Written by: Harriet Beecher Stowe
Very good character development and depiction of life for various slaves in the United States before the Civil War / War Between the States / War of Northern Aggression / Mississippi Fight Club Jamboree. Actual human beings as property, with every aspect of their lives hanging on the whims of the white master. Sometimes it was okay (so long as you didn’t feel like going anywhere or doing anything different), basically living on a farm and doing work and having friends, but when the nice guy dies you are totally fucked, your family gets split and you get sent “down the river” to some shithole where life expectancy is like 3 months and that feels too long while you’re there. Wow. Glad that’s over.
Length: 22.75 hrs
10/2002: Seriously felt terrified at times about what it would be like to be at the total mercy of assholes.
Written by: Edmund Morris
Holy crap Theodore Roosevelt is a total badass. He started as a sickly child, but decided instead he would be awesome and made it happen. Great stories like when he was District Attorney and his way for getting rid of the stupid Blue Laws in New York was to prosecute the heck out of all the bars until the general public rose up to get the laws repealed. He just kept fighting and doing big things because that’s what manly men should do, and then he went hiking and someone shot McKinley and he became president.
Length: 9 hrs
10/2002: Totally motivated me to work harder for the duration of the book.
Written by: Cyril Robinson
This is what happens when two little kids are raised by wolves next to a big river. Basically they build a bunch of cool shit out of rocks, but later turn into Nazis, and then an evil space empire. It’s definitely a good listen, but you can also just watch the full Star Wars series to see what happens. Oh wait, I forgot about Jar Jar. Go ahead and just listen to this book.
Length: 18.5 hrs
10/2002: I vaguely remember this being educative but that’s about it.
Written by: Fyodor Dostoevsky
This really long book is read by an old Russian guy (or at least in the voice of one) who speaks slowly and quietly, drawing the listener deep into every drawn out word. The result is a narration that takes forever to get through, but totally pulls you deep into the dark Russian psyche. You keep wanting to dislike Raskolnikov, but Dostoevsky is so excellent at describing details, including those of complex thoughts and emotions that you end up so inside his head that can’t help but suffer along with him from his perspective, making independent and objective judgement impossible. His self loathing becomes your own, his frustration and lashing out at the world is accepted and indeed liberating for the listener, no matter how debased it may seem to a casual observer of Raskolnikov’s actions. His acts are consistent with his thoughts, which have long ago become your own…
Length: 25.5 hrs
9/2002: Brought a darkness and gloom to a sunny Seattle summer, but significantly reduced air conditioning expenses.
Written by: David McCullough
Having earlier read McCullough’s “John Adams” and both enjoyed it and learned a lot about the time period in which Adams lived, I was looking forward to this book both from a biography and historical knowledge perspective around the end of World War II and U.S. history. It was a big letdown. Very superficial descriptions of individuals and events, and few insights or interesting facts and theories about events of the time. McCullough seems to have just called this one in. Bummer.
Length: 5.5 hrs
8/2002: Listened to during several dog walks, disappointed throughout.
Written by: Ayn Rand
If you can ignore the hype and circumstances surrounding Ayn Rand and Objectivism for 32 hours, this is actually a very entertaining book. Good plot, clear characters, and an enjoyable listen overall. It’s mostly about an idealistic architect (Howard Roark) who the world is trying to exploit and crush who apparently is actually the most awesome person ever and everyone else sucks except for this one rich girl. It’s not actually possible to completely keep out the “philosophical” issues behind the book, since they are occasionally pushed a little too vigorously in your face and the believability of the characters gets stretched, but then there is a hot sex scene and everything is okay again.
Length: 31.75 hrs
8/2002: This was really long, but an enjoyable listen that carried me through weeks of long walks around Seattle. Definitely kept my attention throughout, even when the author was laying it on a little thick.
Written by: Douglas Adams
Some good stories but like many other post-mortem publications it isn’t so much a cohesive work as a bunch of stuff found under the couch. This doesn’t make it not good stuff, just don’t eat the cheetos.
Length: 8 hrs
8/2002: I really don’t remember this one except for the one chapter where that dog discusses Nietzsche with a dyslexic flea and decides he does not exist. Actually that may not be in this book. Probably worth looking into.
Written by: David McCullough
One thing is certain, John Adams was a small, small man. Seriously, he was like 4 feet tall. His story is really a backdrop for an excellent history of the United States (and parts of Europe) during the time he lived. You really get a feel for what was going on, as well as deep insights into their thoughts and motivations, which makes their actions a lot more understandable and multi-dimensional than the list of actions and dates you memorized in school. David McCullough is an amazing writer, showing the world through personal letters from people of the time (not sure how he got these) that they were all way better writers than we are today and amazingly regal and dignified for people who apparently just peed freely in the streets.
Length: 9 hrs
7/2002: A continuation of the “teach me something you amazing machine” phase, I really enjoyed this book. I learned a lot about the life and times surrounding the Revolutionary War and the intense political divisions of the era, and was entertained throughout. Definitely recommended.
Written by: Stephen E. Ambrose
Really good book about what was going on during World War II. Lots of in depth personal perspectives, amazing descriptions, and compelling stories. It’s both historical and entertaining (not so much “ha ha” entertaining as “holy crap there is some f**ked up sh*t going on right here!” entertaining). If you read this and don’t think it was worth it you probably should just go back to playing with Smurfs.
Length: 4.5 hrs
7/2002: The start of a journey into non-fiction yet entertaining historical novels, this book made me realize if I kept at this challenging habit of keeping alive while small plastic disks in my ears turned electrical impulses into human speech for a while I would end up learning a lot of neat stuff. Thank you Hitler.
Written by: Dr. Edgar Mitchell with Dwight Williams
With both astronauts and hippies, this book has two elements of the holy trinity. It’s neat and does have several worthwhile points of universal connectedness, with lots of details about the founding and goings on at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (not to be confused with the storied halls of Poetic Sciences, birthplace of the “man from Nantucket”) . Again, lots of interesting philosophical points though wanders a bit far into the reaches of the hippyverse, extolling the miracles of alleged spoon bender Uri Geller (for the thousandth time, THERE IS NO SPOON!) and exhibiting a habit of over-simplification and lack of critical thinking. It does, however, lead the reader to other more discerning folks like Ken Wilbur who have written some pretty awesome stuff.
Length: 3.75 hrs
6/2002: This was an early foray into some fairly out there stuff inspired by books on Chaos Theory and other similar revelations at how the extremes of Western and Eastern culture tend to end up in the same place just with different vocabularies, one wearing lab coats and one in robes. This one wasn’t gold, but did provide a bridge to several others and help define the line (for me at least) between mind blowing and just blowing.
