Book roundup, Jan-June 2011

[johnridley]

eBooks

• Mission of Honor by David Weber
  
• Storm Front by Jim Butcher
  
• Fool Moon by Jim Butcher - Dresden Files book 2
  
• Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
  
• Summer Knight by Jim Butcher
  
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
  
• In Fire Forged by David Weber
  
• I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
  
• Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold
  
• Blackout by Connie Willis
  
• All Clear by Connie Willis
  
• Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer
  
• Hyperion by Dan Simmons
  
• Changes by Jim Butcher
  
• Variable Star by Robert Heinlein and Spider Robinson
  
• Agatha H and the Airship City
  
• The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
  
• Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
  
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  
• Dreadnaught by Jack Campbell
  
• Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  
• Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
  

Audiobooks

• The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton
  
• Mars Life by Ben Bova
  
• Death Masks by Jim Butcher
  
• Blood Rites by Jim Butcher
  
• Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
  
• Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
  
• White Night by Jim Butcher
  
• Small Favor by Jim Butcher
  
• Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
  
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by H.K. Jenisin
  
• Feed by Mira Grant
  
• The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen J Gould
  
• Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  
• Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
  
• Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
  
• Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings
  
• Magician's Gambit by David Eddings
  
• Castle of Wizardry by David Eddings
  
• Enchanter's End Game by David Eddings
  

Audio lectures:

• Cycles of American Political Thought from TTC
  
• Victorian Britain by Patrick Allitt, from TTC
  

eBooks: 22
Audiobooks: 19
Audio lectures: 2

I think this is the first time since I've started using audiobooks that I've read more books in print than in audio, and I'm pretty sure this is the most books I've ever read in 6 months. It's been fun and my reading speed is getting better. I've never been happy with my reading speed but if I push it, my retention drops to zero. If I read a paragraph much faster than my normal speed, I couldn't tell you what it was about at all. So I have to push the speed up slowly.

Comments

[tlunquist.livejournal.com]

I understand that too. It's not *quite* that bad for me, but it drives me completely NUTS when I'm trying to concentrate on something (particularly if I'm trying to read) and there's music or TV or other language-noise in the environment. I'm ok with some types of more "ambient" music if it doesn't have any words, but if it has lyrics, forget it.

If you subscribe at all to the "multiple intelligences" theory -- which I sort of buy and sort of don't, but there's a boatload of anecdotal evidence supporting multiple learning styles if not multiple "intelligences" per se -- my two main ones are verbal and musical, with musical being the more prevalent. I was in a seminar once where someone was demonstrating facilitation techniques using the theory of multiple intelligences. She gave us a spatial relationship task (building something out of blocks or some such) and played music while we worked. I tried to explain to her afterwards that this was actually not serving me as a musical learner in any way whatsoever, because I needed too much brain for listening to the music and had none left over for the spatial task (doubly so because spatial is my weakest style).

I hate talking GPSs even though I grudgingly recognize their extreme usefulness. I'm not a big fan of visual displays that move in cars either, for similar reasons.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I really like the GPS and think it needs to talk, because there's no way I'll remember to look at it at the right time since usually when it's telling me to take this ramp, I've been driving for 3 hours without it saying anything.

I dissed GPSs for many years until I realized that they're not just about the destination, they're about the trip, and being a bit of an expert guide wherever you are. I love being able to just tap in fast food, "taco" while driving and have it pop up all the Taco Bells nearby, with arrows for their directions, and pick one that's ahead and have it take me there, then continue on the way. Or being able to go to the car in the hotel parking lot and tap in "office supplies" and finding some nearby, even in a place I've never been before.