I know I said a while ago that I was going to start posting more frequently. That obviously hasn't happened. It seems like whenever anything entertaining happens in our life, I sit down to write about it, and say "man, that's SO not funny if you didn't get to witness it in person". This has happened no fewer than 4 times this calendar year. I've had a bunch of time to read lately, though (thanks to frequent trips back and forth to Logan, and frequent flights from Logan to Dulles), so I think I'm going to start writing about what books I've been reading, and what I thought of them. I'm currently halfway through Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell. Before I get into what I think of Blink, though, here's a quick summary of what I've read recently:
The Smartest Guys in the Room - I'm a big fan of Mark Cuban's blog (and of many of Cuban's business philosophies and ideas), so I first learned of this book when he wrote about the movie version of the book that appeared on his television station, HDNet. It garnered a fair amount of critical praise, so when I saw the book in the Borders by gate C18 at Dulles, I picked it up. It takes the reader through the rise and fall of Enron, the two people most associated with the company (Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling), and a number of lower-level executives in the company. It also details how they set up a number of the "off balance sheet debt vehicles" that one hears about so much in the news. I'll be honest, the way the accounting worked in parts went a bit over my head, but overall, the book was great. It was both entertaining, and educational....which is more than I can say about....
The Devil in the White City - Argh. I don't know if this book was too hyped up by the time I read it for me to enjoy it, or if it just sucked, but it was a chore to get through. I will usually fight through any book I start, and get to the end, but this one almost broke me. It's the story of the Chicago World's Fair, intertwined with the author's version (based on a fair amount of research) of one man's murderous spree that happened at the same time. All of the reviews I saw said that it was a "history written as a novel" so that it was factually correct, and completely engrossing. The chapters about the fair were interesting, though by no means engrossing. As for Mr. HH Holmes (our dastardly murderer)....eh, his story was pretty boring. "Boy meets girl. Boy kills girl" Rinse, repeat
Harvard Business Review - Managing Yourself - This was actually a pretty decent selection of essays collected from (obviously) the HBR. The best among them was "How to Play to Your Strengths", "Managing Your Boss", and "Managing Oneself", all of which were applicable to a 26-year-old working at PwC. "Almost Ready: How Leaders Move Up" was more or less useless, because of the fact that it discusses why some COOs can make the jump to CEO, and others can't. Seemed like an odd choice for the first essay in the collection. The other four essays were decent, but not worth writing about.
Out of the three listed, I'd recommend Smartest Guys first, then the HBR essays (if that's something you're into). I'd shy away from Devil unless you have a ton of time on your hands...
And seeing as I wrote a ton about those 3, I'll save my thoughts about Blink for another time...
One final note - I've enabled commenting for this thread...we'll see if I still get spammed....
Posted by dave at February 6, 2006 06:40 PMJust a few things to note:
1. If you leave a comment, the title of the page says "Goin' to the chapel and we're..." Just a reminder: We already WENT to the chapel....8 months ago. Time for an update.
2. In response to the painting (don't think I didn't notice that comments weren't enabled for THAT entry) my thoughts about covering the *entire* floor were not without merit. If you remember, YOU actually spilled some paint on the hardwoods. As did I. I know us - we're klutzes.
3. Your dinners take far too long. I eat at work in 10 minutes. What gives?
Posted by: WIFE at February 6, 2006 09:39 PMcontinued...
4) Does anyone wonder what Gina's reading? I asusre you it's far less educational than what Dave's reading! I'm currently reading a romance about two people who are being nudged together by ghosts (and the ghosts aren't exactly cheerful, happy-go-lucky spirits - they tend to throw plates, except for the cow, but that's a whole other story...) Love with paranormal interaction...doesn't that sound better than a historical novel about the world's fair?
The best book I've read lately was "Something Blue" - it's the sequel to "Something Borrowed." Highly entertaining. I don't want to go into details because I'm sure after the last section about the paranormal activities people have stopped reading.
Posted by: WIFE at February 6, 2006 09:44 PM1) I tried to change the comments page when I changed the main page, but it was a PITA and I got mad and my attention span is worse than my 16-month-old niece, so I didn't change it.
2) I didn't spill paint on the floor. I stepped in paint that was on the newspaper, and dragged it onto the floor b/c it was on the bottom of my shoe.
3) Work dinners with 8 people take FOREVER. drives me nuts
4) You have an account. You can make your own posts. Write about whatever you want!
4b) Nobody cares what Dave's reading either, but I was having wicked writer's block doing a proposal, so that was a good distraction