Took me all this time to parse your name. WP.

I just finished this too and would also recommend it. However, I don't think he emphasized the difference between hard and soft skills enough. Through practice, you can probably develop a very good golf swing but its not as applicable to becoming the CEO of GE or JPM imo.

Agreed, this was pretty good.

Also recently finished Moonwalking with Einstein, which was a good read.

After finishing IJ and Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself i'm not really sure what I think of it other than the obvious: It was good, some of the writing was very impressive, and the message was interesting though I'm not sure I got all of it.

I think the book got a bit gutted in editing. Apparently the original draft was 1700 pages (not sure if that was A4 or book size) but the editor made him strip it down to about 1000 so they could sell it cheaper and I get the feeling some important stuff was chopped there, I imagine the original went full circle back to the university admissions interview if not further which would have been nice; I didn't really understand why he stopped where he did. Hopefully they'll release the full 1700 page version for ebook someday.

AOCYEUBY is a good read. It goes a long way towards explaining what he was trying to do with the book.

A New Concept of the Universe by Walter Russel

here is introduction to the book... you can be a complete layman in science and you will still enjoy it and learn a lot about... everything. Believe me... it is my honour to present this to The Lounge which I like a lot.



and here is great clip to introduce you to the man, music is also awesome in this one



hey Ya !

Good thing you're not a book editor, or something.

Well parsed. (And, yes, I've sometimes been addressed in the forums as "Russellin" ...

A name that rewards repeat readings. I approve

Agreed. I love John Irving's style. I am finishing up The Cider House Rules now. It's not as engaging as APfOM, but is still a good read.

I had some personal reasons for loving Owen Meaney. The only other Irving I've read is Garp, back when everybody HAD to read that. I enjoyed it but thought it was too over the top, too much straining for impact.

All That Remains by Patricia Cornwell; I read the entire novel but was particularly interested in the first chapter which is frequently cited as a very good opening chapter. I thought the first chapter was workman like but not unusually better than most other popular writers.

Reading The Lost World by Chrichton.

It amazes me how knowledgible he is on topics of science. It's like he structured the book around theory, filling in the story line in between. I'm only a little ways in, but it should be enjoyable because the first one was really good.

Finished

Fatherland

Didn't really like it. Well paced and good characters, but plot was a bit thin.

and TUPoHF as mentioned earlier. Excellent light read, slight twist at the end, that I didn't see coming, but most of you literary old hands might.

Yeah reading Cornwell is like a punishment.

I give The Orphan Master's Son

I remember really liking fatherland, although it's the leap of counterfactual imagination that is the best bit, obv.

IIRC, his books go fairly straight downhill thereafter. The ghostwriter or whatever it's called is baaad.

Finished The Iron Druid Chronicles. Really fun and fast reading but felt like I was reading a rip off of The Dresden Files.

Not sure what I'll read next. Kind of getting burnt out on the fantasy/scy fi stuff.

Finished book 2 of Otherland. Onto book 3.

Yeah, could be that I found the central plot, too much of an historical event to suspend my imagination. As I said though, characters were really good.

Enjoyed Octopus. Would make a good movie. Just started The Honourable Schoolboy, the sequel to Tinker Tailor, which I read for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Vietnam from a British perspective isn't something I have ever considered, so looking forward to this one.

There's not a huge amount directly about Vietnam, I don't think, but it's pretty solid. Not in the same league as TTSS, but still good.

If you want a real british imperial view of (the French war in) Vietnam and American foreign policy, Graham Greene's The Quiet American is your book.

Its been great so far, educational and entertaining.

For my purpose, analyzing leadership qualities/examples, it isn't perfect, but it should work. This is mostly a function of the book necessarily being about what he did, more than how he did it. Lots of interesting stories to choose from though.

I just finished the part about the Battle of Harlem, which in itself could probably be made into a feature film.

The book has made me somewhat curious about John Jacob Astor. I was also confused by the many references to an Isaac Newton in the first half of the book.

The Sheltering Sky

Not sure if it's kosher to discuss graphic novels in this thread since I only check it from time to time and as of yet have not come across any.

Just read my first one: The Dark Knight Returns (Frank Miller). I guess this was a really good one to start with. Really loved this re-introduction of the batman universe with some universe clashing here and there (won't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't read).

Started reading The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman. I can already tell I'm going to like this one a lot more than Miller's.

Has anyone read The Odd Thomas series from Koontz?

I'm struggling to find something new to read and I've heard from a friend that it's a good series.

I have this lined up, please let us know how it goes.