Bookshelf & Audible.com - What I'm Reading

I've been really bad about reading over the last few months. It's not that I'm not reading enough, though I don't think it's possible to read too much. It's having four, five, or more, books going simultaneously.

Where I used to have three books mid-read at all times (fiction, non-fiction, and read-aloud-to-kids book), Audible.com has made it possible for me to have a similar thing going on the iPod/iPhone at the same time. Audiobooks for long bicycle rides, housework, family car trips, etc... Makes it a little hard to keep track sometimes.

Started listening to Stumbling On Happiness during our cross-country trip this summer. Figured I'd have drive times with sleeping children and navigator and would appreciate the company of a book which kept my brain active. Fortunately (occasionally unfortunately), I had company for all those hours, so books from the Artemis Fowl series kept everyone entertained for much of the driving. At home with the kids, there was no way to listen. With the return to school, and more opportunities to steal away for an hour (or more) of cycling/running, I was able pick back up on the book by Daniel Gilbert, starting from the very beginning:

What would you do right now if you learned that you were going to die in ten minutes? Would you race upstairs and light that Marlboro you've been hiding in your sock drawer since the Ford administration? Would you waltz into your boss's office and present him with a detailed description of his personal defects? Would you drive out to that steakhouse near the new mall and order a T-bone, medium rare, with an extra side of the reallybad cholesterol? Hard to say, of course, but of all the things you might do in your final ten minutes, it's a pretty safe bet that few of them are things you actually did today.

Now, some people will bemoan this fact, wag their fingers in your direction, and tell you sternly that you should live every minute of your life as though it were your last, which only goes to show that some people would spend their final ten minutes giving other people dumb advice. The things we do when we expect our lives to continue are naturally and properly different than the things we might do if we expected them to end abruptly. We go easy on the lard and tobacco, smile dutifully at yet another of our supervisor's witless jokes, read books like this one when we could be wearing paper hats and eating pistachio macaroons in the bathtub, and we do each of these things in the charitable service of the people we will soon become. We treat our future selves as though they were our children, spending most of the hours of most of our days constructing tomorrows that we hope will make them happy. Rather than indulging in whatever strikes our momentary fancy, we take responsibility for the welfare of our future selves, squirreling away portions of our paychecks each month so they can enjoy their retirements on a putting green, jogging and flossing with some regularity so they can avoid coronaries and gum grafts, enduring dirty diapers and mind-numbing repetitions of The Cat in the Hat so that someday they will have fatcheeked grandchildren to bounce on their laps. Even plunking down a dollar at the convenience store is an act of charity intended to ensure that the person we are about to become will enjoy the Twinkie we are paying for now. In fact, just about any time we want something—a promotion, a marriage, an automobile, a cheeseburger—we are expecting that if we get it, then the person who has our fingerprints a second, minute, day, or decade from now will enjoy the world they inherit from us, honoring our sacrifices as they reap the harvest of our shrewd investment decisions and dietary forbearance.

I love reading about why and how people make decisions in their lives. I'm not sure if it's an off-shoot of looking at my life with the question "what the heck was I thinking?!" - which I'm not sure I like, as it seems terribly self-absorbed, or just a genuine interest in what makes people tick. (Of course I'd like to think it's the latter, and that the armchair quarterbacking of my own decisions is just the most convenient.)

While hearing about how our brains look forward in time and use imagination to create a picture of what to expect, I got to see it happening right in front of me, in the way my children remember, and feel about, the same event in completely different ways. The different scenarios they play through in their minds before really did have more to do with their feelings about things in the longer term than the actual event itself. A school event my daughter gushed about for days in advance is now remembered as "so much fun", even if she had more fun running around with her friends after than in the auditorium. My son, who complained for days ahead of time about how lame the same event would be, had a blast. Maybe it was a subject he loves, or the activities suited his hands-on style... he loved it. But a few weeks later, if you ask him about it, he remembers as the whole evening as being "so lame." It was pretty cool to see the book in action. (Well, the kids do that all the time, but it was fascinating to notice it and watch the process take place.)

Stumbling On Happiness is one of those few audiobooks I plan to also buy in print. Okay, maybe not that few, once I consider the growing list of books which fit this category, including: Logic of Life, Predictably Irrational, Founding Brothers, The Undercover Economist, and the non-fiction audiobook I downloaded this month, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers.

