Lost Domain

by Mireille Guiliano

An interesting book that speaks to a philosophy of eating. Mireille speaks from her own experiences of bridging the cultures from France to America and back again. Her stories and philosophy focus on a lifestyle change over the usual series of quick fixes that many americans subscribe to. She reflects the trend towards local foods, seasonal eating but adds her own twist of eating for pleasure and ways to maximize that effect. It is about eating with the senses rather than getting to full the fastest. Still pondering what she said and how I want to apply it to my own life.

by Clay Shirky

A fascinating read for anyone interested in the social part of the Web 2.0 phenomenom. Shirky talks about the creation of social groups and the dropping cost of group creation. Creating groups of like-minded people is easier than it has ever been before, for good and for ill. He gives a history of why costs were high and why this has created the heirarchies we see in most organizations. We’re then taken to how new organizatons are being formed and some of the impacts of this reduced cost.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

by Ted Naifeh.

Another EXCELLENT work by Naifeh! I loved this book! Polly is living in a posh private school in the American Empire of Emperor Norton. She’s kidnapped from school by Pirates who believe she is the daughter of the Queen of the Pirates! Polly, having never met her mother finds this a little hard to believe. Her adventures and education are wonderful!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

by Robert E. Howard

A set of short stories about Howard’s puritan warrior Solomon Kane. His wonderings thru the world, mostly thru darkest Africa bringing his puritan values and fight against evil against many strange encounters.

Zombies, vampires, harpies, sorceresses – none can hold up to the will of Solomon Kane!

by Warren Ellis and Company.

A fun series Warren Ellis launched a few years ago. There are 1001 agents on the Global Frequency. A diverse group of people who are helping to save the world from incursions of the strange and other unusual suspects. A fun run. Each issue’s story was tailored to the artist for the issue, playing to the artist’s strengths. It worked very well.

As usual with Warren, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

by Gary Whitta and Ted Naifeh

I found this book by accident, but I think it is one of my best discoveries of the year. In this fun little book, Death Jr is the son of the Grim Reaper. It’s tough to call him the Grim Reaper, because while he has the look he has the personality of Ward Cleaver. A fun book looking at Death Jr. (DJ for short) and his friends on one of their adventures.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

by Matt Mason

A good discussion of how culture is being shaped by a culture of cheap production. By sharing and reusing, sampling and remixing, new culture and trends are springing up and moving in wilder pattern, some for the better, others not so much. A great primer into the history of Hip Hop and Punk Culture.

Recommended.

by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow.

If you haven’t heard of Randy Pausch, he is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has been diagnosed with cancer. Given a few months to live, he has made a point to live in his remaining time. His last lecture was an internet phenomenon. He’s been on Oprah and featured on programs across the country. His message has been inspiring. His book follow the logic and thought that went behind it. I highly recommended it to anyony.

by Shirow Masamune

A continuation of the Manga that started it all. A different world than the movie, the books and the TV Series, played a little closer to traditional manga style, by very entertaining. It got me craving to read more of the original.

Recommended for Manga fans.

by Phil and Kaja Foglio

I don’t remember where I got the first recommendation for this, book, but I had it on a wish list and got it form my birthday in April. I LOVE this book. The writing is great the stories are fun and the characters are wonderful. The art is standard Foglio, so if you enjoy his style you’re in for a treat.

HIGHLY Recommended.

by A. Lee Martinez

I had seen an ad for another of Martinez’s books that sounded up my alley so I thought I’d give this one a try. I loved it! A nice mix of comedy and genre bending. Never Dead Ned has a problem - he doesn’t stay dead. He dies and comes back - a bit scarred, but alive. But now terrible, evil forces (Accountants) have a plan to use his nature to save a few bucks. A funny, enjoyable read.

HIGHLY Recommended!

by Peter Walsh

I had caught the show “Clean Sweep” once or twice before I picked up the book. This book changed my attituted towards my stuff and cleaning. I now understand why clutter is bad, and what clutter is. These sound like obvious statements, but I realized I didn’t understand what clutter was and what it was costing me, financially and mentally. I’ve never been a neat person but this has help me get a better grip on cleaning the house and makings some permanent changes.

HIGHLY recommended.

Finally completed this task. Ripped all of my music to MP3. Sorted our cds and weeded out all the ones we want to get rid of, moved the cds from jewel cases to a portfolio.

All goodness. Now to get recycle the old cases and sell/recycle the remaining cds.

by Niel Gershenfeld.

One of the books that will set the tone for my year. Talking about the move for personal fabrication. Following the trend of mass produced media (TV,newspapers) to microproduced media (Web) we may see a shift from mass produced consumables to micro,personally fabricated items created on the desktop.

How does life change when production of physical objects goes digital? How can we improve life? What are the dangers? Interesting questions I plan to focus on this year.

by Andrew Vachss.

Grim and gritty as usual, Burke finds himself wondering if he’s being hunted. Never one to wonder philosphically on the subject he starts down a path to find out, crossing an old case that he thought he had finished out..

It has been a while since I picked up one of Vachss’books. I forgot how down in the grit they get. My headspace isn’t really in that space anymore, but recommended for fans of the Burke series.

Ok so my goal this year is again to read 100 books. I will try and keep them at a reasonable pace of 2-3 books a week. I’ve got a couple of irons on the fire with books in progress, but still off to a slow start. We’ll see how the year turns out. I will not include graphic novels again. While I’m sure they would have helped me close the gap in my list, they don’t necessarily fill the goal I’m looking for,which is expanding my horizons. I won’t go for all non-fiction, but I would like to keep a heavy ration of nonfiction to fiction. So much interesting stuff to learn and try!

So lots of reading this year, but definitely didn’t hit my target. Cutting out the graphic novels definitely hurt, but I think I had a harder time finding a reading groove in the last four months of the year. I had other things on my mind that took up my reading time, but I’ve started a few books that I think will get me going in the new year. I also think I need to recognize that I just won’t get into a few books and give them up faster, and read them in parallel with the good stuff.

I think my biggest fault was taking for-granted how much I enjoyed the nonfiction reading of 2006. I think I should have concentrated and focused on the nonfiction, then let the fiction dribble in as a filler, rather than the other way around.

Will I do it again in 08? Definitely.

By Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski

The sequel for The Nimble Man, the characters continue to build as they deal with an old ally/adversary of Doyles as well as a few other complications of the dead Greek Gods…

By Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski

An urban fantasy with some interesting character choices - Arthur Conan Doyle, master mage, Eve, who aside from Original Sin, has also been raped by demons to become the first vampire and mother to Vampires as well, Squire, the hobgoblin assistant to Doyle, Dr Leonard Graves - the literal Ghost of a Doc Savage type adventurer, Ceridwen, elven princess, Clay, a shapeshifter, the living clay the Creator used to model all the creatures of creation, including a few that never left the drawing board, and finally Danny Fennick, a 16 year old boy who just found out he is a demon changeling.

Interesting characters, could be intersting as the writers find their voices for them.

By Robert E Howard

The greatest barbarian of them all. Classic pulp tales of Conan as he fights, steals and wins over pirates, savages, wizards and demons. Classic pulp with it’s own timeless qualities.