Just finished the paperback "The last one left" by John D MacDonald. It's incredible, even the second time through. It's a master class in character development, plot complexity, and breathtaking introspection.
Just finished the paperback "The last one left" by John D MacDonald. It's incredible, even the second time through. It's a master class in character development, plot complexity, and breathtaking introspection.
Finished reading "The Facemaker" last night (highly recommend), so now it's on to "King of Poisons: A History of Arsenic" by John Parascandola. At 171 pages it should be a dense but quick read.
Just finished Starter Villian by John Scalzi. Very fun read and pretty quick too.
I just finished the audiobook of the second life of Nick Mason, by Steve Hamilton. This one was interesting. It was a very strange premise, a little helpless though, sort of like a detective novel meets the grapes of wrath. Probably my favorite from Steve Hamilton yet.
chknhwk said:Reading The Millionaire Next Door and doing a 'book report' for my master mind group.
Any thoughts? I liked the book and agreed with a lot of it's conclusions, but never completely trusted his sampling methods.
CrustyRedXpress said:chknhwk said:Reading The Millionaire Next Door and doing a 'book report' for my master mind group.
Any thoughts? I liked the book and agreed with a lot of it's conclusions, but never completely trusted his sampling methods.
That's kind of a hard thing to answer only being on Chapter 3, lol. I have lots of thoughts on based on the questions I've been pulling from each section to post in my group but here are some that stood out to me the most:
Question: “Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spend." What is your current savings rate? Is this serving you or hindering your ability to become financially independent?
Sorry for the formatting issues, I copied and pasted from my google doc I'm using to take notes and prepare questions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TguIzzGBDwD1IFj-VuU1p5SEKd32eclWaI9r1U1d8Kk/edit?usp=sharing
I'm picking up a lot of thoughts on how to change my frame of reference in order to improve my relationship to money, spending and debt - this is probably the area of my life I need the most improvement in...
Also what issues did you see with his sampling methods?
chknhwk said:I'm picking up a lot of thoughts on how to change my frame of reference in order to improve my relationship to money, spending and debt - this is probably the area of my life I need the most improvement in...
Also what issues did you see with his sampling methods?
You're asking the right questions =)
I was/am a huge personal financial nerd...getting the money part of your life right is as big a deal as marrying well or selecting the right career.
Re: Sampling. It's been a while since I read his book but IIRC the issue was around survivorship bias and selection bias. Overview here: https://evergreensmallbusiness.com/defending-millionaire-next-door-theory-what-stanleys-critics-got-wrong/ and here: https://tonyrush.medium.com/the-problem-with-the-millionaire-next-door-is-the-same-as-with-all-the-other-articles-that-claim-59e5480dd83a
In reply to CrustyRedXpress :
I agree - and in addition to getting your finances right you have to have a spouse that's on the same page. My wife and I are both spenders and enablers. If I show her a set of wheels for $3k her response is 'get them'. 
Sounds good in theory but when you don't have self control it's not a good fit...
Awesome, I'll have to look into those more. I did take some college courses that covered that kind of sampling but it's been a bit.
Just finished “Winning in Reverse: Defying the Odds and Achieving Dreams―The Bill Lester Story.”
It’s brutally honest–who helped Bill climb the racing ladder and those, he feels, who did the opposite. He names names.
Much more sports car racing than I expected, from the SCCA Club Races of his early days to the Grand-Am contests late in his career.
Fairly easy to read, whether or not you’re familiar with motorsports. Each chapter ends with a solid life lesson.
Would recommend.
Just finished "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens.
This is one of the best books I've ever read. I got dizzy as I finished the last chapter during lunch today. Completely amazing.
Slowly rereading the stormlight archive. Supposedly the next book is out later this year or early next year, and I want to be fresh.
Engineering Graphics Fundamentals, GDT (Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing)
CAD textbook......
Not sure what to read next: back to sci-fi or another autobiography?
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Do you have access to a library? See if they have Neil Gaiman's 1602 graphic novel. Or head out to your FNCBS and invest in it.
Myself tonight. Finally started actually writing part of a story I want to tell. I've been talking about it and sort of sketching for a couple years, but I finally started actual writing. Hopefully I'll have something to share in another couple years. I like heavy fantasy epics so that what this will be if I ever finish. Something in the neighborhood of 3-5 novels. But we start with the first five pages.
I'm a sucker for interesting "rags to riches" stories. This is a good one. His life spanned nearly the entire twentieth century. His first successful venture happened when he was still in his teens, and all his business successes were in Southern California. My only disappointment is that the book is a brief summary of his life. I would like more detail.
Just finished "A Passionate Sage", a biography of John Adams, by Joseph Ellis on audiobook.
