15000pages

05:05 pm - Book 1 - 2013

Book 1: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson – 598 pages

Description from bookdepository.co.uk:
From the author of the bestselling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, this is the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs.Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years--as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues--Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs spoke candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted. Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

Thoughts:
Let me tell you a story almost as long as this one about my experience with Apple. I can't quite remember if my exposure to Apple was to the old multi-coloured turtle like Macintoshs or to my iPod. I remember the year I got my iPod but not when I first saw those Macs so I can't work it out. Anyway, my first computer, or the family computer as it was, was an old 486 my computer technician uncle cobbled together for us in 1995. It was amazing! It sat in my room (being the only person who didn't share a room at the time - my sister came along the following year) and it had a very simple user interface (a concept I only know understand). The best programs however ran through an old DOS system you had to enter commands into that at the time I understood perfectly (I even entertained the idea of getting into IT for a number of years and I'm sure its because of that old 486). We had three amazing games - a tetris game that my cousin spent hours playing when she came to stay from the coast; an asteroid shoot-em-up that my brothers, my Dad and I used to compete for highest score on (my Dad thought it reminded him of the old arcade games) and an awesome version of monopoly that had these awesome little 'people' who ran around the board in place of pieces. Oh how I loved that machine. But technology moves on and after getting the internet in 2000 (New Year's Day!), I eventually came in contact with both iPods and Macintoshs. I never actually used the Macintosh, I only saw it at my sister's school - a row of them lined up in their bright colours. As all my previous experience had been with IBM style computers they seemed like alien pods to me, but that was that. Then came the iPod. I don't remember when I decided I wanted one, all I know is I was in Year 12, my senior year as the Americans would call it, and I was working. I somehow made an agreement with my parents that if they bought me an iPod I would pay them back for it. Man, did the other kids at school think I was cool. At the time, I had the iPod, one of the first flip phones (a Samsung) and a laptop, all of which I'd bought myself from my work savings. The other kids thought I must have been loaded! I went to a Catholic school, run by the local archdiocese and therefore, whilst charging fees, charging very minimal ones for a private school. My family were lower middle class, I wore second hand uniforms, discount department store clothes and my parents made a lot of sacrifices to send myself, and then my two brothers and now my sister (who has just started grade 12 herself) to a private school. I was not rich. I was just money smart (I'm an accountant!). I'd never been that into music until I'd started earning money in Year 10 and I'd gotten into Michelle Branch, who's song All You Wanted was on the radio a lot at the time. I got given a discman as a birthday present and Michelle, Avril Lavigne, Vanessa Carlton and the Goo Goo Dolls were on rotation a lot (in fact, I remember discovering Complicated and A Thousand Miles ages before they really took off - through the internet - and feeling partially responsible for their success as a result) but the fact that I could play one after the other without having to carry around or change discs was amazing. I had a laptop so iTunes was not an issue, and off I went with my '1000 songs in your pocket'. I loved that thing! It was 2nd or 3rd generation so it still had the old wheel and separate buttons and it was black and white but it did the job. A few years later, I upgraded, to a black version where the buttons were on the wheel, and I still have that thing to this day. It still works, and when I have long flights I charge it up and take it and my iPhone to listen to music on the plane. Anyway, in 2008 I started full time work and by this stage, everyone had iPods - those little white headphone cords were everywhere! Not long after I started at my new job (still there!) the iPhone came out. I was not an Apple fan yet and I was dubious that a computer company could do a phone. So I didn't early adopt. But I watched everyone around me, and over time I became envious of those beautiful little things. And then in September 2009 my family bought a desktop iMac. The thing is massive (we still have it!) My Dad was so sick of getting viruses on his old Microsofts based computers (we had about ten of them of varying ages) that he wanted something that he could use that was almost virus proof. It took a while for us to get our head around how the thing worked, but eventually, the intuitive nature of that machine started to click for us. The more I used it the more I liked it. But I was still exposed more heavily to my old Microsoft based laptops, one for work and one for home so I never had a thought about buying a Mac myself. The iPhone was a different story and finally in May 2010 I got one - a 3GS. I distinctly remember my cousin saying 'you'll never go back' and she was right. The thing was like a revelation! It was a masterpiece. I could go for walks and take both my entire music library and my phone. How had I ever lived without four million apps, that allowed me to do everything from throw scrunched up paper into a rubbish bin to count calories. In fact, in 2011, when I decided to go on a diet before taking a big adventure across the 'pond' (the very large pond) to America, I used an app on my iPhone - I lost over 10 kilos and I've kept it off. Of course, it was the app not the iPhone that helped me, but without the Phone I'd have never had the app, or any knowledge about the website it was based on's existence. But it was November 2011, when my Grandmother passed away, and I used my Dad's iMac to design a slideshow of photos complete with music that I could fade in and out for the funeral that I realised I wanted a Mac too. In January, for a birthday/Xmas present my Dad took me to a department store and I bought a Macbook, which I'm sitting writing this one now. I've never looked back. It's beautiful. I hate my work Lenovo now because it doesn't have the cool mouse slide function which allows me to move from screen to screen without clicking on buttons. Updating my iPhone to the 4S in 2012 was a breeze because I synchronise like devices together. I can download a song on my Macbook and pull it to my iPhone while at the gym through iCloud. It all just works! Finally, in November 2012, I completed my collection, buying an iPad that means I can write my stories on the train of a morning without having to squint at my iPhone screen with my atrociously poor eyesight. I'm an Apple fan, a hipster if you want to call me that.
And how does that correlate to this book. This book made me appreciate all my Apple devices, the beauty of them, the thought behind them, the ingenuity and the care so much more. Steve Jobs was a tyrant, he was a big bit nuts, and he had some really odd ideas about things. But he knew how to make technology that was user-friendly, clever and intuitive as well as pretty. It might seem strange, but pretty matters. I learnt so much about the IT world, about the birth of computers, about user interfaces, about getting music companies on iTunes, and about the little things we take for granted now in our IT devices that Apple pioneered or perfected. Isaacson's account of Jobs is not always nice. It is honest, raw and critical. But it also highlights just what he has done for the world and just influential that is. It made me proud to be different, to think differently (a campaign I don't remember but a quality I have and fought for a very long time) and it made me want nothing more than to keep trying to grab my dreams, to keep wanting to do great things. The crazy people really do change the world, I've always believed that, but this book exemplified it for me. I'm grateful to have read it, I'm grateful for all the wonderful things Steve did, for all the people who sacrificed so he could, all the people who have worked and created and dreamed alongside him and now, after him. An engaging read, an amazing man, an inspiring rise and fall. Long live the crazy ones!

