Thursday, July 07, 2005

Got Un-Tagged!

I've been a little busy and away from blogging recently that I'm out of date. All of a sudden I find myself "Untagged" by Mobi, and I'm like "what the hell does tagging mean?" Anyway, after some blogger-research, I figured it out, and here I am honoring Mobi's untagging. Don't expect any Fahad Al3askar-type stuff though.

- First long book that I read:
"Into Thin Air" ... By Jon Krakauer.

When I was assigned to read this 400-page book in language school, I was like "oh no, please don't force me to read a book about MOUNTAIN CLIMBING." After I finished it, I developed a better appreciation for this kind of adventure. It's a true story about the deadliest Everest expedition ever, on which the author himself was and survived.

- Book I was inspired by:
"Code Name Ginger" ... By Steve Kemper
I was inspired by the Segway inventor - Dean Kamen. The author was hired by Kamen to chronicle the development of Segway. Excellent read!


- Books that I enjoyed a lot:
"Opening The XBox" ... By Dean Takahashi.
Another product biography. This time it's about Microsoft's mission to conquer the video game market with its XBox. Very enjoyable.


"The Silicon Boys" ... By: David Kaplan.
All about the lives of the heroes of Silicon Valley. One interesting fact the book mentioned was that Yahoo! gained as much capital as Kuwait's annual budget on its IPO day. Very amusing read.
He used to be cheif NY medical examiner. He talks about crimes he investigated or knows very well about including JFK and O.J. Very interesting if you're a crime junkie.

- Book that wasted my time:
"Who Moved My Cheese?" ... By Spencer Johnson.
Too bad my first self-help book was a disappointment. I wonder if I'll ever read from this genre again.


- Book I was like "Duhh!!" after finishing it:
"The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd" ... By Agatha Christie.
I read a few more crime novels that weren't special enough to post about.

- Last book I read:
الكويت ... مثلث الديمقراطية ... للمؤلف: محمد الجاسم
This read was motivated by the fuss being made by and about Mr. Aljasem's mood/ideology swings, so I said let me come up to speed with everybody. It's an excellent read.


- Book I started and forgot to finish:
"A Child Called It" ... By Dave Pelzer.

- Book I have on my shelf and yet to be read:

From skimming through it, basically an Al-Sabah bashing.

"Apple Confidential 2.0" ... By Owen Linzmayer.

I bought this last year when I bought my iPOD and almost switched to a MAC. It's about the history of apple. I was inspired by Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) too, so I'd like to read more about him.


- Useful Resources:
مدخل للتطور السياسي في الكويت ... للمؤلف د. غانم النجار
A treasure, not only a memoir!

- Book that gave out interesting info, but you get a sense that it hid more:

الدبلوماسية الكويتية بين المحنة والمهنة ... للمؤلف سليمان ماجد الشاهين.

Written by someone who witnessed it all first-hand, the book chronicles Kuwait's diplomacy during the Iraq-Iran war and Iraq's occupation of Kuwait. Nice one.


- Book that I read countless times (dedicated to you Mobi :P):
A compliation of all the songs composed by his greatness :P


- Books I want to read:
Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code"
Bill Clinton's "My Life"
Jon Stewart's "America (The Book)"
فهد العسكر حياته وشعره
محاضر لجنة كتابة الدستور
Johnie Cochran's "A Lawyer's Life"

Well folks, here was my untagging. I just wish I have more time and better mood for reading.

10 comments:

Jandeef said...

Shopaholic,
Did we go to the same language school by any chance? :P Finish the novel, 7aram you leave it at 1 chapter.

I wish Dr. Ghanim Alnajjar publishes a book about his effort in the POW's issue. He knows a whole lot more than the crap the government is telling us.

Jandeef said...

5 years !!! Lol that's about the time when I was in language school :P

I'm starting to have doubts now :P

Jandeef said...

you'll find it in your e-mail :P what about u ?

Q said...

Who moved my cheese was a waste of 15 mins of my life! :P

مبتدئ said...

Q

ehe my EXACT words

Who moved my cheese is lame lame lame.

Jandeef said...

Shopaholic,
Allah yaster:P

Q and Mobie,
It was recommended to me by a friend who made a big big fuss about it! Wai3 it's so predictable and nothing new!

Spontaneousnessity said...

I really should improve my arabic books acquaintance! should give one of these a try

Jandeef said...

Spontaneoussity,
You're missing out. What I do is I read alternately. Arabic-English-Arabic-English etc.

Flamingoliya said...

I was disappointed by "who moved my cheese" too. and more over I had to read the same crap twice cos the first one i got wasn't the original. it was called: "I moved your cheese".

Jandeef said...

Vintage,
I only read a couple british books, and they were both crime novels. The only difference I saw was vocabulary and the style of writing is deeper. It has a sense of originality, sort of.

I find american smoother to read. In british, sometimes I have to go back and read a sentence more than once in order to fully absorb its meaning.