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Like last year, I'm mentioning the 50 book challenge.
The idea is simple, read 50 books in the calendar year and keep a list
of them on your blog (or even offline if you don't have a public web
presence!)
Last year,
I did an appalling job of keeping track of the books I read, primarily
because I had a crazily busy year, what with a magazine to launch and
all... However, I did easily surpass the 50 book mark, pretty much
within 6 months. I kept reading at close to that rate for the rest of
the year but didn't get around to recording everything. I suspect that
will happen again this year but at least I'm beginning.
The year has gotten off to a strong start because I had my first
vacation in three years and I was able to lie on the beach and read for
a good chunk of it. And so January's list will probably be longer than
most months' although much of the reading was done over four days based
on the books I was given for Christmas and my birthday.
If you are keeping a list of books you're reading, leave a note with a link to it in the comments to this post.
Perhaps the strangest thing to come out of my book list from last year
is that I was contacted by a public library in New Jersey that wanted
to use extracts of my list for a brochure they are producing on the 50
book challenge.
For now, check out how I have started the year in books.
Although ripping James Joyce to shreds seems to be in vogue at the
moment, I still think Ulysses is a masterpiece and today's centenary of
the day Leopold Bloom wandered Dublin is worth celebrating.
The first time I tried to read Ulysses, I had trouble, I am not ashamed
to admit. But that was simply because it was literature so unlike
everything I had tackled before. I didn't make it all the way through.
Yet, when I tried again a year later, my reading ability has matured
sufficiently to find it quite easy going. Of course I still haven't
picked up all the references and some aspects of it are cloudy, but so
what? Any book that doesn't have some of those moments really isn't
challenging you enough.
Unfortunately, most of the commentary decrying Ulysses seems to come
from people who are proud in their inability to make it through the
book. And the very nature of the book means that it is not about the
summary of the story that is important - it is how the words are used
and the effects to which language can be put.
I often just dip into Ulysses for fun, having read it in sequence a
handful of times now, and almost always find a new phrase,
sentence or paragraph that really grabs me, often because of how it
relates to something that has happened to me. Bloom is supposed to be
"everyman" in some sense, and the book is always effective at providing
a way for a reader to connect with the text.
So to all those people who think the book is worthless just because
they can't handle that it is so different to the mindless pabulum that
is fed to us as literature so often - get over yourselves. Read the
damn thing with an open mind and you'll discover an amazing world.
Paul LaRocque's Concise Guide to Copy Editing
is a succinct useful introduction to the skills of copy editing. Filled
with practical examples and advice, the book focuses on newsroom copy
editing but the ideas can be easily applied to copy editing most forms
of writing. Definitely worth while as a reminder even for those
experienced copy editors.
Buy from Amazon | Full book list
Having been on so many flights recently, I've wanted something
lightweight to read so I picked up a fantasy novel by an author who I
liked when I read much fantasy a decade or so ago.
Talon of the Silver Hawk is the first in the Conclave of Shadows
series, currently in progress. It revisits the same world and some of
the same characters as previous of his books, although set much later
so the old familiars have aged considerably.
There's not much to say about these books, to be honest. The good ones
are engaging and fun, and sometimes make a bigger point about society.
Talon is fun, flows well and the most important part is that I want to
read the next in the series. That's good enough for me.
Buy from Amazon | Full book list
Reading a daily newspaper is terrifying experience. A constant barrage
of concerns assaults us as we skim from one story to the next, feeling
a general desire not only to know what is happening in the world, but
also what we might do to make life better for us, by whatever means
most relevant. Unfortunately, so much of what we read is exaggerated,
misleading, or flat-out wrong.
Errors of many types enter into media stories for many reasons, but
very rarely because of a flagrant bias of the journalist. The trouble
is, reporting is difficult. And daily news cycles in underfunded
newsrooms at papers where mission statements involve profits to
shareholders and nothing about news, only exacerbate the situation.
Journalists often don't have time to investigate a story sufficiently
deeply, and even when they do, they often don't have the appropriate
training to get to the bottom of some of the issues.
