First Post Huzzah!

Ok I think I finally figured out how to post onto this monstrosity.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

This was a pretty good book about how oftentimes your first intuition is better than a more thought out and contemplated decision. He goes into multiple examples and studies to support this idea, and they are all for the most part interesting. Gladwell has an enjoyable writing style that is pretty fluid and draws you in even though the book is pretty much non-fiction. I would recommend this book to anyone.

9/10

520 points.

The Other two books that I've read so far are The Mole People by Jennifer Toth, and Dancing Skeletons by Katherine A. Dettwyler. These two books basically sucked bad. They are both complete bleeding-heart books that are pretty biased and the agenda of the writers is painfully obvious. Mole People is about homeless people in New York City. Surprise surprise most of the homeless are drug addicts and criminals, and it's almost always their fault. The other book is about an anthropologist's studies in Mali in Western Africa. It is pretty sad at times, but it isn't groundbreaking at all, and I'm pretty sure the anthropologist was just wasting her time. I wouldn't recommend these books to anyone unless they are taking ANT 111.

367 points, and 454 points

Please don't delete my comments. They're just as relevant as all of yours.

Gully Foyle is my name, Terra is my Nation, Deep space is my dwelling place...

My Sunday and the better part of today I was cramming to finish The Stars My Destination for my science fiction class by 3:30pm today. After we all get into class our professor gets up silently and writes on the whiteboard "Sept. 27th-The Stars My Destination." Needless to say, I along with half the class, was significantly annoyed. If I hadn't enjoyed the book so much I would have been livid.

This Alfred Bester novel tells frantic and vengeful tale of Gully Foyle, a "common man" who was stranded in space. He manages to make it back to Terra(Earth), after serious damage had been inflicted onto him. It is here that he begins his long and action filled plot for revenge. The story follows his search for the parties responsible for his situation and is filled with twists and turns. As I was reading this, all I could think was "this would make an amazing movie." The novel takes place in the future when humans have discovered and pervasively use the method of "Jaunting". Which loosely is the transportation of yourself to another location through the use of thinking. Furthermore, the inner planets (mars, terra, the moon, and venus) are at war with the outer planets(3 of the moons of jupiter, neptune, and 2 of saturn's moons).

It is so action packed that you don't want to stop reading. You can really feel the pressure rising throughout the progression of the novel. I really loved this book.

458 points
9.7/10

I'm gonna be that person....

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.... Had to reread it before Nov. 19. This really doesn't have to count, I guess, but it's all I've read lately.

Points: 959
Rating: 1000000/10

Behind the scences with a real-life Sugar Plum Fairy

Usually when I'm bored at work, I draw on post-it notes, try on the belly dancing costumes, or take a nap on the floor. But lately, I've been reading one of the ballet books we have laying around that no one will ever actually buy. It's called Winter Season, by Toni Bentley, a dancer I have for sure never heard of. But she danced for years for the New York City Ballet, under George Balanchine, and the book was an interesting look into the life of a prima ballerina.

Basically, their days seem to be spent as such:
Morning: wake up, massage injured feet, drink coffee, take class
Afternoon: take another class, rehearse ballet, dance through the excruciating pain, drink Coke
Evening: nibble on a salad, or maybe some fish, drink Coke, perform

Basically the opposite of how I want to spend my days....but still, somehow I found it really interesting.

Or at least better than rearranging the racks of leotards so that all the hangars face the same way.


8/10
350 points

Brave New World

I'm not sure why this book took me soo long to get through, but I'm happy to finally be done with it. Overall, I think Huxley's vision of the future is compelling, especially when you consider that this book was written in the 1930's. Many aspects of the futuristic society that he writes about are still a possible future reality for mankind. If it's becoming legal to genetically modify and market salmon, how much longer until we are doing it with humans, too? Where will we stop?

My biggest complaint is the ending... which I won't spoil in case anyone wants to read the book, but I do hope that in reality, opposition to the "controllers" won't be met with despair and failure. This ended the book on a rather depressing note- and gave me a feeling of hopelessness, which I didn't appreciate.

But I won't let it get me down too much. Let's all go live in the woods!

7.5/10

459 points

Be Scared of My Impending Comeback

Beasts

For my science fiction class this semester I just finished The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. The story is narrated by a scientist who comes to find himself stranded on an island in the Pacific Ocean. This island is none other than Dr. Moreau's, the infamous vivisector of London. Basically, all hell breaks lose when Dr. Moreau's beasts (animals physiologically reshaped and combined with other animals in order to resemble humans) revert back to their animalistic nature. Overall, the novel is quite slow to start, and somewhat difficult to read based on the older language. The middle/ending of the book is better, with more action.

4.8/10

304 Points