Tommy Collison, someone I’ve been following on Twitter since I went to Ireland (and then subsequently learned he was the brother of Patrick Collison the co-founder of the excellent Stripe), has published a book of short stories called A Certain Freedom.
Why link to Tommy’s book? Because it is always great to see people work hard on putting something together and then having the guts to publish them to the world. Kudos Tommy.
Tim Ferriss (whom I’ve mentioned that I met and shared a meal with once), the author of The 4-hour Work Week (which was great and is worth the read), has a brand new book called The 4-hour Body.
It is getting a lot of buzz this week and Tim even put together a pretty killer “trailer” for the book. Don’t be surprised if you see this video and other promotions by Tim on just about every single website you visit on the Web – he’s that good at marketing.
Ordered.
From the Google Chrome team comes one of the better designed websites/applications I have ever seen on the Web to-date. It is a book, of sorts, that explains the Internet, the Browser, and everything in between in a way that even our Moms can understand.
Illustrated by Christoph Niemann.
I’m loving this book. Too bad it doesn’t help me with my cats!
The much talked about <video> tag in the HTML5 spec is, obviously, of interest to me. I mean, I work at Viddler after all. However, even if I didn’t – I’d still tell all of you – especially those of you that are Web developers – to take a look at Mark Pilgrim‘s amazingly awesome chapter about it from his upcoming book; Dive Into HTML5.
Even though he’s publishing all of these “drafts” on the site for free, I will be getting the paper version when it is published.
Via John Gruber.
My good friend Gary Vaynerchuk‘s new book “Why Now Is A Good Time To Crush It! And Cash In On Your Passion”, also called “CRUSH IT!”, is set to ship on October 13th. The new Web site for the book includes a sample chapter which gives a pretty good glimpse into the style and message of the book itself. In other words, it is dripping with Gary Vee.
His passion and methods have worked wonders for many brands including, but not limited to, his own personal brand, Wine Library TV, his family’s retail and online store Wine Library, Obsessed TV, Viddler, Tumblr, his first book, a cruise, and countless other properties, companies, and campaigns to come. I think he knows what he’s talking about.
I have high hopes for this book and I am looking forward to why Gary thinks now is a good time to cash in on your passion and how he suggests to do it.
I have always enjoyed Michael Crichton’s writing style. He tends to write in blocks of thoughts and actions, uses new lines to emphasize something that the character feels is important, and jams just enough raw data into his books to make them real, but not enough to turn off most readers.
Airframe was written very much in this same Michael Crichton style – though that may be the only reason I was entertained by the book.
Airframe’s story is centered around Casey Singleton, an employee of an aircraft manufacturer, who finds herself with about one week to figure out what happened on a flight that killed a few people and injured many. The story has a few twists, like most good stories do, in that Singleton is being setup by her bosses to take a fall for the company, that the company itself has had a track record of problems with the plane that aren’t easily explained in a single sentence, and a popular TV-news program is about to run a story on her company’s “deathtrap” of a plane.
Airframe is captivating, no doubt. Again, because I like the way Crichton moves through stories I was able to read this book with ease and without let up. It was never a chore. But when I was finished with the story it didn’t make me want to start again.
If you’re a Crichton fan, I suggest giving this a read – preferably when you are on a plane, as I was when I began reading this book. It makes the story a little more fun.
Even though I read State of Fear a few months ago, I thought I’d jot down my overall thoughts of the book. As you might notice, I read nearly all of Crichton’s works, so even though the subject matter for this book isn’t particularly interesting to me, I read it because Crichton wrote it.
I’m a sheep, I know.
State of Fear is a story about the environment and the effect Global Warming is, or is not, having on it in the world around us. Is is also about a lawyer trying to pull all of the pieces together, along with a cast of other characters, of a plot to wreak some environmental havoc just as an environmental group is trying to score some dough for their work.
There is more to it, of course, like the whole ideal jousting about the environment and about whether or not Global Warming is a real threat, caused by humans or not, and even if it is having an effect on the planet as we speak.
An interesting way for an acclaimed author to get the information out there and into the hands of his readers without, perhaps, writing a work of non-fiction.
It is also hard to see where Crichton sits on this issue. Frankly, I do not care. Which is why I think he chose to keep it as vague and balanced as it appears to be by this uninformed environmental novice. It really seems like a report on the facts wrapped in an action-packed adventure.
Which is why, I believe, State of Fear will never become a movie. It would be very hard to strike this same balance with a movie. Everything would be critiqued. The Director’s opinions, the actor’s, the screenwriter’s, etc. Everyone that worked on the movie would have a play for the tilt.
Either way I applaud Crichton for keeping my attention long enough to give me all of the facts about Global Warming. I’ll bet it was a challenge.