1 / 50 books. 2% done!

598 / 15000 pages. 4% done!

Currently reading:
- The Iliad by Homer – 408 pages
- The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory – 437 pages
- Rock Chicks: The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960s to Now by Alison Stieven-Taylor – 314 pages

And coming up:
- The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Volume 3: White Gold Wielder by Stephen Donaldson – 500 pages
- The Odyssey by Homer – 324 pages
- One for the Money by Janet Evanovich – 290 pages

12:59 pm - Books 1 & 2 - 2012

Book 1: The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve – 293 pages

Description from bookdepository.co.uk:
Who can guess what a woman will do when the unthinkable becomes her reality? From the bestselling author of The Weight of Water, this enormously gripping and powerfully wrought novel asks the questions we all have about ourselves and definitively places Anita Shreve among the ranks of the best novelists writing today. Being married to a pilot has taught Kathryn Lyons to be ready for emergencies, but nothing has prepared her for the late-night knock on her door and the news of her husband's fatal crash. As Kathryn struggles through her grief, she is forced to confront disturbing rumours about the man she loved and the life that she took for granted. Torn between her impulse to protect her husband's memory and her desire to know the truth, Kathryn sets off to find out if she ever really knew the man who was her husband. In her determination to test the truth of her marriage, she faces shocking revelations about the secrets a man can keep and the actions a woman is willing to take.

