I kept flipping back too, but then at a certain point I just started to flip back less because it was like "Ehhh, who cares who they are related to"

Finished listening to "Small Fry". It was quite an emotional journey.

2019 Book #8: "The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water" by Charles Fishman.

I really enjoyed this book. I feel like I have a deeper respect and understanding of water now. It is the most important thing on the planet, and people tend to take it for granted and largely ignore it... which is leading to a lot of trouble, and has the potential to lead to even more!

Water... Like from the toilet?

That is one place water is, yes.

Not Sure

Go check. It is true.

Brawndo's got what plants crave

2019 Book #9: "Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany", the biography of Marthe Cohn. I saw her speak a few months ago, so I had to read her book (especially since she was very old and quiet with an accent and I couldn't understand everything she was saying)

I always struggle with reading or watching anything that deals with the holocaust, because it is some of the darkest depths of humanity possible, and hits close to home.... I always need to remind myself that at those dark times, there was also very bright points of light from heroes big and small who just tried to do the right thing.... so humanity wasn't ALL bad

Crossed and the various spinoff series were gory fun. Ennis has a very dark sense of humor.

Reading Pimp by Iceberg Slim. Had heard of the book for years. Then back in February found a copy at Walmart. In their Celebrate Black History month display. Damn good book so far.

Just read the comic book adaptation of JCVD's film Cyborg. This is the only comic book that Cannon Films published. It was a low print run and given to video stores to promote the VHS release of the film.

Also read Bad World issue 1. Written by Warren Ellis and art by Jacen Burrows. It is Ellis taking various conspiracy theories and doing short 1 or 2 page write ups about them while Burrows contributes the art. Really entertaining read. But not anything I would have paid to $3.50 cover price for. But got it in a random lot of 20lbs of comics. So paid maybe 13 cents for this comic.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro... written in a strangely subdued (or "disquieted") way which was annoying at first but then i realized was a kind of plot device... neone else read this... had this song in my head the whole time:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aTxD7XHLtq4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

2019 Book #10: "Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind" by Brian Fagan. For a book about water... it could be very dry at times! Was hoping for an examination of the relationship humans have had with water and how it affected society and growth.... and there was some of that, but there was also a lot of just simply describing the water systems they used. Which is interesting to think of the feats of engineering and innovation, but it is rather dry to read.


2019 Book #11: "Appointment with Death" by Agatha Christie. Randomly got another one of these.... it was alright. I like her style....

2019 Book #12: "Hercule Poirot's Christmas" by Agatha Christie. I think I maybe have a new favourite out of hers.... Always amazing how she can create a whole cast of interesting characters in every book....


2019 Book #13: "Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other" by Sherry Turkle. The book was divided into two halves, the first talking about humans relationship with "sociable robots", and the second about the internet and constant connection. A lot of interesting things to think about. The book was written in 2011, though, so it already feels wildly out of date, talking about things like BlackBerry and MySpace..... also Facebook has changed a lot since then too....

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, not sure of my experience, partly engaging party boring, kinda predictable... uses cricket as a metaphor a whole bunch... had me looking up the rules of cricket

finished Anthony Haden Guest's The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night.

a really great book that looks at the history of Studio 54 & other popular clubs of the era like Palladium, Limelight & etc.

Archive dot org has a ton of books available to borrow for free to read during the Covid-19 Pandemic. that was where I found the book.

https://archive.org/details/nationalemergencylibrary

Currently reading "Why Are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria". Very in depth read about racism in America.

I read that "how to be an anti-racist" book like a week before the George Floyd killing, it's okay, i think it's mostly directed at white liberals who think they aren't racist because they have black friends or they voted for obama or something. The guy dishes out a pretty good thrashing of capitalism, but then praises Elizabeth Warren of all people for her efforts to reform it. Idk

"Pastwatch" about what if christopher columbus was nice to native american instead of enslaving them... nice read but ended with colonizer sympathy, feel like i got the bad ending

"The Woman in the Window" a Gone Girl clone for NYC style wine moms... this book got sent to me by accident and i just saw it sitting on my shelf and decided to read it

I'm reading Ready Player One. It's probably the worst book I've read. I've taken to drawing stupid comics at the end of each chapter to illustrate how dumb the endless name dropping and Elon Musk worshipping is which is making me take significantly longer to read the book, which is bad because I want to be done with it.

2020 Book #14: "La Sombra del Viento" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. 478 page book in Spanish completed! Feeling of great accomplishment right now... story was also pretty good.... big plothole/unresolved thread at the end, but whatever.....

