Summer time and the living is easy ... good times with family and chance to whittle down my reading backlog.
Polished off some lightweight thrillers - (listed on my GoodReads account - http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2941194-tony )
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - a good new variant on the crime thriller formula (OK I know I am late to this party buy it is a good read)
- Beneath The Bleeding - Val McDermid - I do enjoy her writing -> she created the script/character for TV show "Wire in the blood"
- Doors Open - Ian Rankin - creator of Rebus, the Glaswegian dour detective but this is not a Rebus novel
In 2009 I read more books than I have for many years, helped by my 3 months long service leave.
Great 'reads' for 2009 in my view were
Breath by Tim Winton - listened as an audio book when I first returned to Oz from our 12 weeks in Europe. It was so Aussie in its setting and reading that it was a great welcome home. Also a great foil for jetlag.
Juliet Naked by Nick Hornby - a mix of middle age characters and music interacting initially over the net (as musician and music fans) and then in person. A great exploration of life in these online days.
These were books that did make you think and reflect on a life stage - adolescence for Breath and middle-age for Juliet Naked. The audio books are quite a bit more expensive but I can enjoy them while doing something else - driving the car (played from iPhone through Bluetooth speaker) or weeding the garden or working out at the gym (although I prefer music for that)
I enjoyed the latest in the James Bond franchise, Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks - a faithful return to the style of Fleming's writing and setting in the 1960. I find it quite jarring that at virtually every pause a character lights a cigarette.
Dan Brown (Lost Symbol) and Wilbur Smith (Assegai) delivered to their respective formulas without any real surprises.
Now for my best of non-fiction
Queen Bees and Wannabes - an insightful look into the world of 'girls' and how they interact as they grow up. Some real insights in here for parents. Still working my way through it.
Born to Run - a great read for how the author goes from asking his doctors "Why does it hurt when I run?" to finding a remote tribe in Mexico who run their entire lives and who don't suffer for their running. It's a rollicking yarn and delivers some good insights. Humans evolved and succeeded because our bodies are optimised for running. You need to get the running style right and don't wear excessively padded shoes.
This has lead me to be reading my current two books of interest. "Dr. Nicholas Romanov's Pose Method of Running" and "Chi Running" - now all I need to do it get out there running again.
My fitness routines were inspired by "40 Days as a City Caveman" and my personal finances are now in better shape thanks to "Debtman Walking" (the author Bruce Brammall is now my financial adviser)
My Kindle is working OK for me but I have a backlog of paperbooks and I still keep buying new ones on paper where I think I'd like to be able to share them with others. For those books that have diagrams eg The Four Hour Work Week, the Kindle doesn't deliver an easy to read/use format. Otherwise I am happy with my Kindle but frustrated that some books aren't available for it.
Loving access to www.booko.com.au for finding the book you want at the best price. I got a lot more books for my bucks thanks to Booko.
Here's to a great 2010 and some more stimulating reading. (although there's already a ton tonne of 'work' to be done first @office and @home)
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