love libraries

On January 3, 2008December 27, 2008 By Rick McIn books, economicsLeave a comment

More Americans have library cards than at any time since 1990, according to the American Library Association. …

… the 2 billion items checked out from U.S. libraries this year is 10 percent more than during the economic downturn in 2001. But books, DVDs and other material are only part of the story …

SF Gate – More people using libraries in tough times

In tough financial times more folks take advantage of libraries.

In fact, I think libraries could be a growth industry in the future. If only they could make going to the library “cool” for young people.

Calgary is planning a new central library. I really hope they do as well as Vancouver or Salt Lake City.

Our current downtown library is pretty crappy, a hangout for the homeless during the winter.

McNew Year prediction

On January 1, 2008 By Rick McIn audiocasts, books, Google, product endorsements, videocastsLeave a comment

Life is a continuum. Each morning you awake assuming it is your last. There is no difference between Dec. 31st and Jan 1st to me.

But a young buddy pressed for some sort of pronouncement to mark the changing of the calendar. (I eschew resolutions so as not to tinker with perfection.)

Spontaneously I predicted that Rick McCharles would listen to even more audiocasts in 2008. Watch even more online video than in 2007. And “read” even more audio books.

I’m off to a good start. Waiting on my digital bookshelf are:

The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media, and Technology Success of Our Time – Vise & Malseed

New Europe – Michael Palin

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II – Robert Kurson

The Golden Compass, His Dark Materials, Book 1 – Philip Pullman

Deep Black: Payback – Stephen Coonts

The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel – Leeb & Strathy

The Honourable Schoolboy – John Le Carré

The Light That Failed – Kipling

Middlesex: A Novel – Jeffrey Eugenides

RACE TO THE POLE: TRAGEDY, HEROISM, AND SCOTT’S ANTARCTIC QUEST – Sir Ranulph Fiennes

The Prestige – Christopher Priest

And I’m currently listening to A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash. (Not a great book, but a fantastic true story.)

Actually, I finally dropped my monthly subscription to Audible.com as the Calgary Public Library seems to offer more good books on MP3 than I could possibly need.

(I can still buy books one-at-a-time on Audible or iTunes.)

Digital on demand infotainment rocks in 2008.

Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

On December 9, 2007 By Rick McIn books, product endorsements2 Comments

Super book, especially for anyone with a fondness for old comics. Kavalier & Clay are a “Czech artist named Joe Kavalier and a Brooklyn-born writer named Sam Clay—both Jewish—before, during, and after World War II.”

The writing is clean. Simple.

The plot fascinating and never predictable. I swear I could believe it was a true story.

Author Michael Chabon is widely considered one of the best working today. Though this book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001, that meant nothing to me. I got it as an MP3 from the library on recommendation from Downtown Ronnie. (Yes, he’s still alive, though almost 50 now.)

Unfortunately the audio was abridged. I want it all, so I plan to get the dead tree version as well.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Highly recommended as a ~~Christmas~~ Festivus gift.

The most famous super hero of the fictional Kavalier & Clay was called “The Escapist”. In 2004 Chabon collaborated on turning the character into a real comic. Life imitated art.

Big-Idea Book Generator

On November 27, 2007 By Rick McIn books, humourLeave a comment

Downtown Ronnie is already a Canadian Best Selling Author (over 60 copies sold). Now he’s considering using Wired Magazine’s Big-Idea Book Generator to decide his next title.

It’s a sure fire Web 2.0 authoring system. Tips like this:

Hint: Before taking it to a publisher, pitch your Big Idea to Robert Scoble over an online telelunch. If he’s blogged 16 entries and started four businesses based on it by dinner, you’ve got a winner.

On the internet people can only scan a maximum of 3 steps:

1. Create a title-as-theory
2. Subtitle it!
3. Pick a premise.

Concoct a Best-Seller With Wired’s Patent-Pending Big-Idea Book Generator

book – A Piano in the Pyrenees

On November 20, 2007 By Rick McIn books, humour, product endorsements, travelLeave a comment

I am on a ~~reading~~ listening binge. (Thanks to Audible.com and hours each day on my bike with a Nano.)

