January Books
Jan. 31st, 2012 01:56 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
dantheman23.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
christianreaderIt's a shame because I was really in a reading mood this month but my stupid library is still trying to catch up from the bad weather and power outages we had weeks ago so they're behind on fulfilling holds. I could have easily finished 3 or 4 more books.
Shadow of a Dark Queen
by Raymond Feist
And with this book we’ve started on a new 4 book series. It takes place another 26 years after the last book ended, so this series has now covered over 50 years so far! And I’m not even halfway through it. It’s mostly a new set of characters, with a few of the old crew popping in occasionally (when they’re not being killed offscreen…). At first I was bummed because I didn’t want to leave the old crew, but I’m loving this series so far; I tore through this book in two days. The prologue was incredible; it hasn’t really been addressed since, but man was it fantastic. Feist can definitely put the fantastic in fantasy. 4/5
Harrington on Cash Games Vol. I
by Dan Harrington and Bill Robertie
OK, last time I wrote one of these up for a poker book I said I wouldn’t read anymore of them for a while. Well it’s been a while ; ) And when I saw these classic poker books at the library I had to grab them. This was one of the best poker books I’ve read. It has that perfect balance of drilling down far enough into specific hands to be very useful but still focusing enough on the general strategy to be universal. Harrington plays a similar (tight aggressive) style that I like, and Robertie is actually the guy who wrote my favorite backgammon books, so that was a nice bonus. 4/5
Rise of a Merchant Prince
by Raymond Feist
Kind of a strange book in a way, but still a very good read. In the previous book we followed the adventures of two young men, Erik and Roo. Erik ends up signing on to become a permanent soldier, while Roo leaves the army to pursue his dream of becoming a rich merchant. This book mostly follows him, with the build up of the war left in the background. Not too many fantasy novels talk about option trading and hedging, but this one did and it was still interesting. Also unusual for a fantasy novel is that Roo, the main character of the novel, is pretty jerky. I think he’ll come around eventually but who knows. 4/5
Harrington on Cash Games Vol. II
by Dan Harrington and Bill Robertie
The excellent conclusion to Harrington’s series of poker books. He breaks it down and tells how to play different styles (tight-aggressive or loose-aggressive), and once again gives lots of specific examples. There’s also a section on how to beat weak games (probably the most useful thing in there for me :p), and an interesting interview at the end with Bobby Baldwin. This and the first volume are definitely some of the best poker books I’ve read. 4/5
The Making of a Country Lawyer
by Gerry Spence
I had read With Justice for None by Gerry Spence on the advice of an accounting professor, and it was very good, so when I saw this autobiography sitting at my parents’ house I grabbed it to read. He’s a lawyer who is known for taking on big corporations, banks, and insurance companies, and generally standing up for the little guy. It sat on my shelf for a long time and I only started it because I was in a reading mood and the next Feist books weren’t in at the library. I almost stopped after the first paragraph. First sentence really. To wit:
“In Wyoming, on the endless prairies, the meadowlarks attack the world with song. You can hear the war in every direction, the joyous warbling born of new life, pounding in high, melodious trills against the thin air of spring, and the warbling back, like great cannons of rapture exploding across the countryside.”
Oh brother. Give me some salt and butter for this corn. But I had nothing else to read, so I stuck with it. I got about halfway through before some better books arrived, and I put it aside. The first half way pretty boring, talking about the small town he grew up in and all these minute details no one could possibly care about but him. I put it aside but once again I ran out of better books to read (stupid snow!) and ended up finishing it. The second half was better, actually talking about his law career with a lot of personal stuff thrown in. The big takeaway is this guy is totally nuts. I mean really crazy. But I guess to make a real difference you have to be a little bit nuts. 2.5/5
Rage of the Demon King
By Raymond Feist
Finished this sucker in two days. He had built up such a huge storyline that I couldn’t wait to see how it was resolved. Honestly the end of the book was a little disappointing, but not too bad. And it still continues to awe me how huge Feist’s world is, how much time and distance it spans, and how often main characters die. One of those series where you shouldn’t get too attached to anybody. 4/5
License to Steal
by Benjamin Stein
Dad passed this book along to me a long time ago and it’s been sitting on my shelf for a while. I once again ran out of books this month (stupid library is wayyyy behind because of the snow) so I started and eventually finished it finally. It’s the story of Michael Milkin, who was the 80’s financial disaster, like Bernie Madoff, Worldcom, Enron, etc. I thought this might be pretty interesting, but it wasn’t. The author (and yes, it’s that Ben Stein) went way too much into the nitty-gritty details of the financial instruments that were used, and made the common mistake of going way too much into the background of the secondary characters. So many books do that and it’s really annoying. I wanted more information about how he managed to pull it off; how he managed to fool so many people. The scheme itself is almost irrelevant; all financial schemes, including the ones I mentioned earlier, are all different versions of the classic Ponzi scheme. Including our economic system by the way. Anyway, this book was way too indepth where it shouldn’t have been, and glossed over the interesting parts. 2/5
Shards of a Broken Crown
by Raymond Feist
I almost forgot to list this one! This is the conclusion of this particular four book series. It's more of a "mopup" sort of book; all the big epic stuff was handled in the previous novel. But it was still a very good read, and he continues to shake up the foundations of his world, always keeping it interesting. One thing I really liked about this four book series is that he had some characters who weren't perfect. Fantasy characters tend to be perfect or nearly perfect in every way, and most of his original characters were like that. But now we're seeing some of the people that have to follow in those giant footsteps, and they're not measuring up. It's pretty interesting. I just wish the dumb library would get me the next books already! 4/5
