Resolution52 – Brian Utley & Jenny Dalton

I had no idea this book would be so daunting. This book took the longest to read out of the books so far this year, coming in at almost 10 hours. So no surprise that it took longer than a week to complete.

I loved the book though. I follow baseball pretty closely so the names and events were familiar to me and getting a first-hand perspective at the story behind the story was fascinating for me. I really can’t wait for spring training to start, as baseball is the only sport that I follow. For instance, the Super Bowl means one thing to me and one thing only, which is that it is now only a couple weeks until Spring Training starts.

So the book took longer than expected but no worry, I have some time to catch up. My next book is Click Here To Order, Stories of the world’s most successful internet marketing entrepreneurs. It should be a quick read at under 300 pages.

I’ve been thinking about getting the Kindle. I read so much, and spend quite a bit of money on books that I thought with a little more upfront investment I could save a bunch on individual books. Another thing is that I went away last week on business and had to take 3 books with me just in case I finished The Yankee Years early. I literally had like a thousand pounds of books with me. A Kindle would have made that a lot easier. So we’ll see.

Also among this week’s literature news is another Malcolm Gladwell book, The Tipping Point, which was my Valentines gift from Senja. Thanks babe!

Authors, Books, Click Here To Order, Joel Comm, Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point

In short: The Book Thief was awesome, and I’m on to a more leisurely read with Joe Torre’s The Yankee Years. The book tracker is updated.

Authors, Books, Joe Torre, The Yankee Years, Tom Verducci

Onto book #5.  I don’t have much to say about Sparks.  It was a decent book, common sense really.  Don’t stifle your kid’s creativity, take an active interest in what is going on in their lives.  Some real practical information, and a much needed refresher course.

On to some Fiction.  I’m starting the somewhat heavy The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak.

Authors, Books, Markus Zusak, Peter Benson, Sparks, The Book Thief

I enjoyed Good To Great. Until about halfway through. Then, honestly, I struggled. I rated the book as a 5. I don’t rate how good the book is, I rate how much I enjoyed reading it. I’m not egocentric enough to think that if I didn’t enjoy something then it must not be good. About 3 million people will tell you Good To Great is a great business book. And it was. But I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as say, Outliers, or The Last Lecture.

But it’s finished and I can move on.

I’m moving on to Sparks – How Parents Can Help Ignite the Hidden Strengths of Teenagers. I’m a parent of 3, with one on the way, and I’m entering the world of raising a teenager so something like this is timely and hopefully will give me a better picture of how….well…., of how to not suck at parenting.

Authors, Books, Good To Great, Jim Collins, Peter Benson, Sparks

Quick update. Still into Good To Great and ahead of schedule for the month of January. Thinking of reading some fiction after this and give myself a little break from business books for a week. If you have any fiction recommendations, be sure to let me know!

1. The Book Thief
2. Breaking Her Fall
3. The Book of Dahlia

Authors, Books, Good To Great, Jim Collins

So I ran into a bit of a problem with a couple days left on my vacation. I was able to read The Last Lecture in a couple days so I started John Hodgman’s More Information Than You Require. But within the first 5 pages I realized the book was a lemon. So I stopped reading. And it was difficult. I literally went through withdrawals the last couple days in Mexico. There are a couple books waiting for me at my office, but I got home on Saturday and won’t be in the office until Monday so I started reading Good To Great and I’m glad I did. It’s an enjoyable read and because I was able to get through the relatively short The Last Lecture, I’m still very much ahead of schedule with book #3 just 11 days into 2009.

As luck would have it, I had my PHP & MySQL book with me for reference and I took full advantage of it. I’ve struggled with PHP & MySQL and have often thought that I’m just not cut out to be good at either one. I realized that I’ve always tried to tackle PHP & MySQL at the same time. So I decided to just try my hand at MySQL, and spent all of the 5 hour return flight working with MySQL. And largely because of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, I’m convinced that there generally aren’t “born naturals” and that everyone can be good at whatever they want. And about 2 hours into it I really started to enjoy myself. I’ll never have 10,000 hours under my belt, but one of many side effects of this little goal is that I’m learning other little things besides reading speed and comprehension.

So I’ve decided to shut down Bento, and create my own MySQL database that tracks this resolution. This will enable me, through PHP, to display my reading data however I want, wherever I want, and give me a reason to continue learning MySQL. To make sure I’m learning from the ground-up, I’m determined to interact with this new MySQL database solely through Terminal, rather than Navicat or PHPMyAdmin. This is something that doesn’t come naturally to me, but I’m sure, someday will. Being a MySQL n00b is totally a blast.

Creating a basic MySQL table and records through Terminal:

After a couple days of working with a local MySQL database, logging into a remote MySQL server through SSH and creating a database through a command line was, I’m hesitant to admit, thoroughly thrilling.

So, long story short, I’ve started reading Good To Great, and I’m ahead of schedule. I’ve had 4 or 5 business books to read in the last month, so I’m thinking of tackling the history text that is, at this moment, sitting on my desk at work.

Authors, Books, Good To Great, Jim Collins, Side Effects