Book Reviews

Not so much books that I like, but books that I have recently read. On my last deployment I read my friends books on post modern thinking which I found interesting even though I may have missed some of it because it was my first book in 5 years. I never read much until I got in trouble, but after I did I had no excuse not to so I have read a few books in the last half year. I have found that I like reading books about reality even if it is spoken from a broken mind. The book selection was rather meager at the navy exchange so I only bought books that were on clearance so I could get more without spending alot. While in restriction I started reading Jackie Robinsons biography, but they took it from me because I had more than 3 books and I never got it back (organized crime.) Reading is not so common in our society now because we all have reasons to convince ourselves of our need of instant gratification. For this reason many bad books never get published and books have to have something extra in them to get people to read. The books that I did finish while I was there are:

Julius Ceasar by William Shakespear - A play tragedy that everyone has read or seen (never use always every or never)...
The War on Pain by Scott Fishma, M.D. - I liked this book because it spoke of how easy it is to diagnose a symptom and ignore problems. It also showed the reality of the placebo effect and how the mind and body are not seperable. I saw that the fundamental basis of any recovery from a severe problem was the existance of hope.
American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing - This book is a biography on his life. What I thought was most memorable about the book is how it showed the effects on the mind when the imputs are viewed through a filter. I also remeber about halfway down page 374 when it spoke of the great loss of humanity that Tim felt when he was in his cell. He remembered back when he worked as a zookeeper and watched the same animal in the same cage get fed the same portion of the same food at the same time of day by the same zoo worker. It was the repition that made the feeling of the loss of humanity so great and reminded me of my existance or lack of on the submarine.
Me and Ted against the World by Reese Schonfeld - In this book Reese talked about his past existance in news and how he chased his dream. He got to watch his dream grow from nothing to a network larger than life (CNN) by pushing all the right buttons and fighting extremely hard. He then got to watch his dream fall apart as its corporate ties caused it to loose its impartiality and purity. This book taught me an extreme lesson about considering the source of information. Everything in the world is there to justify its own existance until it no longer wants to, then it ends.

After I got out of restriction I soon went to rehab where it was wrong for me to read anything but the alcoholics anonymous book. I like learning off of positive things. Much of what is taught is well I'll talk about it under my rehab section. While I was there I bought a few books. After I got out it was ok for me to read books again.

St. Johns Wort Natures Blues Buster by Hyla Cass, M.D. - I read this while I was awaiting transfer. I was still feeling at least a little inadequate to say the least. The book talks about the mind body relationship, the importance of nutrition, and the basics to some drug interactions. The book also talks about how outside the United States the use of natural herbs to cure the body is more common than the synthetic drugs we use here. If there is no pattent on a drug then the markup cannot be as great. A lack of economic incentive makes herbal suplements the but of jokes by people who believe whatever they are told. One of the councilers told me that there was alot of crap to some of the herbal suplements. In at least one of my this story does not sound real nights I ended up in the hospital. I paid a bill in full. I then got recharged again for the same bill and my mother forwarded it to insurace. Her insurance company had the bill reduced from $749 to something below $500 because there were some bogus charges on there. Even with the large recent technological boom heathcare is still the second largest industry behind real estate. People are bleeding the system. A lack of reform in this area erodes our economy.
Nobrow by John Seabrook - This book is cool. It is about how we all blend into an infusion of mass media and information blazing past us. We all try to define ourselves by doing, buying, seeing, or experiencing things that give us identity in a society where everything is blending together. It talks about how a few people have managed great sucess in this environment and how some things have been forced to changes as the walls between social classes fall and make defining role by apearance that much harder. Here is a great exerpt from page 168. "As usual this part of SoHo is shoulder to shoulder with pedestrians in hot pursuit of status in Nobrow. When you do away with the old High-Low hierarchy, people become more obsessed than ever with status. The action seems like it's more out on the streets than in the gallaries. Standing in the Sonnabend Gallery, at a group show, I turn and for a moment my eyes stop in an interesting rectangle of space. Then in the next moment I realize it is an open window and I am looking out onto West Broadway. A lot of these people aren't actually affluent: They have no savings, their credit carss are maxed out, and they're carrying thousands of dollars in debt at 18 percent interest. But their lack of means does not ease tthem off the pursuit of status--indeed, it spurs them on." This leads me to ask the question of why debt is necissary. Even with the economic expansion beyond the edge of reality throughout the 1990s we still found ways to not pay down our national debt. Money is not a resource, but a means to barrter or trade. A few years ago I heard an alarming fact, that the interest on our national debt acounted for more federal spending than national defense did, and we think we need to police the world. A huge debt like that which is mostly owned by the richest few allows for a nice establishment of perminant division of social classes. Many would discredit this, but why in a slugish economy with low inflation did the cost of going to public college go up about 10% on the year? Not everyone is suffering, this is simply a consolidation of wealth.
Common Sense by Thomas Paine - This is really more of a pamphlet than a book. Most people were afraid to say what they thought, so he did it for them. This was used to spur on the drive toward Independence by showing the grave injustices that made continued dependance not possible.
Prohibition Thirteen Years that Changed America by Edward Behr - This book in detail covers the begining movements of temperance through the existance and repeal of prohibition, which only occured for economic stimulation. It does a great job of showing the existance of corruption throughout the government and how a few close minded people can make life horrific for many people. It reminds me of going underway. At the end of the book it speaks of how over half of our prison population is incarcerated for drug offenses, paralleling the issue of illegal drugs to alcohol in the 1820's. I really like the last sentence of this book. I think it is funny to go into a bar bathroom and read the words say no to drugs in the urinal when alcohol is an extremely destructive one which is exceedingly harmful when comparded to weed, but easier to tax and control. Unlike weed, alcohol was my gateway drug
Stupid White Men by Michael Moore - This is more less a gripe book. To me many of the points are very valid. I see this as my own filtering, reading things that justify my beliefs. I was not a draft doger. I was not a deserter from the reserves. I did not get arrested for charges I do not want to talk about while I was a deserter. I am not the almost elected president residing on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from a rigged election. I have never commited a felony unlike... I am far worse than the boss of my former boss. I did drugs and told people. I was given every max punishment and should never be hired by any corporation again, in fact I should be in jail for general purpose now, just to help the police state movement. All I did meant nothing. I served my country other than honorably. If that is the case than I will continue to do so as I freely speak my mind until they pass a law to arrest me for it. That is kinda what I got from his book. We all bitch and nobody does anything about it. STAND UP. I will vote everytime for the rest of my life or until this country folds from its self grown arrogance ignorance and greed.
21 ways to improve google adwords campaigns - pretty self explanitory here. as you can see i am now getting into search engine marketing. Search Engine Marketing Info
the bootstrappers bible - seth godin's book on how to make it
terra city - a post modern profit for all organization designed by Dan Bostan Human Wisdom http://www.humanwisdom.ca
dont make me think - a practicle guide to usability where common sense is the driving force
the big red fez - (how to make any web site better) an ultra quick seth godin read which gives quick ideas on how to improve the conversion rate and general functionality of a web site
the purple cow - how to transform your business by becoming remarkable - this book was so good that I deceided to buy an additional 25 copies to go and see Seth at his office for the purple cow workshop
designing web usability - the usability bible for the internet - the absolute nuts and bolts about everything usability related
search engine optimization on an extreme budget - crap - some of its information was misinformation before the book was even published. i am writing my own book on search engine marketing - it will be finished within a few months - i will give it away free at SEO BOOK .com
search engine visibility - good book giving the user details on more than just search engine optimization and helps people consider the overall web concept
the online copywriters handbook - great book chuck full of good information
net words - i feel this book did a better job of speaking to the individual that the above book
fish - decent management book describing how Pikes market gave a dead person a second chance at life
Media Control - Noam Chopsky is an MIT professor of Linguistics, Philosophy, and Politics. He is viewed as one of the worlds leading resources on human rights information. In this book he covers how media control has played a role in the manipulation of the mindset of the average american. He points out specific instances such as
Iraq wanted to withdrawl from Kuwait in exchange for Security Council consideration of the problem of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The United States blocked such moves.

