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October 26
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Andrew
gave
 
to:
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (Hardcover)
by Barbara Kingsolver
bookshelves:
dunredalready
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in October, 2008
Andrew said:
"This book is simply wonderful. I have been reading it for about a week and a half now, and I am 92% convinced that I should have been a farmer. I suppose it's never too late to start, but my current urban setup isn't too conducive to cash crop cult...more
This book is simply wonderful. I have been reading it for about a week and a half now, and I am 92% convinced that I should have been a farmer. I suppose it's never too late to start, but my current urban setup isn't too conducive to cash crop cultivation.
The peas on my front porch were tasty while they lasted, but next year I fear I may go a little crazy with the pots and the plants and the etc. Some people when they get old turn into "the cat lady" or "the old guy with all the smelly dogs", but many people, as they age, seem to drift towards gardening. I didn't understand this as a teenager and a kid growing up in the Midwest. My parents always had a garden, but I never saw the benefit of it all. Now that I have a place of my own, it's like a switch has been flipped...
Barbara Kingsolver lays out a year in the life of their local food experiment/experience with wit and insight that makes me yearn for simpler times. I read the chapter on August tomatoes while on a train between New York and Boston, and had to wipe away tears. How has my life gotten so completely screwed up and misaligned that I have managed to disconnect myself from the opportune simplicity of a deeper connection with my food chain? I say this with reticence, as I read the chapter after grabbing a Heineken and a pretzel for my dinner. Dinner indeed. A far cry from the world of vegetable rows, the constant battle with weeds, and the seeming neverending march of squash and zucchini out of a summer garden...like so many soldiers marching forth out of their barracks and into the world, ready for battle with the nearest frying pan. I battle with different cultures and expectation management strategies everyday with my job, but the straightforward task of battling an army of squash and tomatoes is definitely a fight I'd like to be a part of.
I recommend this book to anyone else who feels disconnected from their food supply...to anyone who doesn't check vegetable labels in the supermarket to see where things originate...to anyone who wishes to indulge in fantasies of a life that is "way outta here."
Update: After finishing this book, I still recommend it for all the same reasons mentioned above. One of the final chapters in this book deals with, for lack of a more "proper" title, turkey sex. I was completely fascinated by Ms. Kingsolver's account of the whole...umm...process (and I swear it was from a completely wholesome perspective.)
Definitely recommend this book for anyone who eats food and has no idea where it comes from...
...less
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October 09
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Andrew
gave
to:
The World Without Us (Hardcover)
by Alan Weisman
bookshelves:
dunredalready
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in September, 2008, has a copy to sell/swap
Andrew said:
"I'm still in the middle of this book, but it's absolutely and completely fascinating. The premise (the author's sly slander against the Rapture in multiple instances grows a little tiresome) is based around the idea of how the world would change if ...more
I'm still in the middle of this book, but it's absolutely and completely fascinating. The premise (the author's sly slander against the Rapture in multiple instances grows a little tiresome) is based around the idea of how the world would change if all human life forms (and ONLY humans) were to instantly disappear from the face of the planet. All animals, as well as all human-influenced and managed/monitored/protected areas were left as-is, with no one around to keep watch. It's a fantastic dive into a history and analysis of just how much humankind has influenced and irrevocably altered the planet. Even with us gone, the choices and patterns made by us, as well as previous civilizations, would continue to influence and guide the survival and adaptation and evolution of everything on the planet. Definitely recommend...
Update: I finished this book, and it's pretty freaking awesome all the way through. After finishing, it's hard not to be just a little bit disconcerted with the extent to which mankind has irrevocably altered the planet. Even IF we were to all disappear tomorrow, our actions and continual thirst for more, more, more, has left a scar on the world that, in some cases, will "never" go away. The chapters on the sea of plastic trash in the Pacific Ocean is disheartening to the point of near madness.
