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An April 2007 Significant 7 Editors' Pick: Funny, engaging, and oh-so-practical, Send is the ultimate etiquette handbook for email, making David Shipley and Will Schwalbe the "Miss Manners" resource for the digital age. Full of practical insights, Send is an invaluable resource for anyone who uses email, and is guaranteed to help you "think before you click." We are not the only fans of this important book. We asked psychologist, science journalist, and bestselling author Daniel Goleman to read Send and give us his take. Check out his exclusive guest review below. --Daphne Durham
Guest Reviewer: Daniel Goleman
Daniel Goleman is an internationally known psychologist who lectures frequently to professional groups, business audiences, and on college campuses, and is the author of many bestselling books, including Emotional Intelligence and most recently, Social Intelligence.
Poor Michael Brown. During the darkest days of the Hurricane Katrina debacle, Brown, then director of FEMA, the agency that so badly bungled the rescue efforts, sent this email: "Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?"
Emails can come back to haunt us--any of us. Few among us have mastered this medium, and only slowly are we realizing its dangers.
From the earliest days of email people "flamed", sending off irritating or otherwise annoying messages. One explanation for the failure to inhibit our more unruly impulses online is a mismatch between the screen we stare at as we email, and the cues the social circuits of the brain use to navigate us through an interaction effectively: on email there is no tone of voice, no facial expression. When we talk to someone on the phone or face-to-face these circuits would ordinarily squelch impulses that will seem "off." Lacking these crucial cues, flaming occurs.
It's not just flaming--I've sent my fair share of emails that were, in retrospect, embarrassing, too familiar or formal, or otherwise wrong in tone. Email invites these lapses in social intelligence in part because the social brain flies blind. In the absence of the other person's real-time emotional signals we need to take a moment to shift from focusing on our own feelings and thoughts, and intentionally focus on the other person, even in absentia, and consider, How might this message come across?
The peril of being off-key is amplified by the temptation to hit SEND prematurely: before we've thought it over and had a chance to ease up on that too-stiff tone, drop that bit of sarcasm, and remember to ask about the kids.
In the old days of letter writing--a dying art--we had plenty of time to rewrite before sealing the envelope, and so flaming letters were far more rare than red-hot emails. And so the brave new world of email could benefit from a civilizing force, a voice that articulates the ground rules online.
Enter Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home, a new book by David Shipley (an old friend of mine) and Will Schwalbe. Send not only articulates the way to win--or keep--friends online, but offers practical tips on both email etiquette and on the writing style most suitable.
In this witty and wise book Shipley and Schwalbe give essential guidance on vital matters like the politics of using Cc (nobody likes to be left out); when to just reply and when to "Reply All"; the danger of the URGENT subject (too many and you cry wolf); fine-tuning your greetings to fit the relationship (if you use the wrong one, you can lose them at hello); how best to apologize online (put the word 'sorry' in the subject or else the email may never be read).
But Send is far more than Miss Manners for the Web; it's brimming with fascinating insights. For example, now that email has become the way we talk, showing up in person has added impact as the ultimate compliment, signifying that the person, meeting or project has special importance for you.
Years ago a slim volume by Strunk and White, The Elements of Style, laid out the ground rules for good writing; the book became a bible for authors, widely known just as "Strunk and White." Send should make Shipley and Schwalbe the "Strunk and White" for the Web. --Daniel Goleman (www.danielgoleman.info)
Book Description
When should you email, and when should you call, fax, or just show up?
What is the crucial—and most often overlooked—line in an email?
What is the best strategy when you send (in anger or error) a potentially career-ending electronic bombshell?
Enter Send. Whether you email just a little or never stop, use a desktop or a handheld, here, at last, is an authoritative and delightful book that shows how to write the perfect email—at work, at school, or anywhere. Send also points out the numerous (but not always obvious) times when email can be the worst option and might land you in hot water (or even jail!).
The secret is, of course, to think before you click. Send is nothing short of a survival guide for the digital age—wise, brimming with good humor, and filled with helpful lessons from the authors’ own email experiences (and mistakes). In short: absolutely e-ssential.
Customer Reviews:
Help for today's communicator.......2007-09-30
Hello reader
I have found the help I need at last.
In my workplace people write an email rather than picking up the phone or turning around and talking to the person at the next desk.
Is this the same for you?
And do you find it leads to confusion and endless chains of communication on simple matters?
Here is your solution.
Read it and keep it for reference.
No need to reply.
Regards
David
Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Home and Office.......2007-09-29
Easy to understand even if you are not too computer literate. Would have been helpful to be able to read a paragraph or two before purchase.
Learned what I didn't know I didn't know.......2007-09-26
This is an easy read with lots of great info packed into a small volume. The authors' credentials are hard to beat, and the info is laid out in categories making it easy to go back and reread. I learned many things I didn't know about email etiquette (not just no caps!) and the reasoning behind it. They talk about overuse of attachments (I'm guilty!) and other problems I never thought of as a problem. Enjoy!
EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE should read this book.......2007-09-25
Some of the reviews below are correct, this book is simplistic. But unfortunately, most people have lost all sense of etiquette when it comes to email as the book suggests.
Email has become a disgraced form of communication that few people know how navigate properly, and those that do, could certainly stand to become better.
I am buying this for all of my coworkers, family, and friends for Christmas...if only for selfish reasons that it will make my work and home life more productive.
