Artifacting » books http://www.artifacting.com/blog Discover. Catalog. Share. Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:43:48 +0000 en hourly 1 All My Friends Are Dead (And I’m So Cutting Edge) http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/07/31/all-my-friends-are-dead-and-im-so-cutting-edge/ http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/07/31/all-my-friends-are-dead-and-im-so-cutting-edge/#comments Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:49:12 +0000 hubs http://www.artifacting.com/blog/?p=4241 Way back in March of 2007 I posted a link to a cartoon called “All My Friends Are Dead” by Avery Monsen & Jory John. Back then, the cartoon was posted for all to see for free on the web – the link has since been removed. However, the very funny cartoon (and well worth the link back in 2007) has recently turned into an 96 page hard cover book. Congrats guys!

Yesterday an animated gif below, consisting of a few pages from the book, became the most re-blogged thing (of all time!) on tumblr.

]]> http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/07/31/all-my-friends-are-dead-and-im-so-cutting-edge/feed/ 1 What To Read Before Taking $25 Billion In TARP Funds http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/07/01/what-to-read-before-taking-25-billion-in-tarp-funds/ http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/07/01/what-to-read-before-taking-25-billion-in-tarp-funds/#comments Fri, 02 Jul 2010 06:04:23 +0000 hubs http://www.artifacting.com/blog/?p=3867 A few (one?) of the new interns at JP Morgan had the guts to email Jamie Dimon for a recommended reading list. And he actually emailed them back. The following is his list of recommended books “which includes a variety of business and history books.”

Business
The World is Flat
Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors
Security Analysis – Classic 1940 Edition
The Intelligent Investor
Execution – The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Jack: Straight From the Gut
Sam Walton – Made in America
Double your Profits in 6 Months or Less
Built from Scratch
Only the Paranoid Survive
Built to Last

History Bio
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
Autobiography of Ben Franklin
Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
Eisenhower: Soldier and President
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
Washington: The Indispensable Man
Lincoln
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant
Jefferson
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

History Other
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos
A History of Knowledge: Past, Present, and Future
The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are so Rich and Some so Poor

Dimon also attached a copy of his Syracuse commencement speech and a copy of a fake Bill Gates speech in the email.

]]> http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/07/01/what-to-read-before-taking-25-billion-in-tarp-funds/feed/ 1 The Twitter Of Recipes http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/06/30/the-twitter-of-recipes/ http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/06/30/the-twitter-of-recipes/#comments Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:04:27 +0000 hubs http://www.artifacting.com/blog/?p=3858 Mark Bittman has another “101″ recipe list out. This time it’s 101 Fast Recipes for Grilling.

These recipes are excellent for their simplicity and ease. You’re not going to open a restaurant or win any cooking contests with these recipes, but they they will satisfy your taste-buds, tummy, and busy schedule. Previous 101 lists from Bittman:
Simple Salads
Head Starts on the Day
Inspired Picnics [previously]
Simple Appetizers[previously]
Quick Meals (10 more) [previously]

If you enjoyed any of the recipes linked above, I have been told that Mark Bittman’s “How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes For Great Food” is a worthwhile cookbook.

]]> http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/06/30/the-twitter-of-recipes/feed/ 0 One Novel, One Day (Novels In Which The Action Takes Place Within 24 Hours) http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/06/16/a-list-of-novels-the-action-of-which-takes-place-within-24-hours/ http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/06/16/a-list-of-novels-the-action-of-which-takes-place-within-24-hours/#comments Thu, 17 Jun 2010 04:44:29 +0000 hubs http://www.artifacting.com/blog/?p=3708 While in drama the Classical Unity of Time prescribes that the action of a play is to take place during a single day, the novel more-often-than-not covers a much longer period of time. There are, however, some notable examples where the time narrated is only one day. The most prominent example is James Joyce’s Ulysses, a novel which in one way or another has influenced the genesis of other novels whose action takes place within 24 hours. Seeing as this is Bloomsday, I thought it was the perfect time to celebrate by publishing this list:

A special category can be established for novels told in retrospect (Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Graves’s Claudius novels, for instance), though such an exercise eventually comes to include so many first-person novels as to become too cumbersome to be of much use.

