Last three months - 12 books & some comics...
Mr. America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet by Mark Adams. Pretty fascinating look at one of the first health and fitness gurus in American history.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Mixed feelings on this one. Which goes to show, as normal, I'm not wired as most everyone on the planet who has read and loved this book. I found it alternating between very powerful and evocative transposed with repetitive and meandering. Also, I don't think I handle father/son stuff particularly well these days.
Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way [Popular Culture and Philosophy Series] by Various. Like any collection of essays, hit and miss. Fun geek reading, though.
A Feast Unknown by Jose Philip Farmer. A classic homage/satire to the pulp novels of the 20th century, featuring facsimile renditions of Tarzan and Doc Savage. Filled with violence, intrigue and just a touch of the crazy.
THE EYE OF REVELATION: The Ancient Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation by Peter Kelder (Author), J. W. Watt (Editor.) Part real life Shangri La tale, part exercise routine. Bonus points for not only reprinting the classic original text, but delving into the possible real life history behind it.
Still Life with Crows (Pendergast, Book 4) by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. The Pendergast novels are always diverting, fun reads. Featuring a psuedo-Sherlock Holmes in Agent Pendergast, good thriller/mystery. More character than plot, but worth reading during an afternoon at the pool or the beach. If you like your beach reading to feature gruesome murders, that is.
Confession of a Buddhist Atheist by Stephen Batchelor. Awesome account of one man's travel through the world of Buddhism and the meaning of it all. Excerpts below. Highly recommended if you've the slightest inclination to this kind of thing.
The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower by Robert Baer. Baer is former CIA, the guy who served as the inspiration for the George Clooney character in Syriana. Here he wades through the polemics, propaganda and misunderstandings of Iran to present a dispassionate and well rounded set of ideas for the US, and the world, to embrace in dealing with Iran. Really good book. Excerpts below.
God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette. A hilarious, insightful, fun and smart book by the more verbose half of the Penn & Teller team. Enjoyed it immensely, laughed a bunch, while at the same time appreciating its thought provoking qualities.
Last Words: A Memoir by George Carlin and Tony Hendra. George Carlin, for me, from the mid-80s until his death a few years ago, was hands-down one of the best stand up comedians who ever plied his craft. His ideas, verbal dexterity, wizardry of concepts, all couched in anti-authority, no-bullshit, 'let me make you think about things in ways you never have'... just genius. Great book. Excerpts below.
Tapped Out: Rear Naked Chokes, the Octagon, and the Last Emperor: An Odyssey in Mixed Martial Arts by Matthew Polly. I read Polly's book
American Shaolin a few years ago and dug it. Funny, interesting, well crafted writing. When I found out he'd be writing a book about his adventures in MMA, training for a bout with the Couture camp out in Vegas, as an out of shape/approaching 40 year old, I knew I'd pick it up. Again, another great book for Polly. Well written, funny, engaging, entertaining. Liked it a lot.
Comics
Secret Six: The Darkest House by Gail Simone and J. Calafiore. The final volume of DC Comics best anti-heroes. One of my favorite comic series of the last decade.
Warren Ellis' Strange Killings: Necromancer. The continuing adventures of the deadliest combat magician in the SAS.
SVK - Classic Warren Ellis writing with a clever hook. Worth checking out.
"SVK is a collaboration between writer Warren Ellis, artist Matt "D'Israeli" Brooker and London-based design studio BERG. An experimental publication, SVK comprises the SVK object and a comic book. Comics break the rules of storytelling, invent new ones, and break them again – more often than almost any other medium. This graphic novella is about looking – an investigation into perception, storytelling and optical experimentation that inherits some of the curiosities behind the previous work of BERG...First and foremost SVK is a modern detective story, one that Ellis describes as “Franz Kafka’s Bourne Identity”. It’s a story about cities, technology and surveillance, mixed with human themes of the power, corruption and lies that lurk in the data-smog of our near-future."
Pull quotes & excerpts from "The Devil We Know," "Last Words" & "Confession of a Buddhist Atheist" after the
"Read More" break/jump below. Worth reading. If only for all the typing I did.
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