Currently reading
Love, Lies, and Deception
Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand's Ideas Can End Big Government
Confessions of a Corporate Slut
Freestyle Community Drum Circles
The Bliss Balance - Create Success, Peace, and Happiness in Your Life
Ocean of Fear
The ukulele : A visual history
Excellent book about the history of this fun little instrument! Recommended for anyone with any interest at all in this instrument!
globalization: n. the irrational fear that someone in China will take your job
Easy to understand book about the effects of globalization on the world's economy. Certain jobs are not able to go to China, while others are and have already gone there and why! The authors talk about currency imbalances and how those effect world trade. Interesting!
Living Large: From SUVs to Double Ds---Why Going Bigger Isn't Going Better
I enjoyed this book about living large that covers all sorts of topics, from breast enlargements, mega-churches, large diamond engagement rings, SUV's, landfills and the Mall of America. Would recommend to anyone interested in our way of life and what has become of it in the recent past!
Wild West 2.0: How to Protect and Restore Your Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontier
Interesting read about protecting your online identity and reputation. Check out yourself on Google and take pro-active steps by signing up with your name at new sites, before someone signs up as you! "Google has delivered more information to more people than any other single source in history."
Very interesting collection of essays about how we get attached to consuming things. Would recommend even for non-buddhists as we all experience these desires and are surrounded by daily advertisements promoting ever more consumption of goods and services. The acquisition of more and more objects does not quench our desire but only heightens desire for other objects not yet in one's possession and thus leads to increased dissatisfaction. There are few winners and many losers in this process. Even the winners are not real winners as they create oppression and inflict great suffering on many people. Desire builds upon desire, so we can never be satisfied. "self-denial is no more effective than self-indulgence in solving the problems of greed and grasping leading to suffering."
"The meaning of my life
buying and owning things
then throwing them away."
"I use this sort-of haiku as a working summary of consumerism."
Don't expect a really easy read, but it's not that difficult, either. All buddhist concepts are fully explained and accessible to anyone!
Interesting read about how relationships have changed with social networking. Covers things such as: breaking up via text-messaging, making your new relationship "facebook official" and many other related topics. Would recommend for anyone who uses a lot of social networking and/or texting. Not a guide to breaking up!
Re-read this great book! Not a how to play manual and not a book only for zen people. Definitely recommended for any stringed instrument player! A guide to general concepts that are helpful for your playing...
Exiles in Eden: Life Among the Ruins of Florida's Great Recession
Interesting book about the current housing crisis, told in story form by those who clean out homes after they have been foreclosed. Based in Florida in places that have been the hardest hit by declining home values. Tons of books have been written already on this subject, but most of them are technical and talk about the banking regulations, etc. This one is definitely different! I think it would appeal to people who usually tend to read fiction, even though it is a true story!
Fairly interesting book about social networking. Recommended more for those who are new to social networking as there are lots of parts that others would already know. A quick and easy read, with lots of tips, even if you think you know what you are doing! :-)
The Executor
Intriguing tale! Things take an exciting turn when the protagonist returns home to execute a will... Recommended for crime graphic novel readers!
Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth
A book about living a richer, more creative life during a time of ecological and economic crisis. "We devalue the material world bu excessive acquisition and discard of products. The plenitude principle of true materialism reverses this attitude."The author believes that keeping energy costs high is the key to reducing our consumption of energy. She believes we work way too much. We would all be better off with less hours as businesses could hire more employees. That is not part of BAU (Business as usual) as corporations would prefer to have less employees working more and more hours. That keeps unemployment higher than it should be and we become less efficient the more hours we work. "Throughout the history of capitalism, displaced workers have been absorbed in part through reductions of working hours."
Definitely recommended for those interested in economics, work and sustainability!
Moving Millions: How Coyote Capitalism Fuels Global Immigration
Somewhat interesting book about immigration. Includes stories from around the world, definitely not US only! Even though the US is home to more migrants than any other country, more than 60 others have higher percentages of foreigners.The law of supply and demand dictates that labor will always be mobile. Businesses can pay migrant laborers less money, but the laborers earn more than they would back home. Their demand rises and falls with the economy but the overall appetite in the developed world seems unrelenting. We need our fix as we are hooked! Unless massive income disparities are eliminated or reduced, we will always have people moving to earn a better wage.
Would recommend to anyone interested in the immigration debate!
An educational graphic novel. I picked it up expecting to learn a bit about logic, a subject I am interested in, but didn't find it all that interesting. Maybe a math major would like this one... Definitely not recommended for others....
Having played video games for most of my life, on both consoles and computers, I expected to absolutely LOVE this book. However, I did find it a bit boring. The author writes about the various games he has played during his lifetime. Grand Theft Auto seemed to be his favorite while he was high on cocaine, which makes perfect sense.... He says that video games have both enriched and damaged his life.... They gave him experience he would not otherwise have had.
Interesting interview with Peter Molyneux at the end.
Overall, a decent read, but definitely not what I was expecting.