How can the same Iraq that could not defeate a week Iran be a world power almost instantly? Lets not forget this is the same Iran that was torn in civil war for many years before its conflict with Iraq.

After Israel started to use US helicopters to missle down defenseless citizens we sent them the worlds largest shipment of helicoptors (2 days later)

In general we create villans to divert the attention of the masses so the select few can control society.

20 years after terrorism became the most important issue in the world we place the same war mongers in charge and redeclare the war on terrorism. We can not even use the classic definition of terrorism as defined by our own Arm manuals, because is sounds too similar to what we do "the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious, or idealogical in nature...through intimidation, coercion or instilling fear."
Persuasive Online Copywriting (How to Take Your Words to the Bank) - this book is amazing. both of the other copywriting books I read were good, but this was better. the best part of this small book is that it breaks down each important concept into its own small chaper which is sufficient, but lacks fluf.
Survival is Not Enough by Seth Godin - from the day we are born people take advantage of us. Our whole lives people tell us we do not have enough time, that we need to work harder. Squeezing the life out of each of us, day by day. This is the reason many people like me commit suicide. This book is not about commiting suicide, or even the more painful slow antaganizing death most serfs get to look forward to. This book is about looking forward...finding what you want...and making it happen. I only wish I would have read this book sooner.
An American Addiction by Noam Chomsky (audio CD)- this was a speech he gave about the US role in Columbia. He brought up alarming facts such as: Food for peace causes American agricultural products to be subsidized by our tax payers. This subsidised food causes instability to the small farmers in Columbia and other countries. These small farmers starve to death, get killed, or plant coca. We channel arms to control the value of commodities. We send funds to the governments of these countries (who are intertwined with the drugloards) who kill off unwilling peasents. We could give funds to create other crops, but instead we choose to fund the drugloards. In the US you usually get a few chances at failure if you are rich. The poor and minorities are not usually so fortunate. The end goal of the war on drugs is to kill the poor in foreign countries, send our poor to jail, and control people through fear.
Case Studies in Hypocricy by Noam Chomsky (audio CD) - The title is rather self explanitirory... This discusses topics such as: Why we are really in Iraq, How our foreign aid relates to human rights abuse, how we reject most articles in the UN general contract, and generally some of the disgusting things the United States promotes in the world. Did you know that we shot down a commercial airliner from Iran "on accident" decades before any monsters hurt us with September 11. Invite yourself to hear the full story.
The Cluetrain Manifesto. I have long stated that supply and demand are worthless, where they meet is where ther is real profit. This book aimed as stating this same statement in a different way, that markets are conversations. When markets began the tale of the trip was half of the sales. Mass marketing and mass production halted this. The internet is not amazing because of technology, it is amazing because it allows us to simply connect to one another. This book qoutes Thoreau "In wilderness is the preservation of the world." The next sentence reminds us that he also wrote ON CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE - and that there is a connection. The best part of the book is the begining of the last chapter where they quote Nixons first inaugural address and then rip it apart - because it is bullshit.
Your Brain is God by Timothy Leary - well the title describes the principal of the book very well. It is a quick read, but in the few pages that exist Timothy explains the need to describe the LSD experience as religious and how it effects the mind. I tend to think that anything that is done with the focus of "self" improvement usually makes sense. Compare this to most other religions where we are fed propaganda to feed someone else. Believe in yourself and take control of your own actions.