Books for January: 8
Books for 2012: 8
Shadow of a Dark Queen
by Raymond Feist
And with this book we’ve started on a new 4 book series. It takes place another 26 years after the last book ended, so this series has now covered over 50 years so far! And I’m not even halfway through it. It’s mostly a new set of characters, with a few of the old crew popping in occasionally (when they’re not being killed offscreen…). At first I was bummed because I didn’t want to leave the old crew, but I’m loving this series so far; I tore through this book in two days. The prologue was incredible; it hasn’t really been addressed since, but man was it fantastic. Feist can definitely put the fantastic in fantasy. 4/5
Harrington on Cash Games Vol. I
by Dan Harrington and Bill Robertie
OK, last time I wrote one of these up for a poker book I said I wouldn’t read anymore of them for a while. Well it’s been a while ; ) And when I saw these classic poker books at the library I had to grab them. This was one of the best poker books I’ve read. It has that perfect balance of drilling down far enough into specific hands to be very useful but still focusing enough on the general strategy to be universal. Harrington plays a similar (tight aggressive) style that I like, and Robertie is actually the guy who wrote my favorite backgammon books, so that was a nice bonus. 4/5
Rise of a Merchant Prince
by Raymond Feist
Kind of a strange book in a way, but still a very good read. In the previous book we followed the adventures of two young men, Erik and Roo. Erik ends up signing on to become a permanent soldier, while Roo leaves the army to pursue his dream of becoming a rich merchant. This book mostly follows him, with the build up of the war left in the background. Not too many fantasy novels talk about option trading and hedging, but this one did and it was still interesting. Also unusual for a fantasy novel is that Roo, the main character of the novel, is pretty jerky. I think he’ll come around eventually but who knows. 4/5
Harrington on Cash Games Vol. II
by Dan Harrington and Bill Robertie
The excellent conclusion to Harrington’s series of poker books. He breaks it down and tells how to play different styles (tight-aggressive or loose-aggressive), and once again gives lots of specific examples. There’s also a section on how to beat weak games (probably the most useful thing in there for me :p), and an interesting interview at the end with Bobby Baldwin. This and the first volume are definitely some of the best poker books I’ve read. 4/5
The Making of a Country Lawyer
by Gerry Spence
I had read With Justice for None by Gerry Spence on the advice of an accounting professor, and it was very good, so when I saw this autobiography sitting at my parents’ house I grabbed it to read. He’s a lawyer who is known for taking on big corporations, banks, and insurance companies, and generally standing up for the little guy. It sat on my shelf for a long time and I only started it because I was in a reading mood and the next Feist books weren’t in at the library. I almost stopped after the first paragraph. First sentence really. To wit:
“In Wyoming, on the endless prairies, the meadowlarks attack the world with song. You can hear the war in every direction, the joyous warbling born of new life, pounding in high, melodious trills against the thin air of spring, and the warbling back, like great cannons of rapture exploding across the countryside.”
Oh brother. Give me some salt and butter for this corn. But I had nothing else to read, so I stuck with it. I got about halfway through before some better books arrived, and I put it aside. The first half way pretty boring, talking about the small town he grew up in and all these minute details no one could possibly care about but him. I put it aside but once again I ran out of better books to read (stupid snow!) and ended up finishing it. The second half was better, actually talking about his law career with a lot of personal stuff thrown in. The big takeaway is this guy is totally nuts. I mean really crazy. But I guess to make a real difference you have to be a little bit nuts. 2.5/5
Rage of the Demon King
By Raymond Feist
Finished this sucker in two days. He had built up such a huge storyline that I couldn’t wait to see how it was resolved. Honestly the end of the book was a little disappointing, but not too bad. And it still continues to awe me how huge Feist’s world is, how much time and distance it spans, and how often main characters die. One of those series where you shouldn’t get too attached to anybody. 4/5
License to Steal
by Benjamin Stein
Dad passed this book along to me a long time ago and it’s been sitting on my shelf for a while. I once again ran out of books this month (stupid library is wayyyy behind because of the snow) so I started and eventually finished it finally. It’s the story of Michael Milkin, who was the 80’s financial disaster, like Bernie Madoff, Worldcom, Enron, etc. I thought this might be pretty interesting, but it wasn’t. The author (and yes, it’s that Ben Stein) went way too much into the nitty-gritty details of the financial instruments that were used, and made the common mistake of going way too much into the background of the secondary characters. So many books do that and it’s really annoying. I wanted more information about how he managed to pull it off; how he managed to fool so many people. The scheme itself is almost irrelevant; all financial schemes, including the ones I mentioned earlier, are all different versions of the classic Ponzi scheme. Including our economic system by the way. Anyway, this book was way too indepth where it shouldn’t have been, and glossed over the interesting parts. 2/5
Shards of a Broken Crown
by Raymond Feist
I almost forgot to list this one! This is the conclusion of this particular four book series. It's more of a "mopup" sort of book; all the big epic stuff was handled in the previous novel. But it was still a very good read, and he continues to shake up the foundations of his world, always keeping it interesting. One thing I really liked about this four book series is that he had some characters who weren't perfect. Fantasy characters tend to be perfect or nearly perfect in every way, and most of his original characters were like that. But now we're seeing some of the people that have to follow in those giant footsteps, and they're not measuring up. It's pretty interesting. I just wish the dumb library would get me the next books already! 4/5
Books for January: 8
Books for 2012: 8
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