Book List

A couple of months ago I decided I wanted to stop being lazy and read more.  I made a commitment to read at least one book a week forever.  So far so good.  Here's what I've read/listened to since September along with a a few highlights of each book (though I can barely remember anything other than the book I'm currently reading):

• Freakonomics
• An economist's view and analysis of a few issues in society.
• Having a backyard pool is much more dangerous than having a loaded gun in your home.
• Roe v. Wade was the cause of the huge decline in crime rates across America in the 1990s rather than new police tactics.  Babies that would have been born to those most likely to get an abortion (young & poor & uneducated) weren't born, so they couldn't grow up to be criminals in their prime in the '90s.
• Nature, not nurture, most affect a child's intelligence & grades.  Unfortunately, we parents do not have nearly the influence want to have over our children.
• The higher up you go up a corporation's ladder (or elevator), the more likely you'll find cheating and stealing (of bagels, in the example).
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Listened to this on our way back from California on our vacation. 
• Greatest books ever!
• Twilight Series
• I'm listening to these while I run & while I drive the bus to and from basketball games.
• I'm on the 3rd book.
• I'm not ashamed to admit that I like them very much.
• Tipping Point, Blink, & Outliers
• 3 books by Malcom Gladwell.
• The best books on this list (or at least most interesting.)
• If you haven't read them, you must.
• Tipping Point is about how and why fads and trends happen.
• Blink is about how and why our gut instincts about things and people are often more correct than our carefully thought out decisions.
• Outliers is about how and why certain people are successful.  It takes a lot of luck, opportunity, and 10,000 hours to become an expert and one of the top in your field.
• The Evolution of God
• A History of Religions
• Born To Run
• Great book if you enjoy running - about a hidden tribe of Mexican elite distance runners.
• Says that we are built how we are, so that we can outlast and run farther than any other animal on earth, so go do what you were born to do.
• Also, makes me think I could run an ultra marathon.
• Also, makes me feel stupid about buying fancy running shoes and insoles and making sure I do all the right stretches.
• The Road
• Great book about a father and son in a post-apocalyptic America traveling across country to the ocean by the author of "No Country for Old Men" Cormac McCarthy.
• The Most Famous Man in America (Henry Ward Beecher Biography)
• Definately my worst choice, but it won the Pulitzer for non-fiction, so I thought it would be good.
• It was okay, and I learned a lot about the mind of a preacher.
• The Lost Symbol
• I was really looking forward to this one because I loved Da Vinci Code & Angels and Demons, and it was good, but not nearly as good as his other books.
• It's a like a mix of the movie "National Treasure" (about Washington DC & masons) and his other books.
• Have a Little Faith
• This is a nonfiction book about the author's childhood rabbi & a 400 pound black pastor. 
• It was okay. 
• Olive Kitteridge
• Great collection of short stories about a retired school teacher in Maine.
• Though depressing, extremely well written & thought-provoking.
• Thanksgiving 101
• History of Thanksgiving.
• The March
• Novel about General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army's March from Georgia to North Carolina during the Civil War.  By E.L. Doctorow.