If anyone wants to borrow this little gem, let me know......less
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August 26
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New comment on Corey's review of
On the Road
reply to this comment
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August 18
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Andrew
is currently reading:
The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It (Hardcover)
by Jonathan Zittrain
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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recommended to Andrew by:
NPR
recommended for: gadget geeks, twentysomethings, Standard Poodles (damn insightful, they are)
Andrew said:
"I'm still ankle-deep in this book, and have been for some time. The first 1/3 of the book is a great history of how we got to where we are with this wonderful world of the internet. some of the most amazing things instituted when the interwebs (tx...more
I'm still ankle-deep in this book, and have been for some time. The first 1/3 of the book is a great history of how we got to where we are with this wonderful world of the internet. some of the most amazing things instituted when the interwebs (tx, W) got started up were all the protocols, agreements, and structures that never got commercialized, privatized, or bushwhacked by opportunistic boobs. now, in this age of the XBox, iPhone, and Tivo, we are seeing an attempt to railroad the "free to all" collaborative mindset and creative freedom inherent in the early internet days into some sort of sterile (but yet oh-so dirty) corporatization, all in the name of profiteering and such.
Ok, so maybe that's a bit unfair. but damn it, the reason we have the luxury of wasting time on such applications as streaming Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, and hotornot.com is because the fundamental heavy lifting was largely done with a spirit of collaboration and pure "what will happen next?" idealism.
Zittrain makes fantastic points about the dangers of straying too far down either road (anarchy vs. Orwellian iron-fistedness), and it really makes one stop and ponder just HOW we are going to move forward in an intelligent way given the seeming dichotomy we're facing.
If you care at all about the fact that Apple has complete control over what you're allowed to do with your cell phone apps, this is highly recommended reason.
If you're still surfing dialup and utilizing AOL startup discs from the mail, then this book will help kick you into the 21st century. it's a mad, mad world, and we as consumers of all this technogadgetry ultimately have the power to determine what succeeds and what fails...
...but we have to be INFORMED consumers!
Forget about keeping up with the Joneses...the Joneses are probably pirating your wireless connection as we speak and re-routing official foreign government communiques in between attempts to crack the encryption on your online bank accounts...
...less
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Andrew
gave
to:
Restless Faith: Holding on to a God Just Out of Reach (Paperback)
by Winn Collier (Goodreads author!)
bookshelves:
dunredalready
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Andrew said:
"This is a fantastic book for anyone struggling to find meaning in a spiritual dry spell. Just because God may not be speaking directly to you, it doesn't mean He doesn't exist. This book goes back through the societal strife, negligent indolence, tr...more
This is a fantastic book for anyone struggling to find meaning in a spiritual dry spell. Just because God may not be speaking directly to you, it doesn't mean He doesn't exist. This book goes back through the societal strife, negligent indolence, trials, tribulations, and head-scratching works God addressed through the prophet Malachi. God brought the heat through Malachi, and this book does a fantastic job of relating the struggles of 4th Century BC to the struggles we face as Christians surrounded by a blinding world of weirdness in the current day and age.
For anyone toying with the notion of "quitting God," I highly suggest this read. It helped me through some pretty dark days, and is infused with just the right amount of "get off your butt and do something" as "be still and know that I am God". A satisfying Easter morning brunch of a book, complete with all the fixin's.
...less
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July 10, 2007
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Andrew
gave
to:
Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea (Signet Classics)
by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
bookshelves:
dunredalready
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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recommended for: mates, office types
read in January, 2007, has a copy to sell/swap
Andrew said:
"This book made me cry multiple times, but not for the direct subject matter. I think there were just a few too many references to the California coast described in enough detail that the effect was to pry out long-lingering ghosts haunting the coast...more
This book made me cry multiple times, but not for the direct subject matter. I think there were just a few too many references to the California coast described in enough detail that the effect was to pry out long-lingering ghosts haunting the coastline of my own isle of denial. his descriptions are never quite up to the par of his literary contemporaries, but the detail leaves any California-lover desperately lamenting the irretrievable passage of those first rough-and-tumble times that "modern man" first began journeying to that area of the world.
