CC blog

October 2009 books

October is the month where Amazon finally linked its Audible subsidiary to its main Amazon book search.  In theory this should make finding Audible books much easier, as the Audible site continues to be as atrocious (slow, poorly organized, anti-intuitive) as the Amazon site is wonderful.  But....the linking is unreliable.....inexplicably sometimes Audible editions don't show up.  Still - a step in the right direction.  Oh Amazon....are you too distracted by e-readers to give proper attention to Audible?

Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters by Scott Rosenberg

Will change how you think about the Internet, blogs, and what it means to be a writer.  Sure, the history of blogging is interesting - and Rosenberg narrates this story beautifully.  But the true value of the book lie in the authors arguments about the significance of blogging.  This is the book that convinced me that the best thing we can do in higher education and learning technology is to get every student their own public blog.  This is a book that helped me understand the beauty of a world where the pleasures of publishing are open to all of us.  The power to self-publish, to blog, will over time be seen as important as the printing press and the mass spread of literacy.

Grade:  A

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell

A pleasure from start to finish.  Why:  A) Gladwell reads his essays, and Gladwell reads just about as well as he writes.  B) If you love Gladwell books: Outliers, Blink, Tipping Point (as I do) then you will love this book as well.   C) If you gave up your New Yorker subscription (or are just hopelessly behind) here is your chance to read Gladwell's favorite essays from the magazine.  D) Gladwell basically invented (at least in my lifetime) the popularizing of social science research.  As such, the world is a much better place.

Grade:  A-

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

Russo is back to form.  Funny and smart book about long marriages, aging parents, academia, real estate, and the Cape.  What else is there?

Grade:  A-

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost

The narrator, Simon Vance http://bit.ly/3scvfd, moves this book from mildly diverting to something closer to wonderful.  The story of the slacker boyfriend accompanying accomplished partner to remote Pacific Island is a classic of the literary form.  Probably a big hit among the development economist set.  Think I'll have to read the rest of the Troost/Vance oeuvre.

Grade:  B+

True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society by Farhad Manjoo

Got this on a $4.95 Audible sale....happy I did.  Probably would not have read otherwise because of the lack of buzz.   Manjoo's big story that the diffusion of media and the disruption of the Web has eroded the enforced moderation of the Cronkite / NYT dominated mediascape will not come as a new story to anyone half-way paying attention.  But he tells the story well, supports his arguments with evidence, and writes well enough to keep the reader (listener) engaged. 

Grade:  B

Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler

Would have been much better if the author had not read his own book.  Author read books seldom work (unless you are Malcolm Gladwell) -  reading for audio is as much of an art as writing the book.  The book?  I recommend Connected even though it is not a great book.  The essential truth of the power of networks, and the science done by the authors to tease out their salience, are both sound and ground-breaking.  Methodologically strong and epistemologically important.  We need to think about our worlds from the perspective of networks.  Connected proves that not every good academic can write a popular book based on their work.  Can't blame them for trying.  Advice...buy in paper....skim through...and share the ideas.

Grade: B-

September 2009 books

We're starting to have more opportunities to talk to each other about what we are reading.  The Library has organized a great "What Are You Reading" lunchtime series (thanks Laura!).  More of us are posting quick reviews on the Visual Bookshelf app on Facebook.  

Wouldn't it be great if the LIbrary Web pages had a social element...a place where we could post  and search for reviews from local people.  Sort of like what Amazon does...but totally local.  I care a great deal about what the people I work with are reading and what they think about their books.   How could we make this happen?

Okay...the books:

Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible by David Plotz

The perfect book if you are:  a) Biblically illiterate, b) want to know more about the roots of your religion, and c) are too lazy to actually read the Bible.  Since I hit on all three of these criteria I definitely quality - I'm thinking of buying copies for my whole family.  We could discuss Plotz's book at Passover.  Actually, I'm more convinced then ever that I need to sit down with the Bible as a route into my heritage.  I got so much out of Good Book because I know so little about the Good Book.  Stunningly little.  Plotz is funny, smart, irreverent, generous, and argumentative.....all the things that my people pride ourselves on.   This book came out of "Blogging the Bible on Slate" - perhaps one of the few instances of any redeeming qualities for blogging.

Grade:  B+ 

An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage 

Nothing beats books that tell the history of the world through something we can get our minds around.  I love books that take narrow subjects to tell huge stories.  Standage is a master of this craft.  If you love reading about food and love big history then this book is a 5 start treat.  

Grade:  A-

American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis

When I need to get away from learning technology I retreat to the 18th century.  Ben Franklin is my usual companion....but I'm down with the whole band of brothers.  Reading about our revolution and our revolutionaries reminds me that our country has faced much longer odds and much bigger challenges in our past.  Reforming health care and education may be tough, but nobody is going to get hanged by the British if we fail.  My time with Thomas Jefferson mostly came in relation to Ben Franklin's years in France or familiar stories about the writing of the Declaration of Independence.    Ellis' book is great because he does not try to be exhaustive (an impossibility) but focuses on the character and times of Jefferson.  

Grade:  B+

The Scarecrow and The Brass Verdict  by Michael Connelly

Connelly is among my top 5 favorite crime and police procedural writers.  Both prolific and entertaining, Connelly's books are always strongly plotted with good detail and appealing characters.  Beach books you can read all year round.

Grade:  B+

August 2009 books

Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Schiller

Apparently influential in the Obama administration.  Good to see the basics of behavioral economics being applied to a macro-economic book.  Helped me get a better sense of why I paid too much for my house, why some folks are still poor, why jobs seem harder to come by, and why the folks making economic policy often seem like dumb apes.  Well written and informative.  Makes a good argument for the benefits and limits of capitalism and the necessity of regulation to protect our investments and jobs.

Grade:  A-

The Science of Fear: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn't--and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger by Daniel Gardner

Put this book on the syllabus of our reading on why we screw up basic decisions, make poor judgements, fail to predict the future, and are afraid of all the wrong things.  Should be read by journalists everywhere who write about disease and violence, and us folks who read and watch these stories.  A good cognitive and theoretical summary of the academic literature on risk and behavioral economics.  Written with style and humor.