These problems are worst when the reporting involves the results of
studies, surveys and statistics. Every statistic can be used to tell a
multitude of stories. Every study has multiple aspects that can used as
the foundation of a story. Every survey hinges delicately on issues
such as precisely how the questions are worded, what order they are
asked, and the physical location of the survey. Without exploring all
of these types of issues, it is extremely difficult for a journalist to
present a fair and balanced view of any claim made in a press release
or executive summary of the latest surveys.
It Ain't Necessarily So explores many of these ideas, with the main
points illustrated by case studies from the print media in the US. The
tales told in the book are cautionary, revealing, inspiring and
sometimes scary. You'll come away from the book with a much more
skeptical view of the news, when it comes to the reporting of studies
and statistics.
There is no doubt that many journalists could benefit from reading this
book. One of its strengths is looking at the reporting of science and
social science stories, where the press release version of the story
often doesn't reflect the reality of the study particularly well.
Unfortunately, the science backgrounds of many journalists asked to
cover these stories are not strong and it is very easy to get lost in
the flow of information without a few guiding principles to help ask
the right questions. This book does a decent job of identifying what a
journalist should watch for.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the book is that it does its job of
creating a skeptical reader too well. By the end, you'll be doubting
every sentence in the book itself. Unfortunately, you find that the
book breaks many of its own rules about judicious, skeptical reporting.
Perhaps it is impossible to write a book of this length without some of
these errors. You could go into each case study in immensely more
detail and do a better job, but then be forced to cut down the breadth
of the text, which would be a shame. Some of the particular claims made
by the authors do not stand up to the scrutiny they recommend,
especially on some politically volatile issues, where there almost
seems to be a political bias lying behind the stance taken by the
authors. Perhaps it is not such a bias, and just a case of the authors
not sufficiently exploring the cases they discuss, one of the key
reasons for many errors in reporting. I won't go into a detailed
rebuttal of the book's errors, but note that you should be very
skeptical of the approach taken in the case study of global climate
change reporting.
Overall, the book is extremely useful and entertaining, but due to the
errors, journalists would be advised to do as the authors say, not as
they do.
Buy from Amazon | Full book list
OK, OK, so I'm putting a magazine in my book list but the total content
of this magazine is considerably more than many books - and is
definitely more thought-provoking. Skeptic
is a magazine that takes a critical look at topics that go
unsufficiently questioned in society. I have read issues of it before
but a couple of things stood out to me in this issue. There is a great
debunking of the urban legend that Einstein was learning disabled, a
useful guide to avoiding creationism/evolution conflicts in the
classroom, and lots of other interesting information and analysis. But
to the main event...
The cover story of this issue is titled "The Skinny on Fat" and is a
skeptical look at low-carbohydrate diets. I guess I was already very
skeptical of things like the Atkins diet because I have never seen any
convincing evidence that anything but the "first law of thermodynamics"
diet, as Bob Park puts it, will work. That diet is simple: put less energy into your body than you make it expend and you'll lose weight.
Patrick Johnson's article describes the physiological processes of food
consumption and compares the claims of low-carb proponents with the
scientific literature. In summary, there is no evidence that low-carb
diets work. However, they could lead to very serious health problems.
(As a doctor friend put it to me, "the only thing Atkins is good for is
turning you into a diabetic". That may be slightly overboard but
carbohydrate restriction does cause your body to have reactions very
similar to those of diabetes.)
Once curious aspect of this is that your heart and liver prefer to get
their energy from fat metabolism whereas your brain and red blood cells
work on glycolosis (which is primarily driven by carb intake). So
perhaps low-carb diets are the ultimate in self-sustaining hype - don't
eat carbs, prevent energy from getting to your brain, stop bothering to
analyze whether or not the diet is sensible or working...
This is an oversimplification. Your brain and red blood cells can get
energy another way. Glycolosis can be driven by an indirect mechanism
from fat metabolism. However, this only occurs in conjunction with
ketosis, a condition also seen in poorly treated diabetes (hence my
doctor friend's comment). Another side effect is a change in pH of the
blood which can become ketoacidosis, a potentially life-threatening
condition. Once again, the body is very resilient and there are
processes that kick in and use ketones (the chemicals generated in
excess during ketosis) as fuel. But do you really want to be operating
your body on throwback mechanisms that appear to have arisen
evolutionarily to deal with conditions where starvation is likely?