If you can think of any that I’m missing please let me know in the comments and I’ll be sure they get added

The Act of Roger Murgatroyd, Gilbert Adair
The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years, Chinghiz Aitmatov
Un día en la vida, Manlio Argueta
The Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker
Vox, Nicholson Baker
Windows on the World, Frédéric Beigbeder
Seize the Day, Saul Bellow
One Night @ the Call Centre, Chetan Bhagat
Children of the Day, Sandra Birdsell
Billiards at Half-Past Nine, Heinrich Böll
Twenty-four Hours, Louis Bromfield
The Da Vinci Code (excluding the epilogue), Dan Brown
Angels and Demons (excluding the epilogue), Dan Brown
Deception Point, Dan Brown
Digital Fortress, Dan Brown
The Art of the Engine Driver,Steven Carroll
Wise Children (excluding the narrator’s memories), Angela Carter
The Hours (three plots each taking one day), Michael Cunningham
Arlington Park, Rachel Cusk
Cosmopolis, Don DeLillo
Cold Dog Soup, Stephen Dobyns
Grado. Süße Nacht, Gustav Ernst
Death of a River Guide, Richard Flanagan
Party Going, Henry Green
Concluding, Henry Green
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid
No Directions, James Hanley
That He’d Remember the Same, Elina Hirvonen
A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood:
Ulysses, James Joyce
The Colorado Kid, Stephen King
Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz
Intimacy, Hanif Kureishi
Mr. Phillips, John Lanchester
Eleven, David Llewellyn
The British Museum Is Falling Down, David Lodge
Days, James Lovegrove
Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry
Saturday, Ian McEwan
This Town Will Never Let Us Go, Lawrence Miles
Bunny Lake Is Missing, Merriam Modell (writing as Evelyn Piper)
I Am Mary Dunne, Brian Moore
After Dark, Haruki Murakami
Several books in The Keys to the Kingdom series, Garth Nix
The Farmers Hotel, John O’Hara
From Nine to Nine, Leo Perutz
Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
Scarecrow (excluding the prologue and the epilogue), Matthew Reilly
Eleven Hours, Paullina Simons
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The Light of Day, Graham Swift
Loaded, Christos Tsiolkas
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
Between the Acts, Virginia Woolf
The Almost Moon, Alice Sebold
Breathing Lessons, Anne Taylor
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, Jon McGregor
Injury Time, Catherine Aird
The Pigeon, Wendell M. Levi
The Poorhouse Fair, John Updike
Popcorn, Ben Elton
A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood
Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk
Tomorrow, Graham Swift
Travels in the Scriptorium, Paul Auster
Man in the Dark, Paul Auster
On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
Run, Ann Patchett
Dear American Airlines, Jonathan Miles
The Floating Opera, John Barth
Room Temperature, Nicholson Baker
Embers, Sandor Marai
Restlessness, Aritha Van Herk
253, Geoff Ryman
The Rider, Tim Krabbe
The Following Story, Cees Nooteboom
Rapture, Susan Minot
Vertical Run, Joseph Garber

]]> http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/06/16/a-list-of-novels-the-action-of-which-takes-place-within-24-hours/feed/ 1 That’s About All I Can Tell You, Really. http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/01/28/thats-about-all-i-can-tell-you-really/ http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/01/28/thats-about-all-i-can-tell-you-really/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:40:49 +0000 hubs http://www.artifacting.com/blog/?p=3234 photo courtesy of clusterflock.

The stories mentioned above have been mentioned here back in 2007. As for any of Salinger’s manuscripts that might have hidden away in a cabinet somewhere to be printed posthumously, I believe his thoughts about them are the same as stated above, or we all would have seen them by now.

Listen to the last chapter (Chapter 26) Of “Cather In The Rye”

]]> http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/01/28/thats-about-all-i-can-tell-you-really/feed/ 0 Banned Books Week http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2009/10/02/banned-books-week/ http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2009/10/02/banned-books-week/#comments Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:26:27 +0000 hubs http://www.artifacting.com/blog/?p=2753 It’s the final days of 27th annual Banned Books Week here in the US. Created by the American Library Association, the event was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries.

Since 2001 bans on 3,736 books and other materials have been requested. And according to the ALA, there were more than 500 “challenges” to specific books in schools, stores, and libraries reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2008.

In solidarity with this student who is running an banned book library out of an empty locker at her school, I thought I would post this list of the top ten most challenged books for each year back to 2001. A link to their Amazon page is included so you can collect them all or buy copies for your local library or school.

