« January, 2006 »
1776 
by David McCullough (2005)
read: 17 January 2006
rating: [+]
category: non-fiction
Where the not-so-young proprietor of O’DonnellWeb finally gains an understanding of what went on in that first year of the battle for Independence. If school history books had been written like this I might have actually paid attention.
Gene Keady: The Truth and Nothing But the Truth 
by Gene Keady (2005)
read: 4 January 2006
rating: [-]
category: biography
After 35 years coaching collegiate basketball you’d think he could come up with more than 150 pages. The book felt very rushed – like he didn’t really want to write it. I remember many of the key games he discussed, but he added little insight into some of the biggest basketball games in Purdue history. Hopefully, this was some sort of contractual obligation and his opus on coaching basketball is still forthcoming.
A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Mark Baker (2003)
read: 1 January 2006
rating: [+]
category: non-fiction
In A Short History of Nearly Everything, travel writer Bill Bryson attempts to track down the answers to life, the universe, and everything. He does an admirable job of putting together a 500+ page book that covers the basics of what we know about the the origin of the Universe, the earth, mankind, etc., in an engaging and entertaining manner. My general impression after reading the book is that we don’t really know a hell of a lot yet. The universe is big; really, really mind blowingly big. Earth is old, about 4.5 billion years old. Sometime about a million years ago early man started to expand geographically from our origins in Africa. However, the entire fossil record of man would fit into the back of a Ford F-150, so the details on just how we got from there to today are mostly conjecture at this point. Also, the geological history of earth would suggest that we are very lucky to be here. 99.99% of all species ever to exist are extinct, and humans have wandered the earth for about .0000001% of it’s time in existence. (Might be off on the number of zeros – too lazy to look up the actual number he referenced in the book.) The next big catastrophic comet / earthquake / volcano could hit tomorrow. Historically speaking, we seem to be overdue for the big one. All of which says to me that maybe we should all relax a bit about {inset cause de jour here}. None of it really matters.
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