Changing the format of this a little. Instead of having Twitter post to this blog nearly daily, I am just going to post over the weekend the list of books. I’ll still be using Twitter to keep track of books that I see people reading. Anyway, here’s what I have seen people reading the last two weeks..

Dune: House Trilogy: House Atreides by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
A prequel to Dune as written by the son of the guy who originally wrote Dune, Frank Herbert, and some other guy who has written enough sci-fi novels to ensure he never gets a girlfriend (I kid!).

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The story of a girl? Or is it a a boy? Well, it’s the story about a person who is born a girl but at the age of 14 has an emergency surgery and ends up a boy. But I’m sure you’ve already read this as Oprah, being the literary genius that she is, selected this book for her book club a couple years ago. Still a good read I am told.

Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark
Clark’s thirty-third book. Think about that for a second. 33. That’s a lot of books! You go girl. Anyway, in this suspenseful-thriller, a pair/set of twins is kidnapped and held for an $8 million dollar ransom. When paid only one of the girls is returned along with a note saying that the other girl has died. But wait, the little girl has telepathy and says her twin sibling is alive.

Final Verdict by Sheldon Siegel
Fourth legal thriller by this author. Having been accused and cleared of murder charges ten years ago, a man, who is dying, returns yet again and is charged with murder, yet again. The law firm fights against everyone’s hesitation to prove his innocents but that may not be as easy as it seems as a lot of evidence has been found against him.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
A memoir. The story of a girl and her siblings raised by parents who believe that children learn best from making their own mistakes. Being forced to move around often by her nomadic parents, Jeannette is sure to learn some valuable life lessons along the way.

Stone Cold by David Baldacci
The third book featuring the Camel Club. This description tells me that this is a book full of plot twists and espionage. Some girl steals $40 millions dollars from her mother’s murdering who just happens to own a casino while a former CIA assassin leads the Camel Club finds out he may be up for assassination after being branded a traitor during the Cold War.

The Purfect Murder by Rita Mae Brown
I like murder mystery books. Personally I tend not to stray away from Agatha Christie because, let’s face it, she is one of the best if not the best murder mystery writer. However, Rita Mae has made things interesting as the protagonist investigates the murder the local OG-BYN.

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel. A story about a Princeton student who searches for love and status during the first world war.

The Lonesome Gun by John E. Temple
A western about a cattleman who vows revenge against the man who killed his son. But it isn’t as easy as it seems. Shooting him would probably work, but I’m willing to bet he has a posse with him that will get in the way. Expect at least one gunflight.

What Is the What by Dave Eggers
The protagonist flees from his home in Sudan after a war breaks out. Joining a group of “lost boys”, he faces hardships as he makes his way towards America only to face more hardship. It seems this book is written in the same “is it fiction? Is it truth?” writing style of his first book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore
I saw the girl who I caught reading Fluke a few weeks ago. This time she continued her Christopher Moore theme with Coyote Blue which is one of my favorite novels from the author. It’s the story of a Native American who tries to hide from his heritage only to have his life turned upside down when the Native American trickster figure, a coyote, appears to cause havoc. Speaking of Moore…

Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore
I saw another person reading this book. So, uh, yeah. It’s getting popular.

Blurb for the back cover:

“This book is about the words”

The other evening I was lucky enough to attend a book reading at Powells for Not Quiet What I Was Planning. The people who presented the book were technically not the author but rather the editors at Smith Magazine that compiled submissions from other people who were invited to write a six word memoir of their life. For example if I, the Book Pirate, were to try and sum up my life in six words, it might turn out something like this.

“Likes books. Writes blogs. Hates Ninjas.”

Nifty isn’t it? The book NQWIWP is filled with these six worded memoirs which have been submitted from famous people, authors, and just everyday people. Now I would have a really hard time writing a review of this book in the same sense that I would normally. It’s not a novel. There is no plot. There isn’t really even an author, just editors. If it’s not a novel then, what is it? There are two ways to look at it.

The first is to look at this book as a coffee table book. It should sit on the table being picked up by friends and family who will flip through it while relaxing on the couch. It would make a good conversation starter. If this is how you view the book then there are so flaws. The first is that it is a small paperback book. Coffee table books are normally comically oversize, glossy, and contain many pictures. For NQWIWP I would make it hardbound, make the book bigger but still reasonable, fit more six-word-memoirs on each page to make the book thinner and easier to open and have lay flat, and maybe add a picture or two. Nothing fancy with the pictures because this book is about the words.

