A SciFi classic from 1977. Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula. A really well told story. Interleaved chapters of the main character's discussions with an AI psychologist and his experiences on Gateway. Unlike some classics that don't stand the test of time, this book seems to have aged very well.

This was a good intro sort of book. I've read several buddhist-related books before, but it is always good to get things from different angles. Though that is my one complaint of the book. Some of the ideas seemed like 5 ways of saying the same thing. Hmmm.

The best parts of the book were the two appendices. One on how to medidate and the other a short collection of poems.

Quite interesting and very topical. A discussion of how our military has grown over the past 40 years and how the safeguards in the constitution to make war difficult have been eroded. We are in a state of nearly constant war and have become accustomed to it as a nation. Parts of this book were sobering, other parts hysterical (yet still scary). Rachel Maddow has a certain snarky presentation style that I enjoy. From the excesses of third-party contractors to the CIA running the drone operation unchecked to our massive and aging nuclear stockpile, things are in serious disarray. At the end of the book, she presents some ways to get things back under control. While I hope the country will "do the right thing" in this regard, I am not personally optimistic. Especially since all recent presidents, both republican and democrat, have contributed to the problem.

I bought this on the iBooks bookstore and read it on my iPad & iPhone, which somehow made the experience a bit more magical :) -- I started reading it the day the book came out, very shortly after Steve died. But I put it aside for a while and only recently picked it up and finished it.

This book has received a lot of praise as well as criticism. As I have not read very much else about Steve Jobs, I found it mostly enlightening and enjoyable. However, I could definitely see topics that were glossed over or which showed a bias from Iasaacson. Sometimes the author's lack of technical knowledge hurt his understanding and delivery. It is hard to write a biography of a living, already famous person. I'm sure he did his best.

Fun: Steve didn't just take LSD a few times, rather he was a true acid-head. As I have taken more than my fair share of acid trips and am an ardent advocate of the benefits of psychoactive drugs, it is nice to see that Steve gained so much inspiration from his own journeys. But, as both Steve and I learned, psychoactive drugs can provide very valuable insights, but must be left behind after a while. Altered traits trumps alterted states.

Sad: Steve was not a particularly good father. A few passages in the book made me cry. Due to many issues, I was not able to be an active father to my daughter. And that hurts me every moment of every day. There is a part of me that wanted to yell at Steve and tell him to let go of Apple and focus on his family. But he wouldn't have listened...

Bottom line: I enjoyed reading it, learned a lot, and am happy that Steve Jobs did what he did, which has allowed me to do what I do.

I first read Dune when I was in high school. It remains one of my favorite books of all time. So freaking epic and such an incredible rendering of a desert planet with its own customs and idiosyncracies. I just finished listening to an Audible.com production of Dune, performed by multiple voice actors with a bit of appropriate music interspersed. Really, really well done! If you haven't read Dune, you're in for a treat. If you saw the movie, try to forget about it, as the book is so much better. And even if you've read Dune multiple times, it is worth a re-read. Again, the Audible.com version is excellent and a really great way to experience the story.

A special aspect for me was that I listened to this book while walking my dog through the dry and dusty desert in New Mexico. Scarcity of water is a key element to the story of Dune, and I always came back from my walks thirsty and closed my eyes while I enjoyed some pure refreshing water (or some other liquid refreshment).

A truly bizarre book! The story of a highly dysfunctional family and a discourse on performance art. I enjoyed it.

This book was good in that I learned a bit about an interesting time in history. Yet it was bad because it didn't grab my attention the way I hoped it would. It rambled a bit also. Bottom line -- could have been better!

I enjoyed this, though it was a bit more of a "girly book" than I expected. Parts of it were hysterical. I like 30 Rock and the SNL Sarah Palin skits and recommend this if you do also. I listened to the audio book, which Tina narrates and adds some funny extra touches.

I've been meaning to read this for years and finally got around to it. Quite good, though towards the end I thought it dragged just a bit. Perhaps one of those books that could be even greater if it was shortened a bit.

I really enjoyed this a lot! I'm glad I read the book before watching the movie (which I intend to do soon). It is the kind of story you can only experience fully once. It might be enjoyable a second time, but from a very different perspective. The mind is an amazing thing...

Some interesting ideas, but it was too long and rambling and the storyline was too thin. I kept hoping for it to start coming together, but it never really did. Pass.