Grade:  A-

Butchers Hill: A Tess Monaghan Novel by Laura Lippman 

The 3rd, and best so far, Tess Monaghan Baltimore murder mystery.  I'm reading these in order, having bought the lot used on Amazon.  Lippman is getting a little darker, and Tess continues to intrigue with her weird mix of bravery and poor decision making.  Baltimore is really a great character in these books....made me want to visit the Charm City.  

Grade: B+

Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World by Tyler Cowen

Not as good as "Discover Your Inner Economist" -but worth a read.  Sort of feels like an extended blog post - but nothing really wrong with that as Cowen as some interesting things to say.  The core of the book is an argument as to why folks on the autistic spectrum are our new profits, or at least reasons why their cognitive styles are well suited to our information economy and why their brains and behaviors should be honored and understood.  Cowen is in love with information, with lists, and with the Web tools that let us play in this information.  

Grade:  B

Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter (P.S.) by Steve Dublanica

From the blog http://waiterrant.net/ - an insiders tour of the life and culture of a waiter at a high-end restaurant.  Dublanica has some tales to tell and some advice to give.  He is not nearly a good a writer as Bourdain (the book owes much to Kitchen Confidential), but the book is enjoyable and mildly informative.  Mostly I'm amazed at the level of substance abuse (and just pure abuse) that are part of a food servers life.   It does make sense, as waiters work crazy hours, work around alcohol, and are paid in cash.  Waiters generally live in the moment, are working towards something else (acting, writing, blogging), and are under-appreciated and under-paid.  I'll never tip pre-tax again.

Grade:  B

Moscow Rules (Gabriel Allon) by Daniel Silva

The Gabriel Allon books that come before were:  The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, The Confessor, A Death in Vienna,  Prince of Fire,  The Messenger, and the The Secret Servant.  I recommend reading them in order.  Allon is a Mossad assassin, art restorer and learning technologist (okay, I made up one of these things).  Great characters.  Moral clarity.  Some good action.  Topical plots.  Always well researched, with an eye for getting the details right.  Not very humorous.  I'll keep reading.

Grade:  B+

Fearless Fourteen (Stephanie Plum, No. 14) by Janet Evanovich

Mind candy.  They all blend together in a hazy goop of New Jersey crime, big hair, fugitives, and exploding cars.  This is what I imagine my life would have been like if my Dad would have stayed in Linden.  

Grade:  B 

July 2009 books

Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson

I loved "Free" for 3 reasons:

Reason 1:  Anderson is a terrific storyteller.  Free is one of those books where you learn some, think some, and have fun during the ride.  The main argument for Free is that the economics of digital goods pushes the price of these goods to their marginal cost of production, which in the case of digital copies is close enough to zero to set that price at free.  Further, the price of free enables all sorts of businesses and opportunities, providing opportunities for new business models, profits and services.  

Reason 2:  The growth of free has all sorts of implications for higher education.  Nowadays a lifelong learner can receive a wonderful education from Web content ranging from TED talks to lectues on iTunesU and YouTube/EDU.  Educational content is now free.  This forces us in higher education to rethink our own value propositions and where we exist in a digital economy built around abundance of quality curricular and lecture content as opposed the scarcity model that traditional lecturing/courses is built upon.  

Reason 3:  Anderson made the unabridged audio edition of Free available for free on Audible and some other outlets.  This price encouraged a bunch of us at Dartmouth to read the book together, generated some great discussions and debate.  Having the book freely available to our community proved to be an excellent argument for the library overcoming the scarcity of digital books to have them available to our community.  I admire Anderson to no end for putting his money where his mouth is and offering the digital copy at the price of production.  I'd gladly pay more in Educause conference fees to listen Anderson keynote one of our conferences.

Grade:  A

Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell

Cheap is the perfect companion to Free.  Or maybe the antidote to Free.  Where Anderson sees a bright future for free, Ruppel Shell reminds us of the high cost of cheap.  These costs range from the loss of decent paying jobs for producers to the environmental damage that allows cheap furniture, food, and manufacturing goods to come to market.  We probably didn't need one more book on the dangers of the cheap industrial food complex, but Ruppel Shell puts trends in food in the larger context of the migration away from quality across the consumer basket.  The chapter on Ikea alone is worth the price of admission.  My only quibble is that perhaps the author over-sold her case.    

We have realized some benefits from the cost of some things dropping, from computers to bandwidth (see Anderson), her case would have been strengthened by an exploration of cheap done right.  Still, this Free and Cheap should be read together, the first book getting us drunk on the limitless future and the second book sobering us up on the high costs that we are all paying.

Grade:  A-

The American Future: A History by Simon Schama

You know those questions that go "if you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?".  Well...I think I'd choose Simon Schama.  Or maybe a roadtrip.  Schama is one of those historians who both have something to say about how we live now and the depth of knowledge to ground his thinking by weaving stories from our past.  One part sociology, one part history, all very smart and engaging.  The American Future should be read in conjunction with watching the BBC documentary of the same title, narrated by Schama.  Reading the book while watching the documentary does wonderful things for the brain in terms of reinforcing the concepts and stories with images.  It helps the stories stick.  

Schama's basic premise is that the election of Obama represents the culmination of an American journey towards our nation struggling to live up to our founding myths.  Only American could produce the horror of the civil war, segregation and institutional racism while holding the promise of electing an African American to the highest office.  This American Future beautifully chronicles our redemption, placing the biggest story of our times firmly within our American narrative.   

Grade: A

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder 

Jim Kim, MD/PhD is the 17th President of Dartmouth College, and with Paul Farmer the protagonist of Kidder's tale of a couple of doctor anthropologists who succeeded in changing how the public health community thinks about caring for the poorest of the poor.  I read this book for a Dartmouth book club, the best sort of experience as we were in part reading into the future values and culture of our institution (as college President's deeply and truly set the tone).  We came away with something like wonder that Dartmouth would have the foresight and creativity to recruit someone like Dr. Kim who has been so willing to challenge the status quo.  