Thoughts:
I had no expectations going into reading this book, and to be perfectly honest, for the first 100 pages it didn’t do much for me. I bought it for $10 on a throw out table at a now-defunct book chain here in Brisbane, using a gift voucher an uncle had given me, that wouldn’t buy me much more than this without me having to spend actual money. It sat on my shelf for years and finally I decided I needed to pick it up in October 2011 because it had been gathering dust for far too long. It’s appropriate that I should start in October and then finally finish it on New Year’s Day 2012 (reading over half of it on a flight from Brisbane to Launceston, Tasmania), as in a way it reflected my life a little, and I found that this story came to mean much more to me than I’d have ever thought. The book tells the story of Kathryn Lyons, a pilot’s wife, who’s life is turned upside down when an early morning knock at the door makes her a widow. A terrible enough situation only made much worse when reports come in that the crash was as a result of her husband’s suicide. By the end of the story I ached for Kathryn, watching her work through and discover her husband’s deceptions, one after the other. It made me wonder about the grief and the sorrow felt by one upon losing someone loved and then hated, versus someone solely loved, versus someone solely hated. These thoughts came to me after losing my grandmother in November 2011, a woman I adored, who died while I was on the other side of the planet. I don’t grieve with other people, its not in my nature, and while the rest of my family grieved her loss, I remained stoic and almost detached, and its only now, some months later, as little things hit me, that I feel as if I am grieving, and it is something I do in private, unable to verbalise how I feel to others. This experience gave me something to compare to Kathryn, as did the idea of her husband’s deceptions, having come from a family with a grandfather (other side of the family!) who was an adulterer intent on keeping both a mistress and wife (he in fact fought my grandmother’s divorce proceedings in court (this was back in the 70s) in order to keep their marriage, while being unwilling to sacrifice his mistress). This sincerely reflected Kathryn’s situation, and I felt I could bring both these experiences to my reading of the story and in having that, I got to experience the story much more richly. It was a good read for me, needed during the time, and finishing it on New Year’s Day, closing the book as Kathryn rebuilt her life, seemed appropriate. An absent choice made several years ago come to touch me when I needed it most – the beauty of the written word…

1 / 50 books. 2% done!

293 / 15000 pages. 2% done!

Book 2: Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story by Eric & D’eva Redding – 239 pages

Description from amazon.com:
Anna Nicole Smith went from being a small town country girl to being Playboy's Playmate of the Year, exploited by national tabloids for her controversial marriage to one of the richest men in America. In this indulgent biography, authors reveal all of the salacious details of her meteoric rise to fame, now with a new introduction, concluding chapter, and even more never-before-seen photos. The authors reveal all of the salacious details of her meteoric rise to fame from her childhood in tiny Mexia, Texas to her very public struggle with her weight. It includes the details of her Supreme Court battle to hold onto the fabulous fortune left to her in her husband's will.

Thoughts:
I think I picked this book up for like three dollars, hence why I was reading it at all. For some reason, when I decided to read it, I was on an ‘I should read more biographies’ phase (which lasted all but one book!). I have no real great interest in Anna Nicole’s life, but I actually didn’t mind this biography that covered from Anna’s childhood up until just after DNA tests confirmed the father of her daughter Dannilynn after her death. Her life was a bizarre one and she a bizarre person, but it is impossible to not feel at least a little sorry for her, and even more so her children. The writers worked with Anne Nicole early on in her career so whilst there’s a bit of self-promotion within the book, I think its reasonable to say that it’s a fairly decent interpretation of her personality. As for whether or not she truly loved her much older and rich husband (and some of her actions suggest very strongly that she didn’t) I don’t think that something’s any one but her will ever know.

2 / 50 books. 4% done!

532 / 15000 pages. 4% done!

As promised, I am posting my 2012 reviews in 2013. I was planning to post at least one 2012 review whenever I post a 2013 review but I'm a bit slow on my reading this year at this stage - seeing as I'm working through my 500+ page books, so figured I'd get the ball rolling nonetheless!


Currently reading:
- The Iliad by Homer – 408 pages
- The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory – 437 pages
- Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson – 598 pages

And coming up:
- The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Volume 3: White Gold Wielder by Stephen Donaldson – 500 pages
- The Odyssey by Homer – 324 pages
- One for the Money by Janet Evanovich – 290 pages

07:32 pm - 2012 Summary

So, 2012 is over. The world didn't end as 'prophesied' by the Mayans. The Olympics went off without a hitch - over for another four years (Summer Olympics obviously; in my part of the world the Winter Olympics are a non-event). The Queen had her Diamond Jubilee, and I got to be living in London for it. I spent ten weeks working in Uxbridge, UK - almost as far away as one can get from my home in the Great Southern Land. I got to see some new parts of Europe and a lot of the British Isles. I went to my new favourite country, the U.S of A for a third time, made some new friends while there, and got to see the Atlantic City Boardwalk before Hurricane Sandy blew it all away. Closer to home, my family's house renovations finally got completed, Queensland, my lovely little home state welcomed a new premier and a lot of people lost their jobs. After a horror year in 2011, I somehow found my mojo again and started killing it at work. My book is still up in the air and I haven't found myself a man yet, but 2013 is a new year, and as such, and without a single book review as of yet posted, please find below my 2012 book list!