I have that, wanted to read it but would take me forever to read something in spanish... blah

This book truly is atrocious... really disheartening how successful it was... creepy, off-putting, written like a 13 year old who doesn't know how to describe anything beyond using a simile to reference some other thing that has nothing to do with anything. Easily the worst book I've ever read, everything is so maximized: "I've mastered every arcade game from the 80's, I've memorized every single frame from every Brat Pack movie, I've read the biographies of every 80's author 10 times each," the protagonist is extremely creepy and stalkerish towards the girl love interest and justifies his creepiness towards her and then is rewarded by getting her at the end, again the descriptions are just hilariously lazy, packed to the brim with endless 80's references which, if you don't get, then you're out of luck cus there's nothing left in the book. "Stop hitting yourself like Rain Man, OK?" The kid's family gets killed by some evil faceless corporation and he doesn't even care, just goes to text the girl he likes, for fucks sake. This book is truly truly dreadful

Yeah, p much destroyed my life... finished it in just over a month a think, but that is with spending every free moment reading.... letting all my tv watching go to the wayside, neglecting to go out for walks/bike rides, letting chores pile up.......

Still.... it is apparently part of a "series" of four books (second book being a prequel though).... kind of want to continue on, but the books keep getting longer it seems (except the third which is shorter) and I don't know if I want to put myself through that again...

Maybe when winter comes around and I don't want to leave the house anyways.... I guess the library only has the second book in Spanish also.... only has the 3rd and 4th in English so if I wanted Spanish I'd have to buy it or something like that....

Since I listed that book as #14 of 2020 without posting the rest here.... here is the rest:

#1: "The Totally Useless History of the World" by Ian Crofton - Good for some chuckles and very light reading

#2: "Quest for the Past: Great Discoveries in Archaeology" by Brian M. Fagan - Cool but old book, probably so many updates to be made

#3: "Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations" by David R. Montgomery - Radical

#4: "We Are The Weather: Saving The Planet Begins At Breakfast" by Jonathan Safran Foer - Some good stuff

#5: "La Vuelta al Mundo en Ochenta Dias" or "Around the World in Eighty Days" by Jules Verne (Edition with Spanish on one side of the page, English on the other) - Decent story, but again feeling of accomplishment at reading Spanish. No Kung-Fu present like in the Disney adaptation with Jackie Chan.

#6: "The Mosquito: A Human History of our Deadliest Predator" by Timothy C. Winegard - Appropriate reading for the beginning of a pandemic

#7: "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" by Agatha Christie - The first Hercule Poirot story, these are always fun

#8: "Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening" by David Hendy - PrettyCool but too short, wanted more

#9: "Curtain: Poirot's Last Case" by Agatha Christie - The last Hercule Poirot story

#10: "The Art of Loving" by Erich Fromm - Meh

#11: "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" by Yuval Noah Harari - PrettyCool.... like this guy's books a lot

#12: "Kilo: Inside the Deadliest Cocaine Cartels - From the Jungles to the Streets" by Toby Muse - Pretty disheartening and sad. Would recommend.

#13: "The Lucky Ones" by Julianne Pachico - Was decent enough

Based on a true story - Norm Macdonald: 9/10


possibly the funniest thing ive ever read

Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

Absolutely brilliant, even if I didnt really get deep enough into everything.

Basically adresses many philosophical questions on society and the way we live and still applies to the modern day.

The last book I read was a book from India entitled, "the other side." It was about a man who had been married to his for 17 years, but then decided to eat a cock one day. He found the penis entering his mouth to be extremely exciting and exhilarating. Although he swore that he would never taste cock again after that, he kept being tempted to do it again and again. Although he never acted upon his impulses and urges, he would often make love to his wife while picturing himself being destroyed by erections.

"Stock Market Cash Flow" by Andy Tanner.

9.4 / 10.

2020 Book #15: "The Anthill" by Julianne Pachico - Was ok I guess, but confusing in the end.

2020 Book #16: "Dancing Feat - One Man's Mission to Dance Like a Colombian" by Neil Bennion - Maybe my fav book of the year.... good energy from it....

2020 Book #17: "Magdalena: River of Dreams" by Wade Davis - Really enjoyed this one too

2020 Book #18: "The Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History" by Brian Fagan - Meh


And that's it for me from 2020

Getting back into my sports autobiographies/biographies

Just finished Burke's Law: the Autobiography of NHL GM Brian Burke.

I read "In Order to Live" by Yeonmi Park who escaped from North Korea when she was 14. I've read a few of these North Korean memoirs and this is one of the better ones, incredibly sad but also "inspiring"

John Grisham- A time for Mercy. 9.5 out of 10

2021 Book #1: "Dopeworld: Adventures in the Global Drug Trade" by Niko Vorobyov - Pretty good.... never done any recreational drugs in my life, but interesting to read about it and how the war on drugs is pretty much BS worldwide.... which I already did know, but not in this much detail.....

What is with people numbering the books they read each year, nobody does that for movies or music or anything. It just feels like bragging. Wow you read a whole book,,,congrats

I know someone who does it for movies

Give me their address

i know a guy who does tha with video games

Lol true nuff but I feel like with the books it's signaling how intellectually superior you are, look at me I read this many books, which are for smart people :roll: any eejit can play video games.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M_eUEb81fa8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Look, I don't have a lot of other ways to signal that I am intellectually superior. Let me have this one.

You, sir, are intellectually superior