Farmer and Kim, and the organization they started Partners in Health, were at best a marginalized group running on a suspect ideology within the public health industry.  The fact that they were able to change the thinking of how to treat TB patients (basically by demonstrating that the very poor can follow drug regimens), coupled with the success Dr. Kim had in bringing down the price of a range of medications for the poor, is truly an amazing and inspirational tale.  This book makes the best possible case that Dr. Kim is the right person at the right time to challenge the accepted wisdoms in higher education and on our campus and lead our institution into the future.

Grade:  A-

Future Hype: The Myths of Technology Change by Bob Seidensticker 

This book could have been called "Why Ray Kurzweil is an idiot and the singularity is not near".   Seidensticker sets out to inject some reality into utopian fantasies of a world of abundance driven by technological change.  His main thesis is that technological change of the late 20th century (the computer, the Internet, etc.) has had no where near the impact on society and individual lives as either the industrial revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century, or the introduction of technologies in the 19th century such as the railroad, the telegraph, and the telephone.  Even compared to 100 years ago when both the automobile went into mass production and Wright brothers first began to fly today technologies only marginally alter the social order.   

The second argument is that technological change is not exponential, rather it is mostly linear and built upon years of previous technologies.  Moore's law only has narrow implications to the digital world, with exponential drops in price and increases in capacity for storage, memory or bandwidth only filtering down into smaller changes in our lives.  I think that Seidensticker over sells his case, and therefore his main arguments are weakened.  Yes, we need to place todays technical changes within their historical contexts, but it is also true that the people living in the late 19th century were seldom fully aware of the impacts that their technologies would have on their lives and communities.  

In the 15 or so years I've been in the labor market I've seen technology completely alter how we think about and construct education, and I'm sure that most people in their own professional lives would say the same thing.   While I disagree with Seidensticker's main conclusions I still recommend the book, as we need to make sure that we ground our visions of the future in both skepticism and knowledge of our history.

Grade:  B

the academic library and Free

At least 3 of the authors of CC Blog are reading Free: The Future of a Radical Price, by Chris Anderson.  We've had some great conversations, discussions relevant to how we think about our models or technology to catalyze active learning.

Just today we hear about Microsoft's plan to introduce a free online Office service to compete with Google Docs.  If nothing else, Free is certainly topical.  (Actually...it is a great read). 

The reason we are all reading the book at once is that we all took advantage of Audible's and Anderson's offer to download Free for free.  The price eliminated the barrier to download the book, and jumped reading Free for all of us to the head of our cue.  

Academic libraries seem to want to distinguish between "scholarly" and "popular" books....choosing to purchase the former and marginalize the latter.  Since audiobooks, or any digital books, are seen as "recreational" reading then academic libraries choose not to invest in making this format available to their community.  

In reading Free, and then debating the authors arguments, my colleagues and I are engaging work that is crucial to our jobs.  The book is a springboard to think about different models of sharing and communicating our services.   

The fact that Free was free allowed us to all co-read and therefore catalyze these conversations tells us something about what we are missing in not having the digital audio format (the format that many of us prefer) available for loan from our library. Digital books should make the marginal cost of providing simultaneous reading a value added service that libraries could provide, an idea that remains rooted firmly a fantasy.

When the price of an audiobook is normally paid by us individually, rather then spread across the institution, then this price becomes a barrier to conversation.

In an age of information abundance the scarcity that libraries could overcome for their constituents would be to facilitate services like groups having the opportunity to concurrently read and discuss books from the collection.  Free is a price that would allow and encourage this behavior.  

We can all learn some things Anderson's experiment with free.

Audible subscribers can download Anderson's Free for free

As an Audible subscriber I was able to download Anderson's latest Free: The Future of a Radical Price for zero dollars and zero cents (and 0 credits).

The same book in abridged format is $13.22 or 1 credit (as abridging is expensive).

On Amazon the price is $17.19.

Gladwell as a provocative (and I think somewhat wrong-headed) review in the New Yorker.

I'm sure we will have a lively discussion about where "free" and "open" come together.  Many of us on campus have become big believers in giving away on the Web as much as what happens on campus as possible.  We want to publish and share our lectures, our talks, our articles, dissertations, learning objects, data sets, training materials etc. etc.

Where ever you fall on Anderson's central thesis, you have to admire his willingness to put his money where his mouth is and give away the digital audio version for (about) the cost of the raw materials. 

What are you waiting for....go and get your book!

books June 2009

The Illustrious Dead: The Terrifying Story of How Typhus Killed Napoleon's Greatest Army by Stephan Talty

Captivating.  I loved this book so much I immediately went to Netflix and ordered the 2 available documentaries on Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia.  Also tried to convince my wife that our family should trace Napoleon's route for a family vacation (still working on her).  This is a part of history that I did not know well.....and I had no idea that typhus played such a major role in Napoleon's defeat.  Books that combine disease and history are a particular love of mine, and this is one of the best examples.  Talty is a wonderful writer, masterfully evoking the horrid details of the retreat from Moscow and the larger role that disease has had in shaping human history.  Highly recommended.

Grade:  A

Hella Nation: Looking for Happy Meals in Kandahar, Rocking the Side Pipe, Wingnut's WarAgainst the GAP, and Other Adventures with the Totally Lost Tribes of America by Evan Wright

This is the sort of book we should be assigning in our sociology classes.  Wright is an ambassador to the marginalized, an embedded reporter with America's freaks, degenerates, and psychopaths.  We spend time with right wing movie producers, anarchists, alcoholic skate board punks, and HIV positive porn stars.  Durkheim taught us that by defining deviance we construct what is normal.  Hella Nation would work well in the classroom as our students could engage in systematic study of social organization and structure through the entertaining lens of drug addicts and white supremacists.  These essays were originally published in Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, and the book does not always hang together in terms of narrative (an editor willing to cut would have helped out as well).  Despite its flaws I'd nominate Hella Nation to our curriculum.

Grade: B

Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life by Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang

Overview of the big topics, concepts and science of our brains.  Useful as a companion to other books on the brain and behavior as a way of condensing and consolidating the range of materials.  Well written but seldom insightful, grounded in research but not in any big ideas or new breakthroughs.  Enjoyably short chapters and chunked materials, studies and descriptions familiar from other works.  Nothing new or ground breaking, but a competent and pleasurable journey through the biology and behavioral research on our evolved brain.

