What Are You Reading Now?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Those quotes remind me quite a bit of the Arbinger Institute stuff.

Really? Ugh...

[Eddie]

Really? Ugh...

Yup.

All the stuff my CEO brings to us from Arbinger is about seeing people as obstacles, tools, or irrelevant versus seeing them as people. Then she gets into seeing others as having "hopes and dreams of their own" and trying to understand them.

Obviously I'm not doing it much justice in a couple of sentences - But it sure seems like while the approach is a little different - at its core it shares some similarities.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Yup.

All the stuff my CEO brings to us from Arbinger is about seeing people as obstacles, tools, or irrelevant versus seeing them as people. Then she gets into seeing others as having "hopes and dreams of their own" and trying to understand them.

Obviously I'm not doing it much justice in a couple of sentences - But it sure seems like while the approach is a little different - at its core it shares some similarities.

Yeah, I read one of those books and I didn't like it much. Anatomy of Peace.

I have the Leadership and Self-Deception book in my queue, but I can't bring myself to read it.

[falafel]

Ha! I remember that quote. I marked it and played it for my wife.

Ditto for the first exchange between Sam and Laura when he caught her cheating. The audiobook version of that was brilliant and had us both laughing to tears.

I just read that exchange this afternoon at lunch. It was classic.

[Katy Lied]

Mike Brown, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming. Way way less boring that you'd think. Pluto's not the first planet killed by scientific consensus. We used to have the planets Ceres and Pallas (with elements cerium and palladium named after them), and Juno and Vesta who were sketchy enough that they couldn't even get the chemists to name an element after them. The author sprinkles fascinating facts throughout-- like since man discovered Pluto, we've only observed a little over one quarter of its orbit (255 years for a complete rotation).

Mike Brown also does a good job describing the pressure to publish or perish, which in astronomy means discovering new planets, and the intricate balancing act between validating and rechecking your discoveries, but at the same time not taking so long that someone else beats you to the discovery of a new body. He also talks about how all astronomers hate the moon.

[Shaka]

I just finished Bruce Dickinson's autobiography What Does This Button Do? For those who don't know Bruce is the lead singer of Iron Maiden. He's also a university graduate, world class fencer, commercial airline captain, author, screenwriter, and in demand corporate speaker.

It's excellent in every way and I had several instances where I almost spat what I was drinking onto my iPad. I was fun finding out what made the guy tick and he gets extra credit for delivering the goods with British charm.

It inspired me to start reading Nikki Sixx's The Heroin Diaries. So far it's also an interesting look into the perils of rock star heroin addiction.

[Northwestcoug]

Just finished Elantris, Brandon Sanderson's first published novel. I am a big fan of his writing style, having read all of the Mistborn series and The Emperer's Soul. Although he's best classified as a fantasy writer, he includes a lot of theology and political philosophy in his work. Elantris is no different. It's a stand alone book, so if you're wary of starting a series (like I usually am, before I started Mistborn ), this is a good book for fantasy homers.

It would be interesting to spend some time picking his brain. He spends so much time talking about faith in the abstract, that I wonder what he's struggled with in his own life.

[pelagius]

Just finished Elantris, Brandon Sanderson's first published novel. I am a big fan of his writing style, having read all of the Mistborn series and The Emperer's Soul. Although he's best classified as a fantasy writer, he includes a lot of theology and political philosophy in his work. Elantris is no different. It's a stand alone book, so if you're wary of starting a series (like I usually am, before I started Mistborn ), this is a good book for fantasy homers.

It would be interesting to spend some time picking his brain. He spends so much time talking about faith in the abstract, that I wonder what he's struggled with in his own life.

Just come back to BYU and take his class.

[Northwestcoug]

Just come back to BYU and take his class.

I'm no writer, but I think that would be a very interesting class. Not sure if the commute would be worth it though...

[pelagius]

I'm no writer, but I think that would be a very interesting class. Not sure if the commute would be worth it though...

Yeah, pretty sure it's extremely difficult to get into; you have to apply for the class itself.

[Scott R Nelson]

The Burning Room by Michael Connelly. This may be his best book yet. I'm almost done and can't put it down. He's great at telling an intersting complex story that doesn't lose the reader in its complexity.

I needed a book like this after reading an LDS Romance Novel (Borrowed Light) that my wife had finished. That one was a bit too predictable and needed some more research for accuracy. My wife loved it, but I had to push myself to get through it. Apparently we don't like the same sort of books.

[snowcat]

Yeah, pretty sure it's extremely difficult to get into; you have to apply for the class itself.

You can watch previous year's sessions on youtube.

[Katy Lied]

Pierce Brown's Red Rising Trilogy. Painful but awesomely enjoyable.
Joe Haldeman's Forever War Trilogy Vietnam in Outer Space. Also, the basic plot for the movie Pacific Rim.
Gregory Berns How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and his Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain. Bet you want to know how he gets a conscious dog to voluntarily lay down in an MRI machine.

Next up: Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow. Wish me luck.

[Pelado]

Pierce Brown's Red Rising Trilogy. Painful but awesomely enjoyable.
Joe Haldeman's Forever War Trilogy Vietnam in Outer Space. Also, the basic plot for the movie Pacific Rim.
Gregory Berns How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and his Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain. Bet you want to know how he gets a conscious dog to voluntarily lay down in an MRI machine.

Next up: Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow. Wish me luck.

Good luck.

[falafel]

The Burning Room by Michael Connelly. This may be his best book yet. I'm almost done and can't put it down. He's great at telling an intersting complex story that doesn't lose the reader in its complexity.

I needed a book like this after reading an LDS Romance Novel (Borrowed Light) that my wife had finished. That one was a bit too predictable and needed some more research for accuracy. My wife loved it, but I had to push myself to get through it. Apparently we don't like the same sort of books.

I love the Bosch novels. I'm reading the new one, Two Kinds of Truth, right now. Only a few chapters in, but its good so far. That Bosch tho, he' such a hardass.

Also, what in the hell were you doing reading an LDS romance novel?!?! Its not like you're watching tv with your wife and sometimes need to cave on a show she likes.