It Doesn't End with E-mail.......2007-08-13
A very thorough and comprehensive book, as far as it goes. Of course, liability and abuse doesn't end with e-mail (or even with IMs, blogs, or social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, etc.) and what your employees do in terms of effective use, or misuse. The area of content (information) management is an evolving and ever-more encompassing discipline. "I.T. Wars: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium" is perhaps the best and most comprehensive treatment - the essential alignment of business and technology for best outcomes and ongoing returns, covering ALL areas.
Book Description
Barry Lopez asked 45 poets and writers to define terms that describe America’s land and water forms — phrases like flatiron, bayou, monadnock, kiss tank, meander bar, and everglade. The result is a major enterprise comprising over 850 descriptions, 100 line drawings, and 70 quotations from works by Willa Cather, Truman Capote, John Updike, Cormac McCarthy, and others. Carefully researched and exquisitely written by talents such as Barbara Kingsolver, Lan Samantha Chang, Robert Hass, Terry Tempest Williams, Jon Krakauer, Gretel Ehrlich, Luis Alberto Urrea, Antonya Nelson, Charles Frazier, Linda Hogan, and Bill McKibben, Home Ground is a striking composite portrait of the landscape. At the heart of this expansive work is a community of writers in service to their country, emphasizing a language that suggests the vastness and mystery that lie beyond our everyday words.
Customer Reviews:
Home Ground.......2007-07-17
Everything Barry Lopez touches is guaranteed quality reading. "Home Ground" a wonderful reference for understanding various geographical/landscape features. Pulling the reference to same from literature onto the same page as the definition is a brilliant idea. I enjoy opening it and reading it at random and also referring to it to refresh myself on terms.
A Beautiful Book.......2007-05-23
If you have a passion for the land, for the language, for fine writing, for earth's mysteries, and for peculiarities of places; and especially if you like books that are simply well-wrought objects, this is a truly beautiful volume. Trust to accident, and crack it open anywhere - you will be enlightened about some little place or feature you likely never knew existed. A true treasure.
Home Ground.......2007-04-04
The format of this interesting exploration of the landscape lends itself to those occasional free moments when one wants a connection with something of worth. Here is a wonderful blending of history, language and the land. Home Ground deserves a permanent place on the coffee table.
Nature Lover from Portola Valley loves Home Ground.......2007-01-23
I'd recommend this book to anyone who reads widely and loves to discover the derivation of geographical terms pertainig to nature. What is unique about this book is the input from 45 well known writers to define unique American landscape terms. I ordered 3 copies for all my family located in the Pacific Northwest and they agree that this book is a great resource.
Landscapes and Language.......2007-01-12
The book defines (with illustrations) terms used to describe land features, such as barranca, grand bois, quaking bog. It is primarily a book to dip into for fun or to consult as a reference. If you like descriptive terms (e.g., meander scar) or puzzling friends with new words, you will like this book.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
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History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
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ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
"Kitty Burns Florey seems to write from a great wellspring of inner calm that derives from a gleeful appreciation of life's smallest details."-Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
Empire Falls
Once wildly popular and used by grammar teachers across America, sentence diagramming is now a lost art to most people. But from the moment she encountered it in the sixth-grade classroom of Sister Bernadette, Kitty Burns Florey was fascinated by the bizarre method of mapping the words in a sentence.
Now a novelist and veteran copyeditor, Florey studies the practice in a charming and funny look back at its odd history, its elegant method, and its rich, ongoing possibilities. From a discussion of its birth at the Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn, to a consideration of how it works, to a revealing look at some of literature's most famous sentences in diagram, it is a charming and often inspiring tale.
Along the way, Florey explores the importance of good grammar and answers language lovers' most pressing questions: Was Mark Twain or James Fenimore Cooper a better grammarian? Can knowing how to diagram a sentence make your life better? And what's Gertrude Stein got to do with any of it?
Customer Reviews:
A Fond Tribute to the Fun, Floundering Art of Diagramming Sentences........2007-08-27
"Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog" is not a primer on sentence diagramming but a fond tribute to this outmoded exercise by Kitty Burns Florey, who learned to civilize sentences from Sister Bernadette in the 6th grade. A good-humored history of diagramming, a critique, a showcase, and a rumination on the value of correct grammar and usage, "Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog" delights and informs, if you're the sort of person who thinks diagramming sentences is marvelous fun and who cringes at muddy, muddled language. If you don't know how to diagram a sentence, this book is not the best place to learn. You could glean the basics if you have a solid background in English grammar, but the author has not included any real instruction for diagramming.
Ms. Florey guides us through the history of sentence diagramming, born in 1877 of the 19th century compulsion to classify, to its eventual tumble into obscurity in the 1960s. Along the way, she examines diagramming's strengths and weaknesses, namely that you can't always reconstruct a sentence from its diagram due to the uncertain word order. Her quest for undiagrammable sentences leads to Gertrude Stein, who was passionate about grammar, eschewed punctuation, and wrote many undiagrammable sentences -if you can call them sentences. Florey diagrams long, complex sentences by Henry James and the straightforward prose of Ernest Hemingway, among others. Would Proust or James have been fettered by the regimental logic of sentence diagramming? I doubt it. Stein sure wasn't.
