So, What Are You Reading?

100 Ways to Motivate Yourself by Steve Chandler (2004). Same Humble Bundle as above. Not much to write home about.

 

No Regrets0-Ace Frehley..since Ace died ( and a huge part of my childhood and teenage years with him), I figured I would read it. So far, so good.

 

Your Guide to Medicare 2026

 

I’m rereading Thus Spoke Zarathustra because I’ve come to appreciate how profoundly a translator shapes a text’s meaning. I first read the Hollingdale translation but felt that something was missing. This time, I’m reading Thomas Common’s version, which preserves the poetic and archaic—almost biblical—style and tone Nietzsche intended, evoking the grandeur and elevated expressiveness style of Goethe.

Which is something a non-DNP nurse would struggle with. LOL

 

A War That Forged A Nation: Why The Civil War Still Matters- James McPherson

 

Lean Labor (2011) by Gregg Gordon. A review of how to apply Lean principles to the manufacturing sector. Pretty interesting although automation renders several areas of focus obsolete (e.g. manual time clocks and paper-based payroll are not common these days.)

 

How to Write a Lot (2007) by Paul Silvia is a guide to academic writing. It boils down to, set specific time to write and then do it. If that was all the book was, it wouldn't be great, but there are also chapters on how to write better, improving journal articles, review articles, and writing books. A short read but excellent.

 

The Children's Blizzard, by David Laskin. It discusses a winter storm that hit the Great Plains and Midwest suddenly one afternoon in the 1880s, after an unseasonably warm few days. Many folks had gone to work, school, et cetera... without proper winter clothing. Hundreds of students, teachers, and other folks died of exposure or ended up losing limbs to frostbite, after trying to get home that evening in whiteout conditions, and below zero wind chills.

 

I'm familiar with the author.
What is his premise? ... beyond the obvious

 

Well, I am not through with it yet. I can tell you that he took a couple of historians to task in their premise of the reasons behind the interpretations for the start of the Civil War. One historian he took to task was Harry Stout and his interpretation of the religious aspect of the Civil War

 

Extreme Ownership (2017) by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. I didn't love this one. It's supposed to be a book about business leadership and each chapter starts with a "war story" from Willink's time in Iraq as a Navy SEAL followed by an application of that principle (e.g. check the ego, keep it simple, lead up and down the chain of command, etc.) but I find the lessons very vague. It feels like this is a book-length advertisement for business consulting services without much concrete information.

 

Last Rites-Ozzy Osbourne

 

Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health
It explores the latest research on critical topics ranging from the microbiome to childbirth to nutrition and longevity, and more, revealing the biggest blind spots of modern medicine and tackling the most urgent yet unsung issues in our $4.5 trillion health care ecosystem. The path to medical mishaps can be absurd, entertaining, and jaw-dropping, but the truth is essential to our health.

A patient recommended it to me because I talk about what the latest research is and rarely go with the way we "practiced medicine" 10-15 years ago.

 

I have a goal of reading 2 books a week, strictly for pleasure, that are not job- or academic-related.

I just finished reading
The Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health by Marty Makary

I'm currently reading
Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension by Michio Kaku

Yeah, I know it’s a 30-year-old book on theoretical physics and cosmology, covering ideas like string theory, extra dimensions, and the nature of space and time, but it explains how the universe works at its deepest levels—from subatomic particles to the large-scale structure of the cosmos for dumb people like me who don’t think good to understand.

 

I just finished reading.
Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension by Michio Kaku

It was such a great read, I chose him again for my next book. I didn't realize he was the co-founder of String Field Theory. He does such a great job explaining quantum physics for the average person.

I'm currently reading
God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything - The holy grail of physics that would explain the creation of the universe.

 

I remember reading Hyperspace back in the late 90s. Even though I was significantly younger (and didn't understand a good deal of what I was reading), it still instilled a passion for physics, mathematics, and related subjects. To this day, I still wonder about going back to get a BSc in Physics.

Xspect, if you're looking for other books on similar topics, I would highly recommend Infinity and the Mind and The Fourth Dimension: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality, both by Rudy Rucker. They're popular mathematics books from the early 1980s, but I recall reading these in tandem with the Michio Kaku text and how much they helped to flesh out my understanding of the mathematics side of higher dimensions and infinity.

(Caveat emptor, caveat lector: I've not picked these up since the 1990s, so they may be a bit dated compared to other works released since then!)

 

Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship-Jon Meacham

 

Just ordered Infinity and the Mind . Thanks for the recommendation

I’ve been switching to all hardcover books so I can spend less time on screens. I do not mind if some of them are a bit dated — I actually like seeing the historical perspective behind the ideas.

 

Brilliant! Do let us know what you make of the book. I hope it arrives soon!