For the current books with pages:

On the end table by the sofa, for nightly reading to kidlets - The Hobbit, by Tolkien. So far, they seem to like it. Wasn't sure how it would go, since the attempt to read Fellowship of the Ring didn't sit so well a few years ago. Of course, that was when DD was in Kindergarten. Her restlessness at sitting still for something a bit beyond her was contagious. We aren't having the same trouble this time.

On the nightstand - The Weight of Silence, by Heather Gudenkauf. This isn't my normal type of book, but comes highly recommended from a friend. Just started reading this last night, and am already beginning to get sucked in to the story, so maybe it's time to break away from my typical book genres.

On the iPhone, for when I feel like something escapist - The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud, read by Simon Jones. I listened to this a couple years ago on a car trip with the kids. Started listening again last week, when I accidentally removed Outliers from my playlist during a sync. Bartimaeus & Nathaniel are just as much fun the second time around.

It's time for a haircut. Really, REALLY time.

My hair is past the halfway point between shoulder & waist again. Ponytails are no longer adequate to control tangles & helmet hair. And you don't want to know what kind of a birdsnest I wake up to each morning, though my daughter finds it quite entertaining. I'm back to twisting hair up with a pencil while working, and braiding for exercise and sleep.


Though one might also suspect I've been watching old episodes of Little House on the Prairie while folding laundry, which I have most definitely not been doing. Well... not today, at least.

And now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to ride. Stumbling on Happiness is the audiobook on tap today. Started it over summer vacation, but found little time to listen while surrounded by little people.

Summer Reading

I am zipping through the books this summer. Not audio books, but good old-fashioned printed books. It has a lot to do with being home with kids. I thought there wouldn't be time for reading, but there is quite a bit.

Some is during the daily 30-60 minutes of enforced "quiet time." Figure if the kids aren't allowed to play games or watch television during that time, it won't hurt for me to follow the same general rule. Most of the reading is poolside though. I do get in and swim, but have no desire to spend three solid hours in the water.

So far this June & July:

Robinson Crusoe - Don't know how I made it through grades 1-12 (never went to kindergarten) without reading this, but I finally got around to it. I liked it more than I thought I would. I knew the story - who doesn't? - and knew I'd like the tale, but thought the style might be dry. I was wrong. The writing is more formal than the books I read to the children each evening, but it's not at all stuffy. The details of survival and character study were quite engaging. It was interesting how much it felt like reading a book after seeing the movie based on it.

Finished up Nation of Sheep by Judge Andrew Napolitano late last week. I'd have finished it several weeks ago, but misplaced it while packing for vacation. (It turned up on the kid's bookcases, between Emmy & the Incredible Shrinking Rat and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, two good books, though for a different audience.) It very clearly spells out the violations of the rights guaranteed to American citizens in the name of National Security. You hear all about them in any conversation with a Bush bashing liberal, though never so clearly explained. What's funny - and not in a ha-ha way - is that you could swap out "terrorist" or "homeland security" with various economic crises of the last year, and see how the same arguments to pass the Patriot Act and appoint new homeland security heads and hire thousands of employees are being used to pass economic stimulus bills, appoint financial czars and take over private businesses in the current administration. Maybe I should pick up Higg's Crisis and Leviathan sooner, rather than later?

Thud and Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett. Until reading the book written with Neil Gaiman, I'd not read any Pratchett. After reading Good Omens, The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, I started on the Discworld series by Pratchett. Really glad I did. Think the kids will enjoy these someday. Especially B2, who seems to have a similar sense of humor and is developing book habits like mine.

Ultra Marathon Man by Dean Karnazes. I highly recommend this book, even if you're not a runner. It's truly inspiring. It doesn't make me want to run through Death Valley in the middle of the day, but that's not the point of the book. It does firmly remind me that I can do anything I set my mind to, and push beyond limits I don't even know yet, if I only try. (This is a book the kidlets will read at some point.)

Seeing as how I'd misplaced the Napolitano book while packing, I grabbed Terry Goodkind's first book from the Sword of Truth series before taking off for Colorado. After finishing the re-read of Wizard's First Rule, I had to start on Stone of Tears, which lead to the current re-read of book three in the series, Blood of the Fold. Only seven or eight more to go... can't stop part way through the story. (What if it ends differently?)