Ms. Florey doubts that diagramming sentences produced better writers and believes its greatest benefit may have been to make grammar fun. I have to give it more credit than that. I learned diagramming in the 8th grade from Mr. Long, a fuddy-duddy who insisted on teaching diagramming decades after it had gone out of fashion. The English grammar books that most students studied in the 5th-10th grades were incomprehensible. The result was that even bright 17-year-olds in AP classes had no clue where to place a comma or why, could not recognize a split infinitive or misplaced modifier, etc. Diagramming teaches people the purpose of each word in a sentence, which enables writers to express themselves more clearly and avoid punctuation errors. And it's fun. What could be better?
Delightful.......2007-08-06
This is a delightful book about a topic which is perhaps not a delightful memory for some readers. Years ago, many pupils struggled with the graphic particularities and linguistic categorization demanded in classrooms where diagramming was taught. However, Florey loved sentence diagramming and has written a book which is part memoir of her years learning and displaying it in a Catholic elementary school; part history of the development of diagramming by dedicated teachers in the nineteenth century (initially, balloons, not lines were used); part reflection on another devotee of diagramming, Gertrude Stein; and part Florey's observations about English. Florey is an excellent writer, but she is not an evangelist. She does not attribute good writing to sentence diagramming, but following one of her dicta for writers, Florey "communicates elegantly" about a topic of historic interest and current controversy.
a little misleading, but maybe just plain mysterious.......2007-06-30
I bought this book after hearing an interview with Kitty Burns Florey on NPR. Though diagramming always seemed to me a limited pedagogical form, I was interested to find out more about the methodology and rationale behind the system. The first two chapters of this book provide a lot of that, though in essence the research seems weak, with Burns Florey doing little more than finding the original books where diagramming methods were developed, from the original balloon designs of S.W. Clark (A practical grammar: In which words, phrases, and sentences are classified according to their offices, and their various relations to one another : illustrated by a complete system of diagrams) to her formal focus, Reed and Kellogg's (Higher Lessons in English A work on english grammar and composition). Her overview takes more of a memoir-like bend, relating these ideas to how they affected her in grammar school rather than addressing their applications to writing and language. Her insight into these books feels very thin, and I felt that I could get more about this topic from reading the original source material, since Burns Florey couldn't really offer any insight into the rationales behind these systems.
The later chapters start looking at the styles of other writers and the shortcomings of sentence diagramming. In fact, after a long treatise on Gertrude Stein, who praised diagramming highly yet wrote utterly undiagrammable sentences, Burns Florey concludes by saying, "For many of the world's great literary writers, diagramming would seem to be seriously beside the point." Now, I was mystified as to what the point of the book was anymore. If diagramming was already a lost art, as the author had already brought up from the beginning, then why go into the shortcomings of diagramming? Her point about the fact that a sentence can be utterly nonsensical but diagram well was interesting but does not seem to be taken towards any further insightful conclusions (and this point was not even the author's). If this was a book ultimately about language and its nebulous nature that is naturally resistant to the geometry of diagramming, then Burns Florey doesn't really offer much insight into the nature of language and how it can resist structure. Overall, this reads like a flat overview of diagramming with a little bit of research, but not enough to provide much insight into the schools of controllable vs. uncontrollable language and whether effective language fits this geometry or not (the answer to which being obviously mixed, but Burns Florey does not offer any ideas as to why).
By the end of this book, I felt as though I had been dragged into a conversation (fairer to say monologue) with Kitty Burns Florey and lectured to for a time about a subject she has great interest in. However, by the end of the lecture, I have learned little more than what I knew from the start--that she is greatly interested in diagramming, though I still have no palpable reason why (or, fairer to say, why I should be interested as well). An interesting topic for a book, but Kitty Burns Florey in the end has little to say about it.
I hated diagramming, but I liked this........2007-04-13
Kitty Burns Florey, Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences (Melville House, 2006)
When I was in eighth grade, I feared English class. Odd for someone whose life's goal was to be a writer, eh? But walking into that room clutching Warriner's English Grammar and Composition like a buckler and a No. 2 pencil as a sword was like entering the Circus Maximus. Why? Eighth grade was the year we were introduced to diagramming sentences. It's the English teacher's equivalent of geometry, and for someone who's not math-minded, it's a terrifying experience. This feeling was unanimous in my classmates, and whenever I've brought up the subject of diagramming sentences in the (far too) many years since then, it's always been greeted with facial expressions ranging from disgust to post-traumatic stress disorder. I had rather thought the hatred and fear of diagramming was universal.
Not so. Kitty Burns Florey loved it, when she was in school. After reading Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog, I have to say that if I'd had an English teacher who approached diagramming as Sister Bernadette did, I'd probably have gotten out of eighth grade with far less mental anguish than I actually did. Florey traces the (quirky, natch) history of diagramming whilst giving us a picture of how it was used when she was in school-- as a game, a way to break up the monotony of learning one's spelling words and parts of speech. Good stuff, that, and certainly more fun than opening one's Warriner's and finding that one's assignment for the night was to diagram an entire page of Henry James. (Okay, I exaggerate. But still. Florey diagrams a single sentence of James at one point in the book, and it's about as complex as the complete Tudor family tree.)