1. The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve – 293 pages
2. Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story by Eric & D’eva Redding – 239 pages
3. The Last Warrior by Susan Grant – 378 pages
4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – 454 pages
5. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins – 472 pages
6. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins – 455 pages
7. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood – 198 pages
8. Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs – 310 pages
9. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray – 390 pages
10. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer – 326 pages
11. Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs – 304 pages
12. Graceling by Kristin Cashore – 370 pages
13. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell – 296 pages
14. The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty – 388 pages
15. Hatter M: Volume 3: The Nature of Wonder by Frank Beddor and Liz Cavalier; illustrated by Sami Makkonen – 187 pages
16. Fire by Kristin Cashore – 384 pages
17. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore – 559 pages
18. Culture Smart! Britain: the essential guide to customs & culture by Paul Norbury – 164 pages
19. Flat Earth News: An award-winning reporter exposes falsehood, distortion and propaganda in the global media by Nick Davies – 397 pages
20. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson – 533 pages
21. Radiant Darkness by Emily Whitman – 274 pages
22. Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House: Office Souvenir Guide by John Martin Robinson – 56 pages
23. Stonehenge: English Heritage Guidebook by Julian Richards – 48 pages
24. Experience the Tower of London: Souvenir Guidebook by Brett Dolman, Susan Holmes, Edward Impey & Jane Spooner – 72 pages
25. Edinburgh Castle: The Official Souvenir Guide by Chris Tabraham – 64 pages
26. The Essential Roman Baths by Stephen Bird & Barry Cunliffe – 47 pages
27. The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult – 388 pages
28. Alice I have been by Melanie Benjamin – 365 pages
29. Going Bovine by Libba Bray – 480 pages
30. How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack: Defend Yourself When the Lawn Warriors Strike (and They Will) by Chuck Sambuchino – 106 pages
31. Explore Hampton Court Palace: Souvenir Guidebook by Brett Dolman, Sebastian Edwards, Susanne Groom & Marc Meltonville – 75 pages
32. Eilean Donan Castle: Official Guide by The Conchra Charitable Trust – 24 pages
33. The Girl who played with fire by Stieg Larsson – 569 pages
34. Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult – 453 pages
35. Windsor Castle: Official Souvenir Guide by Jonathan Marsden – 72 pages
36. Ave Judas by Cassian Brown – 208 pages
37. Delete this at your peril: The Bob Servant Emails by Neil Forsyth – 210 pages
38. Psyche in a Dress by Francesca Lia Block – 116 pages
39. The Pact by Jodi Picoult – 451 pages
40. Size 12 and Ready to Rock by Meg Cabot – 361 pages
41. Royal Observatory Greenwich: Souvenir Guide by National Maritime Museum, Greenwich – 78 pages
42. The Accidental Billionaires: Sex, Money, Betrayal and the Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich – 255 pages

Total:

42 / 50 books. 84% done!

11869 / 15000 pages. 79% done!

Comparison to 2011:

42 / 31 books. 135% done!

11869 / 11300 pages. 105% done!

Top 5 books (not including re-reads):
I couldn't pick amongst the trilogies I read, so I've included them as one entry each - the order of the books of the trilogy represent my ranking.

5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
3. The Tenth Circle
2. Catching Fire/The Hunger Games/Mockingjay
1. Fire/Bitterblue/Graceling

Interesting Facts:
Improvement on last year: +11 (+569 pages)
Library books: 1
Non-fiction: 14
Most read author: Suzanne Collins - 3 books/1381 pages
Followed by: Kristin Cashore - 3 books/1313 pages
Jodi Picoult - 3 books/1292 pages
Books with a fantasy element: 14
Re-reads: 0
Sequels/Not a stand-alone or the first in a series: 9

