Not my cup of tea

It’s Friday night. I’ve just had a few beers after a beauty of a run and the completion of stage 1 of the house move. I’m shattered. Had a wee sit down after it and finished off this book.

Didn’t take long. It’s only 50 odd pages and each page is just a single little poem about love in all its permutations. I’m not gonna lie to you here and there is no point beating about the bush.

It was absolute gash.

I just don’t get poetry. I try to look at them from different angles and from all the different layers that might be there. But it all just feels like free association writing to me. Like it’s been a random chain of thoughts that have been given purpose and meaning after the fact.

Actually, I know I’m wrong about this. If someone was to sit me down and talk me through what it all means I think I’d have a great time and learn loads. For example this poem from the book below. Please feel free to talk me through it in the comments.

Love
Love is talent, the world love’s metaphor.
Aflame, October’s leaves adore the wind,
its urgent breath, whirl to their death.
Not here, you’re everywhere

The evening sky
worships the ground, bears down, the land
yearns back in darkening hills The night
is empathy, stars in its eyes for tears. Not here,

you’re where I stand, hearing the sea, crazy
for the shore, seeing the moon ache and fret
for the earth. When morning comes, the sun, ardent,
covers the trees in gold, you walk

towards me,
out of the season, out of the light love reasons.

Apart from the content for the poem, what I find interesting and equally baffling is the unusual line breaks in the sentences. Does this mean something, does it add substance, is it just random bashing of the ‘enter’ key?

I read this book keeping my eye out for something that struck a chord with me that I might serenade the Mrs with. I am getting married in three weeks after all. But instead I was left scratching my head.

3/10

Next up is Animal Farm by George Orwell.

We’ll hopefully be set to start moving all our stuff in over the weekend as one of my buddies has sorted me out with a van! Can’t wait for it. We will probably be living out of boxes for the first month as we’ve just got so much on financially with our approaching wedding/honeymoon.

Because of all this madness going on I’ve not had a chance to read as much. Been reading on the train mostly, to and from work.

The Average Scottish Male

This book is the first on the list that was suggested to me in the comments on my first post about this project. It was Jen who recommended it. I have to say right now: Thank you Jen. I’ve not laughed so much in a long time. This book was hilarious.

To give you an idea of the book; it follows the thoughts of an unnamed twenty-something male from LA who has a high sex drive. The content of the book is absolutely absurd. When I first started reading it I was finding it really shocking. To the point where I was unsure if it was entertaining or not, but the more I turned the pages the more I wanted to laugh at the outrageousness.

The title ‘The Average American Male’ gives you the idea that this is an attempt to document just how we blokes think. In a way it does, but exaggerated times a hundred. That’s why its so funny.

Here is a video of Tom Green reading the first paragraph of the book:

Not much really happens in the book. It’s a basic little story about a guy dealing with the ladies, but I really enjoyed it.

I wouldn’t recommend this book to everyone due to the explicit content, but if you think you can deal with it and are up for a laugh, read it now!

7/10

Here is my Readmore stats:

5.3 hours of reading over 13 days.
Started on June 1
Finished on June 13
19 reading sessions (17 min per session)

Our wedding invites also went out while reading this book. It’s been fun. I have been excited about everyone getting them and seeing what the response would be to my design. We’ve had loads of RSVP’s already and it’s shaping up to be an amazing day! Me and Gemma have also been secretly working on other surprise wedding day stuff that I am super excited about! The lip has to be bitten.

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

Anyway, onto the book.

About two and a bit years ago I bought myself an iPhone. I was trying to explore all the different ways I could take advantage of media available through it and I came across a podcast called ‘The Skeptics Guide To The Universe‘. I think I have always been a critical thinker but I’ve been very nonchalant in my attitude to it. After getting into this podcast I became very passionate about the importance of rational thinking, science based medicine and critical assessment of all things ‘supernatural’.

Being interested in this I had naturally heard of Ben Goldacre, and had been interested in his blog and guardian articles. I was happy to see that this book was in the top 20 of my little project. This is the first book on the list that I would have picked up from a book store at my own accord.

The book took a different approach than I thought it would. I was expecting a book just dismissing many aspects of alternative medicine but, in many ways, this book is a guide to spotting the ‘Quacks’ and making an informed decision yourself.

It goes into how the media skew and dismiss statistics for the ‘big headline’, talks about the process of testing medicine to prove it’s efficacy and how many people just ignore the facts in the hope of miracle cures.

I’ve heard of most of the concepts in the book, but it was great to hear lots of first hand stories from Goldacre, to hear specifics that will make you laugh but enrage you all at he same time.