Other current books are Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr by Nancy Isenberg and A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz. The subject of the first is fairly obvious, so I'll just say it's been interesting so far. I've always been curious about Burr, but the story of the duel with Hamilton in Founding Fathers, and some of the events leading up to it, set me to looking for more of the story. The Horwitz book - full title A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America - is really good, both in information shared and his wonderful writing style. If he were teaching history classes, I can't imagine anyone finding the subject dull. Right now, I'm reading of Horwitz's research trip to the Dominican Republic, in the chapter on the curse (or jinx) of Columbus.

Playing catchup... again

Another crazy week here. I'm running behind on everything that's not school or work. I'm out running and pedaling, but it's more for keeping sane than fit this week. Have first map of a threesome ready for press, and am hoping to wrap up the other two before we head off for vacation in a couple weeks. Pretty excited about getting these done, as I'm taking the summer off.

Grocery Challenge & Supper Wars coming soon, along with nifty data from the USDA about family food budgets.

I'd also like to take a minute to mention one of the audiobooks I've been listening to while working. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. I downloaded it from Audible after hearing a friend mention it in a discussion where old odd medicinal cures brought up Mellified Man. Wasn't sure about it, but it turned out to be a fascinating - and fun - read. (To be more accurate, it was a listen, not a read.) From the forensic body farm in TN, to the early history of body collecting for anatomy classes, to crash tests, to how a body is embalmed, to organ and even the potential of whole body transplants, to the evolution in thought as to where the soul resides in the body... it was never dull. Though I'd not recommend listening while doing your grocery shopping, unless you're trying to work toward vegetarianism.

Butternut Squash Risotto

It's cold outside. I have a 4 mile run today, but am putting it off until the temperature hits 40 or above. I'm waiting for changes for a map from a client, my kitchen is clean, and the laundry is switched. I can't pick up my copy of Nation of Sheep by Andrew Napolitano, or I'll keep reading and miss the run. It's a good book. Plus, it will make me cranky, and then I'll spend most of my run grumbling, since I'll be pushed for time and cranky. So, I'll blog last night's dinner.

Modified from a recipe in The Farmers Market Cookbook
(bought at Costco several years ago... or was it Sams?)

1 cup Brown Rice
1/3 cup Lentils
Rice cooked according to package directions; lentils tossed in about 1/2 way through cooking.

Butternut Squash
Olive Oil
Thyme
Salt & Pepper
Peeled, seeded and cut. Roasted in olive oil with seasonings at 400 degrees for 30 mins or so.

Leek, sliced
Yellow Onion, chopped
3 Garlic cloves, chopped
Baby Portobello Mushrooms, sliced
Fresh Parsley, chopped
Carrot, rough grated
1/2 cup Vegetable Broth
2 Tbs Butter
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
Handful of chopped walnuts
Handful of chopped walnuts
Cook onion, leek and garlic in butter over medium high heat. When onions start to color, add mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms start to fry, then add carrots. Cook until carrots start frying, then add rice, lentils, parsley and vegetable broth. Cook for five minutes, then stir in half of the grated cheese. Serve, topped with walnuts and remaining Parmesan.

-----

39 degrees. Woo hoo - almost there! I'm off to get changed for my run, so I can get back home & heat up the leftovers for lunch.

Do thin people think differently about food?

Charlotte of The Great Fitness Experiment posed this question. She's read a diet book by Dr. Judith Beck called - wait for it - The Beck Diet Solution. Charlotte pointed out the book's neon pink cover "cause women love pink, get it?" So I suppose the question should really be "Do thin women....?" because men would never obsess over calories, body image and famine-chic, right?

Dr. Beck uses a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approach to weight loss. She sticks to the eat less food portion of weight loss, rather than the exercise more. I guess that makes sense, given our TV-watching, computer-jockey lifestyles. From an interview w/ Dr. Beck about her latest book The Complete Beck Diet For Life at Crabby Fitness:

Judith: The truth is that if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. If you eat more calories than you burn, you’ll gain weight. There is a solution, though, to losing weight permanently.