I've always been a fan of history books that illuminate some odd little forgotten corner of history, and so I'd have been predisposed to like this even if Florey hadn't approached her subject in such an accessible manner. But the book is short, readable, and (dare I say it?) fun. Even if you hated diagramming sentences (and I'm still not convinced anyone but Kitty Burns Florey ever actually liked it), this is a good'un. ****
Book | is \ frustrating.......2007-03-28
I consider myself quite the word nerd and started to read this book with great interest, but I found this book very frustrating. It started off well, suggesting a memoir of a life diagramming sentences (a craft I learned in the fifth grade) but soon turned to a mind-dulling treatise on the arcana of diagramming--without even any instructions for the uninitiated or out of practice.
So besides that headache, readers looking for Catholic humor or sepia-toned trips back in time to a pre-Vatican II era will be greatly disappointed. However, SISTER BERNADETTE'S BARKING DOG would make a fine gift for your favorite English teacher now living in the retirement wing of the convent's mother house--but for no one else.
Book Description
Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other -- a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.
From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue -- it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and -- the author's favorite -- historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.
Download Description
"Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other -- a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage. From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue -- it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and -- the author's favorite -- historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult. "
Customer Reviews:
My first summer reading title.......2007-07-29
So, I started this book while working at a youth arts camp for bratty children and fell into it very quickly, having it act as a getaway more than anything, at first.
Vowell has a very great tone in her writing that, apparently, not everyone finds as endearing as I do. Having visited many of the sites she's writing about (hooray, family road trips!), it's refreshing to read her accounts of the places.
Certainly, the section of the book concerning Lincoln is the best. I haven't done a lot of presidential reading, though I have caught the occasional special on PBS about various presidents, but I felt that the section of the book concerning Lincoln's assassination showed a side to everything that I'd never known about--i.e. Wilkes-Booth's thespian family roots, Robert Lincoln aka the Angel of Presidential death, etc.
The other two sections seemed, to me at least, rushed, although, as Vowell points out, it's hard to compare other presidents, even in death, to Lincoln.
All in all, I felt it was a great quick read that leaves you with some conversation fodder for your next shindig. Everyone enjoys some presidential trivia, right?
I LOVE this book!!.......2007-07-24
If you know Sarah Vowell from NPR, you'll hear her idiosyncratic voice on every page. And I guess if you don't know her from NPR, then it will just be a fantastic, funny, historic read in your own voice. Vowell is droll, sarcastic, and a Mistress of Irony. It's facinating to see how her mind works, making connection after connection that would probably never occur to mortal humans like the rest of us.
Just what I needed this summer..........2007-07-04
This was a library pick, as I wasn't entirely sure if it would be a keeper. While not exactly something I'd read over and over, it was definitely a good read, honestly, a perfect little book for your summer reading list, as it's light enough to be read in bits, but chock full of fun things that will prepare you to compete on Jeopardy.
The book is part history, part travelogue, part memoir, covering Vowell's various trips to locations around the United States that have links to three presidential assassinations. The book is witty, sarky, and full of dark humor. Honestly, I think she wanted an excuse to write about a trip to the Mütter Museum. In the book she covers the assassination of Lincoln, McKinley and Garfield. She does so by interspersing random bits of trivia (did you know that Robert Todd Lincoln was present or nearby all three assassinations?) She also manages to tie together such disparate things as a Victorian-era sex commune and America's newest national park.
She does it all in a quick-paced, rapid fire, seemingly random association of events. Sometimes they do click, sometimes they don't, but either way, you'll walk away from the particular topic going "Hrmm... I didn't know that."
This book should be particularly entertaining to people who live in DC or New York City, as a lot of her accounts involve locales in this area. I found the DC stuff particularly charming, as nearly everything she pointed out is familiar to me on some level. I half expected her to start blathering about the Roxy Owls, to be honest.
The low point for me, though, has to do with the fact that the book starts off with a sort of smug cosmopolitan egotism that really turned me off. The whole "I know what bubble tea is, and these backwater farmers I'm visiting don't." I was particularly annoyed with her commentary about Richmond, as she seemed to paint the entire place as full of racist hatemongers. She made this assumption based purely on the fact that the Confederacy based its capital here, and John Wilkes Booth spent a good deal of time here. Heck, she even goes so far as to conjecture that Booth and Poe are so messed up because they lived here at some point.
I'm kinda offended by this, as I live here, and Richmond, honestly isn't that bad, especially in the racist hatemonger side of things. Sure, we don't have a decent place to get bubble tea anymore, but Richmond is not really fitting of the whole aura she gives it.
But honestly, that was my only sore point with the book.
I will also add, as a bonus she is one of us. You know what I mean. She drops the secret handshakes all over the book. From her giddiness at visiting the Müter Museum, to her amusement when a docent patted her gently to warn her that it might be a little "scary," to her pride in the fact that her three year old nephew has the word "crypt" in his limited vocabulary. I can assure you, that you are reading a book written by someone who has listened to "Floodland" a few times.
Finally, if you consider yourself conservative, support the Iraq war, and think George Bush is the awesome (which is honestly what she should have picked on in regards to Richmond), then this book will annoy you. Avoid it. Otherwise, it's worth the few days to read it!
The funniest, breeziest tour of American history you'll probably ever read........2007-07-02
It's a darned good book. Everyone should go and read it. It's a great page-turner, and Vowell's fascination with American history is infectious. (If this were a book about the history of typhoid, that would be a joke, and it would be *money*.) She's a funny writer, has a number of ingenious turns of phrase, and draws connections between events in a way that would make James Burke (of Scientific American) proud. Highly recommended.
