Author: Neil Gaiman
Published: 2005
From published reports and reviews, I expected no less than perfection. Expectations were met.
As I predicted, Gaiman is the kind of author who makes me want to give up writing because there is just no point, is there? My efforts will fall short and besides he's here on earth, writing these things which means that people need not seek out more entertaining, witty, hilarious works because such works don't exist.
On the other hand, as one can tell from the Wikipedia entry, Mr. Gaiman is a renaissance-dude multimedia rock star. It's like trying to compare one's 21st century made for late-night television infomercial handy gadget with the efforts of Da Vinci.
Best not to think about it and just continue on one's way.
Showing posts with label 2005. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2005. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Monday, August 6, 2007
YOU: The Owner's Manual
Author: Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz
Published: 2005
Final book for my summer reading challenge. Information about the body, inside and out, is presented very well with amusing cartoons, side bars, bullet points, and off-beat writing. It has a rather heavy emphasis on vitamin and mineral supplements. Seems like much of the dosage can be gotten through diet. Overall, very good book. I learned a lot.
Now for putting it all into practice.
Published: 2005
Final book for my summer reading challenge. Information about the body, inside and out, is presented very well with amusing cartoons, side bars, bullet points, and off-beat writing. It has a rather heavy emphasis on vitamin and mineral supplements. Seems like much of the dosage can be gotten through diet. Overall, very good book. I learned a lot.
Now for putting it all into practice.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Gone Tomorrow
Author: Heather Rogers
Published: 2005
Subtitled, 'The Hidden Life of Garbage', covers much of the same ground as 'Garbage Land', though with more emphasis on the manipulation by companies to promote disposable items over refillable and bulk purchases. I'm often sceptical of claims of corporate manipulation, mostly based on the fact that we have free will as human beings and if we choose to be lazy and wasteful then bad on us.
For example, this book does document some things like disposable drink containers for which companies make large profits in the U.S. while in other countries in Latin America and Europe, the culture returned to or never gave up refillable containers. Bad on us U.S. citizens for letting it happen. Fixing the problem, on the other hand, could be a challenge since we've ceded so much power to those companies.
On the third hand, there is the whole Keep America Beautiful (KAB) anti-littering cabal, pushing for some 50 (!) years the idea that waste is the problem of consumers, not the companies that create the products. On the fourth hand, aren't we? I mean, if we didn't buy those cute Dora the Explorer bath sets with the toxic-to-the-environment PVC head/body molded around the shampoo bottle, then companies would stop making that crap. On the other hand...
Maybe I should stop now. I'm getting dizzy.
Published: 2005
Subtitled, 'The Hidden Life of Garbage', covers much of the same ground as 'Garbage Land', though with more emphasis on the manipulation by companies to promote disposable items over refillable and bulk purchases. I'm often sceptical of claims of corporate manipulation, mostly based on the fact that we have free will as human beings and if we choose to be lazy and wasteful then bad on us.
For example, this book does document some things like disposable drink containers for which companies make large profits in the U.S. while in other countries in Latin America and Europe, the culture returned to or never gave up refillable containers. Bad on us U.S. citizens for letting it happen. Fixing the problem, on the other hand, could be a challenge since we've ceded so much power to those companies.
On the third hand, there is the whole Keep America Beautiful (KAB) anti-littering cabal, pushing for some 50 (!) years the idea that waste is the problem of consumers, not the companies that create the products. On the fourth hand, aren't we? I mean, if we didn't buy those cute Dora the Explorer bath sets with the toxic-to-the-environment PVC head/body molded around the shampoo bottle, then companies would stop making that crap. On the other hand...
Maybe I should stop now. I'm getting dizzy.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Garbage Land
Author: Elizabeth Royte
Published: 2005
Something about books about garbage seems to inspire sub-titles. Or perhaps it is just a feature of non-fiction. This book uses "On The Secret Trail of Trash". With it, I seem to be mining, chronologically at least, a wealth of trashy information.
Royte uses (or perhaps better is recycles - did I use that joke already?) Rubbish!* and Waste and Want for sources, as well as the ever present EPA statistics. Better, she gets her hands dirty, following the path each of her waste/recycle streams take. Royte pals along with the san men (term used by the sanitation workers she meets), harrasses corporate waste flacks, visits various recycling companies, and even follows (above ground) the waste pipes to sludge treatment plants.
Just when all this information has me in a mixed state of fired-up-mad and deeply-depressed, Royte flips it all over by reminding readers that municipal solid waste (MSW) makes up only two percent of all trash generated in the United States. Add in a few notes about how recycling may only be making us feel good about all the consumption we do and I'm ready to throw in the towel, almost.