Crabby: "Permanent" is the tricky part, isn't it? I tried to make some suggestions once, but somehow I got off track and ended up talking about Eleanor Roosevelt and Mr. Rogers instead. What's the real solution to losing weight and make it stick?

Judith: First you need to learn a specific set of thinking and behavioral skills, such as how to motivate yourself every day, how to get yourself to use good eating habits, how to cope with craving and negative emotions without eating, and so on.

Second, you need a highly nutritious diet you can stay on for life. That means it has to have a sufficient number of calories and be very healthy so your body doesn’t rebel. It also means it has to include your favorite foods—as often as every day—so your mind won’t rebel.

This got my attention. When I lost weight (30+ lbs over 12-18 months), it was due almost entirely to three things:

1. Eat at regular meal time.
2. If it's not meal time, wait 15 minutes before grabbing a snack.
3. Eat a little dessert, every night.

At that time, exercise wasn't always an option. Three children in school, each with a different sport/activity. A 2-hour round trip commute to the office, three days each week, with the other two days being longish hours of work via telecommute, to finish everything I couldn't do during my partial days in-office . A husband with a daily commute time of almost three hours, meaning he was rarely home before 7:30, and often needed a nap before supper.

I stopped waiting until 8:00 for my own supper. Since I was eating with the kids, it meant I stopped nibbling during homework supervision and food prep.

I had breakfast every day. Sometimes cereal. Sometimes fruit & yogurt. Sometimes hot milk & instant breakfast, mixed into my coffee.

I ate a little dessert, every night. Stressful days had often led to chips or a candy bar, usually while driving from office to school for pickup. Knowing that I'd be able to sit down in peace at night to enjoy scoop of ice cream with an oreo (or two) or half a baked apple, or a dollop of whipped cream on berries with a couple of ginger snaps, made the quick fix less appealing.

Those were all behavioral changes. Over the last four years, they've become habits. Sure, there are rainy Saturdays when I'm scarfing chips and pizza with the kids, over video or board games and movies. Or when a friend and I meet for lunch and celebrate - or commiserate - over a particularly decadent concoction of sugar, cream and chocolate. That's now the exception, rather than the normal part of my days.

I think the reasons I lost the weight matter as much, if not more, than the way I did it. I don't have a great body image, but I haven't focused on a desire to "be thin" since I was a teenager. I woke up one day and realized it had been a very l-o-n-g time since had felt like anything other than a blob. It wasn't my size 14 jeans. It was being tired all the time. The constant drain of always feeling almost like I was getting sick.

Losing weight through healthier eating boosted my energy and improved my mood. Stress levels dropped. Sleep improved. My quality of life went up as the scale went down. The smaller wardrobe was just a side benefit. I had the luxury of beginning my exercise program with the desire to be fit, as a "want to", rather than the "have to" most folks face when they tackle diet and exercise on January 2nd, year after year.

I'm not great at this whole nutritional planning, by any means. I cook with butter. I splash heavy whipping cream into sauces. I think mashed garlic potatoes should be it's own food group. During the four hot weather months of heavier cycling and running, I struggled with getting enough calories into my body each day, to the point I was becoming ticked off about having to eat. I question my food choices, my motivations, and what kind of example I'm setting for my daughter and her future relationship with food.

I may not need The Complete Beck Diet for Life * to get started changing my way of thinking about food, but I think it is probably still a good idea for 2009 reading. Confirming what I've done so far is good and - hopefully - giving a bit of guidance to carry it into the future.

*Note the snazzy green cover.

What I'm Reading - Good Omens

I'm reading Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett. I've been a fan of Gaiman since the early-ish days of The Sandman, and Terry Pratchett - well, I've not read any of his books, but I plan to remedy that in the near future.

I'm enjoying this book. A lot. It's funny. Sometimes biting and satirical, sometimes zany, but definitely full of humor. The four horsemen are... unexpectedly modern. I found myself alternating between chuckling and horrified realization when reading about Famine's antics, in particular.

How at home Famine must be in this day and age. Starvation is still a problem for the poor in the third world countries, but it's also the goal of so many well-off women and young girls. (And even a segment of the young male population, apparently.) People stuff themselves full of easy and cheap calories, loading themselves up with excess fat while becoming deficient in the basic nutrients required for a healthy life. Our obsessions with food, at both ends of the scale, make his job so much easier.

