust</a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuation/dp/1592402038/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376487851&sr=1-1&keywords=eats+shoots+leaves">Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation</a>

 

[The Rube]

Re: Book Thread number ?

Finished The Girl Who Played with Fire - excellent. I couldn't wait to finish it. Liked it better than the first one.

Also read Speaking from Among the Bones (Flavia de Luce #5) - a lot like the other ones. Entertaining read, but the line at the end was a shocker. The next one better come out soon and explain it.

Up next:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/52-Loaves-Relentless-Pursuit-Meaning/dp/B00509CSHO">52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust</a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuation/dp/1592402038/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376487851&sr=1-1&keywords=eats+shoots+leaves">Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation</a>

I burned through the trilogy (to see the differences between the books and the movies) in about 2 weeks or so. Loved both "versions" of the story. The books gave backgrounds the movies usually didn't have time for/couldn't really dissect.

Haven't read much lately besides the books I mentioned earlier in the thread (American Biker which cause me to get the documentary on Netflix, both worth it; the poker books which I loved).

I am going to get "Hagakure: The Book Of The Samurai" which is about a way/code of life written by a samurai back in the day. I found out about it while watching a movie called "Ghost Dog" (starring Forrest Whitaker as a hitman who lives by the teachings of the book). Other than that, just waiting to find other books to add to the list for the next big buy from Amazon.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Book Thread number ?

Bought "Hagekure" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagakure tonight. Anxious to read it. Sounds awesome. Noted it in a movie ("Ghost Dog") that I also bought.

 

[jen]

Re: Book Thread number ?

Finished <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuation/dp/1592402038/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376487851&sr=1-1&keywords=eats+shoots+leaves">Eats, Shoots and Leaves: A Zero Tolerance Guide to Punctuation</a> and it was excellent. Perfect for fellow apostrophe sticklers; a really funny book.

I burned through the trilogy (to see the differences between the books and the movies) in about 2 weeks or so. Loved both "versions" of the story. The books gave backgrounds the movies usually didn't have time for/couldn't really dissect.

you probably said this in an old post, but which set of movies do you recommend seeing first? which were more detailed?

 

[The Rube]

Re: Book Thread number ?

Finished <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuation/dp/1592402038/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376487851&sr=1-1&keywords=eats+shoots+leaves">Eats, Shoots and Leaves: A Zero Tolerance Guide to Punctuation</a> and it was excellent. Perfect for fellow apostrophe sticklers; a really funny book.



you probably said this in an old post, but which set of movies do you recommend seeing first? which were more detailed?

The Swedish extended editions were the most detailed, I'd go with those.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Book Thread number ?

you probably said this in an old post, but which set of movies do you recommend seeing first? which were more detailed?

Well, the American version only has Dragon Tattoo so far as a movie. While the Swedish version has all three made into movies. The American version is more true to the book, and in my opinion, much better than the Swedish version, but you only get the one movie. For the Swedish movies, I was disappointed in the Dragon Tattoo, didn't think it was that good, but the second 2 were not bad. Overall, if you want to watch the trilogy, then you have to go with the Swedish movies, but if you're ok with just the Dragon Tattoo, and waiting for the possible chance (don't know how likely it is) that they make the next 2, I'll say that the American version is better.

 

[owslachief]

Re: Book Thread number ?

I'm being dragged along mercilessly from museum to classical art piece to historic bridge to classical art piece to hotel room ... pausing only long enough for Dr. Langdon to bring up fond memories at each stop, all while being hounded, shot at, spied on, detained, arrested, nearly arrested etc. in the (so far) great murky mess that is Dan Brown's Inferno. It's the destination, not the journey.

Also I got to within 20 pages of the end of "the curious incident with the dog at nighttime" before realizing "I've read this before!"

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Book Thread number ?

I'm being dragged along mercilessly from museum to classical art piece to historic bridge to classical art piece to hotel room ... pausing only long enough for Dr. Langdon to bring up fond memories at each stop, all while being hounded, shot at, spied on, detained, arrested, nearly arrested etc. in the (so far) great murky mess that is Dan Brown's Inferno. It's the destination, not the journey.

I haven't read Inferno yet, but if it's anything like The Lost Symbol then I think Brown has gone the way of Grisham - he's aware of the formula and the cliches he's developed, so he's making his novels increasingly campy to compensate. There were several parts of The Lost Symbol where I burst out laughing. We just need Langdon to lose his marbles and mutate into his evil twin in the next installment, then wake up in his Cambridge apartment at the end and realize that every Langdon novel going back to Angels & Demons was all a dream, and Brown will have finally taken it as far as he can go.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Book Thread number ?

I also was not impressed with The Lost Symbol, it was OK, but it wasn't something that really impressed me. Which is why I haven't had any intention of buying Inferno. Maybe I'll read it when I run out of every god**** John Sandford book ever written that are currently on my kindle because my dad decided to go on a buying spree on my account.

On a similar note, I've been read John Sandford books lately. I've read all of the spinoff books (Virgil Flowers), and now I'm starting on the original Prey books (Lucas Davenport), currently on the second one in the series. Overall they are pretty entertaining for crime/mystery type books. Keeps me entertained, since I've apparently already purchased them.