Book Notes

I'm not sure what has gotten into me, but I've read four books in the past month. Three non-fiction, one fiction. And they were all pretty good, although to be honest I did read one of them years ago which allowed me to sort of skim sections of it this time through. Anyway, I had to actually go to the bookstore today. I took a look at my bookshelf and, aside from my copy of the Dark Tower VII (which still has a bookmark stuck in it at page 112 from well over a year ago), I had read everything else that interests me. This hasn't happened in a long while, I usually have a stack of books waiting to be read.

I had some time to kill before a meeting with the BBTC Advocacy Team tonight so I stopped by Barnes & Noble and picked up two books I heard good things about in Men's Journal. One is "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan. Unlikes the "Grapes of Wrath" which tells the story of people fleeing the dust storms of the Great Depression, this book is about the people who stayed behind... and survived. They're all in their late 80's and early 90's now and this book tells their untold story. It was a national Book Award winner and boasts a cover-quote from Walter Cronkite that claims it to be "cant-put-it-down history." I'm not really sure quotes from Walter Cronkite really help sell to today's coveted 18-30 male demographic, but hey I was buying it anyway. And that's probably not the targeted audience anyway. And I'm now 32 so what difference does it make anyway? None. Moving right along...

The other book I picked up was "Travels" by Michael Crichton. Yes, the Jurassic Park guy. He recently spent a considerable amount of time travelling and adventuring around the world and wrote a collection of stories based on his exploits. It's supposed to be a pretty good read, especially for people looking to escape for a while, like myself.

In other news, I'm currently working on three strategy guides for BradyGames (two don't release until 2008) and am happy to report that I managed a stunning come-from-behind victory and will be completing my full contract requirements once again. It was looking pretty grim for a while there thanks to so many PlayStation 3 games being delayed, but it worked out in the end. I'm heading to Indianapolis next month to pay a visit to my editors and to talk about next year's contract. Early word is that it will be similar to this year's, which makes me happy.

And lastly, I've finally begun work on my own book. A novel of sorts. I have an 8 page outline assembled (not sure I would use an outline for fiction, but for nonfiction I think it can only help) and am making a point of working on it a few hours a week. That's not much time, but like I said earlier, I am working on three strategy guides too.