The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why it Matters by Rose George

My husband read this a week ago and insisted I read it also. So I did. It's quite shocking and enlightening, actually. I had no idea just how many people in the world have no sanitation (like literally NONE) and how many children die of diarrhea every year. Can you imagine? Dying of diarrhea?? Sounds awful if you ask me. And when the books talks about "no sanitation" it doesn't just mean people without toilets...it means NO place to poo. No outhouse, no pit, no designated poo area - nothing. Which means you poo where you can. On the street. Out in the yard. By the creek. And then that poo is just in the street, and it washes into the rivers and it sinks into the riverbeds and before you know it, the drinking water is contaminated or a fly that was hanging out on the poo is now hanging out on your dinner and EWWW not only is it gross but it's deadly.
Whew. That was a long sentence. But, seriously, it's a problem. Nobody cares about sanitation. Talking about poo isn't glamorous and politicians don't get elected on poo platforms. I wish I were a noble enough person to join the poo fight, but it's just so damned gross. This book will definitely open your eyes to a huge worldwide problem that is only going to grow more dire as the population increases. You should read it. Then go hug your toilet.

The Long Tail by Chris Anderson

I really have been reading still, I promise. In fact, I get an almost uninterrupted hour of reading (or so) daily on my subway commute. Anyway, I have been reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson for the past few days. Oddly enough, I started reading The Long Tail randomly of my own volition because of my nerdy fascination with marketing and consumer economics.

When I was about 3/4 done with it, my hubby mentioned that the webs were a-twitter with backlash and hatin' on Chris Anderson, mostly in regards to his new book Free: The Past and Future of a Radical Price. I read some of the comments and decided for myself that the haters just didn't get Anderson's book (I'm referring to The Long Tail here - haven't yet read Free). Having it fresh in my mind because I was *literally* in the middle of reading really helped me to throw out most of the comments as backlash against what is probably a widely held distaste for Anderson's personality. The guy is a bit of a pompous know-it-all. But I suppose anyone with a brand new, ground-breaking, perception-altering theory would have to possess a bit of pomp.

I digress. So my hubby sends me a bunch of links and I sift through them. Most of them were trying to say that Anderson is wrong, that the world of "the hit" is not dead and that much of the long tail does not sell. Well, that's exactly what Anderson says in his book. He literally says that he does not think the hit is dead, but that it has been transformed. I concur. The argument that a lot of the long tail doesn't sell is something to be worked out through data analysis and market research, so I can't comment on disparate findings from similar studies, but Anderson is very clear that there is definitely a lot of crap in the long tail and certainly things in the long tail aren't necessarily selling a lot - they are just diverting many of us away from the one or two giant hits that were previously our only choices.
Okay, I'm writing way too much and if you haven't read the book, you may have no idea what I'm talking about.
The funny thing, however, is that after I finished The Long Tail, took the time to sift through the haters and ultimately decide for myself that I am a believer in the long tail, a story broke that he plagiarized material in his new book, Free.
Shame on you, Chris Anderson. Especially after I mentally and verbally defended you. There are no words.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

I know I'm late to the party on this one, but I'm finally reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. It's a really quick, engaging read and I highly recommend it. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one left in the world who hasn't read it yet, so I'm just preaching to the choir...but, still, I'm gonna throw it out there - this one is good. I think Krakauer is a great storyteller and he somehow manages to keep the facts what they are (factual) and let the reader feel what he/she wants to feel. He in no way manipulates the story emotionally, though he does manipulate the story-telling...in a good way. He tells the story in a non-linear way which I find captivating and keeps the reader wondering what will happen next. At any rate, this is a great story in its own right and Krakauer certainly does it justice. Maybe I'll check out the movie next.

House of Cards by William D. Cohan

I just finished reading House of Cards by William D. Cohan and I absolutely ate it up. Which means I talked it about it nonstop...so my poor husband had to hear me go on and on and on about subprime mortgages, mortgage-backed securities, and credit default swaps. Exciting stuff! Seriously, tho, for some reason I was fascinated and riveted by this book; it's basically 480 pages about the fall of Bear Stearns and the subsequent collapse of the financial markets. But, mostly about Bear Stearns. And it went into extreme detail. So while some may find it tedious and boring, I think knowing who called whom when and what they talked about is infinitely fascinating. Again, you'd have to be interested in the topic, I think (much like the comic book book my better half just read) So if you're at all curious what really went on behind closed doors at the ol' Bear Stearns, pick this book up. If you couldn't care less, well, maybe this isn't the book for you.

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu

My better half is reading The Ten Cent Plague by David Hadju and he seems to really enjoy it. I'll admit I tried to read this a couple weeks ago and I gave up. It was a top pick on Amazon last year and got all-around positive reviews. I even read that it's the type of book that all can enjoy, not just comic book lovers. Well, that's a big fat lie. It's not like I'm a comic book hater, either. I enjoy a good Archie Double Digest and love the comic book movies, but, I really think you have to loooooooove and appreciate and know quite a bit about comic books to really enjoy this book. Which my husband does, so it makes sense that he would like the book way more than I did. I really didn't get that far before I couldn't take it anymore. However, if you regularly read or follow comic books, this is definitely a must-read.