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| From 2009-11-29 |
Got Fight?: The 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face Combat by Forrest Griffin and Erich Krauss. Pretty funny. Damn entertaining.
"Wondering why you should purchase this book when there are other titles on the shelves written by much higher-caliber fighters? Well, Forrest Griffin is not as good-looking as those guys. He's not as smart as them. He's also not as athletically endowed. And let's face it, neither are you. Those other fighters are pretty much better than you in every way. But you can actually aspire to be as good as Forrest one day. Why? Because he is nothing special, just like you.
Forrest is not a martial artist. He's a fighter, and this book was written for his kin. If you're a hillbilly like Forrest and you get off on having your face rearranged, Got Fight? is for you. This is a manifesto more strategic than Sun Tzu's The Art of War, more philosophical than Bruce Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do, more powerful than a well-lubricated locomotive."
Under the Bar: Twelve Lessons of Life from the World of Powerlifting and the sequel Raising the Bar, both by David Tate. Life lessons from the gym. Great stuff.
Brilliant birthday gifts from my better half, the first two hardcover books of Greg Rucka's and Ed Brubaker's outstanding Gotham Central series - In the Line of Duty and Jokers and Madmen. Often described as "Law and Order" in Gotham City. That much is true, as far as it goes, except vastly superior to any TV show. Great procedural and well drawn characters. My wife is teh awesome.
Other great comic book reading - Suicide Squad: From the Ashes by John Ostrander and Javier Pina, Secret Six: Unhinged by Gail Simone and Nicola Scott, The Question: Riddles by Dennis O'Neil and Denys Cowan, Agents of Atlas: Dark Reign by Jeff Parker, Booster Gold: Reality Lost by Chuck Dixon and Dan Jurgens - all excellent comic collections.
Multiple volumes of Sandman Mystery Theatre - Dr Death & Night of the Butcher, The Hourman & The Python, The Mist & The Phantom of the Fair, The Vamp - all extremely well crafted noir comic book goodness.
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall. I'm not a runner, by any stretch of the imagination, but this was a great book. Captivating and well written in that "can't put it down/stayed up way too late reading it."
Read the next 5 novels in the Spenser series - Stardust, Playmates, Crimson Joy, Taming a Sea-Horse, Pale Kings and Princes. All excellent. It's probably my favorite series of novels going these days, despite the fact that chronologically I'm only into the late 1980s with the books. Great characterizations, witty dialogue, tight plotting.
Farthing by Jo Walton. Alternative history/murder mystery. It was okay, but didn't blow me away.
A Wild Sheep Chase (羊をめぐる冒険) by Haruki Murakami. I am clearly too dumb to understand this book. Absurd - in that philosophical sense - but I guess I prefer my absurdity of the Camus variety. Finished it, but didn't really get into it.
Hypnotizing Maria by Richard Bach. I'll probably never like one of Bach's books as much as I dug Illusions - just because of the time and headspace I was in when I read it, though the Ferret Chronicles were entertaining - but this was an well written little novel. Worth reading and a good reminder.
Huna: Ancient Hawaiian Secrets for Modern Living by Serge Kahili King. Not bad, but I still like Fundamentals of Hawaiian Mysticism as the go to Huna book.
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein. Another book that kept me up way later than I wanted, unable to put it down. Great book. Here's Adelstein interviewed on the Daily Show. [The book is actually way better than the interview.]
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Jake Adelstein | ||||
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The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Brown takes a lot of flack for his writing, and yeah, he dumbs down some of the esoteric stuff he touches on, but the dude writes a good story, imho. He hooked me until the end. My one complaint really about The Lost Symbol is I thought the ending itself was a bit of a letdown. Still, not a bad read.
My Dead Body: A Novel by Charlie Huston - vampire noir. Feels like the last Joe Pitt tale. If so, a great sendoff. Good read.
Also re-read Critical Space [not pictured] as I do every so often. Great airplane reading from summer vacation. My favorite of Rucka's Atticus Kokiak novels. Just awesome.
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