House of Leaves

My Comments:

I heard about this mysterious book and when I first flipped through the book I was even more intrigued by the odd arrangements of words on the pages. Sometimes a paragraph would be printed backwards or there'd be just one single word on the entire page. Of course, not every page in the book is printed strangely. Most of the time, I noticed a certain clever creativity in the arrangements of words if and when the print was abnormal. For example, a sentence described a person going down the stairs so that sentence would be in the shape of a downwards flight of stairs. As you can see in one of the sample pages I provided below, there is a letter begging for forgiveness and the arrangement of the words on that page reflects how mentally consumed the person is with the desperate need for forgiveness. Sometimes I can't figure out why a page is printed oddly, but usually there's a creative reason. If you do an image search on google, you'll see a bunch of sample pages along with crazy stuff because this book originally circulated among those in the underground scene.

I must admit that I didn't finish reading House of Leaves. It's a big thick book! I stopped about a quarter to half way into it because it can be somewhat exhausting and at times it dragged on too long. However, my friend who recommended it assured me that the patience is worth it at the end. I guess I'll have to pick it up again in the future to finish it and exercise my patience. But it was definitely interesting to read in the beginning! House of Leaves makes for a great collection or something to intrigue your house guests with.

Summary:

Had The Blair Witch Project been a book instead of a film, and had it been written by, say, Nabokov at his most playful, revised by Stephen King at his most cerebral, and typeset by the futurist editors of Blast at their most avant-garde, the result might have been something like House of Leaves. Mark Z. Danielewski's first novel has a lot going on: notably the discovery of a pseudoacademic monograph called The Navidson Record, written by a blind man named Zampanò, about a nonexistent documentary film--which itself is about a photojournalist who finds a house that has supernatural, surreal qualities. [...] -John Ponyicsanyi

Danielewski's eccentric and sometimes brilliant debut novel is really two novels, hooked together by the Nabokovian trick of running one narrative in footnotes to the other. [...] Zampano, a blind Angelino recluse, dies, leaving behind the notes to a manuscript that's an account of a film called The Navidson Report. In the Report, Pulitzer Prize-winning news photographer Will Navidson and his girlfriend move with their two children to a house in an unnamed Virginia town in an attempt to save their relationship. One day, Will discovers that the interior of the house measures more than its exterior. More ominously, a closet appears, then a hallway. [...] They discover a vast stairway and countless halls. The whole structure occasionally groans, and the space reconfigures, [...]. Nevertheless, the novel is a surreal palimpsest of terror and erudition, surely destined for cult status. (Mar.) - Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sample pages from the book:

Minority Report (the short story version)

My Comments:
I watched the movie version of this story first. Then one day at the library's science fiction section, I stumbled across this unique looking small, narrow, top-bound, vertical hardcover book that flips vertically (you flip open the pages from the bottom like those old school notepads). Of course, I recognized the title by the movie, but it was the unique physical traits of this particular version of Minority Report that intrigued me. Even some of the pages are printed in a creative way. Philip K. Dick's stuff is never dull. 

This is in short story format, not the typical novel length. If you like collecting unique looking books, this is one of them. Don't mistakenly get the other printed versions, make sure it looks like this one and is hardcover.

Summary:

In the world of The Minority Report, Commissioner John Anderton is the one to thank for the lack of crime. He is the originator of the Precrime System, which uses "precogs"--people with the power to see into the future--to identify criminals before they can do any harm. Unfortunately for Anderton, his precogs perceive him as the next criminal. But Anderton knows he has never contemplated such a thing, and this knowledge proves the precogs are fallible. Now, whichever way he turns, Anderton is doomed--unless he can find the precogs's "minority report"--the dissenting voice that represents his one hope of getting at the truth in time to save himself from his own system. - (from the inside flap)

Brave New World

Summary:

Huxley throws the idea of utopia into reverse, presenting us what is known as the "dystopian" novel. Huxley's bleak future prophesized in Brave New World was a capitalist civilization in which people are scientifically and psychologically engineered to be passive and useful to the ruling class. Reproduction is controlled through genetic engineering, and people are bred into a rigid class system. As they mature, they are conditioned to be happy with the roles that society has created for them. The rest of their lives are devoted to the pursuit of pleasure through sex, recreational sports, the getting and having of material possessions, and taking a drug called Soma. Concepts such as family, freedom, love, and culture are considered grotesque.
Against this backdrop, a young man known as John the Savage is brought to London from the remote desert of New Mexico. Ultimately, John challenges the basic premise of this society in an act that threatens and fascinates its citizens. - (from book description)

