heathervescent

How I Read a Novel

Open the book to the last page. Skim quickly to find the beginning of the last sentence, or sometimes paragraph, or set of paragraphs. Read until the end. Flip to the first page. Begin reading.

Yes, I am one of those people who read the end of the book first. I do this to challenge the material. One criteria of a good writer/novel, is the ability to tell the story - the unfolding. So that even if the reader knows the end of the story, it doesn't click into place until read in the proper order. Then when you come to the end (which you are already familiar with) it means something different. Before, when you had read it out of context it meant something, and later, when you read it the order in which the creator expected it to be experienced, it means something different.

Pimping my Current Reads

I've got a stack of about 30 books on my bedside table, but I actively read about only 6 at a time. Here's are a few of the books I'm currently reading or have recently finished. Link goes to Amazon where if you buy it, helps me pay my bills ;).

Recently Finished

• The Marriage of Sticks by Jonathan Carroll This is one of my all time favorite JCs. A high school reunion. Bookseller. A fabulous old woman with an amazing history. A magician. A magical love story. Ghosts, car drives, car crashes, Crane's View and Beechwood Canyon. Also, a dog on fire. Did I mention there's a vampire in it as well? Well I just did. I sucked this delight down in 2 days. It's another magical world!
• Tao Te Ching - Classic Taoist Material. I read this in one sitting - and finally understood it.
• Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - I've been sporadically reading this for several months, picking it up and opening it to whatever page. I read through the entire 2/3's the other night (and it actually made sense!)
• Foundation and Earth by Asimov. Classic ending (almost) to the foundation series. If you love Science Fiction and have not read this series - YOU MUST. Start with Foundation, chant Harry Seldon. Every single SciFi author has borrowed from this series. It is the be-all, end-all. Eat your heart out Frank Herbert, PK Dick and Dan Simmons.
• The Anubis Gates - I love Tim Powers and this is my favorite of his. Time travel, Coleridge, sorcerers, Egypt, Magicians, Scientists, stuck in time, body double's/ka, body changing, dark passages underground, une semanie de bonde type creatures. (Pre-China Mievelle)
• The Drunkard's Walk - There's an explanation for all the illogical stuff people do.
• Predictably Irrational - And here's how you can predict what illogical stuff people will do - and why.

Current (re)Reads

• Kissing the Beehive  - I enjoyed the Marriage of Sticks so much, I plucked this one off my shelf. Page 20 inspired my post about Parkview Plaza memories. Crane's View again. Jonathan, the drink offer still stands. I'm still in LA.
• The Pentium Chronicles - A fascinating read about building the pentium 6 chip. Reading it really makes me want to go out and find a big company Product Management job. Really good insight into what it's really like to develop a technology product. 
• Who Is Fourier?: A Mathematical Adventure I started with their Quantum Physics book and realized I wanted more math background. So I got this. Although it's not perfect, you learn what a fourier series is in Chapter 1. The rest of the book builds from there.
• What Is Quantum Mechanics? - this is the Quantum Book. From someone who is not a science person (but has always been fascinated by science and the natural world) this book is hard core science and equations and explanations along with the history and how it was all figured out.
• The Trillion Dollar Meltdown - I'm not sure it's necessary to finish this now. Was written before the economic crash explaining why there was an upcoming crash despite the in denial pundits. I bought this on a recommendation by Dr Housing Bubble (one of the only blogs I obsessively read.)
• Personal Development for Smart People - I've been following Mr Self Development (with a tiny bit of jealousy - I kind of wish my site was more like his.) This is his book  based on his extensive self development experimentation. I'm enjoying it as I always enjoy a shot of Steve Pavlina.
• The Theory of Celestial Influence - An early 20th Century application of new mathematical explanations to age old philosophical questions. Written by one of Gurdjieff's students, Rodney Collins, this book was written for another time, using words that were not necessarily correctly applied (they mean something different today). When I first read this book about 10 years ago, it blew me away with my first look at what the universe might be like - from the universe's perspective - in addition to my human perspective and a variety of perspectives in between. (From what position do you want to look at something in what position.) It really changed the way I thought about many things. I'm not sure I necessarily believe what it explains, but there is much truth in the words, if you can look between them. It will blow your mind if you catch the concepts.

And let's not forget the books from my Clients that came out this year while I'm in pimp mode:

1. Narcisa: Our Lady of Ashes by Jonathan Shaw
   
2. Gasoline by Dame Darcy

Goblin Fruit Reading

I took K.J. Bishop's _The Etched City_ to Hawaii with me for some light reading. I didn't actually get much reading done (too much adventuring), so I've been catching up on the reading since I got home. K.J. Bishop is the writer who introduced me to the Andre Gide quote that became one of my mantras. (It's on my bio page.) I had forgotten the exotic fruit of her book. A perfect accompaniment to volcanic adventures.

