My coworkers threw me a little party, got me a lei and a balloon, and ordered California Pizza Kitchen for everyone. Sorry this picture is so blurry, it was taken on my phone.
Although I hated my commute to work and spending over 2 hours in the car every day, around January I got smart and started downloading book tapes to listen to. I listened to the following:
I only ever made it to book 3 in the Harry Potter series. When I saw "The Deathly Hallows" in theaters, I decided I wanted to at least read this last book. I really liked it, and the guy who reads it does an amazing job.
I had my doubts about this book. I mean, how can a guy cutting his arm off fill an entire book? I was on the edge of my seat (my car seat that is) and it really is such an amazing story. Let's hope I never have to drink my own urine, but now I know that if I had to, I could. I am also excited to see 127 hours (I'm a little behind).
Since I haven't been in school for a year, I am scared that my brain is turning to mush. I decided every so often I need to read a somewhat educational book, but that's boring. This is me meeting myself in the middle. This book had some interesting concepts and tried to relate economic principles to real life situations. My favorite chapter was all about baby name patterns (black kids vs. white kids, rich vs. poor, etc). It was written quite a few years ago, and it predicted what baby names would be popular soon. Madison, Ava, Emma, Bronson, Jackson, Grayson, and Chloe anyone?
Tanya talked me into reading this book. I tried to go into it with an open mind, but I really didn't like it. The characters are even more unlikeable in the books than the movies (if that were possible) and the voices of the readers drove me nuts.
This book had a few good pointers and did an okay job about motivating me, but I have very little respect for the author. He talks crap about his dad the entire time, and he acts like anyone can be as successful as him (even though he had a bunch of amazing opportunities dropped in his lap). Toward the end, I was really tired of being talked down to.
I started this book because I didn't know what else to read, it was on the New York Times bestseller list, and I heard there was a movie of it coming out. I really liked the concept of the story and the main character's description of life with the circus, but for me it didn't really go anywhere. There weren't very many twists and turns.
I loved this one. Tina Fey's classic writing style, pop culture references, and one liners kept me laughing aloud through many a commute. This is one of the rare exceptions where I would actually recommend listening to the tape over reading it yourself, because Tina herself reads it and that adds a lot of character.
I read this on the recommendation of our friend and my future marketing colleague Jozie. I would love to start my own company someday, and this gave me some good pointers. I'll need to listen again with a pen and paper and take some notes.
My favorite movie of all time = my favorite book of all time? Sort of. I really liked the book. It went into a lot more detail about the business and the scientific aspects of "Jurassic Park," which was interesting. However, I didn't much like the ending. The book followed the movie really well (or visa versa I guess) for the most part, up until the last few chapters. I felt like it kind of dragged toward the end.
My parents will be in Hawaii in 4 days. This time next week, Tanya and I will be spending the night in The Philippines. Then it's on to Thailand. We've been planning this trip since October. I can't believe it's so close to actually happening!
1 comment:
That's quite a list there! Nice work!
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