Overall this was an easy read for me from start to finish. Loved it. This book should be on the curriculum in schools.

7/10

Here is my ReadMore stats after completing the book:
10.4 hours of reading over 16 days
Started on May 16
Finished on May 31
36 reading sessions (18 min per session)

Here is nice video featuring Ben Goldacre that sums up the general content of the book:

I thought I would also share some of my favourite videos on the same subject of dispelling the quacks and down-right bullshitters out there.

Next up it’s The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen as Suggested to me by Jen in the comments here. Looking forward to this one.

While turning the pages of the latest book in my project I’ve went through all the rigmarole involved with getting a mortgage, I’ve been working on graphics for various aspects of our wedding, and I’ve spent a weekend with some very cool lads in Cardiff celebrating my approaching wedding, not to mention working on trying to earn a living. It’s not been as stressful as I had imagined and, believe it or not, I’ve still managed to work my way through this beast of a novel (680 pages).

The Corrections

The Corrections was a lot tougher to read than White Teeth. When I got the book in the post I opened it and immediately read the first page to get a feel for it. Uh Oh! I thought. This guy is writing a work of literature here. I got the feeling that this would be a book where you are supposed to take entertainment from the structure of the words and sentences, not particularly the story the words were laying out.

I knew what I was getting myself into though. There is a reason I didn’t pick a book list of Top Twenty Page Turners or Top Twenty Easy Reads. I wanted to do this to be challenged and stimulated.

Again, I’ve been mostly reading this book in my bed before nodding off and also on the train going to work some mornings. I didn’t take it with me to Cardiff on my Stag trip. My guess is that it would have been thrown out the window if I was caught reading it.

I also found a great we app that has been helping me out with my project. I was browsing the ‘featured apps’ in the iPhone app store and I noticed this app. It’s a nice wee motivational tool and provides nice little stats about your reading habits. I’ll definitely be using this in the future. It’s right up my street.

ReadMore iPhone App

The book, in a nutshell, is centred around one family. The mother and father, Enid and Alfred and their three children, Chip, Gary and Denise who are now adults. Each member of the family is dysfunctional in their own way and every last one of them suffers from some varying degree of depression throughout the book.

Alfred, the father, has Parkinson’s disease along with an on-slot of dementia and Enid, much to her denial, is struggling to cope. She decides to have “One last family Christmas” in an attempt to let her family see the deterioration of Alfred and to recover the broken relationships.

Unfortunately these bonds are harder to heal than Enid, in her excruciatingly blind, positive attitude, seems to think. The book takes us into each family members past showing how the bad relationship and, ultimately, bad parenting caused a lifetime of resentment from Gary, Denise and Chip. How little moments in their childhood have effected their whole life.

I kinda enjoyed the book. There were some great parts such as Denise’s back story about starting up her own restaurant and getting into bizarre situation with her boss’s family. I liked how real the characters felt and how, even though they were (for the most part) un-likeable, I found myself relating to them.

The main issue I had with the book was that, for all that happened, it was way too long. Too much time was spent on embellishment of scenes, unrelated characters and insignificant back stories.

I can understand why it’s on the top book lists. It was very well written (from what my uncultured mind could see), and the story was solid. But in the same way I can recognise that Lawrence of Arabia deserved it’s critical acclaim, it doesn’t mean I would want to sit through 3 hours of that again.

My final verdict: 5/10.

Next up is Bad Science by Ben Goldacre.

Me being the geek that I am. I decided to model my new living room in 3d and have a mess around with furniture etc. Below is a early render done in Cinema 4d. It looks nice IMHO but I don’t think the furniture is anywhere near what we will go for. The brown leather couches for example. I’ve just left them in there cause I’m dead happy with how realistic I got the material looking. Probably end up with a coffee table and a rug also. Maybe something to model for a future render.

Here is a slightly different angle and a wee bit less light to make it more interesting:

Got myself an arm strap for my iPhone today and in conjunction with this app, here is a little map of the run I just did.

White Teeth

So I’m now one book into The Great Book Project as detailed here.

First up on the list was White Teeth by Zadie Smith. I bought the book on my lunch break last week from Waterstone’s on Sauchiehall St. I was a bit disheartened when I saw the book. Not only was it thick, but it also had the slight air of a chick flick about it (reinforced when one of my colleagues at work said “Oh, you buy a book for Gemma?”).