Grade:  B

University Publishing Confronts Its Future

There's a great article from the Inside Higher Ed website about the field of academic publishing, entitled "Change or Die?," by Scott Jaschik. 

The article is a summary of presentations and discussion from the annual meeting of the Association of American University Presses where the hot topic concerned, naturally, the ability of university presses to survive in the current economic and social environment.

One quote early on is from Beth Jacoby, collection development librarian at York College of Pennsylvania who states, "Students will use heavily anything that can be accessed by a computer," and follows up on the notion of "easy access" by describing the preference of students to not use "online resources that have extensive systems to limit use or that ask for a lot of verification." York College has gotten rid of 85% of its print reference collection.

Another, more "radical," though I think spot-on, observation is from Michael Jensen, director of strategic Web communications for the National Academies Press, which already publishes more than 4,000 books in free, digital form. He believes that, "[S]cholarship must be 'de-linked from print publication,' such that books are 'the exception' and no longer the norm for disseminating new scholarship...book publishing is essential to promote and spread great new intellectual ideas, [but] print distribution hurts the environment...and charging...limits readership."

I think this is true not only for academic publishing but for the publishing industry in general, especially in light of Joshua Kim's article yesterday and in relation to digital publishing. Why do I need to purchase three versions of a book in order to read it on my terms (paper, digital, and audio)? The digital and audio distribution forms are some of the cheapest for the industry, in terms of overhead, yet their pricing competes with print editions, with no sharing options, no resale, and almost no discount channels when the book is no longer a NYT best seller.

Jensen thinks that university presses will need to survive via "value-added" services, such as print-on-demand, and institutional support. The publishing industry at-large should be looking at value-added services as well, instead of charging more for less and taking away end-user rights.

I'm reminded of a start-up service of which I've become quite fond. It is called "Good Old Games" at http://www.gog.com.  The premise is that they work with game publishers to make available computer games that are, generally, out of print. The games have all the necessary patches and upgrades applied and are tested and guaranteed to work on contemporary PC systems (XP and Vista compatible). They are sold and distributed completely online with prices ranging from $5.00 ~ $10.00, with weekly specials. What's more, though, is that all the games are sold completely DRM-free, and most come with extras, such as game soundtracks, original artwork, wallpaper files, avatars for other services (IM, Twitter, etc.), and strategy guides. Plus, there is a customer community providing ratings and reviews, too, along with the nostalgia factor. All of THAT is value-added!

some questions about Amazon, audiobooks and e-books for my academic librarian colleagues

I'm reading a great book called "The Illustrious Dead: The Terrifying Story of How Typhus Killed Napoleon's Greatest Army" by Stephan Talty

The questions I have for my academic library colleagues are not about Napoleon, or the Emperor's invasion of Russia in 1812, or Typhus (although I'd love to chat about these topics), but about how I got this book to read.

Question 1:   Why do I need to pay Audible.com $229.50 for a Platinum Yearly plan to get my audiobooks (equal to 24 credits or $9.56 a book) instead of being able to check this audiobook out of my academic library?

Question 2:  If I also wanted to be able to read the book on my Kindle why do I need to pay Amazon a further $14.85 for the e-book edition rather then checking the e-book out of my academic library?

Question 3:  Why is it that if I wanted the paper edition that my academic library would either have it on the shelves, or inter-library loan it for me within a couple of days (or buy a new copy) if the paper edition was not in the collection?

The thing is that both my brain and schedule make audiobooks far more attractive then paper books.  While I'd have a hard time arguing that The Illustrious Dead is essential to my work at the College, I would say that many (if not most) of the books I read are important in my work.  I tend to think if my brain and schedule make audiobooks essential if I'm going to keep up with reading that some of our students are in the same situation.  Would course books be more read if students could read them while multitasking?  Would our students read more books in their majors if they could read them while exercising, or waiting for the shuttle, or walking between classes? 

The academic library seems to be a wonderful organization for delivery of paper books, and less wonderful for supporting reading.  It's the old Railroad analogy - were railroads in the train business or the transportation business?  Are academic libraries in the paper book business or the reading and information business?

Having to purchase audiobooks from Audible (or e-books from Amazon) means that it is difficult to share books.  Books are much better when more people read them, as I want to talk to people about the books.  I don't want to keep my audiobook.  Once I read it I want to pass it along, I want to have it shared.  But I'm forced to buy the audiobook, when really I just want to borrow it.

I understand that academic libraries are, at least partially, about building a collection.  But if the collection building is at the expense of devoting resources to securing books in formats that folks want to consume them in (audio, e-book) then it seems that this is not a great trade-off.  I worry that our academic libraries have ceded too much ground to Amazon.  Amazon owns Audible.com and basic has a monopoly on the audiobook business.  Through the Kindle device, format and Kindle store Amazon control the e-book vertical market. 

Academic libraries, particularly working in a consortia, could serve as counterweight to the power of Amazon.  I've seen a great deal of concern from academic libraries over the Google Book scanning project, but very little about Amazon controlling the audio and e-book market.  Could some of this energy and resources be devoted to digital books, including audiobooks? 

My academic library is better then any bookstore.  And all the books are available equally to the whole community.  But academic libraries are loosing ground to Amazon and Audible in the format that I most want to consume books.  And the gap seems to be growing. 

Libraries make scarce resources abundant for everyone in the community.  Audiobooks and e-books are scarce.  I'm lucky in that I can pay $10 a week per audiobook.  If I couldn't (if I were a student say) then I'm sure I'd be doing a great deal less reading.

books I'd recommend for my brother Max's new Kindle DX

My brother Max just graduated from Duke. 

For graduation we all chipped in and got him a Kindle DX.  

Max was wondering what would I recommend has the first set of books to put on his new Kindle. 

http://maxmasnick.com/

Here are my recommendations (in rough order in when I read them, latest one on top):

• Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein
• How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer
• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
• Supercrunchers by Ian Ayers
• Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman
• The Drunkards Walk by Leonard Mlodinow
• The Omnivore's Dilemna by Michael Pollan
• The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
• The Birth of Plenty by William Bernstein
• Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
• Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
• Discover Your Inner Economist by Tyler Cowen
• Kluge by Gary Marcus
• The Ape in the Corner Office by Richard Conniff
• The Progress Paradox by Gregg Easterbrook
• The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

What would you recommend?