The other option is to view this book as a book of poetry. As I sat at the book reading, the audience was invited to share their own six-word-memoirs. Some were deep, some were humorous. Poetry to me is a form of writing where the author closely examines and carefully picks each word that they use in order to get just the right meaning across. That is what they did. They picked six words, carefully arranged them, edited them. These six words are really poems if you look at it from this point of view. In this case the size and binding of the book work very well. Small enough to be carried around and read at ones leisure.

With all that being said I still feel this is a really enjoyable and interesting book regardless of how you look at it. You may be able to quickly blow through it in an hour or two, but it is something that you can come back to or pass on to a friend. I would highly recommend checking out the Smith Magazine’s website where you can read other people’s six-word-memoirs in addition to submitting your own. Then there is always the matter of, you know, buying the book which you totally should do.

Blurb for the back cover:

“I devoured Jennifer Government”

It has been a while since I have used the word “devoured” to describe a book that I read, but I feel now it is fitting to use that word once again. I devoured Jennifer Government. I picked it up on Thursday and finished it Saturday. With work, school, and a social life it is not easy to find time to read an entire novel in a three day period. This one however drew me in and I found myself opting to read it instead of doing other things, like homework.

The story takes place in the near future with Australia now part of the United States and major corporations seemingly calling all the shots. We are introduced to Hack Nike who is offered a promotion in the marketing department. Pressured, he signs the contract and then discovers he just agreed to kill ten teenagers as part of Nike’s way to promote brand value in their new shoe line.

That is only the beginning though. People are killed and cars are destroyed as Jennifer Government (who works for the Government, getting the surname thing yet?) tries to bring the man who arranged the marketing scheme to justice but that is not as easy as it seems. The role of the Government is to prevent crimes, not investigate them. If an agent wants to investigate something further he or she must secure their own funding. Things end up getting more complicated than just a handful of dead teenagers and the fate of the world’s economy rests in her hands.

There is a wide cast of characters in this novel and it can be hard to keep track of them all without getting confused. All of them are interesting and are seemingly connected to each other in some way in the past which is sometimes not fully explained. One particular confusing part of the book is when two characters both named John Nike are fighting different people in a mall that looks exactly the same as other malls since in the future malls are franchised.

The book also left some characters hanging and offered little closer to the plot lines of characters other than the title character and the villain.

This book is a clever satire on big corporations and globalization which will cause readers to look at things a little differently when paying attention to commercials or advertisements. There is just enough truth in this book to be scary.

Max Barry, the author, is one of the my favorite authors. His other book The Company is worth not only worth reading but worth taking a little too seriously. His web site also has some nifty short stories and other random items. You can pick up his books from Amazon as always.

Here’s a recap of what I have spotted people reading in public places:

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Ever thought of running away and joining the circus? This is the story of Jacob who drops out of veterinary school after his parents die. As is turns out his parents spend all their money paying for his school and left him nothing. Distraught, he finds a circus to join. The book chronicles his life as his starts his career at the bottom and works his way up to being put in charge of the animals and puts his veterinary skills to use while falling in love with a co-workers wife, naturally.

Dune by Frank Herbert
I always feel weird talking about books that it seems nearly everybody has read and I have not. The book is about this battle to control some spice that gives peoples long life and psychic powers.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
This is the story of where you food comes from. All food it seems come from other living creatures either in the form of animal or plant or whatnot. The author then does his best to look in to the four meals people eat to discover just where they came from. He also in vestiges the “organic food” crazy that is becoming ever so popular. This book sounds really interesting and one I would check out in the near future.

World War Z by Max Brooks
Who doesn’t love a good zombie book, eh? Max Brooks, son of Mel Brooks, follows up his first zombie book with another. This time it is a collections of interviews from people and their thoughts and stories about how the zombie infestation began. I haven’t read this book but this narrative style (people recounting stories with no real protagonist) is becoming increasingly popular. Word on the street though is that the audiobook is the way to go for this book.

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
Finally, a book I have read before. A supernatural story about a children’s lullaby that when told to them before bed kills them in their sleep. When I read this book it reminded me of The Ring, the film about the video tape that kills you. The protagonist, after loosing a wife and child to the lullaby, goes on a quest to make sure every copy of the rhyme is destroyed. This I feel is a good introduction to Palahniuk’s dark sense of humor.

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman
First and foremost, Chuck Klosterman is the reason I want to start an all-male Blondie tribute band. His book, aptly named Chuck Klosterman IV, is a book that I hold in very high regard and is a recommended read for anyone who likes music culture. Having said that, there is still the issue of pop culture that needs to be dealt with and that is just what he does in this book. The Sims, MTV’s The Real World, and the importance of Woody Allen in terms of getting laid are all covered in this book. High recommended.

