http://lrawles.com/lblog Conquering boredom, one book at a time. Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:55:29 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This was the case with a 32-year-old Slovakian named Mitja Valencic – he set a breakneck pace, and was beautiful, but you could tell, watching him, in his ski suit, and really, these things are too damn tight, he knew it would not hold up. There were many crack-ups, especially ... http://lrawles.com/lblog/2010/03/01/holy-commas-batman/ Speed. In the Summer Olympics you're pretty much limited to the speed at which humans can run or bicycle, but a bobsled travels at 90 miles an hour. Danger. Summer has the marathon, during which you can drop dead. But Winter has the skeleton, luge, aerial skiing and guns. Curling, which is ... http://lrawles.com/lblog/2010/02/22/random-list-4-ways-in-which-the-winter-olympics-are-better-than-summer/ My motto is 'never pick a fight with the person who buys ink by the barrel.' - Ted Arrington, professor at UNC-Charlotte. http://lrawles.com/lblog/2010/02/16/well-said-ted-arrington/ One month ago today, a devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti. News agencies immediately descended on Port-au-Prince, jockeying to see who could show the most heart-rending story. This seems distasteful and exploitative to a lot of people, and I do understand their perspective. On the whole, though, I believe that ... http://lrawles.com/lblog/2010/02/12/disaster-journalism/ I wrote about my love for audiobooks in 2007, but it's long past time for an update. At last count I had 96 audiobooks on my iPod, which seems a bit much even to me. I started out only listening to audiobooks while I was driving. It made long trips ... http://lrawles.com/lblog/2010/02/03/audiobook-update/ Puppets - This was especially a problem when I lived in Prague for three months. There are neighborhoods in Old Town where display after display of marionettes line the streets. It was really unnerving because, as everybody knows, puppets come to life at night and hang over your bed to ... http://lrawles.com/lblog/2010/01/29/random-list-3-my-strangest-fears-and-phobias/ It's been a long, long time since last we met - and I've read many, many books. Let's start this up again, shall we? I'd like to start out by writing a little bit about the author of "Shades of Grey" and his prior works. I read Jasper Fforde*'s first book, ... http://lrawles.com/lblog/2010/01/26/on-the-bookshelf-shades-of-grey-by-jasper-fforde/ There's nothing more delightful than a book that makes me feel smart while I'm reading it. I don't mean in a "Oh my God, this is such simplistic writing" kind of way. More like "Hey, I totally recognize that obscure cultural/literary reference!" It's why I like reading Jasper Fforde. It's a ... http://lrawles.com/lblog/2008/03/08/on-the-bookshelf-american-gods-by-neil-gaiman/ My family is crazy - just like everyone else's family. But there are books that remind me why I'm so grateful to have them. And this is one of them. "Seeing Me Naked" is undoubtedly chick lit, but hey, I'm not a snob. I like chick lit, and this is a ... http://lrawles.com/lblog/2008/02/28/on-the-bookshelf-seeing-me-naked-by-liza-palmer/ I feel about extreme mountain climbing the way I feel about the Discovery Channel's Shark Week. It's fascinating as a spectator, but there's no way I'm climbing into that steel cage with a bucket of chum. One of my favorite books is Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air," an account of a ... http://lrawles.com/lblog/2008/01/18/on-the-bookshelf-no-shortcuts-to-the-top-by-ed-viesturs/