2008

  1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
    Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
  2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
    Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
  3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
  4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
    Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
  5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
    Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence
  6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
    Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
  7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
  8. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
    Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
  9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
  10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
    Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group


2007

  1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
    Reasons:  anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, sexism, and unsuited to Age Group
  2. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier 
    Reasons: offensive Language, sexually explicity, violence
  3. Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes 
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit
  4. The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman 
    Reason: religious viewpoint 
  5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain 
    Reason: racism
  6. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker 
    Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit
  7. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle 
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
  8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
    Reason: sexually explicit
  9. It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, by Robie Harris 
    Reasons: sex education and sexually explicit
  10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
    Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

2006

  1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell 
    Reasons: anti-family, homosexuality, and unsuited to age group
  2. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar 
    Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, and unsuited to age group
  3. Alice style='font-style:normal'> (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 
    Reasons: offensive language and sexually explicit
  4. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
    Reasons: anti-family, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
  5. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison 
    Reasons: offensive language, sexual explicitly, and unsuited to age group
  6. Scary Stories(series), by Alvin Schwartz
    Reasons:  insensitivity, occult/Satanism, unsuited to age group, and violence
  7. Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher 
    Reasons: homosexuality and offensive language
  8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky 
    Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
  9. Beloved, by Toni Morrison 
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
  10. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicity, and violence

2005

  1. It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, by Robie H. Harris
    Reasons: homosexuality, nudity, sex education, religious viewpoint, abortion, and being unsuited to age group
  2. Forever, by Judy Blume 
    Reasons: sexual content and offensive language
  3. The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger 
    Reasons: sexual content, offensive language and being unsuited to age group
  4. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier 
    Reasons: sexual content and offensive language
  5. Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher 
    Reasons: racism and offensive language
  6. Detour for Emmy, by Marilyn Reynolds 
    Reason: sexual content
  7. What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones 
    Reasons: sexual content and being unsuited to age group
  8. Captain Underpants (Series), by Dav Pilkey 
    Reasons: anti-family content, being unsuited to age group and violence
  9. Crazy Lady!, by Jane Leslie Conly 
    Reason: offensive language
  10. It’s So Amazing! A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families, by Robie H. Harris
    Reasons: sex education and sexual content

2004

  1. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier 
    Reasons: offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence.
  2. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Meyers 
    Reasons: offensive language, racism, and violence
  3. Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture, by Michael A. Bellesiles
    Reasons: inaccurate and political viewpoint
  4. Captain Underpants (Series), by Dav Pilkey
    Reasons: offensive language and sexually explicit
  5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
    Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, and sexually explicit 
  6. What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
    Reasons: offensive language, unsuited to age group, and sexually explicit
  7. In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak 
    Reasons: nudity, offensive language, and sexually explicit
  8. King & King, by Linda deHaan 
    Reason: homosexuality
  9. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou 
    Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
  10. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
    Reasons: offensive language, racism, and violence

2003

  1. Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
    Reasons: sexual content, using offensive language, and being unsuited to age group
  2. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling 
    Reasons: occult/satanism
  3. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck 
    Reason: offensive language
  4. Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture, by Michael Bellesiles
    Reason: inaccuracy
  5. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers 
    Reason: racism, sexual content, offensive language, drugs, and violence
  6. Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous 
    Reason: drugs
  7. It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, by Robie Harris 
    Reason: homosexuality, nudity, sexual content, and sex education
  8. We All Fall Down, by Robert Cormier 
    Reason: offensive language and sexual content
  9. King & King, by Linda de Haan 
    Reason: homosexuality
  10. Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
    Reason: occult/satanism and offensive language

2002

  1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling 
    Reasons: occult/Satanism and violence
  2. Alice style='font-style:normal'> (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 
    Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
  3. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier 
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
  4. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou 
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
  5. Taming the Star Runner, by S.E. Hinton 
    Reason: offensive language
  6. Captain Underpants (Series), by Dav Pilkey 
    Reasons: offensive language and unsuited to age group
  7. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain 
    Reason: offensive language
  8. Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
    Reasons: occult/Satanism, offensive language, and violence
  9. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor 
    Reason: offensive language
  10. Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George
    Reasons: unsuited to age group and violence

