Book Review: The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons

I love to read. I especially love anything written by Bill Simmons. The Book of Basketball is the best NBA related book I've read by a large margin. It is very informative and incredibly funny. I'd give it an A. In honor of Simmons, I'll include a top five list. Imagine you are on a deserted island, and you get five books to read per year, one from each of your five favorite authors (they must be living, which eliminate D.F. Wallace and M. Crichton). Here's my list:

(1) Donald Miller (although I can't imagine him writing one book per year)
(2) Malcolm Gladwell
(3) Phillip Yancey
(4) Chuck Klosterman
(5) Bill Simmons

backups:
(6) John Case
(7) John Grisham (both 6 and 7 are entertaining but not especially interesting)
(8) Robin Cook
(9) John Gierach (both 8 and 9 are too repetitive for the top 5)
(10) John Krakauer

Book Review: Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer

There are only a few writers that I will pretty much read anything and everything that they write: Donald Miller, Bill Simmons, and Jon Krakauer are definitely on the must read list for me. Krakauer's latest book is about Pat Tillman and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I really enjoyed the background on Afghanistan and Tillman. Tillman is an ASU alum and I taught at ASU from 2004-2008 so I feel a small connection to him (I also feel a connection to Krakauer because I rode mountain bike with him for 3 days in Utah once upon a time). After the detailed background, the book focuses on Tillman's death and the subsequent cover-up. It is very well written.

Reading this book will make you more informed --- doesn't everyone want to be more informed. You will read about some incredible individuals, some frustratingly stupid individuals, and individuals that fall somewhere in between. I highly recommend this extraordinary book. Grade: A-.

Book Reviews

I read a couple books recently that discuss Game Theory, Sociology, and Economics.

Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life by Len Fisher. The focus of this book is on the basics of game theory (a branch of mathematics) and its applications to 'everyday life'. The book emphasize the importance of cooperation and how to obtain cooperation in situations where it may not be obvious. Fisher is an excellent writer and the book is fairly easy to read. So easy to read, that I would have actually preferred a little more mathematics along the way. I would suggest this book to anyone interested in learning about the types of problems game theory can address. Grade: B

The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World by Tim Harford. This book is basically a collection of summaries of behavioral economic studies that yielded interesting results. Harford tends to focus on studies that show mathematically (and often using game theory) that the decisions we make are rational. The book is similar to Freakonomics or Predictably Irrational except those books were written by the researchers that did the studies while Harford mostly describes the work of others. The book is well written and had a few especially interesting sections, but, overall, it felt a little recycled. Grade: C+

Author's Note

Donald Miller is the greatest living author (and Bill Simmons is second). Here's the authors note from Donald Miller's latest book (A Million Miles in a Thousand Years):

"If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn't cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn't tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record onto think about the story you'd seen. The truth is, you wouldn't remember that movie a week later, except you'd feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.

But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to feel meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won't make a story meaningful, it won't make a life meaningful either.

Here's what I mean by that..."

Follow-up: I just finished the book. Excellent -- certainly in my top 10 all time. Grade: A

My healthcare story

I won't pretend to know how to fix health care in the US. I just know it is broken. I learned this 2 years ago when I injured my wrist in a biking accident. It was a pretty bad wrist injury requiring surgery and a few weeks of physical therapy. My surgery and recovery treatment were excellent examples of the good parts of US health care. We have the best specialists in the world. The bad part of my treatment came after I arrived at the hospital as a trauma patient. (Yes, the emergency/trauma parts of the system are horribly broken). I had to wait a few hours for surgery (I had eaten food), and someone ordered an MRI scan of my abdomen. This is just crazy since I was completely coherent and I had zero abdominal pain (they could have pushed on it all they wanted). The biggest crime here was that no one asked me about the scan. They just wheeled me down to the MRI machine and sent my insurance a HUGE bill for a completely unnecessary scan. I'm sure the person that ordered the scan would say that he/she was just being careful and trying to avoid a lawsuit, but I also suspect that the fact that I had good insurance had something to do with this. Shouldn't reasonable evidence of internal injury be required before ordering a horribly expensive test?

Book Review: Forever on the Mountain

One sign of a really good book is that you cannot get it out of your head for days or even weeks after you finish it. Well, I cannot stop thinking about this book. It is the true story of a group of 12 young men that climbed Mt. McKinley in 1967. A huge storm hits while 7 of them were near the summit, and all 7 died. Beyond just retelling the story, the book is a comprehensive look at events before and after the climb. I found the book to be simply riveting, and James Tabor is clearly a brilliant writer. One thing thing that struck me while reading the book is the importance that people placed on the expedition leader in 1967. While I've climbed a dozen 14ers and another dozen 13ers in my life, I've never climbed anything close to McKinley. That said, I think that climbers today take a more personal view of their safety and rely less on the group leader. The huge importance (and blame) placed on the group leader in 1967 (Joe Wilcox) may be related to the fact that many of those young men served in the army (WWII, Korea, or Vietnam) before climbing the mountain. In summary, great book. Grade: B+

Almost Perfect Things....

(1) Urban/commuter bike: Kona Dew. Properties that the perfect commuter bike should possess: knobby road bike tires for efficiency, flat bar for comfort, NO shocks for weight/efficiency, and a very low price. I purchased a 2008 Kona Dew for $300 and it possess all those properties. I love it.

(2) Mountain bike: Specialized Stumpjumper. I have owned and ridden a number of mountain bikes, including full suspension and hard tail. For the type of riding I like to do -- riding up 1000-2000 verticle feet on fire roads and trails and then riding down single track -- a light weight hard tail is ideal. The stumpjumper, in my mind, gives you the best bang for your buck in the light weight hard tail catagory. You could upgrade to a stumpjumper pro or comp model, but I would save the money and just by a new stumpjumper a little bit sooner.

(3) Sunglasses: Smith Slider 01. Very light weight, very comfortable, and changable lenses. I've owned my pair for about 8 years and I still love them (although the are getting pretty scratched).

(4) Coffee Maker: Keurig B77. This coffee maker uses K-cup pods, which are expensive at about $0.50 each and they fill up the landfill, but, overall, it is so convient and the coffee is wonderful. I am just sick of cleaning the old coffee pot and love getting a nice cup of coffee at the push of a button in the morning when I am half awake.

(5) Bag: Timbuk2 Messenger Lapton bag. Very comfortable and useful. Perfect.