Last night I came across this section of the story, which reminded me of Douglas Hofstadter's _I am a strange loop_.

 

At that moment, he realised that he did not exist to her in the same way that he existed in his own perception. She held a copied version, an interpretation of him, filtered through the matrix of her priorities and desires.

Therefore, surely, he only held a copy of her.

and this, which reminded me a bit of personal branding and self-development

"I have come to believe that we steer our individual spheres of being through the spectra of possible worlds via the choices we make, the acts we perform. Most people stick to known routes, and therefor cannot travel far. They live too modestly, and perhaps too privately. Only by being strange can we move, for strange acts cause us to be rejected by whatever normality we have offended, and to be propelled towards a normality that can better accommodate us."

It's a good book and makes me think about things. Roll the words around in my head and suck on them to get the juice out. And then go back for another piece.

My New Favorite Blog - The Scabvendor

So my new favorite blog is starting to get some traction. It's by Jonathan Shaw - who could be called the "father" of modern tattooing. (Disclaimer, JS is one of my clients.) He's pretty much the guy who broke tattooing into the mainstream and tattooed a bunch of celebrities. He's also the inspiration/real character behind Captain Jack - from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Over the past 3 months, I've worked with Jonathan and his assistant Alessandra on all the standard things I do: branding and online marketing specifically for his upcoming book about his crack-whore girlfriend from Rio de Janeiro.

Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I have a passion for Brazil and the Brazilian life. I won't go into my several life changing experiences I had within her borders, but needless to say, she is probably my favorite country in the world. Brazil - she is full of possibilities.

Anyway, I digress - Jonathan is in Rio right now, with Narcisa - his girlfriend (whom the book is about) and he's writing about his day to day experiences. It's not just the day to day, but the pieces of enlightenment hidden between the cracks of the mundane. Take this for example:

I’m out on the street dropping her off later and I look around and see the people running amok like it’s the goddamn Mardi Gras, my people, ignorant little replicas of Narcisa with her tv eyes and childlike mind and it hits me, it’s not just her, it’s the world, it’s Brazil, a whole mind-warped brainwashed culture, a nation of whores and beggers and petty thieves and crooked liars and pipe dreaming slaves, with or without the crack habit, its all the same ratty fairy tale happy ending mind of slavery to ego and self and the belief in eternal satisfaction at the end of a magic consumer wand or a machine gun or a beer can or crack pipe or a polititions promise or a whirlwind of romantic love boat wedding chapel angel cake whiter than white flouride toothpaste smiles and shit eating grins on skulls that will soon be rotting in the ground no matter fucking what. Whatever whatever, so maybe Narcisa’s right to just burn it at both ends like she does and do the best she can to live as intensely and dangerously as possible and so what if she fucking dies, at least she provided me the inspiration to write a fucking book cuz she is that interesting and authentic and beautiful and that’s more than I can say about 99.999999 percent of the fucking human race.

It's about authenticity. It's about being real. And sometimes that authenticity is too much for people - and goes against the grain of "good morals". But it reminds me of something I used to think about. And I was reminded of this when watching Bjork's video on Declare Independence. If the most authentic thing for you to do was to do drugs - then why should anyone stop you from it. If that is your most authentic self - then you should do that. And screw anyone who should "intervene".

And, although I have not met Narcisa, I like to dream that she is that person.

My Favorite Bookshelf

When I was reorganizing my bookshelves I used a new method. Instead of organizing by genre or style, I organized by how I categorized them. Thus my unread books went on my unread bookshelf, my favorite books went on my favorite bookshelf, my portuguese, chinese, latin and strunk and white went on my language shelf. I love to create stories with the books on my book shelves. Before parties I always spend some time organizing my books to make funny jokes (to me) with the titles. This shelf isn't particularly funny. (Two books in the bedroom right next to each other are; How to Be, and How to be Good.) I particularly like that pairing.

Anyway, here's a virtual glimpse of my favorite books bookshelf.