I don't want to give key story points away, so I'll stay out of detailing what he and the other horsemen are up to in the days leading up to Armageddon. Instead, I'll quote the description from the publisher:

There is a distinct hint of Armageddon in the air. According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (recorded, thankfully, in 1655, before she blew up her entire village and all its inhabitants, who had gathered to watch her burn), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, the Four Bikers of the Apocalypse are revving up their mighty hogs and hitting the road, and the world's last two remaining witch-finders are getting ready to fight the good fight, armed with awkwardly antiquated instructions and stick pins. Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. . . . Right. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan.

Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon -- each of whom has lived among Earth's mortals for many millennia and has grown rather fond of the lifestyle -- are not particularly looking forward to the coming Rapture. If Crowley and Aziraphale are going to stop it from happening, they've got to find and kill the Antichrist (which is a shame, as he's a really nice kid). There's just one glitch: someone seems to have misplaced him. . . .

Gaiman & Pratchett did a lovely thumbing of the nose at our current culture. I think it's a great book to put on the shelf with Jonathan Swift and Douglas Adams, for my kids to pick up as they grow beyond the 2nd-3rd grade satire of Captain Underpants.

Predictably Irrational

I listen to books on the iPod. While I work, while I run or ride. Lately, I've been on an economics kick. Behavioral economics, to be precise. I love the science, dismal or no, behind the way people make decisions about how to spend their time, money and energy.

I just finished Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions*, by Dan Ariely. I loved it! Will be listening to it again, probably soon. Adds a whole new dimension to people watching. Gave me a bit of insight in to the whys of some of my decisions in life so far. Not just the big things, either. Little things like "Sure, I'll have a piece of cheesecake. My diet starts tomorrow."

Funny how all the rational choices people should be making, in a perfect world, go out the window once you get down to the imperfect individual.

From Ariely's website:



Next up on my audiobook list: The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World, by Tim Harford.

*The audiobook version of Predictably Irrational is read by Simon Jones, who is one of my favoritest narrators. Yes, I just said favoritest. Favorite just was not adequate.

What I'm Reading...

Received this little book for my birthday. I enjoy reading Arnold Kling's articles over at TCS Daily, so am really looking forward to starting on this book tonight.

There a couple of other books going at the same time, so I really need to update the sidebar. As part of an attempt to catch up on all the great literature I skipped in favor of Science Fiction and Fantasy over the years, I'm also reading Robinson Crusoe. It's my afternoon-at-the-pool book. I'll be recommending it to my older son when I finish. If he balks at reading a book he thinks of as a "school" book, I'm going to mention Crusoe was the original Survivorman.

Scheduled to the 9's

Book fair week. Ugh. As much as I love all the books, and seeing the rugrats perusing the stacks at the Scholastic Book Fair each year, I really miss sleep. In order to find time to be at both schools, work gets pushed back to evenings for a few days this week.

Have picked up a few items for myself, um ahem, that is to say, the kids.
The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
-Comes with a movie poster, which the DD & B2 are fighting over
The Artemis Fowl Files, by Eoin Colfer
-Contains short stories about Mulch. How can one miss out on gassy dwarf stories?
Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney
-Looks like a lot of fun, will read when B2 finishes.
Beowulf, by Gareth Hinds - Graphic Novel
-Yeah, this one is just for me. The kids can read it, but it's mine.
A 36 yr old with an occasional comic book jones, ack.
And, finally, The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau.
-I'm really looking forward to reading this outloud for bedtime over the next week or two.
It looks to be one that should strike the fancy of a 6 yr. old, her brothers, 8 and 13,
and their dear old mom. (I'll have to keep my fingers crossed on the 13 yr old appeal.
He's in the "that's boring little kid stuff" phase.

Anyways, didn't have time for putting in any miles today, but tomorrow I'll hit the track. I needed the recovery day after this past weekend. Solid hour of jogging on Friday, a 1 hour group ride on Saturday (with hills), another hour of running on Sunday. It was all I could do to make 25 loops of the track on Monday.

Now, time to catch up on some Ron Paul reading, and then get back to mapping.