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Chive On

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Business Man @ Home - Training Seminar

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Need a Kleenex

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Reading List 2015

Not as much reading as I would have liked in 2014, but that doesn't mean there weren't some good reads in there! Check 'em out! In some respects, I returned to the classics this year, catching up on stuff I haven't touched since high school (and I probably didn't even finish in high school, lol).

For more references, here are the lists from 2010, 2011 , 2012 , 2013 and 2014.

The Crimson Mask, by Jonathan van Bilsen

Local legend Jonathan van Bilsen is also an author. 

Aquagenesis: The origin and evolution of life in the sea, by Richard Ellis

I started this book in college, tried again this year. The aquatic ape hypothesis in the end is absolutely mind blowing. Look it up!

World War Z, by Max Brooks

This is the first book I've read cover to cover from a library shelf in a long, long time. Interesting read, nothing what I was expecting, but entirely thorough in its exploration of the subject matter!

Launch, by Jeff Walker

I feel like this book was a scam, lol. An interesting strategy, overly simplified, and perhaps outdated. 

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I've enjoyed "Elementary" on TV, and my wife had this edition, so I thought, why not? They're fun little stories, not entire novels, if that's what you were expecting. Did you know Doyle got tired of writing about Sherlock and killed him off? Then he brought him back to life many years later. Sounds about right.

Last year I started listening to books on tape. I got entirely fed up with radio and was spending way too much time in the car. Depending on your library's collection, there's a pretty good collection of stuff to catch up on while you're stuck in the car!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larson 

Not what I was expecting AND it was great. 

Double Dexter, by Jeff Lindsay

I never watched the show and thought this might be a good idea .... I wasn't won over. The first-person narrative was a challenge to listen to. Plus Dex's wife ... ugh!

The Hit, by David Baldacci

Spy novels are always fun : )

7^th Heaven, by Dan Patterson 

I'd never read Patterson before ... more mystery/crime stuff. Always fun. 

Phantom Prey, by John Sandford

Sandford has a whole neat universe set up in like Minnesota and a recurring cast of characters, which I was expecting. The titles have NOTHING to do with the titles, but the Prey franchise follows one detective, while the titles that relate to weather conditions are about another character. 

Invisible Prey, by John Sandford 

More fun with Lucas Davenport.

Dark of the Moon, by John Sandford

And these books are about Virgil Flowers. They were fun. 

Storm Prey, by John Sandford

Rough Country, by John Sandford

Heat Lightning, by John Sandford

Halo Cryptum, by Greg Bear

I've never played Halo, and knowing nothing about it, but know that it's real popular, so I figured, why not give it a shot? This wasn't so great, and seems like it's all "set up" for the rest of the "series of books" that Bear figured he'd write. I didn't find it very interesting. I'm not even sure where the shooting and killing people would fit into the game considering this story. .... it was kind of a waste of time (shrug).

When the "Internet response" is more interesting than the story

It's 2015. What an age we live in, where global media outlets are reporting on every swell of decry from a public that's being encouraged and rewarded for "joining the conversation" online.

Every night our local newscasts have a story about something that's "gone viral" on the Internet. They're covering these stories trying to explain WHY it's gone viral, often with no good answer. It's not the stories being newsworthy, it's the unpredictable nature of WHY these stories have enraptured so many people around the world (what's newsworthy these days is how many hits something can get on YouTube now :S).

The swelling and ubiquitous coverage of Deflate Gate and Cecil the Lion, for example, is not about the heinous nature of the crimes committed, but rather the hyperbolic response these stories have received on the Internet. 

We've seen that the dentist had murdered plenty of animals before, but the Internet's viral-marketing machine wasn't tuned up to its most efficient rates when he was posting shots of dead rhinos. 

But today, good ol' today, we have thousands of people running websites who hunt through the news looking for something they can turn "viral." And they've gotten good at it. Twitter and Facebook are probably the ones benefiting from this the most - - I mean, where do you hear about these stories most often? Perhaps ISP providers who capitalize on your uploading/downloading and bandwidth (they're not gonna stop you from "joining the conversation," are they?)

What's all the more compelling is our digital media devices (everything connects to the Internet now) have become trashy tabloids, with rumours and overreaction slapped all across the headlines.

I guess the part that makes this worse (there's always been trashy reporting) is that people are predictably turning into that crowd of villagers with pitchforks and rakes to scare off Frankenstein's Monster.

One of the most prominent Internet narratives that "goes viral" is the shaming of "monsters" for their misdeeds. Here we are, in a world that's never been more educated, more connected and more globally minded, and we're banding together like villagers in a black-and-white movie to drive away the things we don't understand. 

Very 2015 of us. 

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