These are the books that have most influenced my thinking over the past few years.  The challenge in putting together this list was not putting books in, but leaving books out.  I'm sure I've left out some important works.

In looking over the list the main themes that I can draw out are:

1. Our brains have evolved to guide behavior that is often less then optimal.
2. The sweep of history is positive and defined primarily by an increase of wealth and well-being, largely driven by technological innovation.
3. Any effort to understand the current and emerging social structure requires a good grasp of history, theory, and science.

Max, most of all I'd want to tell you that despite graduating in the worst economy and job market since the Depression I'd still argue that we are living in the best of times. 

These books tell me that we have the potential to understand our brains, our cultures, and our history, and over the long run this knowledge will contribute to a future that is brighter then what came before.

my audio book word cloud

May 2009 books

The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 by Thomas E. Ricks

I've been wrong twice about Iraq.  Supported the invasion.  Opposed the Surge.  (I also tend to think a military solution to stopping Iran from getting a nuclear bomb might be necessary - so it is a good thing that nobody listens to my thinking on the military).  Ricks', "The Gamble" follows up on his masterfully depressing "Fiasco" - detailing everything that went wrong in Iraq before General Petraeus took over.  What I had not realized about the Petraeus strategy was the force in which the rest of the armed forces opposed this plan, or the degree to which Petraeus was a marginal figure within the military establishment.  In order to move to a strategy where the Iraqi people were "the prize" rather then the "playing field", Petraeus had to reverse many of the Army's (one of our largest and most conservative institutions) culture and doctrine on war fighting.  As I was reading "The Gamble" I kept thinking of how we need someone like Petraeus in other institutions....education, car building, maybe newspapers?  Ricks' conclusion is that while the Surge was the right thing to do, a tactical success, it does not represent a strategic victory.  We are in for the "long war" in Iraq, with the most salient events of the war still ahead of us. 

Grade:  A

Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped the World by Tom Zoellner

America's cold war nuclear program cost us $10 trillion over the 50 years that this war was waged.  Growing up I remember watching the TV movie "The Day After" - nuclear war did not seem like an abstract possibility.  Today we worry about Pakistan having (and selling) nuclear capabilities.  North Korea conducts another underground test (and fires rockets the same day), threatening to go to war if any efforts are made to halt their program.  And Iran continues to develop their nuclear capabilities, an eventuality that will most likely not be acceptable to Israel.  Zoellner brings all these events and developments down to their source, to the rock that when processed (on an industrial scale) is capable of releasing enormous amounts of energy.  We learn about the physics of a nuclear reaction, how these physics were harnessed by the scientists in the Manhattan Project to create the terrible weapons that the U.S. dropped on Japan to end World War 2   We learn the extreme steps that the Soviet Union took to mine uranium and start their own crash nuclear program.  And we follow uranium speculators and get-rich quick dreamers as they rode the uranium mining bubble.  An excellent work of both reporting and history.

Grade A-

The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman

This month Bryan Alexander has a terrific article out " Apprehending the Future: Emerging Technologies, from Science Fiction to Campus Reality" in Educause Review Alexander writes about the various methods that we try to understand the future, where Friedman is about scenarios rather then methods.  100 years may seem too far to look ahead, the but the exercise of looking towards the future is one of the best ways we have to understand where we are today.  I'd like to see the 100 year lens applied to education and technology.  Friedman is all about looking at the next 100 years of geopolitics, of war, and somewhat of the economy.  I have some agreement with Friedman in terms of a coming labor shortage and the massive consequences of a rapidly aging society.  I'm not sure if Poland will become the major power that Friedman predicts (but I do agree about Turkey).  A fun book to get lost in, a good read for any of us who enjoy predicting the future in our own little worlds.

Grade:  B

Charm City: A Tess Monaghan Novel by Laura Lippman

The 2nd book in Lipmman's Tess Monoghan Baltimore mystery series.  After reading the first book, Baltimore Blues, at the beach in April I went and purchased the whole series (used from Amazon).  The plan is to read a book a month.  In Charm City we see Tess finally getting "somewhat" of a real job, working as an investigator for a local lawyer.  The mystery is less fun then seeing Tess navigate the politics of the Baltimore newspaper world (where the mystery takes her again) and the various Baltimore social classes.  Throw in a musician boyfriend, an ambitious best friend, and a murdered wanna-be NBA owner and you have all the fixins for another great Baltimore mystery.

Grade:  B

Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow by Judith Viorst

This year I'm turning 40, so I thought it made sense to spend some time reading and thinking about this next stage in life.  Viorst's Necessary Losses is all about how adulthood involves letting go of our illusions about romantic love, marriage, relationships and work.  The part of the book that resonated most strongly with me was Viorst's ideas about the degree of ambiguity in even the best relationships.  I've read so much about evolutionary psychology and brain science that it comes as somewhat of a shock to me that the basics of personal psychology remain unknown territory. 

Grade:  B+

Amazon's book related media and our courses

Gotta hand it to Amazon that they really get the potential to add value to their core value proposition of content (books, CDs, etc.) by wrapping content around this core.

Check out the video for Michael Connelly's new book, The Scarecrow.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m1H95YIB2KWVAP

*for some reason Amazon does not give the embed code for the video....seems like a mistake.

I can get this book in paper, as a Kindle book, or as an audio book.  The book is platform independent.  Yes, I have arguments that Amazon owns the platforms and locks down (DRMs) the content (in audio and Kindle format), and I think this is ultimately short-sighted.

By also including short (and I assume pretty cheap) original video to accompany the books Amazon is being smart again.  I bet the publishers pay for the videos. 

What can we learn?  How do we move so quick videos or screencasts of professors can be linked to the Web next to the syllabi for students shopping for courses?  (Or better yet, student videos or screencasts about the course?)  And yes.....curriculum available in multiple formats for multiple platforms whenever possible.

Oh, and by the way, Michael Connelly's writes really excellent books, I hope Amazon's innovative work helps him reach many more readers.

books I read in April of 2009

This month included a week at the beach, so the list is heavier then usual with beach fiction.