See, I told you History is fun.......2007-06-22
I want to hang out with Sarah Vowell. More to the point I want to take in some museums and historical landmarks with her and listen in on her conversations with curators, docents and misinformed teens (is there any other kind?). The great thing about Vowell is that in reading one of her books you feel as though you ARE hanging out with her and the assorted lucky friends and relatives who accompany her around America's historical sites. These sites include the arcane, the morbid and the iconic an whatever else is in between.
The pretext for this meandering is to gain insight into the first three assassinations of American presidents That fourth one has, and doubtless will continue to be, beaten quite to death by writers, journalists, researchers and curmudgeons like me resulting in way more questions than answers. The deaths of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley are a lot tidier in a whodunit and why sense. The latter two especially have received scant attention from the general American public. (There was some president named Garfield McKinley killed by an anarchist office seeker in 1873, I think.)
Anyway Vowell and readers have a lot of fun tracing the events and participants of these assassinations. From Key West, Florida to Springfield, Illinois to New York, New york. From statues, museums, plaques and monuments soak in some American history and enjoy the unique and humorous voice of Sarah Vowell.
While I enjoyed most every page I particularly like the chapter on Garfield who's surprising rise to and brief time as president is so emblematic of an era and who's assassin was such a bizarre character so emblematic of a particular kind of psychosis.
Readers will also appreciate that Vowell is always true to her voice and never hides her biases and predilections but never betrays her true intent of telling a charming and insightful story.
A good time will be had by all.
Book Description
Includes:
*Complete preparation for the New SAT Writing Section
*3 practice tests
*Comprehensive writing clinic
*Effective techniques and strategies for every type of question in the multiple-choice section, including identifying sentence errors, and improving sentences and paragraphs.
Customer Reviews:
Ok!.......2007-05-26
I own this book. It is ok. practice material is not that abundant. I have gotten a 730 on the writing, and went through this book and then got a 720.
Book Description
One man's irreverent and insightful chronicle of his journey into the Arab World.
The deejay put on a James Brown remix, and the club went nuts again. Everyone started singing in English, and people climbed up on all the club's tables and chairs to shake their hipsÃ-On my way home at 4:00 a.m. (the club was still hopping when I left), I couldn't help thinking about all these wealthy Jordanians and Palestinians, dressed in American and European labels, dancing and singing to American music with such sheer joy. . . . As far as I know, there isn't a word in Arabic for "longing for America," but that is what this night, this scene, and this club seemed to be about.--from Live from Jordan
On the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, 27-year old Pittsburgh native and grad student Benjamin Orbach traveled to Amman, Jordan, in search of answers. Young, confident, and optimistic, Orbach anointed himself America's secret diplomatic weapon. He was finishing a degree in Middle Eastern studies, had a working knowledge of Arabic, and possessed the determination to "negotiate a peace treaty."
He also had no place to live, little money, and no friends to speak of in Jordan. As Ben Orbach spent his first few days in the Middle East in search of a hot shower, the address of his new flat, and a decent haircut, he began to discover something much more important. In the cafes and salons, and on the buses and streets of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Turkey, he found conflicted, curious, and multilayered people who had more to teach him than he ever imagined. From bustling bazaars to an underground brothel, Live from Jordan is the incredible story, told via his eloquent, compassionate, and irreverent letters home, of Orbach's 13-month journey through the Middle East.
Through Orbach's eyes, we begin to see a world where nothing is quite what it seems, a world that is more intricate than what is portrayed in 30-second sounds bites on American television. We meet people like Sundos, a Jordan University freshman who digs surfing the Internet, and Fadi, his sensitive, passionate Palestinian flatmate, who belts out the lyrics of Mariah Carey songs and decries the policies of George Bush. From the privileged young clubbers of Amman to the beleaguered workers who cram themselves into buses every day in search of a meager salary, we begin to see the Middle East as it really is.
As he travels from the throbbing streets of Cairo to the friendly living rooms of ordinary people in Jordan, Ben Orbach offers an honest, balanced portrait of a region in turmoil. Engaging, witty, and evocative, Live from Jordan is a myth-breaking book that transports us to a world that is more multifaceted, more beautiful, and more seductive than many of us have ever imagined.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent "on the ground" account of the Middle East.......2007-09-27
This book is an excellent account of everyday life in Jordan and Egypt, as well as an account of the history, politics and economics of the region. I visited Jordan before this book was published. I wish I would have had it before I went, especially for the perspectives of the Palestinians in Jordan. Highly recommended!
Entertaining and educational.......2007-09-16
I found Live from Jordan to be entertaining and educational. Orbach does an excellent job providing a first hand account of his experiences in the Middle East. He provides great insight into daily life in the region as well as the complex issues and nuances faced in his daily travels. Orbach's stories are well detailed and often humorous making for an enlightening and enjoyable read.
Its approach and presentation are winning........2007-07-09
Any collection strong in modern Middle East issues and studies, whether it be at the college level for sociology courses or in public library holdings, will find LIVE FROM JORDAN: LETTERS HOME FROM MY JOURNEY THROUGH THE MIDDLE EAST to be a winner. On the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq the Pittsburgh native and grad student Benjamin Orbach traveled to Amman, Jordan to finish a degree in Middle Eastern studies. He had no place to live, little money, and no friends in the region - and through his 13-month series of journeys he discovered a land and people not ordinarily presented through media reporter's eyes. Any who would really learn about the Middle East must have LIVE FROM JORDAN: its approach and presentation are winning.
