Book Review: Wet Desert by by Gary Hansen

This is the first (and only?) book by Gary Hansen. It came out in 2007, but I had never heard of before now, and I only started it because Amazon was selling it for $0.99 on the Kindle (and it had a 5-star average review). It was the best $0.99 I ever spent. A very exciting and interesting book set on the Colorado river in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California. I love that region of the country, and having a book take me back there was great. Hansen is a good writer and a great story teller. It amazes me (and makes me a little sad) that this book is #246,941 on the Amazon best seller list. Everyone with a Kindle should buy it! Every publisher should sell 3 year old books for $0.99. What do they have to lose? Grade: A-

Quick Book Reviews

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach

I read everything that Mary Roach writes, and it is all fantastic. I would describe Packing for Mars as the least edgy and eccentric book she's written -- her previous books were on the fate of the body after death (Stiff) and sex research (Boink), but I also think this is her best and funniest writing ever. The book explores a number of issues and experiences associated with travel in space and preparation for travel in space. It is interesting, funny, and enjoyable. Grade: B+

Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

Any book that enjoys this much commercial success and this many weeks on the New York Times best seller list is a book I need to read. This book is very entertaining. It is basically a bunch of stories about Justin Halpern's dad. He always seems to say exactly what is on his mind, and it is always funny (and quotable). It has many, many laugh out loud till your side hurts lines. I did get sick of the Dad swearing every other word, but the book is definitely worth reading. Grade: B

Book Trilogies

I just finished "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest", thus completing the Millennium trilogy. This made me think about where this trilogy ranks compared with other trilogies I've read. Let's start with an easy one:

Lord of the Rings Trilogy - score 10/10
- simply the best trilogy ever written although you could argue that it was actually one really long book instead of three separate books. It's my blog so I'm ruling this a trilogy.

Millennium Trilogy - score 8/10
- an epic, page turning trilogy from beginning to end. I loved it. It's hard to believe I read ~2000 pages in a few weeks. If LotR is really one single story spread across three books, then the Millennium trilogy is really two stories spread across three books.

Bourne Trilogy -- score 6/10
- very enjoyable at times, but also confusing and and a little dry. I know many people will disagree with this, but I think that Stieg Larsson (of the Millennium trilogy) is simply a better story teller than Ludlum. Not a better writer, necessarily, but a Larsson tells a more engaging story.

Hitchhiker's "Trilogy" -- score 5/10
- okay, there is roughly six books in this "trilogy", but I've only read 3 of them and "Trilogy" has appeared on the cover of every book since #3. They are fun and enjoyable, but a little boring at times.

The Border Trilogy -- score 2/10
- Three books by Cormak McCarthy set in the SW US and Mexico. Very boring, very depressing. No common characters or story lines, just a common setting and theme -- the depressing loss of a way of life.

Book Reviews

I have read a handful of books since last posting reviews, so here are a few reviews all at once.

The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely
A similar book to Ariely's first, Predictably Irrational, and also excellent. I really enjoy reading about Ariely's research in behavioral econcomics because sometimes I can guess the result and sometimes I'm completely wrong. He always comes up with a simple, creative experiment to test his ideas. I wish he had condensed the last few chapters a little, but, overall, Ariely is an excellent writer and researcher. Grade A-.

The Big Short by Michael Lewis
This book focuses on 3 or 4 people that predicted the bursting of the housing bubble in 2008 and made a lot of money by shorting housing bonds. What I found most interesting was the reasons that people gave for NOT believing the bubble was going to burst. The logic basically was, "I'm making lots of money and my model tells me I'm going to make more so I'm going to ignore my gut and obvious red flags and continue to hope the bubble doesn't burst." As someone that develops mathematical models, I can understand why people like models, but anytime people are a factor in a mathematical model -- do not trust the model. Mathematical models work well for molecules, not for people. Good book. Grade B.

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
His first book written about his time at Salomon Brothers in the mid 1980's. Feels a little dated at this point, but it is an interesting and funny look at what it is like to be a young kid trying to tell other people how to invest their money. The whole financial industry seems a little bizarre to me. Grade B-.

I, Sniper by Stephen Hunter
I don't read much fiction, but I occasionally enjoy a good sniper book by Hunter. This book follows Hunter's standard formula -- Bob Lee Swagger finds himself in the middle of a bunch of bad guys, and he has to use his brain, old muscles, and shooting skills to destroy the bad guys and save the good guys. An old, but good formula. Grade B.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Pretty much everything that could be written about this book has been written. It's very entertaining. I like how the author ties up nearly every possible loose end -- other authors like to leave parts of the plot unresolved, but I am not a fan of that approach. I'm looking forward to the movie -- mostly to see who will play Lisbeth Salander, which has to be one of the most challenging roles ever. Grade B+.

Star Wars Question

Here's what we know:
(1) In episode 1, Anikan Skywalker is claimed by his mother to not have a father, and he might be the 'one' chosen to restore balance to the force by destroying the Sith.
(2) In episode 3, Anikan falls to the dark side and thus is unlikely to be the chosen one.
(3) In episode 4, a new hope is identified -- Anikan's son Luke.
(4) In episode 6, Luke turns Anikan back to the good side, and Anikan/Vader kills the Emperor.

So, who is the chosen one? The obvious answer is Luke -- he 'won' and Vader and the Emperor both died. But, it turns out that Anikan is the chosen one who killed the last Sith and Luke is merely the catalyst who help fulfill the prophesy. Why do I care about this?

Book Review: Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters by Miller and Kanazawa

I thought this was a very interesting book, but it is clearly somewhat controversial and unpopular. The authors basically attempt to demonstrate how many aspects of human nature (i.e., human behavior) can traced back to evolutionary selection. They take a few very simple ideas (e.g. humans want to pass on their genes as much as possible) and apply those ideas to try and answer questions about human nature (e.g., why are most violent criminals men). I found some of their explanations likely, some plausible, and some unlikely, and I also believe most people will find at least a few explanations to be unlikely and borderline offensive. So, if you like interesting books and don't mind reading a few claims that you will disagree with, you will probably enjoy this book. If you do not like reading stuff you disagree with, avoid this book. Grade: B.

Book Review: Googled by Ken Auletta

The subtitle for this book is, "The End of the World as We Know It", which is very appropriate since the focus of this book is on how much the world has changed as a result of Google. The first 200+ pages of the book review the history of Google from Mr. Brin and Mr. Page at Stanford to 2009. This history is interesting, well written, and well researched, but I thought a few useful details were left out. Specifically the very brief description of PageRank (paraphrase: a page's importance is determined by the number of links to the page) did not really do justice to the complexity of the algorithm. The last 100+ pages (which should have been reduced to less than 50 pages) is on the relationship between new media (with Google being the main representative of the new media and the internet) and old media (newspapers, TV, movies, magazines, etc.). This section is basically a lengthy description of how Google and the internet is a threat to old media, but the author avoided predicting the future or proposing solutions. Before closing, here's a short summary of the old media situation from my perspective:
(1) TV - should continue to attract a large audience, but time-shifting (DVR) use will increase significantly--also, internet delivery will increase significantly, but they will include ads for monetization.
(2) Movies - should mostly maintain popularity unless the exponential price increases continue.
(3) Newpapers - RIP -- they'll move to the internet and put up pay walls for local coverage -- no one will pay for national/world coverage, which will only be supported by ads.
(4) Magazines -- small to significant decline in the total number of print magazines with many moving to the internet, but this will happen very slowly since we like glossy paper and an alternative does not exist.

Overall, I recommend the book even if it drags a little at times. Grade: B