Reads

I used to love to read. Then I stopped because I didn't have the time, I had kids, there was too much music to listen to and too much tv and movies to watch. And then there was working and writing and, well, life.
Then I got a Kindle.
And I started reading again. Not as much as I'd have liked, but at least I was reading again. Even if a lot of it was crap.

In no particular order.



I'm a politics junkie. And since I spent 225 hours working on the Obama Campaign it's natural that I would have read this the day it came out.

Takeaway: McCain really unleashed a demon on us, didn't he?



Makes sense that I would want to get more inside dirt on this election. And I bought it to read while on business in the reddest state in the union. Too bad that Plouffe writes like a 15 year old girl who's a little to in love with himself and what he does for a living. I never finished it. Seemed redundant after the mid-terms.
Takeaway: The President's advisor is a bore.



The history of my union til 1985, just before I joined. I'm pretty involved now so I have been referencing this book all year.
Exceptional. I had a brief email exchange with the author and discovered that my theories and his coincide for what is happening that he expected to happen.

Takeaway: Politics is cyclical. And logic matters little.


Bourdain's pomposity overpowers the book. Could've been food porn and gossip but it just becomes a meandering memoir.

Takeaway: Brunch is leftovers and Holladaise sauce will kill you.



The best Gladwell since Tipping Point. Redolent with insightful information. Gladwell lays out his premise (that it takes 10000 hours doing something to become proficient) and supports it page after page. All leading up to a final chapter on the KIPP education progam.
Takeaways: The Power Dynamic Index explains why some jobs really suck.




The history of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) described at the end of Outliers. Exceptional enough to make me want to get Zoe on the waiting list.

Takeaway: We need to send our kids to school year round. Summer Vacation is a boondoggle.




Like reading blog entries and news articles. The events are so fresh that it almost seemed like I had read it already. Breezy enough, though.

Takeaway: The networks don't give a shit about quality. They give producers X dollars and expect X return. Whatever they put in there is up to them. They didn't ask for it to be "good". Woah.



Gladwell's collection of articles from the New Yorker. Do you find the New Yorker dry and over written? Then you won't like this book. It's a time passer but not one I'd recommend.

Takeaway: Playwrights plagiarize.



The only fiction I read all year. Starts out really promising and then loses its way about 2/3 in. But, fun, otherwise.

Takeaway: Fiction disappoints.




You know those documentaries that you see on Netflix that look like they were put together over a weekend? Like the B movie of documentaries? This is the published version.

Takeaway: Well, I no longer trust my real estate agent.



Klosterman's entry into the regurgitated essay field. I love him, so he can almost do no wrong. It's no "sex, drugs and cocoa puffs", but so what. The essay on football is amazing. Got me watching again.

Takeaway: The NFL is a progressive organization with a socialist bent and baseball is a backwards thinking arch conservative pastime. Go figure.



The music industry doesn't foresee the mp3 and it's own imminent destruction.

Takeaway: What I've always known: The lack of the need to replace albums with the new vehicle and the lack of foresight to see this happening helped kill the music biz.



My version of Kitchen Confidential was corrupted so Amazon gave me a credit. I really just wanted to read this for the Adam Ant Persuasion article. Which was sublime. The rest was fun piffle that could have been a series of articles for Rolling Stone. I'd buy it for that feature.

Takeaway: David Bowie is an opportunistic poser and Chicago is still around.



I put this one on here to make myself look smart. But I'm only halfway done. It's 1000 pages. And it's realllllly slow. I put it down 3 months ago and haven't been able to get back to it.

Takeaway: Obama spent so much time reading this he lost track of what was actually going on with Health Care. That's the only explanation I can think of.


Okay. In looking at this list I really need to read less about music and politics. Maybe find some fiction that can capture my attention. And stay away from the entertainment biz.
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