I mentioned a few weeks ago about The Pirate Coelho (Paulo Coelho) and how he has create a web site where he has posted many of his books in full for people to download for free. If you haven’t checked it out yet I recommend that you get around to it. It’s free after all and he is a great author.

Now it seems his publisher has taken note that pirating books does not negatively effect book sales. What they are doing now is posting a selection of books, in full, on their website, harpercollins.com, for people to view. Books they currently have posted are:

• The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho
• I Dream in Blue: Life, Death, and the New York Giants by Roger Director
• The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the Next President: Who the Candidates Are, Where They Come from, and How You Can Choose by Mark Halperin
• Mission: Cook!: My Life, My Recipes, and Making the Impossible Easy by Robert Irvine
• Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter

Naturally there are some limitations. You can’t print the full book. Which by the way, it would be faster/cheaper to go buy a 300+ page book. You can’t download them to you Amazon Kindle or to your computer. They only way you can view them is via the HP website.

Spend some time, check it out. The idea is that you’ll find a book you like and will go out and buy it.

Here’s a recap of what I have spotted people reading in public places:

Fluke: Or, I Know Just Why The Caged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore
I’m a big fan of Christopher Moore, but this is one of the few books by him I haven’t read. It’s the story of a marine biologist who one day while doing whatever it is marine biologists do, stops a whale with “Bite Me” written across its tale. In typical Moore fashion there is an eccentric cast of characters who join in on this adventure. Even though I haven’t read this particular book by Moore, i’ve read enough of his other ones to know that this one is pretty much guaranteed to by funny.

Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult
After being released from jail after be accused wrongfully of statutory rape, the protagonist retreats to Salem Falls, NH to start his life over. Naturally things do not go as planned as his secrets come out along with everybody else’s. It’s a story about rape and reputation while at the same time being based on The Crucible. After reading about this book and its characters, I found myself comparing it to Moore’s Fluke in terms of an eccentric cast. Also, she wrote a Wonder Woman graphic novel? Awesome.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
Here is my confession: I am not a big David Sedaris fan. Everybody I speak to loves his books. But I have tried multiple times to read this one only to get bored and set it back in the shelf. I did manage to make it most of the way through Naked before I lost interest in that one. Maybe i’m just odd. I can see his appeal and it does sound like something I would read when a person describes Sedaris to me. He has a new book coming out in June that I will check out to see if my mind can be changed.

The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
I’ve have only read a handful of Stephen King books. Mainly his Dark Tower series which he describes as his “magnum opus.” What I liked about the Dark Tower series is that instead of being a horror book I saw it as a science-fiction book. The Gunslinger, the Dark Tower protagonist, traveled from one world to another in his quest to reach the Dark Tower. Along his journey he intersects people from King’s other books. The book The Talisman is one of those books that is connected to the Dark Tower. In this book we have a twelve year old boy who travels to a different world in hopes of finding this special Talisman that can cure his mom of cancer. It sounds interesting and I would probably read it just to understand the connections to The Dark Tower.

Drag King Dreams by Leslie Feinberg
The story of Max, a lesbian bartender, who begins to isolate herself(himself?) after the world seems to fall apart after 9/11. But her fighting spirit is rekindled after she receives news that her transvestite gal-pal had been murder on her way home one night.

Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson
British humorist Jon Ronson investigates a collection of people who hold some diverse thoughts about how the world is run. From a person who believes the world is ruled by 12-foot tall lizards to a secret group of people who meet once a year to plan out what is going to happen in the world. Sounds like an entertaining book if only to point out how silly people can be sometimes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a Scientology protest to go watch.

I saw an older gentleman on the bus today reading a book on an Amazon Kindle which made me curious about the product…

Released only three months ago, the Amazon Kindle is the newest wave in what technology enthusiasts are hoping to be the E-Book Era. Reportedly the first shipment of Amazon Kindles (AK from here on out as I am getting tired of using proper trademarks) sold out in the first five and a half hours. Amazon however is not saying just how many AKs were in that first shipment. For all we know they have only a hand full and sold at a rate of one every twenty minutes. But you’ll have to agree that “AK sells out!” is a lot catchier than “Amazon sells 16 Kindles!”. I would be impressed with how fast it sold out if Amazon ever gets around to putting it in perspective for me. Moving on, the AK features a 4”x6” display which makes it smaller than a mass market book (not those new “brick” mass market books mind you.) Not only that but the AK also features a screen that can produce four different shades of gray. It’s very reminiscent of another electronic device that featured four different shades of the same color.