Surprisingly Good Read.......2007-07-05
Being half Arabic, I was skeptical before I picked up the book because I assumed it would be written with a tone in which I wouldn't agree. However, what I found was an insightful novel that was both funny and thought-provoking.
Mr. Orbach writes in a wonderful tone that brings his experiences to life while doing an amazing job explaining the perceptions surrounding the situation in the Middle East - from all sides.
I highly recommend this book as an enjoyable travel read and as a remarkably understandable historical and social account of events in the Middle East.
Travalog as Contrivance for US fForeign Policy.......2007-06-24
Live from Jordan: Letters Home from My Journey
Through the Middle East by Benjamin Orbach
My criteria for liking a book are to meld content
and style. I finally came upon a book that is ostensibly a travelogue but really is a very good discovery of the complexity of the peoples of Arabia, particularly the people of "the Arab street" in Damascus, Amman and Cairo. The peoples have differing cultures, language dialects and are still pulled by tribal instinct.
Mr. Orbach shows that the populations of these
countries are extremely variegated - to the extent
that US foreign policy decision-makers cannot make glib pronouncements on the basis of "truth, justice and the American way."
Victims of exploitative colonialism and greedy
dictators, the common people seem unremarkably passive, with a predilection for regime change if not for revolution. The internet, among other things, has brought: other visions to the common folk; experiences of freedom of thought; and the materialistic comforts as the result of their enterprise.
The spark to ignite the lethal explosive between them and the dictator seems not too far off. And yet, the common people may not have a palatable solution for the Israeli's or Jews. Indeed, the author feared identifying himself as a Jew, thinking it enough of a shock that an American was in their midst - who even spoke their own Arabic dialect.
We learn the living conditions, the oppressive work and the little time for "fun." It makes me wonder what will occur when nation building is accomplished. What type of government overthrow will occur and what role will the United State play in regime change, if any at all?
All in all, this book is well worth the read to
sensitize the Western reader that the "Arabs" are
not a monolithic body, all of whom are terrorists.
Art Finkle
Book Description
Recently appointed as the new U. S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser has been writing and publishing poetry for more than forty years. In the pages of The Poetry Home Repair Manual, Kooser brings those decades of experience to bear. Here are tools and insights, the instructions (and warnings against instructions) that poets—aspiring or practicing—can use to hone their craft, perhaps into art. Using examples from his own rich literary oeuvre and from the work of a number of successful contemporary poets, the author schools us in the critical relationship between poet and reader, which is fundamental to what Kooser believes is poetry’s ultimate purpose: to reach other people and touch their hearts.
Much more than a guidebook to writing and revising poems, this manual has all the comforts and merits of a long and enlightening conversation with a wise and patient old friend—a friend who is willing to share everything he’s learned about the art he’s spent a lifetime learning to execute so well.
Customer Reviews:
A gentle introduction to the art of writing poetry.......2007-02-20
This is not an intense workbook to poetry nor a rigid list of rules to follow. Rather, it is a gentle conversation with the author that pleasantly guides you along the finer points of writing poetry.
Interspersed with kind humor, we read sample poems that illustrate various aspects of poetry from voice to how to submit for publication.
It reminds me by its simplicity of "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White.
You might wish after reading it that it had more details and specific exercises to help us develop the poet's skills, but he references a few other works that provide more detail if one is looking for it.
I consider this a enjoyable read that opens up one's eyes to the beauty and nuances of poetry.
& or and.......2007-02-19
Ted Kooser has written a treasure for the beginning poet. The example of the ampersand on pg. 66 is the type of information beginning poets need to hear from accomplished, critically acclaimed authors. To have the insight of a poet laureate who does not withhold any trade secrets, but Kooser lays it all out there for the reader. Tips on what to avoid, like sentimentality, and explanations of the whys and wherefores of rhyme. A necessary book for the writer's library.
The Effect of the Teacher we all wish we'd had........2007-01-10
I must confess two things: I'm already a Kooser fan and I only found him because he's the current poet laureate of the United States.
But since I came upon him he's become my favorite, not only for his superb writing, but for the person who shines through in every sentence in his poems and in this book, The Poetry Home Repair Manual. What this book isn't, is a list of all the do's and don'ts, of forms and rules. It's not a list at all, but an invitation to have a fireside chat about poetry, get cozy and talk about our favorite subject. And because Ted is a gifted teacher he can't help but share the kinds of observations that let us come away with tremendous insight and learning. What this means is that, as a result of reading The Poetry Home Repair Manual, you will become a better poet (if what you do is write poetry), and someone whose insight into poetry has increased so much that poetry becomes revealed like never before (if you are a reader of poetry). Now here's the bonus: Because Ted Kooser is generous instead of elitist, kind instead of exacting, and possesses a gentle heart and a wise mind you will have access like never before to use your own discernments with regard to poetry. Only last night I was able to put aside a poet with whom I never connected, without guilt. Five stars are not enough! Ted sets you free.
The Best Short Manual for Writing Poems.......2006-11-22
Many books have been written to help one write poems. This slim volume by Ted Kooser is a gem. I did not know Kooser prior to seeing this book tucked in a corner of a bookstore. After reading it, it seems I've known this generous Poet Laureate for a long time.
