What I'll be reading next!

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

my twitterings

    follow me on Twitter

    Wednesday, February 25, 2009

    Top facts about the name Mitchell Jorgensen

    Did you know that Mitchell Jorgensen is...
    1. Modestly envoweled
    2. Llehctim Nesnegroj backwards
    3. Itchellmay Orgensenjay in Pig Latin
    4. 01001101 01101001 01110100 01100011 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01001010 01101111 01110010 01100111 01100101 01101110 01110011 01100101 01101110 in binary code?
    See more at www.IsThisYour.Name

    Posted using ShareThis

    Monday, February 23, 2009

    Short Post: Why Kindle should be open source

    Many people are looking to the Kindle to be the iPod of eReading. Tim O'Reilly had something to say about it that I thought was pretty interesting.

    http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/22/kindle-oreilly-ebooks-technology-breakthroughs_oreilly.html

    Wednesday, February 18, 2009

    Interesting comments on the Kindle

    I got a tweet from @timoreilly on twitter. The post From http://www.teleread.org was about how the Kindle may not be all it hopes to be.

    This just reinforced my desire for a single handheld integrated device. One that allows me to do all the stuff I want to do. Read books, watch videos, check email, edit documents, ....hmmm I guess what I want is a laptop that is handheld. I think sometime in the near term we are going to see improved integrated devices. Especially devices with screens that have enough resolution and size to actually be able to do it all.

    The whole thing also made me realize how much I want a part time job doing some real writing for a group like teleread. Getting a regular paycheck even if small would certainly up my regularity of posts.

    Sunday, February 15, 2009

    The End by Lemony Snicket

    The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 13) The End by Lemony Snicket


    My review


    rating: 2 of 5 stars
    I found this book to be a huge disappointment. Granted he told us all through the series that it would be a disappointment, but did he have to do such a great job of it. The End tanked for me. Most of the time when I really like a series I read them at least twice. I may never read this series again and if I do it will be sheer will power that gets me through The End again. The series felt so unfinished, unresolved and just not done. The End should have been called "I quit"



    If I disliked the book this much you may ask why I gave it even 2 stars. Well, I have to give it a couple because it was ok. I needed to read it to finish the series and that gave it its only redeeming quality.


    View all my reviews.

    Tuesday, February 10, 2009

    First meetings in the Enderverse

    A few weeks ago I had a big trip north to a nephew's wedding reception. I was driving with my parents and kids. I knew that I wasn't in a very talkative mood so we swung by the local library to get an Audio book. The book I wanted to get wasn't available and frankly, I don't remember what I was looking for now. I did run across Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. The kids picked Dragonsinger and I got 6 hours of blissful listening which was really what I wanted that weekend. But I started listening to Ender's Game which had me running back to the library and I spotted a book of my "to-read" list. It was great!


    First Meetings in Ender's Universe First Meetings in Ender's Universe by Orson Scott Card


    My review


    rating: 4 of 5 stars
    I am a big fan of Ender's Game which may be in my Top 10 all time favorite books if I could ever create such a list. This book is as close to a prequel as Orson Scott Card has come. The original Bugger wars are still in the past and remain background and history, but we get to meet Ender's father and Captain Graff before he took over the battle school. We also get to see John Paul Wiggin meet Theresa Brown and learn exactly how calculated Ender's birth really was. This book was a treat especially right after finishing Ender's game again. For fans of the Endervers this collection of stories is a real treat. It is just what it says it is a collection of first meetings that haven't been revealed in other places. All of the stories except Teacher's Pest were originally published elsewhere first overall this book is right up there for me because it was great to get submerged into the Enderverse again.


    View all my reviews.

    Wednesday, February 4, 2009

    Summer of the Monkey's

    Summer of the Monkeys Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls


    My review


    rating: 4 of 5 stars
    One of my teacher's in elementary school read this to our class with the predictable result that 80% of the kids hated it and the kids who loved reading already promptly read it on their own. I fell into the second category. I had already seen the movie version of Where the Red Fern Grows which made me bawl like a child. I was in around 4th grade so this was totally appropriate.



    Summer of the Monkeys had not tears except tears of laughter. I don't want to spoil too much but there is one spoiler you must know before your read this book.

    Drunk Monkeys


    It take quite a bit to top that. For a fun read with a feel good ending give this a look.


    View all my reviews.

    Tuesday, February 3, 2009

    Ender's Game

    http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/901.Ender_s_Gamehttp://www.goodreads.com/book/show/901.Ender_s_GameI have gotten hooked on GoodReads.com and I find I am spending time there and not updating here like I planned. Oh well, I am glad I can copy reviews from there to here with extreme ease, but I don't do as much just pointless rambling about books the way I really want to.

    But here's some. I recently reread Ender's Game, or rather heard Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. What an amazing book. I realize that it is probably in my top 10 all time favorite books. The depth to it is amazing. The sequels were good but the parallel book Ender's Shadow was amazing too. If you only read two of Card's books these are they. Oooh, that sounded like a Movie Commercial.

    Anyway, I read this book on my own and then reread it and wrote up a paper during my Master's work about the Instructional Design that was evident in the book. It was kind of a wierd way to look at the book. "How was Ender's education effective Instructional Design" but boy am I grateful to Andy Gibbons for giving that assignment. It was an optional assignment (extra credit, yes even in a Master's Degree) but I can never look at the book the same way. I found this time I was even more able to recognize the overtone of education in the book.

    Another amazing feat was Card's ability to portray a child both accurately and empathically. I as an adult found myself able to relate to Ender completely even though he was 6 when the book begins.

    Again I will say: top 10 all time for me.

    My Favorite quotes


    Quotes by QuotesDaddy.com