It's been busy the last few days so I haven't had a whole lot of time to scour the web for articles. I have been working on a couple books however:
The first is Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach - I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I had started it and at the time is seemed promising but that promise rapidly deteriorated. Honestly this book read like a bad romance novel. The reviews on Amazon assure me that is not the case with the other two books in the series but I think that is a vast web of lies so I am not reading them. I advise you to stay away from this one.
The second one is You by Austin Grossman - I am about 1/4 of the way thru and so far the book is pretty good and I am enjoying it, but at the same time it is slightly depressing because in a lot of ways the characters in this book echo my life and some of the things that dredges up aren't always pleasant. Set in the early days of the dotCom boom, but with it's beginnings in the early to mid-80's and the D & D / RPG craze, "You" centers around four outcasts who bond over a love of games, fantasy, sci-fi and computers.
Very close echo to my friends and I in Jr. High and High School.
The main character is also the most uncomfortable in the group, feeling like a hanger on more than a real core member . That was me to a tee in our group. Fortunately while I was an obnoxious little prick I wasn't so obnoxious that they kicked me out. That worked to my advantage too - all of them were smarter than me so I had to work harder to keep up in arguments or conversations and most were funnier that me so I developed my finely honed sense of humor. I guess I did contribute in that I was occasionally able to buy beer and porn and I was able to keep the ire of our NJROTC instructor focused on me so he didn't have as much time to harrass the others. (Your Welcome btw).
Anyway the point is high school kind of sucked and this book is reinforcing that fact. On the plus side they talk about Battlezone and Lunar Lander and Led Zeppelin, Rush, Jethro Tull, Styx and a few other bands that didn't totally suck so there's that. On the gripping hand the project management story line is a study in frustration so far. Way to close to the real world. Where are the terrorists with the secret plans hidden in the graphics or aliens using the game for mind control. If I want to talk about missing dates, critical paths, and crashing the schedule I can take the PMP exam :-P. Just kidding - there is a mystery story line I just haven't figured out how it is fitting together yet.
Anyway there you go - My wonderful book reviews. NY Times Review of Books I am available for contract work.
Edit: One of my friends, Wade, has commented that he thinks I am being a little hard on myself and about life during High School. He may have a point and to clarify - I did have fun in high school when I was hanging out with my friends. High school itself sucked, but that's the purpose of high school. To suck the life out of you in order to prepare you for adulthood. As to the rest of it. Yes I was an obnoxious little prick. I was a teenaged boy who thought he knew everything. That is the Webster's definition of obnoxious little prick - I looked it up. Here's the thing I was trying to semi-humorously make the point that everyone feels that sense of alienation in high school and that like most books about high school you kind find echos of your own life in it. That part I put in about finely honed sense of humor - maybe not as much as i thought :-). Anyway Wade thanks for defending me.
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