The work is useful precisely because of its brevity, clarity and warmth. One comes away appreciating the inner workings of a poet's mind. It is never stuffy and wears its intelligence lightly on its sleeve. It does not bog you down in technicalities. Rather,it helps you feel your way and prods you to think better about what you write. It has not turned me into a poet overnight, but, at the very least, it has helped me become a better reader of poems.
A Must Have Resource.......2006-11-06
I have been writing poems since I was 5 years old. I, however, have had little training in the actual process of writing. As a result, I am a terrible editor. I tend to want to slap some words down on a page from whatever muse I have and call it a poem. I know that this is not the way to be a "good" (or rather readable) poet, but with the help of books like this I am learning.
Ted Kooser style for this non-fiction instructional piece is as straightforward but well-written as his seemingly simple poetry. He touches on some of the big issues confronting new writers (and old who have strayed into bad habits).
I think this is a resource I will be able to use for years to come as I finally learn how to not just write from inspirtation. Thanks Ted!
Book Description
Entrepreneur's Notebook propels you on a whirlwind tour of the start-up process. It is an invaluable reference for new and experienced entrepreneurs that includes chapters on a wide range of topics, from entrepreneurial team building to business plans to financing. This excellent book provides an incredible amount of practical information that will help you make smarter decisions and avoid costly mistakes. The author, Steven K. Gold, is an accomplished entrepreneur who has co-founded and led five early-stage ventures. As an investor and mentor, he also advises many entrepreneurs and young companies. He earned his B.S.E. in Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and his M.D. from Brown University Medical School.
Customer Reviews:
Nice Guide for Beginners.......2007-06-16
The author writes a nice overview of the entrepreneurial process. It's basically for novices but it does a good job for this audience. The only problem I have with this book is that it is too basic and is therefore non-unique because it is so low-level. Regardless, I must say that for the right audience, it does a fine job over giving the big picture.
If you are advanced or aspire to become advanced, I would recommend "The Startup Company Bible for Entrepreneurs" but only for high-tech entrepreneurs. Even this author has recommended it.
A Must-Have for Entrepreneurs.......2007-05-14
Steven gives great illustrations to drive home his insightful advice for entrepreneurs. As he's "been there, done that," we can take his advice to heart in the hopes of becoming a success like him!
Exellent Book.......2007-05-11
Great book for getting ready to open a new business. Would refer to anyone thinking about opening a business.
Brief and to the point.......2007-04-27
This is a delightful little book that contains a wealth of useful and helpful information and ideas on starting a small business and ensuring that it is viable and succesful. The book is well written and easy to follow and interesting to read.
This is a must read for entrepreneurs, particularly budding ones as the information the book provides is very practical and can help you avoid making costly errors. The book covers a wide range of topics including the start-up process, marketing the business on a small budget, cash-flow forecasting, among other things.
The book is an excellent companion for the entrepreneur that is well worth having.
Invaluable advice for the budding entrepreneur.......2007-03-04
This book does a terrific job of presenting some of the most important issues entrepreneurs face when embarking on new ventures, touching on topics such as the business plan, funding, team building, and cash flows. Using simple, yet stunningly accurate models of the entrepreneurial process, Steven Gold distills complex subjects into simple, practical, take-away messages. The classification of entrepreneurial personalities (professionals, pragmatists, and inventors) is something I think we can all relate to. I find the metaphor which compares building a new company to making "stone soup" equally compelling. There are countless books out there for budding entrepreneurs, but this one is no fluff. It gets right down to the nuts and bolts so you can concentrate on your business.
Book Description
Originally published in 1854, Walden, or Life in the Woods, is a vivid account of the time that Henry D. Thoreau lived alone in a secluded cabin at Walden Pond. It is one of the most influential and compelling books in American literature.
This new paperback edition--introduced by noted American writer John Updike--celebrates the 150th anniversary of this classic work. Much of Walden's material is derived from Thoreau's journals and contains such engaging pieces as "Reading" and "The Pond in the Winter." Other famous sections involve Thoreau's visits with a Canadian woodcutter and with an Irish family, a trip to Concord, and a description of his bean field. This is the complete and authoritative text of Walden--as close to Thoreau's original intention as all available evidence allows.
For the student and for the general reader, this is the ideal presentation of Thoreau's great document of social criticism and dissent.
Customer Reviews:
The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-24
My first copy of this book was indubitably from some other publisher. So I'm not commenting on this particular volume but the content of the work itself.
I have always loved this book but it wasn't until recent years that I realized what a controversial book this was. Thoreau published this book at his own expense and he sold very few copies. Later on he stored most of his unsold copies in an attic. He once claimed to have the largest collection of book published by Henry David Thoreau than anyone alive - and I'm sure he did.
But why didn't people buy this book? Well, for one thing it was critical of "the neighborhood". For another thing it was critical of "the values of his neighbors". For another thing it was critical of the values of his countrymen; it was critical of Capitalism; it was critical of modern life; it was critical of the "consumer mentality"; it was critical of the work ethic; it was critical of buying things; it was critical of "getting ahead" and "accumulating; it was critical of working for a living; it was critical of achieving; it was a critique on the civilization of the day - and it was not positive.
So why did it make me feel good to read it then and why does it have the same effect on me today?