Just to add a little more gloom and doom, low-carb diets have been
shown to increase low-density lipoprotein - bad cholestrol. They also
increase the risks of having muscle contraction difficulties and
cardiac arrhythmia. It is also plausible that extended low-carb diets
could lead to osteoporosis because calcium, apparently used up in
neutralizing the acidic nature of blood due to ketosis, has to be
replaced from somewhere and the only likely source while on these diets
is the bone. (All of these claims are documented in the article with
citations to the scientific literature, unlike the claims in the
low-carb diet books sold to the public.)
Do I even need to mention that there is no real evidence that low-carb
diets actually make you lose weight? (Of course it will work for some
people, but there are plenty of anecdotes not mentioned by the low-carb
proponents about people gaining weight. Overall, there is no evidence
that low-carb diets are effective for losing weight, regardless of how
much they screw up your body in the process.)
When it comes down to it, the only diet that is guaranteed to work is
one in which you cut down your caloric intake and increase the rate at
which you burn calories, i.e. increased exercise.
(Now let's watch the low-carb proponents go apeshit and pretend they
have scientific evidence for the efficacy of low-carb diets, or at
least try to pretend they have evidence by telling us anecdotes.)
I've been doing a lot of heavy reading this year so when I was
wandering through the bookstore the other day, I looked into the
sections I haven't visited in a decade - science fiction and fantasy.
One of the books I noticed was something I read a very long time ago
but recalled enjoying so thought it would be a good brains-free read
for a change.
Magician: Apprentice
is the first of Raymond E. Feist's books and I enjoyed every minute of
it. I had forgotten how much fun it can be to completely escape reality
and immerse myself in another world.
The version I read was the re-release of 1992, which contains some
additions Feist had in the original manuscript but was considered too
long at the time. I can't recall my first reading of it back in the
eighties but nothing seemed annoyingly excessive in the "author's cut".
The only peculiarity, and this may be common to the original release,
is that Pug, ostensibly the main character, doesn't appear in the last
120 pages of the book. However, knowing that this is part of a trilogy,
I am sure he will re-appear soon in the next volume, which I am now
going to have to read.
And I think I'll enjoy it.
Buy from Amazon | Full book list
Exquisite Corpse was a journal founded and edited by Andrei Codrescu
that prides itself on publishing the sort of work never to be found in
an MFA program. The Corpse took potshots at the establishment,
attracting three never-quite-materializing threats of lawsuits. This is
the first of two volumes that reprint highlights of the Corpse
published between 1988 and 1998. (Earlier work was in another
collection.)
The contents range over a various types of poetry and essays, and
include many items that establishment journals wouldn't be caught
bankrupt publishing. Whether or not they work for you is personal, but
not many people should doubt that movements against the mainstream are
a good thing in literature.
If you want to see the latest incarnations of the Corpse, see its website now that the print version is no longer published.
Buy from Amazon | Full book list
A graphic novel available online through the BitPass micropayments
system. This 172 page book is available for a mere 99c and is an
intriguing, well-illustrated story. You can read the first 15 pages
free as a preview.
See it online | BitPass | Full book list
The Dimwit's Dictionary is a very handy resource for identifying the
useless or overused phrases in English. We barely give these phrases
conscious thought so this book is a way to recognize and then eliminate
the inessentials of language. The book also provides alternatives to
most ill-used words and phrases.
I was pleased to see my personal hobby-horse "wretched redundancy"
listed: "for free", which Fiske suggests should be replaced simply with
"free". I agree.
Buy from Amazon | Full book list | Related: Dictionary of Concise Writing
We could all use fewer words. Fiske's dictionary offers suggestions for
simplifying overused redundant phrases. A browse throught the volume
will surprise you with how many of those phrases you use regularly but
subconsciously. Worthwhile!
Buy from Amazon | Full book list | Related: Dimwit's Dictionary
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