Lets get something straight about me. I’m a graphic designer. I can’t help judging a book by its cover. To me the cover said: “Hi, I’m Bridget Jones and I’ve just joined the Slumdog Millionaire party”. But my fears were quickly put to rest after reading several blurbs on the back, including this one which, after reading the book, I think best illustrates the books essence:

An impressive début, not only for its vitality and verve, but mainly for the sheer audacity of its scope and vision…an epic tale..swooping, funny..it has ambition, wit and is unafraid

First off I need to mention that I’m not blogging about this to give myself an opportunity at being some kind of Literary Critic. For me it’s all about the Journey (Man).

This project requires a fair bit of adjustment on my part. Too much of my time is spent on the internets, with the F5 button on my keyboard accounting for about 99% of lost time in my life (the other 1% waiting on Gemma getting ready). This last week I’ve consciously removed myself from the comp when I found I was just killing time, went over to the couch and got into the aforementioned book. I’ve enjoyed it. Going that extra mile when it comes to a book. I’d be lucky if I’d spend more than an half an hour at a time in the past. These few days have been different. Proper sittings. I’ll see how this pans out over the coming books.

Multicultural London

I really enjoyed the book. It is, as mentioned in the quote above, an EPIC story. It follows three families through several generations, who are all all brought together by the friendship of Archie Jones, a once suicidal bloke incapable of making a decision, and Samad Iqbal, a Muslim who is determined to make his mark on the world. Every character is entertaining and funny in their own way. Zadie Smith makes a harsh reality laughable.

It’s essentially a story about how cultures, faiths and different generations are at war with each other. Each one convinced of their own righteousness. Sounds like a serious concept? Yeah it is, but I think this book received praise because it goes about it in such a laugh-out-loud-how-crazy-is-the-world kinda’ way. One of the most enjoyable aspects for me was the way the booked jumped between time-lines, stopping almost abruptly in a scene to go back, forward and/or diagonal. As a result you got a real in-depth insight into the life of each character. Reminded me of ’500 Days of Summer’ that way. Only it wasn’t 500 days we are talking here. It was from 1857-1999. As is said: EPIC.

I’ve been thinking it’s weird that this one came up as my first book on the project. The books central themes are based around topics that I am really interested in. Obsessively interested in. Religion and Science. How they bounce of each other. How they fucking collide. I came out thinking that this book is fuel for an atheists argument, but I think that’s me taking the book a tad too seriously.

A great start!

7/10.

Next up is The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. See ya soon!

Nice picture above eh? Was messing about with Cinema 4d tonight trying to get a nice fluid and natural look for a text design. Above is the result after finding that best way to do this is by using the Bezier tool with the Meatball Object.

‘Mon the books!

I don’t read a lot of books. I’ve always felt like I’m missing out on things when people talk about ‘chilling out’ in front of a good book. In the last few days I have decided I’m going to rectify this.

How am I going to do this? Well. I love having myself a target, I’m the kind of bloke who needs a bit of structure to his day/life/thoughts. I thought the best thing to do would be to I get a list of books to read and then go through them and have a bit of extra interest by blogging about them as I go.

I had a surf online for some book lists but most of them struck me as a bit too heavy going and a bit Too Much Too Soon. I finally came upon a list on the Times website called The 100 Best Books of the Decade. Suits me as all the books are modern and a bit less heavy on the old nut.

I’m not going to read all 100 of them. My target is the top 20:

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2003)
3. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama (2004)
4. Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers trans Robert Bringhurst (2002)
5. Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky (2006)
6. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
7. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2002)
8. Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood (2008)
9. Atonement by Ian McEwan (2001)
10. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (2003)
    One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night by Christopher Brookmyre *As suggested by Colin in the comments
11. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, in a new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (2007)
    The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler *As suggested by Steve in the comments
12. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (2000)
13. Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald (2001)
14. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi (2003)
15. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (2006)
    Animal Farm by George Orwell *As suggested by Jaggy in comments
16. Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy (2005)
17. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (2007)
    The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen *As per Jen’s suggestion in comments
18. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (2008)
19. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (2001)
20. White Teeth by Zadie Smith (2000)

Now here is where I take some liberties on my original concept. I’ve taken out The God Delusion and The Da Vini Code because I’ve already read them. Harry Potter is a gonner because it would require me to read parts 4, 5 and 6 (read the first three) and War and Peace has been dropped because I want to finish this project in the next 50 years.

So to replace the 4 dropped books I thought, in the true spirit of the internet, I would ask the world to tell me what to read. So here it is, dear reader, I’m asking for your input here. I would be really grateful if you could suggest some great books for me to grip my teeth into.

Thanks!

PS. I’m away to start on White Teeth now, which I bought yesterday!