A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World (Princeton Economic History of the Western World) by Gregory Clark

If quantitative economic history is your thing (I'm a fan) then this is your book.  It's important in our current recession to remember how much wealthier we are then at almost any other time in history, and that up until about 200 years ago almost no economic progress had been made since the dawn of agriculture.  Prior to 1800 societies lives in a Malthusian trap, where disease and limits on food insured that any increase in wealth translated solely into more people rather then better living standards.  From 1800 to the present the demographic transition coupled with the industrial revolution has provided the underpinnings for a radical transformation in everyday living standards and supported an ever growing population.   This book looks deeply inside these trends, seeking to explain why the Industrial Revolution occurred first in England and the West, and why some nations remain poor while the gap in income between nations continues to widen. 

Grade:  A-

Daemon by Daniel Suarez

A must read for any of us folks who see themselves as techno geeks with a paranoid streak.  Suarez is a member of our tribe, a real life system architect and IT person who originally self-published this book - only to see it take off and be picked up by a major publisher.  The plot involves a dead game developer who creates a program designed to insure that his brain lives on to control the world.  The book is actually scarily convincing about the vulnerabilities of our networked world and the ability of a collective artificial intelligence to subvert our existing order.  Suarez gets the technology right, and keeps the plot moving along.  This book will quickly turn into a movie franchise (the prose is cinematic), I hope that whoever turns Deamon into a movie gets it right.

Grade:  A-

Runner (Jane Whitefield) by Thomas Perry

Jane Whitefield is one of my all time favorite protagonists, and I've been missing her for the past 10 years as Perry has moved on to other books.  For my money, the 6th book was worth the wait.  The premise of this series is that Jane Whitefield is a guide to people on the run who need to be taken out of the world to evade people who wish to do them harm.  In "Runner", the runner is a young pregnant girl who needs to escape from an abusive rich boyfriend and the "the six" hunters he has hired to find her and bring her back.  I highly recommend starting at book one of this series (Vanishing Act - 1995), as Jane's character has grown in complexity and the methods necessary to escape capture have changed over the years.

Grade:  A-

Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes?: Bodies, Behavior, and Brains--The Science
Behind Sex, Love, and Attraction by Jena Pincott

Bad title but pretty good book.  Pincott, and her book, are smarter then her title - and you can learn some pretty good science from this slim, well-written and enjoyable volume. 

Grade: B

Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China by Philip P. Pan

China books tend to fall into two categories: those books that see China the future (positives) and those books that see China has corrupt and fragile (negatives).  Pan, a Pulitizer winning journalist for the Washington Post, is clearly in the latter camp.  Rather then falling in love with China, Pan is cleared eyed enough to see the devastation and continuing scars inflected by the authoritarian Communist government, including the starvation of the Great Leap Forward, the repression of the Cultural Revolution, the harshness of the One Child Policy, and the violence of the Tiananmen Square crackdowns.  His method is to spend a great deal of time telling the stories of the individuals who have struggled under the authoritarian system, and then to extrapolate to problems in the larger society.  Pan is not hopeful that China will be able to reform its political system, nor does he think economic growth will be rapid or widespread enough to avoid violence.  I appreciated the authors willingness to spend so much time with a few emblematic characters, but I found that his main thesis need to be supported with a wider lens and great analysis of economic, social, technical and democratic trends.  

Grade:  B+

Baltimore Blues: A Tess Monaghan Novel (Tess Monaghan Mysteries) by Laura Lippman

I liked this book so much that as soon as I put it down I went to Amazon and ordered all 9 books in the series (used copies from Amazon...and amazing cheap and easy way to buy books).  If there are any fellow fans of Baltimore and crime novels (particularly crime stories set in the Charm City) you should come and see me, as I'd love to pass on the series.  Lippman is married to David Simon, creator of my favorite TV show of all time (The Wire), this family has Baltimore low-life, cops and reporters in the blood.  Tess Monaghan is a great character.  Tess (like me) is half-Jewish - although she is much tougher then I'll ever be.  The story is intricately plotted and somewhat satisfying, but the real joy are the characters - with Baltimore looming as the most colorful character of them all.  I didn't guess the killer, and I look forward to reading forward (this is the first book in the series) to see where life (and death) takes Tess.

Grade:  A-

books, march 2009

Last Harvest: From Cornfield to New Town: Real Estate Development from George Washington to the Builders of the Twenty-First Century, and Why We Live in Houses Anyway by Witold Rybczynski

The story of the neo-traditional (new urbanist) development New Daleville in rural Pennsylvania. 

The architect and writer Rybczynski takes us from cornfield to the first few homes in the development.  Along the way we learn about what exactly a developer does, how new homes are permitted and built, how developers and builders work together, and how new homes are marketed and sold. 

The challenges faced by the developers of New Daleville are placed in the context the home building industry in the U.S., and in the ways housing development varies by region and has changed over the past 75 years.  My father is a housing demographer, and I immediately called him upon finishing Last Harvest to recommend this book (I've actually been recommending it to everyone).  We think we are experts in housing since we all have strong opinions, but I had not really understood or appreciated the actual process involved in the creation of new housing.  This book is also fascinating because the developers and architects were trying to address the social and economic costs of our traditional way of building houses with their new urbanist development.  Rather then have large houses on large lots with the houses dominated by garages and driveways, the builders tried to create a development with smaller houses on smaller lots, with sidewalks, open/public spaces, and the ability to walk to amenities.  The fact that they did so in a rural PA county made this project more difficult to market, coupled with the fact that the development started in the housing boom but was not in the building stage until the housing bust. 

Grade:  A

How we Decide by Jonah Lehrer and Why We Make Mistakes: by Joseph T. Hallinan

I'm putting these books together, as they both reside in the category of translating scientific (both life and social) research on behavior to a general audience.   Lehrer is a terrific writer.  Author of Proust was a Neuroscientist, Lehrer knows his way around a sentence as well as the frontal cortex.  This book fits perfectly, and significantly contributes, to a growing genre of books that popularize and make accessible the current research on the cognitive and evolutionary basis for our behavior and thinking.  Lehrer knows the science and can translate the mechanisms and processes into behaviors.  From other reading in evolutionary psychology and behavioral economics we know what poor decision makers we can be.  This book grounds the work on behaviors firmly within our biology.  Lehrer does not neglect culture or social structure, instead skillfully drawing connections between the realms of the mind and society. 