It was great, an insightful and fair look at the revolution and early American history from a misunderstood man. I am paraphrasing, but the author rhetorically asked himself what President Adams would say of the modern day United States. Other than the obvious, one thing stood out, that he would be aghast that the revolution would be used as an excuse for wretched excess and individual freedom without any regard to said behaviors social consequence. Mr. Adams, like so many revolutionaries, was not a Christian, but had many adopted moralities. Certainly anti-slavery, but enjoyed being a contrarian on basically anything for the sake of discussion.
Would recommend.
13 since Jan 1.
Just finished the second book of Awaken Online. Really liking this series.
I just started the third book, described as book 2.5. Considerably shorter than the rest, this one focuses on a partner of the main character and her quests and development.
Will most likely be a quick read, but there are at least 2 more full size novels to go in the series.
In reply to tuna55 :
Not really. He was kinda smitten (what's less than smitten? Impressed, enthralled?) Clint was impressed with her ability to talk to anyone, usually in their native language and treated all with respect. She did some Diplomatic runs, but it went so smoothly because of her knowledge in art and history, it wasn't perceived that way. It's an easy read, includes pictures I've never seen before and not sad at all.
914Driver said:In reply to tuna55 :
Not really. He was kinda smitten (what's less than smitten? Impressed, enthralled?) Clint was impressed with her ability to talk to anyone, usually in their native language and treated all with respect. She did some Diplomatic runs, but it went so smoothly because of her knowledge in art and history, it wasn't perceived that way. It's an easy read, includes pictures I've never seen before and not sad at all.
I guess that makes sense, he did like her a lot. I'll bet he was irritated at how John (or Jack or whatever they called him) treated her. I'd bet he wouldn't let the dirty laundry out too much. I also wonder what she thought of Joe. Interesting because I have struggled to find a truthful and adequate account of that time period. Nixon was dumb enough to tape his every word. JFK was loved enough that his personal life was whitewashed. Thanks for the recommendation.
David S. Wallens said:Not sure what to read next.....
My local library had a Valentine's Day get a Date thing; sign up and based on your reading history, they give a list of recommended books. May help get out of a rut.
I was tricked.
I absolutely love the historian Michael Dobbs. If you are remotely interested in these subjects, pick them up:
But here is the problem, there are two Michael Dobbs
And the other one writes novels.
I picked up this book, thinking it was the good Dobbs
But it was not. So it was an overuse of buildup and sadness with a tiny climax. It was like reading the Grapes of Wrath, but with none of the literary masterpiece element. It was bland and boring, and did nothing to help me understand Churchill for what he really was.
Duke said:Currently reading I Will Find You by Harlan Coben. I noticed his name in the credits of a couple of decent British thriller series on Netflix ["Based on a novel by..."] but he is actually from New Jersey. I think. Picked this one at random off the new titles shelf at the library.
So far it is full of generic modern thriller tropes: falsely convicted protagonist with a troubled past from a blue collar background, evil rich family dynasty with a ruthless matriarch and protected sociopathic son, etc.
The writing is decent but nothing to, errrrr, write home about. It's a shallow page turner. We'll see how it turns out once the inevitable plot twists start hitting.
Ended up being full of predictable twists. Not that you could predict the outcome, because he didn't give you enough information to do so, but you could easily see that there would be a twist here about this thing and another twist there about that thing. So, I read it through to the end, but I will probably stick to the Netflix adaptations.
Currently reading Robopocalypse by Daniel H Wilson. Also picked up at random in the library.
Written in 2011 so it may or may not be out of date. Not far enough into it to know, yet. So far it has been readable. My only criticism is that it is the written equivalent of "found video" storytelling. Each chapter is supposed to be a transcript of a post-incident debriefing interview, each describing a different event in the human-robot war. These are connected by a narrator who compiled the reports and who adds a few notes at the beginning and end of each chapter.
It could work, and it does work, except that Wilson can't help writing in a more typical expository style, rather than staying in the voice of whoever is being interviewed. That's a minor complaint, but it weakens the narrative slightly.
It was supposed to get made into a movie by Steven Spielberg, but apparently the project was canceled.
In reply to tuna55 :
Take a look at "The Splendid and the Vile" Pretty good Churchill stuff.
Just finished Bright Orange for the Shroud by John D MacDonald. I am going through the series one by one on audiobook. This one is spectacular. I think the villain is a little too talented, but there are enough twists and turns to make sure extremely unsure about how things will proceed. John D makes sure enough good people lose their lives in the books so you can't just assume every good guy will sit around laughing at the end. A little tough for the subject matter in some cases, but even my daughter was enthralled with a few short drives around listening to random sections of it. It really sucks you in.
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