I don't know but whenever I get lonely to go have a talk with an old friend I go to the book shelf and pick up Walden by Henry David Thoreau.
Pertinent and well written.......2007-09-17
Strangely surprising how pertinent many of Thoreau's perceptions, opinions and insights on habits and values are to modern day society and culture. And impressive how vehemently he professes these views in some sections. No sugar coating here. This is raw stuff, presented with language and skill we've lost over the years.
My favorite quote: "One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels"
Thoreau is inspired and inspiring.
A lesson for us all.......2007-08-18
Imagine a man, living in the present time, who is fed up with life in our ever-changing electronic world. So, he goes to live in a hut he's re-built out by a gentle pond, reasonably away from civilization. He throws away his cell phone, computer, TV, radio, etc. and lives simply and quietly, observing naature with his eyes and a microscope. He's not a hermit, because he visits and is visited by, friends and neighbors. He examines his life in solitude and writes about the sights and sounds of the woods and the pond.
For two years living alone this way, he comes to know nature and himself intimately and when he returns to civilization, he is refreshed, spiritually, emotionally and mentally.
Now, imagine all this as done 160 years ago when technology consisted of things like the newly invented telegraph (which he disdained), railway system, and others. Thoreau, like many of us today, longed to live simply and in harmony with Nature. The inspiration for hundreds of hippies, eco-freaks, Luddites and anti-technologists, he showed us that we sometimes need to get back to simple and clean living with no one and nothing to intrude on our thoughts.
And by the time you've finished this little gem of a book, the weekend will be over, and it will be time to go back to the ugly, long commute to a place where technology and stress seemingly go hand in hand.
Great classic/ but too expensive here.......2007-07-16
I brought this book because I had a class that required it. I got it within 2 weeks so that wasn't bad but I hadn't realized that I paid more for the book here then I would have had I gone to a local store! The back of the book says it's only $2.50. The lowest price I could find on Amazon was $4. I guess that's why people don't have to pay for shipping when they purchase items that exceed $25! (The free mailing gets paid for (at least in this case), with higher book prices.
BTW I found out that this book is a free e-book via the web. Next time I'll make sure to check that avenue first.
Mr. Thoreau's Work: Walden.......2007-04-22
It looks like I rated it 4 stars. I can't seem to change that. I really meant to rate it a 3.
Fortunately, I read The Annotated Walden, annotated by Phillip Van Doren Stern. Thank goodness I chose it. Without Mr. Van Doren Stern's introduction, side bars, pictures and comments, I think I would have been thoroughly lost.
I have to agree with a few of the reviewers who stated how pompous Thoreau sounds; he does. He tries to act superior,only to have the side bar notations state something different; something that a friend mentioned. For example, he says he "could easily do without the post-office," yet a contemporary, Sanborne, is quoted off to the side of the annotated version as having said about this quote: "Few residents of Concord frequented the Post Office more punctually or read the newspapers more eagerly than Thoreau."
He contradicts himself constantly. He mocks people who don't read, and then says he barely read a few pages of one book in the two years he was at Walden pond. He could be vindictive; lashing out at Flint's Pond (and Mr. Flint) because Flint would not let him build a cabin on his pond. He comes off as a snob, saying most men learn to read only as a necessity; for work, to add up their profits. But *true* readers are hard to come by. "I aspire to be acquainted with wiser men than this Concord soil has produced.."
Yet, he also has some really great words of wisdom. He questions the wisdom in working so hard during the best part of your life (youth) only to spend the fruits of your labor "during the least valuable part of it." Enjoy life while you are young. Why work so hard when the endgame is death? He comments on things that are still true to this day; fashion and our obsession with appearance. Work to provide for yourself, not to overburden yourself and keep yourself in debt.
Someone reviewing this book on Amazon wrote that it was a failed experiment; that he meant to live in the woods as a hermit of sorts and failed miserably to do so. That was never the extent of his experiment. He never says he's going to lead a solitary life. He states he visited the village every day or two. "As I walked in the woods to see birds and squirrels, so I walked in the village to see men and boys."
I find myself having mixed feelings regarding this book. He is so contradictory, but then, so am I. He can be judgemental and then he can be spot-on. It was a difficult book to get through, Again, had I not had the annotated version, I would have been truly lost. He frustrated me at times. I was not reading literature. I was reading someone's diary that often went off-tangent (like this review). Is it Top 100 book worthy? My opinion: no. It was good at times, painful at others. I took 2 months to trudge through it, all the while reading 5 other books just to keep me going. I am glad I read it. I won't do it again though. Sorry, Mr. Thoroeau
Books:
- Small Wonder: Essays
- Soldier's Heart : Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers
- Speak the Speech!: Shakespeare's Monologues Illuminated
- Tartuffe, by Moliere
- Taylor's Guide to Orchids: More Than 300 Orchids, Photographed and Described, for Beginning to Expert Gardeners (Taylor's Gardening Guides)
- Tehanu (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 4)
- The Abominable Snowman/Journey Under the Sea/Space and Beyond/The Lost Jewels of Nabooti/Mystery of the Maya/House of Danger (Choose Your Own Adventure 1-6) (Box Set 1)
- The Atlas of Middle-Earth (Revised Edition)
- The Biggest Loser Cookbook: More Than 125 Healthy, Delicious Recipes Adapted from NBC's Hit Show
- The Clown of God
Books Index
Books Home
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