Woody Allen is nuts. A hyper-intellectual whacky Jewish perspective on life. Very bizarre ... yet fun.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It is a very good story, well told. And I liked it. But, it is marketed as "children's literature" and that bothers me. It is basically a variation on the Survivor reality TV show, but takes place in a violent and corrupt future society. The storyline revolves around children (12-17 years old) who are drafted into a game where they kill each other and the last one left alive wins. This is a difficult subject matter for an adult, but I think it is a bit much for kids without some form of discussion. Perhaps what bugs me the most is that this is a Scholastic book targeted at grades 7+. But if someone wrote a book about teenagers having graphic sex or pursuing other forms of pleasure, it would be rated an adult book and banned from school libraries. What a strange society we live in...

While I am quite fed-up with our whole political system, I think that the Libertarian perspective has a lot of merit. I really enjoyed Ron Paul's take on liberty and the constitution. I agree with much, but definitely not all that he has to say. One thing that shocked me a bit -- he doesn't believe that climate change is man-made. Well, I won't get into that here, but even without science, it just seems sorta obvious that we humans are having a big impact on the earth ... one way or another. I don't have hope that anyone other than a rank-and-file democrat or republican will get elected anytime soon, which is a bit depressing. I think this country needs to take a BIG step back and really look at where we are, how we got here, and where to go next. I surely don't have the answers, but what we're doing now isn't working very well.

This is a hugo & nebula winning classic sci-fi tale that I had never read before. Perhaps it is a bit to do with it being a bit outdated (some of the social commentary in particular) but it didn't really work for me. A bit boring. However, the overall idea of the time dilation effects of extended space journey was generally well done.

Aargh!

I *love* the movie, "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World", made in 2003 and starring Russell Crowe. It is a great movie, filled with the adventures of sailing ships from 200 years ago.

Not only is the book quite different in many key areas, it just didn't fully engage me. I found it good enough to read through to the end, but parts of it were drawn out. There was too much emphasis on the battles and not enough detail of the sailing or the ships themselves.

I got this book because I am weird :)

The subtitle is "The myth of mass and the end of compliance", which sort of sums it up. It presents a case that mass marketing and mass culture is on the decline. In its place, tribes of like-minded individuals are forming. In small groups they can be weird yet accepted. Along with this is a move away from mass marketing. Catering to "the long tail". The world is changing. And the internet is a major facilitator.

I LOVED this book! This is a tale about an ultimate video game that takes place in a dystopian future and is filled with adventure and even true love. The bulk of the story is in an online world called the Oasis with virtual reality aspects. The creator of this world dies and leaves his multi-billion dollar fortune to anyone who can win his last game which takes places in the Oasis. Filled with 80's nostalgia adss to the fun. I was in my 20's in the 80's and remember all the old-school video games that are referenced along with lots of the popular culture of the time. Very highly recommended!

Very enjoyable. A fast-paced, hard-edged crime drama based on far-future tech with a bit of cyberpunk thrown in. I liked the idea of bodies being interchangeable "sleeves" to host your mind.

A story about a girl who becomes Sherlock Holmes' apprentice. I enjoyed it enough to finish it, but found parts of it a bit boring. Overall -- meh.

As a lover of science fiction, I don't know how I managed to never read this before. Originally published in Poland in 1961, I listened to the "defnitive" version, the first direct Polish-to-English translation, published in June 2011 by Audible.com.

Highly recommended. And, by the way, if you've seen one of the movies based on this book, ignore that fact. They are hollow echoes of what is offered in the words of Sanislaw Lem.

Hmm. I found this book sometimes enoyable, sometimes rambling, sometimes flowery, often interspersed with medical jargon. It is written by a doctor and generally assumes a knowledge of many terms of the field of neurology. It is basically a review of his case file of patients with bizarre mental conditions. While I didn't really love this book, it did emphasize how truly miraculous and unfathomable the human mind is.

Of interest, the author of this book also wrote Awakenings. I never read that book but did see the movie :)

Totally fascinating! Like most others, internet search is a fundamental aspect of my daily life and my chosen search engine is Google. This book takes you from the days before Larry Page and Sergey Brin joined forces all the way to 2011 when Larry retook the reins as CEO of a company that now has 24,000 employees. What a journey! I was particularly interested in the extreme data-driven attitudes of the company. Everything is data and the human element is largely taken out. As I read this book I kept thinking of the coming technological singularity and the role that Google is playing in that. Another interesting thread is the seemingly heartfelt vision of the founders to do things for the good of humanity. This book was well written and never boring. Highly recommended!

I enjoyed this just as much as Kitchen Confidential. In some ways, more so, as Anthony seems to have "grown up" a bit and some of his stories and wisdom can also apply to my own life experiences. If you aren't offended by curse words, a big ego, and someone who says what is on their mind ... I highly recommend this book. But read Kitchen Confidential first.

Comedy, mystery, time travel, dogs, cats and more. Much of it takes place in the Victorian era. Great depictions of lifestyle, manners and morals. In short, this book sucked me in and took me on a great ride.