• Last Call by Tim Powers
• Who's Afraid of Schroedinger's Cat
• The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
• Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
• Das Energie by Paul Williams
• Goblin Market by Rosselli
• The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
• Cosmicomics by Italio Calvino
• A poetry anthology by T.S. Eliot
• Selected Works - E.A. Poe
• The Sorcerer's Crossing - Taisha Abelar
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll
• Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
• The Fire from Within by Carlos Castaneda
• Trouble on Triton by Samuel Delaney
• Vellum by Hal Duncan
• The Vertical Oracle by Antero Alli
• More than Human by Mez (Ramez Naan)
• Envision Information by Tufte
• Pronoia by Rob Brezsney

Some of these are more favorites than others. (I love love love More than Human, Last Call, Dune, Ficciones and Goblin Market.) While others are bibles (Art of the Start, Fire from Within). But you can probably get a pretty good idea my styles run science fiction, technology and esoterrorism.

Actually recently I've been reading a lot of war books. I've probably just finished one about Los Alamos and the Atomic Bomb project. And I'm about to get a bunch of Pressfields books (under the guise of getting them for my dad) but yeah - war books are interesting!

So, based on these books, do you have any suggestions for me?

ps. good reads anyone?

Books on Internet

I just found this cool site. Apparently you can download mp3s of books being read aloud. And you can volunteer to record readings. Excellent! I love it.

Introducing Be Reckless

It's finally here, it's the blog you've all been waiting for. If you haven't learned from reading this blog, how to live your life with vim and adventure then you can drink from another fountain of experience. The Reckless blog is online. And soon, you'll be able to buy the book in stores everywhere - or even from this site.  Check out my insanely fabulous roommates new blog promoting her new book - which celebrates that spark inside you, that makes you jump into the ether and feel the wind on your face as you accelerate to living your life with more passion.

p.k. dick and pulp science fiction

I love the guy. I love his stories. I love the ideas he writes about in his stories, but man... they are so simplistic. They're pulp science fiction. They're Keanu Reeves when there was Harrison Ford. But he's still tasty.

I'm reading a few more pk Dicks in the stack Barbarino lent me years ago. The past two days have been: A Maze of Death. It's interesting for sure, but pales in comparison to Dan Simmons. Rereading the final of the Hyperion series, Rise of Endymion, was just amazing. I love these four books. I could read them over and over. Simmons has an amazing mind, he tells amazing stories, has great characters and they are chock full of adventure as well as that love and sex thing. I mean, this IS a science fiction story, who are his readers. Oh, I'm one. Still, all these characteristics make Dan Simmons probably my favorite author - right up there with Jonathan Carroll, who I'd practically fly to Vienna to have coffee with but I'm not into author worship. Anyway, I guess this means I'll have to go out and buy Illium as well as the new Carroll very soon.

Fellow readers, send me your book suggestions.

Some thoughts on _Blink_ by Malcolm Gladwell

I've been reading _Blink_ by Malcolm Gladwell the past week. It's a fascinating read and I can't even attempt to provide a synopsis. So many concepts have already been explored. The main focus is the split-second decisions, where and how we make them and when they work.

I've just finished reading the chapter on Market Research. Talking about the Pepsi challenge, the Aeron chair, food tasters. A sentence resonates with me, p 175. Gladwell is talking about when traditional Market Research fails to provide an accurate estimate of the audience's response to a new product.

... Market research isn't always wrong, of course. If All in the Family had been more traditional -- and if the Aeron had been a minor variation on the chair that came before it -- the act of measuring consumer reactions would not have been nearly as difficult. But testing products or ideas that are truly revolutionary is another matter, and the most successful companies are those that understand that in those cases, the first impressions of their consumers need interpretation. We like market research because it provides certainty -- a score, a prediction; if someone asks us why we made the decision we did, we can point to a number. But the truth is that for the most important decisions, there can be no certainty. ...[I]t is the new and different that is always most vulnerable to market research.

This reminds me of some Guy Kawasaki books I've read. And makes me think more on the nature of what I do in my job with technology and the difficulties I've had and the despair I feel at certain times.

To be successful at new and innovative projects, ideas, innovations, one must have additional energy, drive, focus and internal strength... one something could call ego - ergo my previous post.

the marriage of sticks

     "When anything truly important happens in your life, where ever you happen to be, find a stick in he immediate vicinity and write the occasion and date on it. Keep them together, protect them. There shouldn't be too many; sort through them every few years and separate the events that remain genuinely important from those that were but no longer are. You know the difference. Throw the rest out.
     When you are very old, very sick or sure there's not much time left to live, put them together and burn them. The marriage of sticks."

The Marriage of Sticks by Jonathan Carroll.

