I read a bunch of books in 2021, and you, dear reader, are the one who benefits. Don’t waste hours digging through the remainders at Dollar Tree looking for your next read. Just waste a few minutes right here and get some much better options.
As proud as I am that I read fifty (fifty!) books in 2018, I don’t think it’s necessarily the best thing to set all your reading goals based purely on numbers. Trying to hit my goal, I rushed through some books I wish I had lingered on a bit more; I avoided some challenging books … Read more
You may say, “Hey, we’re an awful long way from beach weather to be talking about beach reads, aren’t we?” To which I reply, People in the Southern Hemisphere need books too! These are the most enjoyable, page-turney books of the year. If you want something light and enjoyable, whether you’re at the beach or … Read more
I read fifty (fifty!) books this year, and I am not what you would call a speed reader. I never would have been able to read that many if not for the eight or nine of them that were audio books. I’m not a huge audio book fan, because I like to marinate in good … Read more
I read too many good books this year to have one “best” of the year, so I’m breaking all the top books out into categories. This time it’s nonfiction! Again, to clarify, saying a book is best of the year doesn’t necessarily mean it was written in 2018; just that I read it in 2018. … Read more
2018 has been a booktacular year! (Sorry.) I’ve read even more books this year than I did during last year’s book-reading competition with my wife. And I’ve read better books too, since I didn’t feel the pressure to grab whatever book was closest so I could just keep reading and prevent her from building an … Read more
I am badly delayed in giving the final results of our 2017 reading competition. I apologize, but over the last couple of weeks I’ve been caught up with another competition.
Here, I’m forced to be brutally honest with myself. Any hope I had of winning this contest was always a lie. I had a great August; I read six books (six!), most of them really good. And I didn’t make up any ground at all. JASON READ: RACHEL READ: The Connected Child The Sound of … Read more
[amazon_link asins=’1911214195′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’thecynichri-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’cff4d624-83c3-11e7-a73c-ed2487960cd7′] This book takes the pole position for Best Book I’ve Read This Year. What’s it about? Well, it’s a brief overview of the history of linguistics, and an explanation of how the existence human speech exposes a major gap in Darwin’s theory of evolution, a gap that causes Darwinists … Read more
[amazon_link asins=’0393316041′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’thecynichri-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’67662cdf-83c3-11e7-8480-efc9573ab251′] I had heard tales of legendary physicist Richard Feynman: the carousing, the womanizing, the crazy pranks. The frequent trips to Las Vegas, where I imagined the craps tables were no match for the genius who helped build the first atomic bomb. So naturally I was interested in Feynman’s autobiography; … Read more
[amazon_link asins=’0062565397′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’thecynichri-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’2917a67c-83be-11e7-b5cf-9b61f9570fcc’] This just in: C.S. Lewis is the man. The Four Loves is Lewis’ treatise on four categories of love: affection, friendship, eros (wink, wink), and charity. It is, for Lewis, typically insightful, typically profound, and typically compelling. It’s a short book, but dense. And like I tend to do … Read more
[amazon_link asins=’0781405734′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’thecynichri-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’3694353e-7ca5-11e7-830a-b30390b692fc’] This was a really good book that I didn’t like. It’s weird, but I don’t know how else to say it. When I got this book, I was hoping it would humanize Paul and provide all the little details about his era that would make his whole story come … Read more
It was an incredibly busy month for our family. Which meant that Rachel didn’t get to read at her normal blistering pace. It also meant that I was unable to take advantage of her slowdown. She only read three books, but she extended her lead! I have brought shame upon myself. JASON READ: RACHEL READ: … Read more
And so we enter the dog days of summer. And the days are so dogged that I’m having to do two months of contest review at once. What’s the review? In a nutshell: more of the same. Rachel read more books than me. Jason Read: Rachel Read: Think Like a Freak The Nightingale President Me … Read more
[amazon_link asins=’0743236017′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’thecynichri-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’ff448710-555d-11e7-931d-bb8e2a196af1′] You ever meet somebody who can just analyze something to death? You know that type I mean. He can spend an hour before dinner outlining themes of loss and abandonment in Iron Man 2 and an hour after dinner discussing how post-millennial masculinity is defined by Spider-Man and Ross … Read more
[amazon_link asins=’141650768X’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’thecynichri-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’4292cbc1-555f-11e7-9357-111f0aabd93c’] In the course of this epic reading competition, I’m going to end up reading a number of books that are just, “meh.” It’s the law of averages; they can’t all be gems. Prayers for the Assassin is one of those books that falls firmly in the “meh” category. A … Read more
[amazon_link asins=’B006VAF990′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’thecynichri-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’9204f19e-48d9-11e7-907a-2f27b293a8ce’] Born Standing Up is Steve Martin’s reminiscence of the beginning of his career — from his first job selling maps at Disneyland to his time as the number one concert draw in the history of stand-up. He describes it not as an autobiography, but as a biography of someone he … Read more
[amazon_link asins=’1439156816′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’thecynichri-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’0b6634d3-48d9-11e7-a18e-35b5c292dd50′] This is probably Stephen King’s most respected book. In fact, I can’t think of any other Stephen King book that would be considered “respected.” Popular, yes. Wildly successful, sure. Really, really long, no doubt. Plentiful, without question. And did I mention long? How does he write so much, anyway? … Read more
[amazon_link asins=’0062320416′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’thecynichri-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’e43da01b-48d4-11e7-b01c-7fe36a24c76a’] Adam Carolla is a funny man, so if you enjoy his style of comedy you’re going to get your money’s worth of laughs out of this book (especially if you get it on sale for two bucks like I did; bargain hunter, yo!). But having said that, I have … Read more
[amazon_link asins=’B0180T0IUY’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’thecynichri-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’1798b08b-3e8e-11e7-a905-6f0b0ad124fe’] When I read a novel or watch a movie, I like to immerse myself in it. I’m not a guy who goes looking for plot holes or tries to jump ahead of the author and figure out the next plot twist myself. But by the time I got to … Read more