The Alchemist

Summary:
The Alchemist is the magical story of [a] shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist. The story of the treasures [he] finds along the way teaches us [...] about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams. - (from book description)

Flatterland

My comments:
This is science fiction & mathematical fiction. If you like both subjects, you don't need to be an expert to appreciate this book. This book just boggles the mind cuz it takes facts and figures to create a possibility about scientific/mathematical things that can't be proven or can't be seen but is mathematically possible. It just opens up the mind which is one reason why I love sci-fi and math-fi. 

I never read the first book, Flatland, when I picked up this book so I don't know if Flatland is as good as this sequel, Flatterland, because they are written by different authors. After reading Flatterland, I tried it's sequel, Sphereland, but didn't like it as much as this one.

Summary:

[...] Flatterland explores our present understanding of the shape and origins of the universe, the nature of space, time, and matter, as well as modern geometries and their applications. [...] In the tradition of Alice in Wonderland and The Phantom Toll Booth, this magnificent investigation into the nature of reality [...]. - (from book description)

[...] Along his fictional path, [the author] touches on Feynman diagrams, superstring theory, time travel, quantum mechanics, and black holes, among many other topics. [...] - Gregory McNamee

It's All Too Much

My Comments:
I see how people's possessions prevent them from traveling or moving because they have to worry about what to do with all their stuff and it's just unfortunate that people allow their stuff to restrict their lives. People say they want to move to another state or country, but they never do and their excuse is because they have all their possessions to worry about or that they can't get rid of it easily. What a cage of stuff they've built for themselves!

Then there's the issue of financial liability. There are people with a long list of continuous maintenance fees for the stuff they own like multiple cars, multiple phones, unnecessary gadgets, clothes, toys, etc. I see the financial stress it causes them and wonder why they let their things own them. It's almost like they're a financial slave to their things working hard just for those things.

Book Description:

Are your counters covered with appliances you had to have but rarely use? Are your cupboards stuffed with clothes that you hope to fit back into or that you paid a fortune for but only wore once? Have you been hanging on to that hideous teapot your mother gave you 10 years ago only because she gave it to you? Every time you go shopping do you come back with bags of more stuff because that pillow/blouse/CD/mixer will be the one thing that changes your life and then it doesn't change your life because you have nowhere to put it?
In It's All Too Much, organisational guru Peter Walsh challenges you to answer a very simple but scary question: Does the stuff you own contribute to the life you hope to achieve or does it get in the way of your vision? [...] [He] shares his proven system for letting go of your emotional and physical clutter so that you can create a happier, more stress-free home and life. [...] It's All Too Much shows you how to reexamine your priorities and let go of the things that are weighing you down. [...] Peter gives you the courage you need to go through your home, [...] and honestly assess what adds to your quality of life and what's keeping you from living the life of your dreams. [...] It's All Too Much will set you free from the emotional baggage that goes along with clutter and help you lead a fuller, richer life with less stuff.

The Da Vinci Code

My Comments:
I heard how good this book was and, boy, I couldn't believe I was losing sleep over it because I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. The Da Vinci Code is definitely a page turner and I'm not even big on religion, but it's the way this book was written that got me hooked.

Summary:

[...] is an exhaustively researched page-turner about secret religious societies, ancient coverups and savage vengeance. [...] As their search moves from France to England, Neveu and Langdon are confounded by two mysterious groups-the legendary Priory of Sion, a nearly 1,000-year-old secret society whose members have included Botticelli and Isaac Newton, and the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. Both have their own reasons for wanting to ensure that the [Holy] Grail isn't found. [...] Brown has assembled a whopper of a plot that will please both conspiracy buffs and thriller addicts. - Publishers Weekly

The Time Machine (the book)

My comments:
Don't watch the movie because the movie sucks. The Time Machine book is great!

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Book Description:
Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret.

Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.