A Piano in the Pyrenees: The Ups and Downs of an Englishman in the French Mountains

What? He’s not the world’s most famous skateboarder.

He’s Antony Gordon Hawksworth, better known as Tony Hawks, English comedian, author and philanthropist.

I loved his first book — Round Ireland with a Fridge and somewhat liked his second book — Playing the Moldovans at Tennis.

Piano is his fourth book. And it is excellent. I love the amusing, understated British humour.

A Brit out of his element in rural France after impetuously buying a house. Brilliant.

A guy named Dave Nicoll also liked Round Ireland with a Fridge. Inspired, he decided to travel round the WORLD with a fridge.

book – All the Pretty Horses

On November 5, 2007 By Rick McIn books, product complaints, travel, travel MexicoLeave a comment

For some reason I thought I’d like All the Pretty Horses, the award winning novel by Cormac Mccarthy.

That would be wrong.

… The plot is simple enough. John Grady Cole, a 16-year-old dispossessed Texan, crosses the Rio Grande into Mexico in 1949, accompanied by his pal Lacey Rawlins. The two precocious horsemen pick up a sidekick–a laughable but deadly marksman named Jimmy Blevins–encounter various adventures on their way south and finally arrive at a paradisiacal hacienda where Cole falls into an ill-fated romance. …

The writing is excellent. But the plot plods and has nothing more to redeem it than tired “folk wisdom of uneducated cowboys” cuteness. The last time that engaged me, Clint Eastwood was a young man.

Thumbs down.

All the Pretty Horses

I bought it as an audio book. But since no one has (yet) come up with a convincing enough neologism to claim the prize, I cannot VERBalize what I did with Pretty Horses.

… “ristened” … GAK.

win an audio book from Rick

On November 4, 2007 By Rick McIn books, humour, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I recently ~~read~~ listened to an audio book called I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert.

Now if you love Colbert, you will love this book.

If you really love Colbert (as I do) you will really love this book.

He’s a one trick pony — making fun of stuffy right-wing mentality by pretending to be a diehard right-winger himself.

I Am America (And So Can You!)

The contest:

Brian challenged me to come up with a new word to properly describe the process of listening to an audio book. A new verb.

Not “read”. Not “listen”.

Whoever comes up with the best neologism wins a free Audible.com audio book from RickMcCharles.com !!

Contact me.

Banff Mountain Festival

On November 1, 2007 By Rick McIn books, movies, travelLeave a comment

Up in the mountains for the weekend, for those interested, I’m blogging the films and book presentations over on my hiking website.

For example, John Harlin III (the son) presented the personal background story of his new book, The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain that Killed My Father.

IMAX had a big hit with Everest. They’ve followed that up with a movie called The Alps.

Harlin, in the film, repeats the cimb of the Eiger where his father had fallen to his death. With his wife and daughter looking on.

To see the trailer click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Banff Hostel – Mountain Film festival

On October 30, 2007 By Rick McIn books, movies, travelLeave a comment

For the Banff Mountain Festival I’ll be staying at the Banff International hostel.

Coolest attraction there is the man made ice climbing wall. (Not sure if it is in operation yet this winter.)

I have a standard $150 ticket package for events. But I’m guessing just the ambiance of the mountain resort over the festival days will be the highlight.

book – A Thousand Splendid Suns

On October 25, 2007 By Rick McIn books, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I had mixed feelings while reading the second novel by Khaled Hosseini of Kite Runner fame and infamy.

Certainly it’s not as strong as Kite Runner.

I bought the audio book anyway because the subject is so important to me: the plight of Islamic women.

Too bad Hosseini is so predictably sentimental. From the New York Times, MICHIKO KAKUTANI:

And like its predecessor, it features some embarrassingly hokey scenes that feel as if they were lifted from a B movie, and some genuinely heart-wrenching scenes that help redeem the overall story.

It could be a fantastic book, but isn’t.

Yet, I will likely still read Hosseini’s next book. And watch the inevitably successful movies adapted from them.

I guess I’m hooked.