If this book is anything for me, it's the clanging of a thousand frying pans one after the other after the other.

jonothan carroll wrote me back

on his blog at least.

question: i am constantly surprised and yet not surprised on how your stories directly relate to what is going on in my life. My mind was blown this afternoon merely by reading page 119 of sleeping in flame. the offer is open: if you're in LA, I'll buy you a drink. Just let me know.- heathervescent

Ah Heather, I don't know when I'll be in LA again (I sort of avoid it as much as I can). But it's good to know someone with a name like yours will stand me a drink. That's almost reason enough to come out there...

yeah, I have to admit... I make the drink offer to folks that I want to meet. It's a long shot in most cases but I meet interesting people.

his beautiful and haunting site is on this link.

oh my god, he has a blog too....

found object

I woke up yesterday morning in a house I have stayed in for 20+ years. It's the only house that I have that kind of relationship with and that relationship will end on July 30.

On my backpack I found a book by Gretel Ehrlich, The Solace of Open Spaces. I picked it up and inspected it. Gretel (which is a fabulous name) is from California and went to Wyoming for a documentary and stayed. I'm excited to read about her adventures on the plains.

I am somewhat perplexed as to where this book came from. Who left it on my backpack? But that doesn't really matter. I'll eventually find out or I won't. Regardless I'll read the book.

what a man

"Colonel Aureliano Buendia organized thirty-two armed uprisings and he lost them all. He had seventeen male children by seventeen different women and they were exterminated one after the other on a single night before the oldest one had reached the age of thirty-five. He survived fourteen attempts on his life, seventy-three ambushes, and a firing squad. He lived through a dose of strychnine in his coffee that was enough to kill a horse."
- One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Fool on the Hill

I've started reading Fool on the Hill by Matt Russ and I really like it. It's a delightful story that reminds me of American Gods and hero stories and adventure and I'm only 45 pages into it already.

biographies of men

I wanted to find out when and how Bruce Chatwin died. He was 48 and apparently died of an AIDS related illness. I found out there is an actual book biography on him. Maybe I'll check it out at the library.

On another note, barbarino leant me 7-8 PK Dick books. I've read several of his short stories and _Do Androids Dream..._ (aka BladeRunner), but not much else. I remember BladeRunner came out. In 1982, I was 8. I saw a preview of it and was immediately fascinated. I didn't know what the story was about. I only knew I liked the feeling I got watching the preview. Dark, rainy, mysterious. It was a LA I never knew of. One clouded over (with smog?!) raining, skyscrapers. A complete contrast to the sunny moist southern california weather.

I've started reading, _A Scanner Darkly_. First off, I am irritated by the way women "chicks" are referred to. Foxy, bang her, etc. It's part of the book, but I'm bored by it. I got the same irritation when I read a bunch of Heinlein. It's just like so, retro and in the past. Anyway, I'm letting my irritation sit to the side to see where the plot and character development go.

Pattern Recognition / Death

I finished Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. It took me 6 chapters to get into it, but once I got the bait, I was hooked. It's another excellent suggestion from one of my best friends, barbarino. I continue to be amazed with his taste and how he consistently suggests great content for my brain. Having Mike as a friend is a guilty pleasure. I'll miss him more than most when I leave the bay area.

I admit, I like the main character, Casey, a lot. I like her dislike for trademarks. I admit, I identify with that characteristic, though not to the level she goes to. It is a rare day when you see me wearing any kind of logo gear and if I am, it is most likely because I got it at a clothing swap. I don't like aligning myself with a certain look or brand, but I don't usually go to the point of obliterating any trademark.

I read a lot. Sometimes, if a book is especially good, I read the end of the book shortly after I've started it. Sometimes it is the last sentence, last paragraph. With pattern reco, it was the last page and a half. I like to know how it's going to end. I find that with most books, knowing the end doesn't matter. It peaks my interest in the characters more. How are they going to get from where they are now to that endpage position? The way the story unfolds is part of the pleasure of reading. The story is important too. So to me, knowing the end is one part of the equation. In algebra, you've got a place to start from, the end of the equation, and some parts in the middle. You find out the missing part by placing the other parts of the equation against (in juxtaposition) to other parts. It's the journey, not the destination.

We all know our final destination. It's death. Our death. Complete and utter obliteration from the world we have created, crafted and lived in. Complete obliteration of our personality as we have known, explored and enhanced. Knowing your end, that you are going to die, does it change anything you do today?

Unlike a book, where you can turn to the last page (say 356) and read the end and know it is the end of the book, death can come at 15, 32, 45 or 92. We don't know when our last page. Like the living story, each page could be the last one. The story doesn't have to have a conclusion, or it might. The journey is the destination. Whether it is a trip around the world or around the block is really of no matter, it's personal preference.