One by one, Eddie's five people illuminate the unseen connections of his earthly life. As the story builds to its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown last act of his life: Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure The answer, which comes from the most unlikely of sources, is as inspirational as a glimpse of heaven itself.

In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom gives us an astoundingly original story that will change everything you've ever thought about the afterlife -- and the meaning of our lives here on earth.

The Best American Science Writing 2002

Book Description:
The Best American Science Writing 2002 gathers top writers and scientists covering the latest developments in the fastest-changing, farthest-reaching scientific fields, such as medicine, genetics, computer technology, evolutionary psychology, cutting-edge physics, and the environment. Among this year's selections: In "The Made-to-Order Savior," Lisa Belkin spotlights two desperate families seeking an unprecedented cure by a medically and ethically unprecedented means -- creating a genetically matched child. Margaret Talbot's "A Desire to Duplicate" reveals that the first human clone may very likely come from an entirely unexpected source, and sooner than we think. Michael Specter reports on the shock waves rippling through the field of neuroscience following the revolutionary discovery that adult brain cells might in fact regenerate ("Rethinking the Brain"). Christopher Dickey's "I Love My Glow Bunny" recounts with sly humor a peculiar episode in which genetic engineering and artistic culture collide. Natalie Angier draws an insightful contrast between suicide terrorists and rescue workers who risk their lives, and finds that sympathy and altruism have a definite place in the evolution of human nature, David Berlinski's "What Brings a World into Being?" ponders the idea of biology and physics as essentially digital technologies, exploring the mysteries encoded in the universe's smallest units, be they cells or quanta. Nicholas Wade shows how one of the most controversial books of the year, The Skeptical Environmentalist, by former Greenpeace member and self-described leftist Bjorn Lomborg, debunks some of the most cherished tenets of the environmental movement, suggesting that things are perhaps not as bad as we've been led to believe. And as a counterpoint, Darcy Frey's profile of George Divoky reveals a dedicated researcher whose love of birds and mystery leads to some sobering discoveries about global warming and forcefully reminds us of the unsung heroes of science: those who put in long hours, fill in small details, and take great trouble.

The 4-Hour Workweek

Book Description:
Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

My comments:
No, the picture of the upside down dog on the The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time book cover is not a printing error. I appreciated the book so much that I actually hand wrote and mailed a physical letter to the author of all the errors and discrepancies I found that his editor failed to catch so that he could fix it which I've never taken the time to do for any author. Of course, I told the author how much I enjoyed the book on top of that. Seeing that my letter was from a different country (I was in Asia at the time I read it) and hand-written, I bet that sparked his interest to even read the letter because he actually wrote back thanking me.

Summary:
Christopher Boone, the autistic 15-year-old narrator of this revelatory novel, relaxes by groaning and doing math problems in his head, eats red-but not yellow or brown-foods and screams when he is touched. Strange as he may seem, other people are far more of a conundrum to him, for he lacks the intuitive "theory of mind" by which most of us sense what's going on in other people's heads. When his neighbor's poodle is killed and Christopher is falsely accused of the crime, he decides that he will take a page from Sherlock Holmes (one of his favorite characters) and track down the killer. As the mystery leads him to the secrets of his parents' broken marriage and then into an odyssey to find his place in the world, he must fall back on deductive logic to navigate the emotional complexities of a social world that remains a closed book to him. [...] Christopher is a fascinating case study and, above all, a sympathetic boy: not closed off, as the stereotype would have it, but too open-overwhelmed by sensations, bereft of the filters through which normal people screen their surroundings. Christopher can only make sense of the chaos of stimuli by imposing arbitrary patterns ("4 yellow cars in a row made it a Black Day, which is a day when I don't speak to anyone and sit on my own reading books and don't eat my lunch and Take No Risks"). [...] Though Christopher insists, "This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them," the novel brims with touching, ironic humor. [...] - Reed Business Information, Inc.

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Book Description:

Anyone stuck in the rat-race of living paycheck to paycheck, enslaved by the house mortgage and bills, will appreciate [Rich Dad Poor Dad]. Learn about the methods that have created more than a few millionaires. [...] As proven by the runaway success of The Secret and like titles, changing one’s thinking to influence one’s fortune sells big, and forms the basis of rich dad’s advice. Learn to think like a rich dad and let your money work for you!