Disordered Books

posts about books by a disordered person

[disorderedbooks]

Everything I read told me I was wrong

So I finished one of my mammoth books on my TBR list, Everything You Know about God is Wrong. It is a collection of essays, some of them were extremely long and tedious, while others were intriguing, and still others were just short. They covered a variety of religions, topics, including cults, sex, sex scandals, contradictions in holy books, overlaps between older religions and the relatively newer ones, and other stuff that I can’t remember. It took me months to get through this book, so I’m not surprised that by this point there are things that I have forgotten. On the whole, I found it rather boring, which I’ve come to expect with most of the essay collections that I choose to read. I really need to find some more interesting ones, because I do enjoy reading essays, just after a while, it seems that I lose interest. It all depends on the author. Anyway, I didn’t rate this one on Goodreads because I didn’t want my family to see it, but if I had, I would have given it a 2 for lack of interest and the inclusion of too-lengthy essays that really could have been their own book. One of the best parts of the book was that the topics themselves were very well covered and researched, and a huge list of references could be found I believe at the back of the book (I read this on Scribd, so I can’t be sure).

I also finished the The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a little thrilling, the ridiculousness of some parts and characters greatly amused me, and I love the humor with which much of it is written. I understand that this is the first book in the Discworld series, and apparently it’s highly disputed about its quality, but I thought it was a good first book, especially because I cannot wait to read more of them at some point. I also don’t know which book comes “next” due to the series’ non-linear approach to order. Anyways, I’m excited about it, and gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads or will, if I haven’t already.

I’m also reading Head First Java by Bert Bates and Kathy Sierra. It’s an introductory book to Java (rather obviously), with a slightly silly take on teaching the basics of the language. I’ve been programming in Java for about 3 years now, but realized that my basic understanding of the language was never formally taught and I felt that to better my usage of the language in my work, I really should go through a beginner’s book and then a more intermediate/expert-level book. This was my choice for the beginner’s book as I had started it several years back and enjoyed the approach. I’m 6 chapters in, and it’s just as good as I remember. I am actually learning some new concepts or at least gaining a better understanding about the ones I’m already somewhat familiar with, so that’s great. I’ll review completely once I’m finished in a couple of weeks.

The next book that I’m currently reading is called Getting Results the Agile Way: A Personal Results System for Work and Life by J. D. Meier. It’s a book about a method of applying the Agile mindset/approach to personal organization and productivity, which is right up my alley. I’m currently taking notes on it to see if it’s a viable approach for later usage. At the very least, I’m hoping to give it a try and see if it’s a more appropriate productivity method for my life. Since it’s been a while from the last time that I was going through it, I can’t remember much, but I’ll be reading it later on today and, again, I’ll review once I finish going through it.

I’m also currently listening to Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay on audiobook. I’m really enjoying the narrator, Bahni Turpin (according to Amazon, which I hope is correct), because she has lovely pacing and an engaging voice that keeps me listening a little longer than I plan to. I’m only about 9 chapters in, as I usually listen to it while I’m doing laundry or some other organizing task, but I like both audio part of the experience as well as Roxane Gay’s style. I recommend it so far.

Lastly, I’ll be restarting Skippy Dies by Paul Murray for the third time. I plan on taking this book with me to work so I can it during lunch, because if I depend on reading it at home, it may not happen daily. I can remember the very beginning (because I’ve already read it twice), but nothing after the first 100 pages, which is when it begins to get interesting. I hope that by the next time I write a blog post on here, I’ll have finished it. I’ve made myself a deal that if I finish this book, then I can purchase my next paperback/hardback book on my list. We’ll see how much that motivates me.

The past few weeks have certainly helped me along with my Read Harder challenge, and at least 2 of the books I’m in progress with will fill in a few more spots. I’m hoping I finish by the end of the year, but if not, I still plan on reading everything I wrote down as book that can complete the challenge.

Personally, I’ve been having a bit of a hard time lately, so my productivity (including my reading) has slowed down considerably, so motivating myself to read or do anything else that I normally enjoy has been difficult. I’m hoping this week goes better.

Thanks for reading.

[disorderedbooks]

The Bug: A Novel

So, I finished The Bug: A Novel by Ellen Ullman. I loved the book. I work as a computer programmer (though I don't use the same programming language as the male protagonist), so this book particularly called to me.

The story behind the name is that the main character is trying to find and fix a bug, nicknamed the Jester. While this is going on, his relationship and then the rest of his life, completely falls apart. The language used to describe his thought processes is a beautiful blend of computer jargon and emotional response. Multiple times in the novel, I had to stop a moment because a particular section would hit me in the gut. As someone who regularly disassociates, it's rather easy for me to forget that I am not the main character, and that his experiences are not mine. I think it's a sign of how well the author wrote his thoughts.

