I'm starting to realize how ridiculously disorganized I am. I've decided to get really organized starting...now. I'm going to have to-do lists for all my stuff on the house and organize all my work stuff into folders...with little labels on everything.
I look around the fortress and realize that I'm a slob. There's papers everywhere and I can't find the proper tools when I need them (so I end up using a chisel as a screw driver). I could justify my slobbishness by saying that I'm busy or that I'm more of a big-picture person; but that would be a lie. My messiness and disorganization has more to do with sloth than lack of vision. I don't know how people get so organized that they can go to the gym with excel spreadsheets detailing their workout routines, but I want to be one of those people--except smarter and better looking, of course.
I have to take a flight next week, so I decided that I'm going to make lists for everything that I need done while I'm out of town, then, armed with these powerful new tools, I'll come back and finish everything and live happily ever afer. Well, that's the plan, anyway. So today will start to-do list day. That mean's I gotta measure the MacGyver kitchen to order some cabinets and start packing for my trip (these would be on the top of my paper to-do list, which is still in my head). Then I think I have to start prioritizing my projects around the fortress. Maybe the lack of prioritization is why I haven't been getting too much done around here. Either that or it's Netflix's fault.
Since I gotta catch a plane soon, anyone have any book suggestions? Please don't say "The DaVinci Code". Although I haven't read it, I take issue with people who recommend this book. How can you, with a straight face, recommend one of the most popular books ever written? That's like saying "have you tried peanut butter? 'cuz you should, it's delicious."
So anyway, does anyone have any *other* book suggestions?
10 comments:
"The Straight Man" by Richard Russo is a good one, although its dry humor, so it doesn't suit everyone's taste. Or perhaps: "Mission: Organization" the book, since you want to get organized, it might give some nice handy ideas?
I would never recommend "The DaVinci Code"....it's coming out in the movies....who needs a book when you can see the movie?!?!?!?!? And I bet the movie version has some added laser guns and some dinossaurs that make the story even better!!!!!!
I just finished recently "The Time Traveler's Wife"....it's a good book, easy to read.
I also second the recommendations to "The Straight Man" by Richard Russo and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon (sp?). All books I read from these two authors have been excellent.
I second DCOE's Kavalier & Clay recommendation.
Another good one: Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude.
And, just because: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. It has nothing to do with Crazy Tom Cruise or that movie.
Da Vinci Code is the perfect airplane book for people like me who have no ability to focus while on board.
As for being organized, I salute you. I have bouts of being organized, but then I lose my to-do lists or decide it would be more fun to go out and take a ride on my bike or something. I admire the people who can keep it all together, too. I have a client who keeps his mantra reps on an Excel spreadsheet (he has to do hundreds of thousands of reps, so it kind of makes sense).
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm making a list so I can go to borders at lunch.
lawdancer, what are those books about?
jeff, same question. as for mission organization, I know HOW to get organized, I just never get around to doing it.
DCOE, you really are my secret twin. I read Kavalier & Clay and Fountainhead too. I'll think about the other two. I haven't read APFOW, but I liked the movie version.
gui, I'll add those to the list. as for "the code", I'm torn. I got a thang for the Audrey Tattou, but I don't wanna see Tom Cruise makin' it w/ her.
kathryn, samurais you say? Hmmmm.
reya, I hear you. But I decided, I'm gonna be "that guy".
I have a feeling you already know this one. "The Past Through Tomorrow" by R.A.H.
It's just short stories. That's a sort of peanut butter book to me.
Off the top of my head, here are a few suggestions. Be warned that most folks find my reading choices somewhat dull (even my best friend from high school who went on to get a degree in Classical Greek & Latin). For example, the books I'm currently reading include: Les Miserables, Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals & Exxe Homo, American Theocracy, The Case Against the Fed (your Libertarian rants have me hooked on Rothbard now), and the Popol Vuh (Mayan Mythology).
My recommendations:
1) Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. It came out in 1997, and it is the same vein (historical conspiracy theory) as the De Vinci Code but much smarter. This is the part where my wife would call me a snob, but you'll have that.
2)Our Father's War by Tom Mathews. Basically, how WW2 effected the men who saw combat and how it effected their marriages and raising their children. My summary is dry, but the book is not.
3) Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. A bit dry, but interesting. Basically, Western Imperialism and supremecy is based on our pencant for living with filthy animals (and a couple other things).
4) America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 by Alfred Crosby. Same idea as The Stand but real.
5) Good-bye To All That by Robert Graves. I don't know why, but I really enjoy this book. I read it every couple of years. Graves was British poet, author (I, Claudius), and soldier in the First World War. This book was written when he was in his 30's and is a memoir of growing up in Victorian England, the War, and afterward. Good read, one of the best memoirs I've read.
6) The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. Who wouldn't want to read a book written by demons for demons. Funny book.
I had long since resolved never to read The Davinci Code, when a friend gave me Angels and Demons (the prequel or something) - it was HORRID!!
I liked William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition", if you are in the mood for something riding the edge of sci-fi. I also love Jose Saramago's "Blindness" - and his "All the Names" was good too - a bit Kafka-esque. "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk made me laugh my ass off (in a very dark humor sort of way). If you feel like non-fiction, try Daniel Ellsberg's "Secrets".
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I'd help -- usually I'm good with fiction -- but right now, I'm reading nonfiction on baseball. National Pastime, to be exact.
Hey, I just remembered that I did read a pretty good novel -- in the same vein as the DaVinci Code, but smarter and written by two local authors. It was called The Rule of Four. Very good for airplane reading.
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