Hallinan's background is in journalism, and his book suffers from a lack of a central thesis or participation on the front-lines of research.  Where Lehrer connected anecdote to neurology, Hallinan is limited to synthesizing the scientific research.   Where Hallinan is handicapped is that he does not have deep expertise in any one area, so his explanations never seem to leave the surface of a problem or get to the roots of a behavior.  Despite its shortcomings in substance and style, Why We Make Mistakes is still a useful part of the puzzle to appreciating our own flawed brain and poor track record of decision making.  While much of the research covered in this book will not be new to enthusiasts of this field, the act of going over this ground helps bring this work into our long term memories.  It feels as if we are at a time where the black box of behavior is being illuminated by advances in both our scientific method and theory to interpret the results.  

How We Decide:  Grade A-
Why We Make Mistakes:  Grade B

The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters by Rose George

When I was courting Julie on a cross Europe trip after our 2nd year of graduate school I took her on a tour of the Pairs sewer system.  On our honeymoon we toured Baltimore's Waste Water Treatment facility.  Sanitation is the key to civilization.  Without the ability to deal with human waste then cities would have been limited in size by disease epidemics such as cholera.  So the The Big Necessity is my kind of book.  George takes us to places on the planet where the people do not have toilets, where human waste is untreated, and where preventable diseases are unchecked.  Clean water gets all the press (and a great deal of the development money), where toilets and proper sewage disposal remain "unmentionable".  Where is Angelina Jolie hanging out at a model public toilet, telling the world how important it is to provide clean and effective sanitation to the world's poor.  Rose travels the developed to the developing world, giving us a first person account how the rich and the poor world deal with our excrement.  She squats the squat, and her first person accounts are invigorating and insightful.  We all crap, but by luck of our birth we do so in very different ways.  A book that should be read in any development economics program or comparative development course.

Grade:  A-

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson

Like many I was first exposed to Ken Robinson from this TED talk.     The Element is another book that should be read by leaders and passed around to work groups.  It covers much of the same ground as Tribes, or Marcus Buckingham's work on Finding Your Strengths (which I use extensively in my graduate consulting course), but Robinson superior style and engaging personality make his work both enjoyable and always edifying.  Where Robinson is at his best is where he makes connections with how our education system impedes students from finding their passions.  At the same time, I wished for a deeper dive into our education system (particularly post-secondary education), and for a specific critique (grounded in history and political economy) for how our schools can hinder creativity.  You will come away from this book even more depressed about our manic focus on testing, and even more committed to enabling the passions in your colleagues and children.

Grade:  A-

Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life by Adam Gopnik

Darwin and LIncoln were both born on February 12, 1809.  Gopnik takes this historical coincidence as a starting place to explore the lives and ideas of the two men who did more to shape modern society then perhaps any other pair, with one giving us the foundations for representative democracy supported by military power and the other providing a framework to understand the origins of and development of species.  We can be Darwinist because we are the beneficiaries of the fruits of a wealthy liberal democracy, one that Lincoln cemented with his refusal to let the American experiment disintegrate through secession.  Gopnik is an essayist, not a historian, which if well and good for a short and personal book where the lives and ideas of the Great Men are explored in the context of contemporary ideas and struggles.  Gopnik's thesis is that what ties Lincoln and Darwin together is their power over language, Lincoln in his speeches and Darwin in his books.  This allows Gopnik to narrow his focus and play to his own strengths as a crafter of phrases.  If you read Angels and Ages expecting a biography of Darwin or LIncoln or a social history of their times you will be disappointed.  However, if you approach the book as a long thought piece on the literary, scientific and cultural legacy of Lincoln and Darwin then you will spend a few hours delighting in words well strung together recounting some of the the phrases that define (and undergird) our modern world.

Grade:  B+

Bye bye printed monograph

This is part of the thread Josh initiated with the mention of the Kindle. Today Inside Higher Ed has a post that details the plans of the University of Michigan Press to phase out the printed monograph in favor of the digital monograph.

"Within two years, press officials expect well over 50 of the 60-plus monographs that the press publishes each year -- currently in book form -- to be released only in digital editions. Readers will still be able to use print-on-demand systems to produce versions that can be held in their hands, but the press will consider the digital monograph the norm."

And:

"I have been increasingly convinced that the business model based on printed monograph was not merely failing but broken," said Phil Pachoda, director of the Michigan press. "Why try to fight your way through this? Why try to remain in territory you know is doomed? Scholarly presses will be primarily digital in a decade. Why not seize the opportunity to do it now?"

So the question of the digital reader becomes more acute as the shift to digital accelerates.  I was curious about Anthony's answer to Josh's thought about getting a Kindle (Anthony replied "resist the temptation.")

an argument for why the kindle is evil

Thoughtful argument on the dangers of the Kindle.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0318/p09s01-coop.html

After my wildly positive post about how digital books will increase readership and expand the circle of readers this is perhaps a good corrective.

The basic point is that digital books stop us from sharing.  Local cultures are built and sustained on the passed-along book.

I think these are issues we need to grapple with and overcome, given the compelling reasons to explore digital books (audio and ebooks) in our little communities.

why digital and audio books will dramatically increase the numbers of books sold, the number of authors, and the money writers will earn

This morning I got received this e-mail from Audible.com:

Dear Joshua,

It's like winning the lottery twice, on selection and price, in our sale featuring 200 outstanding audiobooks—all unabridged, all $4.95 each.

Shop now for incredible value, but please hurry! This 48-hour sale, available exclusively to AudibleListener® members, ends Thursday, March 19, 2009, at 4 PM EDT.

Turns out that some of the books were on my "maybe" list - and at $4.95 the price was low enough to pull the trigger.

These are books that I probably would not have purchased if I were required to burn an audible credit (although I had used credits for some books on the list), so therefore this was additional revenue for Audible.  In other words, I will still use my credits, and re-purchase my platinum listening plan when the credits run out.