As a programmer, I could relate to the main character (whose name is Ethan, by the way) and his struggles with his program, schedules, and coworkers. The environment described is a familiar one, even if it takes place sometime in the 80s. Some things don't change.

I really enjoyed this book, and since I read it on Scribd, I'll probably purchase a copy for my collection so that in a few years I can revisit it and be torn up all over again over the stupid bug and the clueless programmer and the detached tester. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

On a brief other note, I started The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett. I believe that I'm reading the first book in the Discworld series. At least, I think I am. I've heard good things about it, so I'm looking forward to getting further into the story. I'm only about 3% in so far.

Thanks for reading.

[disorderedbooks]

Slowly Progressing

So I finished Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive by Julie Serano. I was honestly pretty bored by it for the most part. She made some good points about the feminism and queer movements, but I felt like most of her points and observations are not applicable to the area where I’m from. It’s probably why I was bored. I also finished it about a week and a half ago, so I’m having problems remembering what exactly it covered. That kind of goes to show how engaging the book was. It basically was a collection of essays. I’m discovering I’m not a huge fan of that, even if they’re by different people.

I’m currently reading Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life by Steven Johnson. It’s intriguing. So far he’s discussed neurofeedback and how different chemicals in your brain trigger feelings of attachment and other stuff. It’s very intereseting stuff. Although I’m blanking now, this book is sucking me in with all of its facts and how he’s participated in different experiments on himself. My favorite so far was neurofeedback training for people with ADHD. Measuring attention. It’s all nifty.

I’m also reading Agile Results on my Kindle. It’s about applying an Agile mindset to productivity/task/goal stuff in every day life. As a developer who knows some about Agile methodology, this is a neat approach to productivity. As a productivity junkie, I’m always interested in a new way to do things to streamline my activities so that I have time to do everything I want to do. I’m planning on going back through the 25% or so that I’ve already read and take some notes on it.

Sorry this is scatterbrained and not put together at all, but I’m having some issues focusing due to the Adderall that I took too late today. I’m hoping to have an update on Mind Wide Open within a week. I haven’t decided which book to read next. Perhaps I’ll actually read Skippy Dies all the way through this time.

Thanks for reading.

[disorderedbooks]

Two in two

So great news, I was able to finish two books in the past two days. Which definitely means that I’m due for an update on here.

Finished:

I finished Effective Programming: More Than Writing Code by Jeff Atwood. This is a huge nerd book for programmers/developers/computery people like myself. It spans a variety of topics from security to testing to user feedback. It’s just a collection of his blog posts, but I still appreciated the brief flashes of each topic. It made the book go by quickly, and since I read this on Scribd (which by the way now limits the number of “special” books you can read a month, and this was one of the “special” ones), I have no idea how long it really is page-wise. But anyway, I liked it. I didn’t love it, it’s preachy at times, but it also is a good launching point to other resources as it contained quite a few links in the posts. Unfortunately I don’t think that it would be good for a kindle to have the links as its browser isn’t good. I gave this book 3 out of 5 on Goodreads.

I also finished Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Apparently I originally started it Christmas day of 2011, hahaha. Man, that was a slow read though. Until near the end, when I really felt the suspense and I started to appreciate her style. Most of the book was pretty boring for me, again, because I’m not a huge fan of her style of writing, but I can’t deny that she put together some pretty phrases. I gave it 3 out of 5, though really I do understand why it’s a classic, it’s just that I personally didn’t care for it much. It’s all about taste. Ratings are kind of ridiculous anyway, but Goodreads asks for them when you say that you finish a book. I honestly haven’t tried just not putting a rating and only setting a finish date, but somehow I doubt that will work because half of the point of Goodreads is to review – which usually includes a rating. That was a bit of a rabbit trail. My newest medication is certainly working. However, it’s also making me super skippy in that I can’t focus too long on any one thing. I love my productivity though. It’s Adderall. So that I don’t fall asleep while driving anymore. Which I haven’t!

In Progress:

Excluded – The book about intersectionality. I honestly haven’t touched it since my last update because I’ve only been reading during lunch at work and I don’t want to read anything questionable over the internet there. So this hasn’t changed.

Atheist book – Also haven’t touched this one since my last update, for pretty much the same reason as Excluded. I’m aiming to finish this one next.

In closing:

So I need to pick another book for “safe for work” reading. I have quite a few left on my list for my three book challenges (Popsugar’s and Read Harder 2015 and 2016). I’m all about overlapping with these, but I still have about 35 books between the 3 lists of categories/prompts. I need to get cracking on these because I’m a little behind schedule and there’s just so much to do and read and clean. And I’m behind schedule tonight, so that about wraps things up.

As always, thanks for reading.

