It’s bloody SNOWING in Calgary.
I need 5-6 days in an arid, quiet, bleakly beautiful wilderness.
Photo © 1998-2008 Abe Kleinfeld
www.abekleinfeld.com
… I’m ripping library books on MP3 right now, getting ready for future hiking adventures.
Category: books
Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook
Corporate Business Communication gurus like Ron Shewchuk learn secrets of their industry from authorities like
… world-class consultant Dogbert, it focuses on critical management responsibilities like keeping up with fads, implementing pointless reorganizations and demanding status reports. “Leadership isn’t something you’re born with,” it declares. “It’s something you learn by reading Dogbert books.”
Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook – Amazon
Here’s what the 1997 textbook had to say about corporate newsletters:
Lost on Planet China
Of all the places I’ve traveled, the least rewarding was China.
It’s a disaster for the laowai (foreigner), especially a bumbler like author J. Maarten Troost.
… ill-equipped with a sliver of Mandarin, questing to discover the “essential Chineseness” of an ancient and often mystifying land. What he finds is a country with its feet suctioned in the clay of traditional culture and a head straining into the polluted stratosphere of unencumbered capitalism, where cyclopean portraits of Chairman Mao (largely perceived as mostly good, except for that nasty bit toward the end) spoon comfortably with Hong Kong’s embrace of rat-race modernity. From Beijing and its blitzes of flying phlegm–and girls who lend new meaning to “Chinese take-out”–to the legendary valley of Shangri-La (as officially designated by the Party), Troost learns that his very survival may hinge on his underdeveloped haggling skills and a willingness to deploy Rollerball-grade elbows over a seat on a train. Featuring visits to Mao’s George Hamiltonian corpse and a rural market offering Siberian Tiger paw, cobra hearts, and scorpion kebabs (in the food section), Lost on Planet China is a funny and engrossing trip across a nation that increasingly demands the world’s attention. — review by Jon Foro
China changes so quickly that this book published July 2008 is already nearly hopelessly out of date.
If you foolishly ponder a trip to China in future, this is a must read.
Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid – Amazon
A Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones is the first book in the sprawling A Song of Ice and Fire series, seven planned novels.
George R.R. Martin (GRRM) looks exactly as you would picture him.
Book 1 is smart, complex, vivid. And realistic. It reads like a real historical account.
I recommend it to any fan of this genre.
As usual, I listened to the audio version read by Roy Dotrice. He is fantastic at distinguishing between the many hundreds of characters.
At over 33hrs for the unabridged version, it’s EPIC.
(I may need to listen to it again on a LONG hike before deciding whether to move on to Book 2, A Clash of Kings.)
… Martin’s Seven Kingdoms resemble England during the Wars of the Roses, with the Stark and Lannister families standing in for the Yorks and Lancasters. The story of these two families and their struggle to control the Iron Throne dominates the foreground; in the background is a huge, ancient wall marking the northern border, beyond which barbarians, ice vampires, and direwolves menace the south as years-long winter advances. Abroad, a dragon princess lives among horse nomads and dreams of fiery reconquest.
There is much bloodshed, cruelty, and death, but A Game of Thrones is nevertheless compelling; it garnered a Nebula nomination and won the 1996 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. …
Wikipedia – A Game of Thrones
It was announced January, 2007 that HBO Productions has purchased the broadcast rights for the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series, with the author also serving as co-executive producer on the project. The plan calls for each book from the series to be filmed over an entire season’s worth of episodes.
review – Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar is the most recent Paul Theroux book.
He retraces his rail journey from Europe through Asia of 30-years earlier.
Theroux has mellowed with age. Now in his mid-60s, he’s less disagreeable than ever before in this, another travel classic.
I’ve read all his travel books. He’s one of my favourite authors. Always entertaining and informative. This one is as good as any of the others. Read it.
Still, critics call Theroux: arrogant, dishonest, a narcissist, a misanthropist.
Certainly he’s envious of greater writers than himself, especially Nobel Prize in Literature winner V. S. Naipaul. Theroux thinks much about the great authors, obviously because he thinks himself just as skilled a wordsmith, unrecognized. Unawarded.
Theroux’s the son of a French-Canadian father and an Italian mother, I learned.
Amazon – Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar
This book has rekindled my interest in travel. I’m ruminating future prospects right now.
Aging too, I liked the moments on this long journey where Paul Theroux found himself “content”. Even happy.
do you need a Kindle?
I don’t.
Because I no longer read.
I pick up very few newspapers or magazines. And almost never read books.
My preferred input source is my ears. I listen to audiocasts including:
And listen to books on tape. Currently Ghost Train to the Eastern Star by Paul Theroux.
But those who still like to use their eyes to read … are quite charmed by the Kindle.
A respected review:
The good:
Slimmer and sleeker looking than the original Kindle; large library of tens of thousands of e-books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs via Amazon’s familiar online store; built-in free wireless “Whispernet” data network–no PC needed; built-in keyboard for notes and navigation; a faster processor speeds up the device; with 2GB of internal memory, it’s capable of storing 1,500 electronic books; font size is adjustable; improved battery life; displays image files and plays MP3 and AAC audio; compatible with Windows and Mac machines; new Text-to-Speech feature allows you to have text read aloud.The bad:
No expansion slot for adding more memory or accessing files; files such as PDFs and Word documents aren’t natively supported, and need to be converted at 10 cents a pop by Amazon; no protective carrying case included; battery is sealed into the device and isn’t removable; hardware and content is still too expensive.The bottom line:
While it’s still short of perfection–and has a price tag that’s too high–the Amazon Kindle 2 offers a range of improvements that makes it the best overall e-book reader we’ve seen to date.Price range: $359.00
upcoming new BBQ cookbook
Due later this Spring.
just finished the Twilight series
All 4 published books are good. It kept me going right to the end. (I’d like to know what happens next to the Cullen clan.)
The writing is not Nobel Prize worthy, but the plot is engaging.
I’m looking forward to the next movie. Rumour is Dakota Fanning will play super vampire Jane.
Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)
Twilight is a series of four vampire-based fantasy/romance novels by the American author Stephenie Meyer. It follows the adventures of Isabella “Bella” Swan, a teenager who moves to Forks, Washington, and finds her life turned upside-down when she falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen. …
I immediately started the next Harry Potter book in audio. It’s titled Harry Potter and the Gob of Deathly Phoenix Blood … something like that.
Rick McCharles 