Dana's description of first arriving in San Francisco made me shiver, and I still get goosebumps thinking about it. The complete and utter irretrievability of that outpost wilderness fills me with something more than sadness and something less than rage.
The book itself is a fascinating look at pre-gold rush California, and Dana treats the California coastline and journey there and back from Boston as a sort of seafaring pioneer narrative. it is cast in plain terms and he calls things as he sees them. the concept of an intelligent, thoughtful voice penning such a journey, as opposed to what I would assume might typically be the voice of an ignorant, uneducated sailor, gives the story a fresh slant. as the journey progresses on, there are moments where Dana's amusement with the whole situation wears quite thin and the reality of the possibility in becoming a career sailor inches just too close to reality for his comfort. it is in these moments that his true humanity shines through.
This is an excellent read for any twentysomething who is still not convinced of what their life and career should look like. ...less
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Andrew
gave
to:
Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape (Paperback)
by James Howard Kunstler
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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recommended for: non-eco-conscious humans, herding dogs, and all SUV owners
read in January, 2007
Andrew said:
"There is nothing like a little James Howard Kunstler to make you feel like a complete asshole and Capitalist whore. His newest prophesy is that the American suburb is dead, but this book only predicts that with its strangely-plausible sounding dooms...more
There is nothing like a little James Howard Kunstler to make you feel like a complete asshole and Capitalist whore. His newest prophesy is that the American suburb is dead, but this book only predicts that with its strangely-plausible sounding doomsday warnings and vehement attacks against anyone so blind enough to want the myth that is the American Dream.
The book takes a fascinating look at the forces that drove the rise of individual landownership and the suburb as currently accepted in modern society. his examinations of human psychological and anthropological tendencies are depressing, but spot-on as far as this non-psychological/anthropologically -challenged reader can tell.
While I can heartily agree with him on the bulk of his logical reasoning, I just don't like that I put the book down feeling guilty about growing up in suburbia and being raised with the virtues of "typical" suburban life instilled in my brain. I'm trying to break free, but the concept of a backyard keeps sucking me in! don't look at me, I'm hideous...
I highly recommend this book to anyone who happily lives alone in a house in the suburbs and commutes to work alone in an automobile every day. prepare for your world to be rocked....less
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Andrew
gave
to:
We (Twentieth-Century Classics)
by Yevgeny Zamyatin
bookshelves:
dunredalready
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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recommended for: Anarchists and/or Republicans
read in January, 2001, has a copy to sell/swap
Andrew said:
"This is a classic examination of love, sex, boredom, betrayal, and government control. it's like a burrito of chewy pre-existential goodness. nothing makes you contemplate the meaning of life like contemplating living life in a glass box with no pri...more
This is a classic examination of love, sex, boredom, betrayal, and government control. it's like a burrito of chewy pre-existential goodness. nothing makes you contemplate the meaning of life like contemplating living life in a glass box with no privacy. or no sense of what privacy is. or no real care about privacy as a concept. ...less
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Andrew
gave
to:
1984 (Paperback)
by George Orwell
bookshelves:
dunredalready
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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recommended for: Anarchists and/or Republicans
read in January, 1996, has a copy to sell/swap
Andrew said:
"It's an Orwellian Thanksgiving dinner of guilt! Other than the completely depressing subject matter of government control and satiation (???), it is a good rainy day / mid-floundering-presidential-administration read. I would actually recommend We ...more
It's an Orwellian Thanksgiving dinner of guilt! Other than the completely depressing subject matter of government control and satiation (???), it is a good rainy day / mid-floundering-presidential-administration read. I would actually recommend We by Yevgeny Zamyatin as a precursor to Orwell. I think Orwell even drew inspiration from We, but I'm no literary critic. I might be completely making that up. it's a bit too direct of a correlation to be random......less
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