2001

  1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling 
    Reasons: anti-family, occult/Satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
  2. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck 
    Reasons: offensive language, racism, unsuited to age group, and violence
  3. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier 
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence
  4. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou 
    Reasons: offensive language and sexually explicit
  5. Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Greene 
    Reasons: offensive language, racism, sexually explicit
  6. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger 
    Reasons: offensive language and unsuited to age group
  7. Alice style='font-style:normal'> (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 
    Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group
  8. Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous 
    Reasons: drugs, offensive language, and sexually explicit
  9. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers 
    Reason: offensive language
  10. Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
    Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group
]]> http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2009/10/02/banned-books-week/feed/ 0 Fuckin’ Math http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2009/02/19/fuckin-math/ http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2009/02/19/fuckin-math/#comments Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:15:20 +0000 hubs http://www.artifacting.com/blog/?p=2137 If my highschool math text books were more like this I probably would have grasped onto abstract algebra a lot easier – Fuckin’ Concrete Contemporary Abstract Algebra Introduction By First Course Radical Solution Dummies: Dummit, Foote, Hungerford, Shifrin, Gallian, Fraleigh, Beachy, Herstein, Saracino, Artin, Deskins (Paperback), by Nicolas Bourbaki Junior, ISBN 1441451579, 100 pages, published 2009. Here is an excerpt:

For fucking example, the symbols could be fucked as symmetries of a fuck, as the fuck of a switch, as an instruction to a machine fuck, or as a way to fuck a statistical experiment. The fucks could be manipulated using some of the unusual fucks for fuckers. For fucking example, the fucked polynomial 3x²+2x-1 could be fucked to and multiplied by other fucking polynomials without ever having to interpret the fuckbol x as a fucker.

UPDATE: Unfortunately Nicolas Bourbaki Junior’s book has been erased from the Amazon database. It can now be found here or here.

]]> http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2009/02/19/fuckin-math/feed/ 1 2008: The Year In Literature http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2009/01/05/2008-the-year-in-literature/ http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2009/01/05/2008-the-year-in-literature/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:00:37 +0000 hubs http://www.artifacting.com/blog/?p=2012 I haven’t read many novels this year. I think my top four include every book I read during the whole of 2008 (and it wasn’t much better last year). Ouch. Hopefully this will change dramatically in 2009. It would be nice to be able to at least make a top five this year. Despite my unfortunate lack of reading, here were my favorite:

1. The Little Prince
2. Middlesex: A Novel
4. Dry: A Memoir
3. Beerspit Night and Cursing: The Correspondence of Charles Bukowski & Sheri Martinelli 1960-1967

I keep track of my reading on Library Thing and Goodreads so be sure to go over there and mark me as a friend if your interested.

]]> http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2009/01/05/2008-the-year-in-literature/feed/ 0 Everybody’s A Winner http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2008/03/27/everybodys-a-winner/ http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2008/03/27/everybodys-a-winner/#comments Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:14:22 +0000 hubs http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2008/03/27/everybodys-a-winner/ Coudal Partners Field Tested Books Poster

There was a package on the table when I came home yesterday. I was pleased to find out it was a limited edition (575) print created by Dan and Mike of Aesthetic Apparatus. The print celebrates the latest release of the Coudal Partners’ Field Tested Books which is a project in which people are asked to review books that made a particular impact on them relative to where they were read. A fun idea. Fortunately enough, I recieved my poster free-o-charge by winning the 543612 contest but you can get yours here.

]]> http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2008/03/27/everybodys-a-winner/feed/ 0 What A Cat Wants, What A Cat Needs http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2008/03/05/what-a-cat-wants-what-a-cat-needs/ http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2008/03/05/what-a-cat-wants-what-a-cat-needs/#comments Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:21:30 +0000 hubs http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2008/03/05/what-a-cat-wants-what-a-cat-needs/ Since I’ve been doing the dog thing so much, I think it’s only fair that I do the cat thing for a bit. Below you’ll find the “mental model” of a cat (click to make the picture big and legible). The cat’s mental model, as well as the concept of metal modeling, can be credited to Mental Models: Aligning design strategy with human behavior by incredibly smart Indi Young. There are a lot more images from the book on flickr. If any of this sparks your interest, Liz Danzico has a good review of the book.

Cat Brains

]]> http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2008/03/05/what-a-cat-wants-what-a-cat-needs/feed/ 2