[disorderedbooks]

I can’t seem to be dependable

For anyone out there, I apologize for my terrible schedule of posting. As in, there isn't one anymore. I'm putting this in my bullet journal next month as a goal or something. I'll do better then.

So for currently reading, there are 4 books. This is mostly because the books I want to read at work keep going into sex, so then I start a new book. I haven't been reading at home much, so I'm not finishing the sex part of the books.

Currently Reading:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - I'm about a quarter or so through the book. I'm finding it a bit difficult to get through because of the writing style (which really isn't my flavor), but I'm slowly making progress. It's very dense and descriptive. I'm reading this through Scribd.

That atheist book with a long title - I'm running out of battery so this will be short. It's basically a collection of essays about religion and atheism, and apparently I've hit on a streak of essays about sex-related stuff. Some of the essays are pretty boring.

Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive by Julia Serano - A discussion about the intersectionality inside the feminist and queer movements that isn't happening like it could be. I'm about 25% of the way through so I don't know much yet.

Effective Programming: More Than Writing Code by Jeff Atwood - This is mostly just blog posts from his blog Coding Horror, I believe. I'm about 25-30% of the way through it, and I'm enjoying his thoughts on different aspects of programming and being a business person and someone who runs a major (in the programming world) website.

So that sums up my currently reading, which is really only during lunch these days. So about 20 minutes worth of reading time. It's a little frustrating, but I've seem to have switched my compulsion from reading to painting/sketching. I think it's what I need right now, thanks to what we're going over in therapy.

Finished Reading:

I did manage to finish one book just during my lunch sessions. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I really enjoyed this book, but then I tend to like his stuff anyway. I love his writing style and in comparison to Frankenstein, it's so much more pleasant to read. I gave it 4 or 5 stars on Goodreads, I can't remember. I need to read more of his writing.

I also started Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher sometime back, but I don't think I want to finish it. I'm not a fan of her writing style, which is a shame.

Sorry I'm not very good at running a blog. I'm trying to improve other areas of my life right now, so reading and this blog have taken a backseat for the time being. I'll do my best to remember to post when I finish a book, at the very least. Or maybe once a month is a more realistic goal.

Well, thanks for reading.

[disorderedbooks]

Read harder

I've started Book Riot's Read Harder challenge for 2016, as well as 2015 for good measure. It includes a variety of categories such as Listen to an audiobook that has won an Audie award to Read a book with fewer than 100 pages. There are genre challenges, author based challenges, and format challenges (such as read a collection of essays). Here's a link to the challenge, in case you are interested in doing it. Book Riot 2016 Reading Challenge . I hope to maybe find some new authors I wouldn't have found otherwise or get into a new genre that I don't normally read. Regardless, the 24 categories will help me meet my goal of 52 books this year. I'm currently at 6, though goodreads will only show 4, since some of my books I don't want to check in.

I've finished The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, which I really enjoyed. I like the idea of breaking down different ways to improve your happiness. She gave me plenty of ideas for how to be a better person and to hopefully bring my mood up a little during my depressive episodes. She's candid about her shortcomings both with her project and with her character. I gave it 4 stars. I like her writing style as it comes off a little like someone just recording their thoughts, which I recognize is the whole point of these year experiment books, but still, I like it. This fulfilled one of my categories for the 2015 challenge.

I'm currently reading Landry News by Andrew Clements. I loved his books when I was in elementary school. It's a nice break from my much longer books that often are over 300 pages. This is for Read a book from the decade you were born. 1999 this was published. Barely qualified. It's just really difficult to search by publication date on Scribd, and I was desperate for some shorter books with my challenge list comprising mostly of books over 200 pages.

I'm also reading a book about God, and really, religion in general. All kinds. It's fascinating, and I can't remember the name, but it's a collection of essays. Another big book and also another one that's fulfilling a challenge (Read a book about religion or something).

All these big books are really putting a damper on my speed, but I'm reading more now than I have in months, which is really nice. I'm sorry that I don't post much, but honestly I don't think there are more than 2 people even looking at this. I have a lot going on at work, and there are plenty of things I need to do around the house that I'm always running out of time for. I don't know. This is fairly long and I'm fairly unfocused today.

Thanks for reading.

[disorderedbooks]

To a second beginning

This blog is kind of parallel hopefully to my wordpress site of the same name (disorderedbooks). It’s a bit meandering. I talk about books I’m reading or have finished. I review them kind of. I’m not great at reviews, but I give my opinion. I have a couple of mental illness that end with disorder hence the name of the blog. I’m fairly bad at thinking without jumping from place to place. This isn’t even that great of an intro. 

You’re welcome to read if you want. I’ll try and post more than once a month, but it’s definitely not consistent. I try to post every time I finish a book, but even then I usually don’t remember.

Thanks for reading