The beauty of digital delivery is that the marginal cost for Audible (and Amazon which owns Audible) for each additional audiobook sold is zero.  They can run promotions such as this to best match the price their customers are willing to pay.  The perfect price for an electronic copy is exactly what the user is willing to pay. 

This is why Starbucks has so many different varieties of coffee to choose from.  The soy venti mochachino is not actually that much more expensive for Starbuck's then the plain cup of coffee (as most costs are fixed - labor, rent, etc.) - the actual raw materials for the coffee are just pennies.  Starbucks wants to offer enough prices that allow their customers to sort themselves, and pay the amount that matches the preferences of each coffee buyer.  Some folks are made happy with a $5 drink, others with a $2 drink.

Audiobook and electronic books (Amazon's Kindle) have exactly this potential.  Variable pricing and promotions can find that sweet spot, where an additional sale is made that would not normally have been transacted.  Since the marginal cost of the item is essential zero, this additional sale means additional revenues for writers, publishers, and yes Amazon.  Further, Amazon can collect, sort and analyze enough data to find that sweet spot. 

Amazon can offer personalized sales to each of their customers.  A different price for everyone.  Once Amazon integrates their clickstream data from Audible.com with their regular site (if they have not already done so - I think not as the Audible site is still very poor compared to the Amazon site), then they will have an enormous amount of data to set correct prices.  Of course, they need to be careful, as they could also charge customers higher prices for things they know little price sensitivity will exist, but Amazon will be discouraged from doing so given the PR backlash and user anger that would result (much like the trouble Netflix got into for "throttling" DVD delivery to heavy use customers).

Why is this important beyond Amazon's bottom line?  On the book side, digital copies have the potential for increasing the market, increasing the number of readers and increasing the range and numbers of books read.  This is a good thing.  Amazon should be able to get the price right to bring readers to books that would have never met in the past.  Again, more money for authors - and more authors selling more books.  The world a better place.

So what audiobooks did I purchase for $4.95:

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century

Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China

Runner (Jane Whitefield)

Baltimore Blues: A Tess Monaghan Novel

Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes?: Bodies, Behavior, and Brains--The Science Behind Sex, Love, and Attraction

book I'd love to discuss - Sir Ken Robinson and The Element

So I'm in the middle of reading Sir Ken Robinson's latest book - The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.

I'm finding the book to be wonderfully inspiring.  Speaks to us folks in education, and helps put our work (I think) in a larger context.  We hope to spend our days with people who are "in their element" when teaching, working on developing courses and curriculum, and working on technology to promote active learning.

I found Sir Ken on TED (talk below) - one of the best TED talks I've watched.  The book, so far, is even better. 

So I hope you will watch the video, and take me up on my offer to come borrow the book.  I'll buy the coffee.

February 09 Books

The Survivors Club by Ben Sherwood

Terrific book.  Sherwood sets out to understand who survives and who dies in trauma, and why.  He makes the point that sooner or later most of us will face a test, often a life threatening test, and who enters the survivors club is not random.  Certainly people have skills, instincts, and resources that allow them to survive  (and even thrive) where others are killed or destroyed.  I had no idea that most plane crashes are survivable, but only survivable if you know what you are doing and have a plan.  Same goes for car accidents, fires, violent attacks and those other events that could kill us.  Sherwood is a journalist with a varied resume (former TV news producer, magazine writer), and he brings all his reporting skills to the question of who survives.  The interviews with people who survived horrible accidents are gripping.  My favorite is the pilot who survived ejecting from his airplane at faster then Mach 1!  Highly recommended. 

Grade A-

Animals Make us Human by Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin is a national treasure.  I have this fantasy that President Obama will invite her to the White House and give her some big award for helping all of us to understand animals.  He will then direct his Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsak to follow Grandin's guidelines for the ethical treatment of farm animals.  President Obama will talk about how Grandin is an inspiration on how we can all play to our strengths, as Grandin has turned her autism into an asset in understanding animals.  Grandin's thesis is that animals are primarily driven by their (our emotions).  Proper care of animals means attending to their emotional needs.  Understanding how animals perceive the world can help us set up environments where they feel safe, and where their seeking and companion needs are met.  Of course I loved the chapter about dogs - and I've been very nice to my dog after Grandin got in my head.  Where I was surprised was how much I enjoyed the chapters on cows, pigs, and chickens.  It is good to have some idea how our industrial food system works.  An excellent complement to Pollan's writing.  A truly original work.  

Grade A-

The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson

Johnson is the author of one of my favorite books of 2007 - The Ghost Map - as well as a bunch of other great science books.  This is another one of those books that make me question my formal education, as despite being a U.S. history major and life-long Ben Franklin read I had not known (or remembered) anything much about Joseph Priestley.  The role that Priestly played in the 18th century scientific enlightenment is a crucial one.  He was a (younger) contemporary of Ben Franklin, a popularizer (like Johnson) of the work of Franklin and the other "electricians", and the discoverer of oxygen.  Priestley seems to pop up at all the key scientific and political events of the 18th century, making friends (and creating enemies) with our founding fathers.  Johnson makes the point that today we are missing scientists who both take the lead in politics and religion.  A religious political progressive in the form of a scientist appears to be a contradiction in our world.  The Invention of Air helped me understand both the early origins of the scientific revolution and some about our early history as a country.  An accessible and enjoyable read.  Johnson at the top of his game.  

Grade A-

Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger

Weinberger is a classically trained philosopher who has turned his insights to our digital world.  A big picture book of ideas, with the common thread that the new digital order subverts and extinguishes the rationales for traditional classification and organization schemes.  An important book for anyone who thinks about information architecture, or is in the business of matching content (curriculum) with folks who would want to find and add value to that content. 

Grade: A-

I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle

Hilarious.  This book was recommended by Amazon for people who like Nick Hornby and Tom Perrotta, and I'd recommend it as well.  Part of my effort to keep one work of fiction going at all times, this book cannot be called "serious" fiction.  Pure fun and escapism, with some wonderful turns of phrase and dialogue.  Doyle is a writer for the Simpsons, and if you appreciate references to pop culture, teen angst, and geeks, cheerleaders, and crazed army boyfriends then this book may be worth your time.   

Grade:  B