AWOL On The Appalachian Trail 
by David Miller (2010)
read: 9 May 2013
rating: [+]
category: non-fiction
In 2003 software developer David Miller quit his job and started walking north from Springer Mountain, VA. He didn’t quit until he made it to the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. I’ve walked maybe 100 miles of the AT on various day hikes. I greatly enjoyed this book. It’s inspirational, even though he does a good job of capturing the drudgery of walking all day in the rain on the AT. You get a real sense of the community that develops among thru-hikers on the AT. It’s recommended for anybody that has ever daydreamed about doing what David did.
Fletch Won
by Gregory Macdonald (1985)
read: 18 March 2013
rating: [+]
category: fiction
Fletch looks back and tells us the story of his first big story. if you like Fletch you’ll like this.
Homeland
by Cory Doctorow (2013)
read: 10 March 2013
rating: [0]
categories: fiction, ya
Homeland is the sequel to Little Brother. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Little Brother. At the start it feels like Doctorow is trying a little too hard to make a point, and the story suffers as a result. There is too much Burning Man, too much Maker culture, too much telling us about technology and not enough showing us through the characters point of view. The story does kick in about halfway through the book, and at that point it becomes riveting, right up to a disappointing ending where nothing really gets resolved.
Almost Perfect:
by W.E. Peterson (1994)
read: 27 February 2013
rating: [+]
category: non-fiction
Almost Perfect is is story of WordPerfect, the dominant Word Processor back in the days of DOS. It’s a classic David and Goliath story, a group of spunky young guys running a company with zero debt and following management principles gleaned from the Mormon Church almost, almost beat Microsoft. In fact, they kicked MS ass during the DOS days, as WordPerfect had 60% market share at it’s peak. The book chronicles their key mistakes such as a fanatical devotion to making WP available in every computer platform that was around in the 80s, betting on IBM and OS/2, and not recognizing the danger of Windows until it was too late. Recommended for any computer nerd that remembers using WordPerfect.
The Lonely Silver Rain
by John McDonald (1986)
read: 21 February 2013
rating: [+]
category: fiction
The final book in the series as the McDonald died the year following publication. It’s my favorite Travis McGhee novel so far, but I’ve got about 18 mor to read.
Feed
by M.T. Anderson (2004)
read: 19 February 2013
rating: [+]
categories: scifi & fantasy, ya
In the future, the Internet will be wirelessly implanted into our brains at birth, and our corporate masters will have unfettered access to the feed as they attempt to sell us stuff 24 X 7. Nobody in the story has a problem with this, except one homeschooled teenager who got her feed late at age 7 and thus sees the world just a little bit differently than her peers. This biting satire of our brain dead consumption obsessed culture is both funny, and downright scary at the same time. What makes the story truly brilliant though is that the author takes it deeper than the obvious analogy with consumerism. When the story delves into how the feed impacts your ability to empathize with those you should care about, the story gets dark and a bit depressing. You don’t finish this book feeling happy. If the book seems difficult to get into a first, stick with it. I was 13% read on the Kindle when it plot really kicked in, and then I couldn’t put the story down.
I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution
by Rob Tannenbaum (2011)
read: 12 February 2013
rating: [+]
category: non-fiction
This is probably required reading for anybody that grew up watching MTV. And by MTV, I mean the channel that played mostly music videos. It’s a wildly entertaining oral history of the network, broken down by time period, or artist, or music genre, or even by specific videos in some cases. It’s full of dirt, scandal, and behind the scenes info on just about every page. If you wondered what the secret ingredient at MTV was, the one definable thing that made the network go, I now know the answer. Coke. The powdered kind.
Power Chord: One Man’s Ear-Splitting Quest to Find His Guitar Heroes
by Thomas Scott McKenzie (2012)
read: 31 January 2013
rating: [0]
category: non-fiction
You are 35 years old. You own about a dozen guitars. You can’t play a single chord. So what do you do? You start taking lessons while tracking down your 80s metal guitar heroes to interview them. Seems like a good premise for a book, and it works ok. It’s not really a “Where Are They Now” tale though. It’s more about the author’s journey to understanding why we all at some point imagined ourselves on stage as we played air guitar to Bon Jovi in our bedroom; and why for a select few, they never outgrow it and keep slogging away even though their arena headlining glory days are way in the past. It was a fun read, although not quite as fun or interesting as I was expecting going in.
American Fencer: Modern Lessons from an Ancient Sport
by Tim Morehouse (2012)
read: 22 January 2013
rating: [+]
categories: biography, sports
American Fencer is the autobiography of Tim Morehouse, US Silver Medalist in Team Saber at the 2008 Olympics. We got this for my son for Christmas, as he is a fencer. He read it quickly and passed to me. I enjoyed it greatly. Tim’s journey from a 7th grader who signed up for fencing because it got him out of gym class to Olympic medalist is inspiring. He did not get high priced lessons as a kid, he did not go to college on a fencing scholarship, and coming out of college he was not even in the conversation as a contender on the international fencing circuit. Yet through hard work, willpower, and determination, he made it to medal stand in 2008. One really interesting angle of the book for me is all the crap minor sport US athletes go through to compete. Tim was holding down a full time job as a public school teacher and running up his credit cards on flights to Europe. Compare that with many of the guys he was competing against, who were basically government employees being paid to train and compete. Tim’s book is probably mandatory reading for any teenage fencer, or really any teenage athlete at all. His example of overcoming obstacles in pursuit of your dreams is a solid lesson for all teenagers, and their parents.
To Sell is Human
by Daniel Pink (2012)
read: 13 January 2013
rating: [+]
category: non-fiction
In “To Sell Is Human,” Daniel Pink takes a look at the world of selling in the digital age. As a career sales executive, I noticed a while ago that the dynamic between buyer and seller has changed. Buyers frequently know as much about our products and services as we do. In this book, Dan takes a look at that issue and how it impacts what we need to do to stay successful in sales. He also expands the scope of selling a bit to recognize that we all are in sales. We have to sell our spouses, kids, and coworkers on stuff just about every day. Convincing your wife that a punk rock concert is a good use of date night is just as much a sales job as convincing a corporate buyer that your widget is the best. This book is a must buy for anybody whose job it is to sell stuff, and not a bad idea for anybody who regularly finds themselves trying to convince somebody else to do something.
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