SlipLive

what was it?

mine is still Trinity by Leon Uris.

i should get another one by him.

Beneath the Underdog - Charles Mingus' AutoBio

Ishmael, beleive it or not. I'm glad I finally know what the hell everyone is always referencing.

Ishmael was really strange. I'm not sure I liked it, really.

My pick: Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer.

Just picked up at the store:

Exodus - Leon Uris
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
To A God Unkown - John Steinbeck

Into the Wild is definitely a great book. I haven't read anything else by Krakauer.

So Mingus is a good writer?

i've been reading T.C Boyle's stuff lately. Excellent, if not a little doomsy/doomsish! Drop City is the first one I read, about a commune in north cali that moves to alaska. so so good. i couldn't put it down. right now the one i'm about to finish is Tortilla Soup i think. also, the Inner Circle is a fictional tale set around dr kinsey the sex researcher. he has a few great short story collections out as well.

all of his books have the theme of showing very clearly both sides of every situation- no sugar-coating. real honest personal consequences, feelings, perspective, etc.

a couple of others:

music of chance by paul auster

bel canto by ann patchett


happy reading!

Recently finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

I liked Water for Elephants -fiction

Freakonmics - non-fiction

worst book- The Histories by Herodatus

i think crime and punishment. for class. as far as stuff not for class goes...probably sometimes a great notion by Ken Kesey

my brother, marvin

marvin gaye bio written by his brother

i finished vonnegut's "slaughterhouse five" a few weeks back.

loved it.

I'm reading iWoz. I'm just so intrigued at the life of Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. He's a simple guy and most people don't realize that he invented the personal computer.

I wouldn't call the book itself great, but his story is great.

Emergence, by Steven Johnson.

It's a great book covering emergent behavior in many different systems, from ant colonies and slime molds, to modern cityscapes. If you've never heard of emergent behavior, it's basically the idea that hundreds of agents with simple behaviors interacting (like, say, ants) can produce seemingly complex and intelligent systems without a central control system. This book does a good job of not only covering the subject matter, but relating it to everyday things in life.

I'm also about halfway through another Steven Johnson book on Neuroscience, which is a little dry but still very interesting.

Ishmael is one of my favorite books ever.

Just read Steinbeck's Cannery Row and I'm working on Killing Hope by William Blum. He's good stuff.

"If I were the president, I could stop terrorist attacks against the United States in a few days. Permanently. I would first apologize -- very publicly and very sincerely -- to all the widows and the orphans, the impoverished and the tortured, and all the many millions of other victims of American imperialism. I would then announce that America’s global interventions -- including the awful bombings -- have come to an end. And I would inform Israel that it is no longer the 51st state of the union but -– oddly enough -– a foreign country. I would then reduce the military budget by at least 90% and use the savings to pay reparations to the victims and repair the damage from the many American bombings and invasions. There would be more than enough money. Do you know what one year of the US military budget is equal to? One year. It’s equal to more than $20,000 per hour for every hour since Jesus Christ was born.

That’s what I’d do on my first three days in the White House. On the fourth day, I’d be assassinated."
-William Blum

this is my real user name