Perhaps the most enlightening fact! is that "... for every 100 pounds of product that's made -- product that hits the store shelves -- at least 3,200 hundred pounds of waste are generated. ... In other words, we throw out stuff just to make the stuff we throw out." p. 239
Kind of makes the whole issue of pounds per person per day (and the supposed increase thereof) rather moot. The book does add fuel to the fire on my opinion of the EPA. Sure, they try and protect the public, but they are also influenced by business. Emphasis is on recycling and reuse. The links on reduction are much more about source reduction of packaging. The only nod towards actually buying less is a link to an outside website, use-less-stuff.
What I took away from this:
- Reduction is much, much better than reuse and recycle.
- Plastic is evil.
- Don't sweat it if the occasional yogurt cup finds its way to the trash can. Or if the odd plastic bag is foisted on you.
*At one point, Royte mentions William Rathje's statistic on the leachate from the Fresh Kills landfill to NY's director of landfill engineering: "Instantly, Gleason turned apoplectic. 'What he did is ... he made it up! It's not a statistic. Rathje studies trash in Arizona!'" p. 95 I guess the book hit a nerve for some people.
! Most depressing was the curtain being lifted on the 'Crying Indian'. The famous commercial was burned into my brain in my youth in the 1970's. That was the spirit of the time, Keep America Beautiful (KAB), clean air and water, recycling, etc. However, KAB was created by beverage and packaging companies. The comercial is clever slight-of-hand to push responsibility from the creators of one-time-use products and and packaging materials onto the users of those products (i.e. those terrible litterbugs). And the Native American in the commercial was really a Sicilian American named Espera DeCorti.
Published: 2005
Something about books about garbage seems to inspire sub-titles. Or perhaps it is just a feature of non-fiction. This book uses "On The Secret Trail of Trash". With it, I seem to be mining, chronologically at least, a wealth of trashy information.
Royte uses (or perhaps better is recycles - did I use that joke already?) Rubbish!* and Waste and Want for sources, as well as the ever present EPA statistics. Better, she gets her hands dirty, following the path each of her waste/recycle streams take. Royte pals along with the san men (term used by the sanitation workers she meets), harrasses corporate waste flacks, visits various recycling companies, and even follows (above ground) the waste pipes to sludge treatment plants.
Just when all this information has me in a mixed state of fired-up-mad and deeply-depressed, Royte flips it all over by reminding readers that municipal solid waste (MSW) makes up only two percent of all trash generated in the United States. Add in a few notes about how recycling may only be making us feel good about all the consumption we do and I'm ready to throw in the towel, almost.
Perhaps the most enlightening fact! is that "... for every 100 pounds of product that's made -- product that hits the store shelves -- at least 3,200 hundred pounds of waste are generated. ... In other words, we throw out stuff just to make the stuff we throw out." p. 239
Kind of makes the whole issue of pounds per person per day (and the supposed increase thereof) rather moot. The book does add fuel to the fire on my opinion of the EPA. Sure, they try and protect the public, but they are also influenced by business. Emphasis is on recycling and reuse. The links on reduction are much more about source reduction of packaging. The only nod towards actually buying less is a link to an outside website, use-less-stuff.
What I took away from this:
- Reduction is much, much better than reuse and recycle.
- Plastic is evil.
- Don't sweat it if the occasional yogurt cup finds its way to the trash can. Or if the odd plastic bag is foisted on you.
*At one point, Royte mentions William Rathje's statistic on the leachate from the Fresh Kills landfill to NY's director of landfill engineering: "Instantly, Gleason turned apoplectic. 'What he did is ... he made it up! It's not a statistic. Rathje studies trash in Arizona!'" p. 95 I guess the book hit a nerve for some people.
! Most depressing was the curtain being lifted on the 'Crying Indian'. The famous commercial was burned into my brain in my youth in the 1970's. That was the spirit of the time, Keep America Beautiful (KAB), clean air and water, recycling, etc. However, KAB was created by beverage and packaging companies. The comercial is clever slight-of-hand to push responsibility from the creators of one-time-use products and and packaging materials onto the users of those products (i.e. those terrible litterbugs). And the Native American in the commercial was really a Sicilian American named Espera DeCorti.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Old Man's War
Author: John Scalzi
Published: 2005
Published: 2005
After reading the book it is clear why it is popular. Old time space opera with a modern feel and sense of humor. Solid writing joins very good pacing and a knack for twisting what might be mundane (e.g. the names the characters give their BrainPals). Did I mention humor? One particularly nasty culinary alien species with a taste for humans is given a name that brings to mind a currently popular, perky, female who has many cookbooks and cooking shows.
More interesting was how I read the book. The text is in first person, for the most part past-tense. This is what I'm using in my current novel project. However, the text does go into present tense on occasion, notably in the very beginning and end, but also here and there where a description is needed to imply ongoing action or semi-permanence (not the best description, I realize). It would be interesting to go through the book and find all the instances of each tense. All it takes is time...
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Busting Vegas
Author: Ben Mezrich
Published: 2005
Published: 2005
Enjoyable detour into non-fiction. A quick read (quick for me anyways, which means a few days), interesting view into gambling, casinos, and a group of MIT students who found a way to win a lot of money at blackjack.
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