Only the Gameboy came out in 1989 and cost $179 which would be $309 given today’s inflation rate. The AK will set you back $399 bones which is the same price as that new fangled iPhone or a Playstation 3 (40GB). So with its unimpressive display disproportionate to its cost, what makes it worth it? Well if features a QWERTY keypad as well buttons that can turn the E-Book’s pages left or right. It can also play MP3s (for audiobooks) and display JPG images (in four shades of gray) converted to the proper format and downloaded on to a SD expansion card. What makes this device stand out is the service it offers. Why pay $28 for a hardbound copy of The Duma Key by Stephen King when you can pay $10 for the AK version of it? That’s right. Cheap books. Best sellers run at $10 a pop while I have seen some classic books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin costing $1.29. Ignoring the fact that a lot of classic literature is available for free thanks to public domain. Authors who are still alive should like that they get 35% of the revenue from each book of theirs that gets sold. I am not sure just how good that is seeing as how I am not a published author, but it sounds better than the 4% that Apple is offering its iTunes artists. Users will also be able to download new books with the wireless network offered through Sprint. If you are traveling and you finish your book, download a new one instantly. No need to connect it to a computer to transfer the data.

Having said all this I still can’t help but feel that the E-Book format will never really take off. First off reading something on a digital screen has a different effect on a person’s eyes compared to reading something on paper. Secondly, I like the way my books look lined up along my bookshelf. Sure years from now when I run out of room to put all my books, I may think the AK is a nifty idea. But as a collector it’s hard for me to trade my hardbound books for an electronic string of 1′s and 0′s.

Lastly, it’s not cost effective. If you were to do the math (like I did) you would discover that a person could buy 67 new hardbound books (on sale via Amazon.com or local bookstore) for the same price of an AK and the same 67 books. Check out the chart to see how the AK compares to other book formats.

The Amazon Kindle seems like a neat idea but I am not sold on it. The technology seems to be lacking for the price they are selling it at. It has some neat ideas like being able to download books via wireless network, but it will be hard to fill a bookshelf with digital books. It’s a novelty electronic that would most likely be found at The Sharper Image instead of exclusively on Amazon.com, who is more than welcome to send me one of these devises so that I can investigate it further.

Blurb for the back cover:

“a collection of absurdity”

Signed first editions. My weakness. When I walk in to my local bookstore I always go straight to the shelves set aside for the signed books in hopes of finding something unexpected. Sometimes I succeed, other days I don’t. But on this occasion I found a book that I knew I must have after reading what the author had signed. Each copy on the shelf contained a different personalized message from the author as if to say “You couldn’t get this book personalized in person but it is personalized anyways.” I liked that he took the time to do that. It makes each book special.

But let’s start talking about the book. Human Resources by Josh Goldfaden. A collection of short stories that I would categorize under absurdest fiction. The characters in his stories find themselves in situations that you or I wouldn’t normally be found it. A nanny watches over the son of the leader of a traveling writers group who try to be inspired wherever they go while in another story a waitress waits on Bruce Springsteen while her co-workers seem to loose it. Naturally the story that caught my attention when mentioned in the inside jacket was the one about the pirate who would rather open a restaurant. Any book that has pirates in it can’t be all that bad.

Overall these stories are a collection of absurdity that is downright enjoyable. At his web site you can check out some excerpts or just take the plunge and buy it.

Here’s a recap of what I have spotted people reading in public places:

When True Night Falls by C.S. Friedman
The second book in the Coldfire Trilogy. Contradiction aside, I probably wouldn’t recommend jumping in to a sci-fi/fantasy book series and starting with the second book. Just looking in to this book confused me. There were words that confused me probably because they were made for this book series and without reading the first one, I have no clue what their meanings are. This looks to be an tale filled with political and religious backdropped in which people are manipulated and step up to fall for a trap. Also, someone may or may not be stabbed in the end.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
In this epic fourth chapter of J.K. Rowling, Harry is inadvertently entered in to the Tri-Wizard Tournament where he must face three tests in order to prove himself to be worthy of the coveted Goblet of Fire. This book was the one Harry Potter book best suited for a movie which is why I greatly enjoyed the film that was based off of this book. The book which I read a couple years ago was also enjoyable. But chances are, you’ve already read them all.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
In the seventh (and final?) chapter in J.K.’s tale about a boy wizard Harry finds himself a wizard school drop-out and must seek out the remaining Horcruxs and destroy them in order to defeat he-who-must-not-be-named. This book is daunting. There is a lot of plot and events that needed to be fit in to it and Rowling gives the boy wizard and very fitting ending.