I had not set myself goals for 2012 having been aware at the beginning of the year that I would be living overseas for three months of the year, and therefore would probably have a disrupted reading year. In the end, I got a lot of reading down, more than I think I would have had I been home, simply because I was always on trains, going on adventures or just on my three hour daily commute. This is the best year I have with my reading since 2005 (my first year of uni) when I managed 44. I had set myself a private goal of 38 on goodreads which I smashed quite nicely though I think its quite clear that part of this was because I read so many tour guides. I am disappointed, I didn't get my pages up (again with the tour guides) but it was still a good effort. I also noticed in looking at this year that I read a lot differently than I have in the past. Much less fantasy than I've ever read, more non-fiction (even if we take out the tour guides), a less books from somewhere in the middle of a series. I still have books from series to read, but I think this year definitely represented a change in my reading patterns. I was less restrictive on what I read and when - I just let myself pick up a book because I wanted to read it. I read a Jodi Picoult book, found I really enjoyed and picked up a few more as a result. I read Graceling, discovered I loved it so got the rest of the series. Same with the Hunger Games. I read books because the movie was coming out, or because for whatever reason, something had made me think that I might want to read about that topic (Accidental Billionaires, for example). It was an enjoyable reading year, all in all.

I'm not going to set a whole heap of goals this coming year, as again I'd like to see where the wind takes me. I have set myself a private goal of 25 on goodreads, though I'll obviously aim for the 50 this community refers to. The 25 is linked to my one and only goal - I would like to read a few of the books on my list that are over 500 pages. I generally avoid such long books, not because they aren't good (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series and Bitterblue are prime examples of absolutely fantastic long books - and I read both in a week despite their lengths) but because I get bored easily. Often, I really struggle through the first 100 pages of a book, as the story itself gets set up. The one thing that frustrates me about both books and films is the 'set-up' stage - that first act, the first 30 minutes or 100 pages, that is aimed at establishing the characters, their place in the world, etc etc. To my mind, the best books/films are the ones that throw you right into the action and then give you the character background as the story progresses, so you're emotionally involved enough to want to know about the characters. Many of my favourite books do this, and I have done the same in my own book. Anyway, in respect of the 500+ pages goal, I realised I was being something of a hypocrite in avoiding these long books when my own book is equally long - over 300 pages in A4 print. So I've put together a list of 15 500+ page books I would like to read this year. I have topped it at 15 because I know I'll end up reading other stuff in between (in line with my 'where the wind takes me' comment above) so I wanted to give myself the time. I think hitting all of these 15 books is quite achievable (it totals to 9245 pages, which is about 2000 pages lower than I normally read in a year), and I've already got started on the first one and am pleased to say have already flown past the first 100 page point.

I have attached a link below to this list here is anyone is interested.
http://blinger.livejournal.com/98523.html

I realise I haven't actually posted reviews to the above books, so I will post 2012 reviews concurrently with 2013 reviews this year - one of my new year's resolutions is to do my book reviews a little earlier than the end of the year :)

Happy New Year to you all!

09:21 pm - 25. Icon by Frederick Forsyth

Title: Icon
Author: Frederick Forysth
Publisher: Bantam Books
Year: 1996
# of pages: 567
Date read: 7/2/2012
Rating: 3*/5 = good


Description:

"Summer 1999. Russia stands on the threshold of anarchy. An interim
president sits powerless in Moscow as his nation is wracked by famine
and inflation, crime and corruption, and seething hordes of the
unemployed roam the streets. For them, only one man holds out
hope. The striking voice of Igor Komarov, waiting in the wings for the
presidential election of January 2000, rings out over the airwaves,
mesmerizing the masses with the promise of law, order, and
prosperity--and the return to glory of their once great land.

Then a document falls into the hands of British Intelligence. Quickly
dubbed the Black Manifesto, it outlines Komarov's secret plan for the
regime as autocratic and evil as Hitler's Third Reich. Officially the
West can do nothing, but in secret a group of elder statesmen sends the
only person who can expose the truth about Komarov into the heart of the
inferno. Ex-CIA agent Jason Monk has a dual mission: to stop Komarov,
whatever it takes, and to prepare the way for an icon worthy of the
Russian people.  But to do this, Monk must stay alive--and the forces allied against him are ruthless, the time frighteningly short...

Only
Frederick Forsyth, the unparalleled master of the novel of
international intrigue, could create this riveting thriller, as timely
and unsettling as tomorrow's headlines." -- from the first page insert.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this fast-moving thriller with its mix of real and fictional
events. I especially liked the twists and turns with surprises around
almost every corner.

Progress:

25 / 100 books. 25% done!

8529 / 30000 pages. 28% done!