Just finished the old Jack Finney Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (had to read it because of the title, I have a theory about corporations being subject to real-life bodysnatching ;-). Good read, convincing characters, plot ok – and I love the moral : yeah its hopeless but that’s exactly when you need to fight hardest against the bastards. They just might give up if you hit ’em hard enough.
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Archive for the ‘Booknotes’ Category
012.24.10 And the moral is…
010.05.10 Books to check out…
That man : http://www.roberthjackson.org/the-man/books/that-man/ about FDR
Wanda Gag’s papers…but not avail online. There is a biography by Karen Hoyle but not an autobio.
Anything by William Greider : http://williamgreider.com/
been meaning to read Count Zero by William Gibson. Neuromancer was my introduction to the idea of cyber-immortality, many years back.
Citizen Journalism (Global Crises and the Media) Stuart/Einar
We the Media Dan Gillmore
The original book the children’s book Mother to Tigers was based on
More stuff on L. da Vinci, he is way cool.
Going to read shortly: Ruby Best Practices, and Clean Code
012.30.09 Big projects have three stages…
“I’ve learned that big projects have three stages: fantasy, dream and plan. The fantasy stage is all in your head, obviously, but eventually you decide you’re ready to get a little bit more real. The dream stage is where you actually start thinking about the project in practical terms. After the dream you start planning and doing, and that’s when reality strikes. You never succeed in fulfilling a fantasy, almost by definition, because its’s just a fantasy. But the fantasy is what catches the imagination and provides motivation.” — Ugo Conti, in an interview by Todd Lappin for MAKE Magazine.
211.02.09 Which Books behind Bars?
I’ve seen a flyer at Antigone Books in Tucson about a Books behind Bars project or something like that that sends books into prisons. I think its a great idea but another incident made me start thinking, which books?
One day I took a walk in the Santa Cruz wash, happened to be after a city sweep of the homeless camps. They had pretty much bulldozed them, so leftover things and trash were scattered around. I found a book, that one of the homeless folks had owned. It was some kind of psychic text that sort of blamed problems on society in a kind of ranting way. I can’t remember the name of it now but it struck me that this book probably wasn’t going to be the one to help someone get their life back together.
On the other hand, some books are truly powerful and inspirational. I posted somewhere else about the prisoner with a quote from Anne Frank’s diary tattooed on his back. And that is not even one I would have chosen. Maybe Victor Frankl? My Shadow Ran Fast by Bill Sands?
I am curious, what books people have found to be really helpful in changing their lives. Especially that would be relevent to prisoners today.