Content tagged with “media” under “My Library”

“This book is odd but lovable. I can’t imagine how it got written. It’s about Star Wars . But not about any particular aspect of Star Wars . Rather, it’s a meditation about the…ideas (?) of Star Wars ? The book was written right after The Force Awakens was released. That was the first film in the…”

“This is a book that I probably read for the wrong reasons, and a book that I was ultimately unsatisfied with. But in the book’s defense, it could never succeed at what I wanted from it. This is a book that asks the question: What do we do with the art of monstrous men? That question above was…”

“This is sort of a biography, but more of a coffee table book. It’s a collection of photos of the life of Marshall Mathers (Eminem), interspersed with recollections of his life. It’s actually quite good. He starts by talking about the death of Proof in 2006, who is a rapper I had never heard of. His…”

“ Not sure what to do with this book. It’s basically a polemic against the idea that technology can save us from everything. The author is arguing that some solutions are to be found offline. I’m not sure what the point was, honestly. I got about halfway through it before I abandoned. ”

“This is a book about how we don’t like reality anymore. We like the illusion of reality. As a society, we’re addicted to farce. It’s almost hilarious that this was written in 2009. If only the author had seen what was coming. He talks about ‘the illusion of literacy,’ by contrasting it against…”

“This is the story of the messy end of Sumner Redstone’s life and the struggle for control of his companies: National Amusements, and, by acquisition, Viacom and Paramount. And it really is the story of the end of Redstone’s life. Not even halfway through the book, he turns 60. At about the halfway…”

“To appreciate this book, I think you need to know who David Steinberg is. I didn’t know who he was. The whole thing didn’t make a lot of sense until I did some research on Steinberg. He’s a Canadian comedian. I was born in 1971, so I didn’t know him because his heyday was the 60s and 70s. He was…”

“I very much regret not getting the audiobook. It would have been spectacular to listen to the author read this. This is a memoir. It was made out to be more than that because (1) the cover is funky, and (2) it has a lot of pictures of artifacts (?) of McConaughey’s life, but make no mistake – this…”

“This book offers up the premise that the Internet has enabled new methods of original research (new ‘digital methods’) that didn’t exist before. Things like link analysis, search engine indexing analysis, and site crawling analysis. Some of it is interesting, like an extended comparison of the…”

“The definitive history of Friends, from the spark of and idea, all the way through the current day and the lingering fandom. I read ‘I’ll Be There For You’ last year, but I remember that book as being quite strongly about the social justice aspects of the show. This book touches on some of those…”

“Wonderfully complete history of Reddit, from the childhood lives of founders Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman, through the (ultimately tragic) life of Aaron Swartz. The book has short chapters, and is mainly episodic – each chapter covers some moment in the history of Reddit, and they’re all there:…”

“Devastating analysis of how much we suck as humans, and how easily manipulated we are by social media. It’s a long-range survey of how governments are using social media as a weapon, or force-multiplier, for their own ends. Extensively researched. Seems like a long book, but it is literally 1/3…”

“Honestly, I didn’t love it, which I know is heretical, but it was very episodic – just random episodes kind of strung together with very little unifying plot. This is likely due to the fact that it’s a kid’s book, but, still, I just couldn’t get into it. Also, I wasn’t in love with his writing…”

“‘The Last Tycoon’ was the unfinished novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald – he died while writing it. This text is the unfinished manuscript – it ends, quite abruptly, with a note that says ‘The manuscript ends here.’ Following that is a synopsis of how the story was supposed to end, based on notes,…”

“I originally thought this was just the transcript of The Last Lecture video, but it’s more than that. It’s an expansion of the principles Pausch discussed in TLL, which basically becomes a book of life advice. Some of it is good, some of it is obvious, but it’s a quick easy read. If you’ve seen the…”

“Fantastic look at content technology from a content-centric standpoint. If you have no idea about how to structure your content and get it under management, this is your book. If you’re an experienced content management practitioner, you might not get much out of it, except for a burning desire to…”

“Interesting look at nine factors that are powering the pace of change in the world. I liked the dialectical format – each principle is set against the status quo in an ‘X vs. Y’ format. I feel like the entire book boiled down to, ‘bottom up is winning against top down.’ Well-written, with lots of…”

“A book which counters claims of Left-wing media bias. Chomsky actually claims the media is biased towards big business and government and provides a ‘propaganda model’ which he claims demonstrates it. The rest of the book is mainly history – Chomsky uses things like some murders in Central America,…”

“If you were a geek in the 80s, your book has arrived. The author is one year younger than me, and I half-suspect he was simply trying to cram as many 80s geek references into a single book as he could. The result is insanely fun. Everything is there: Wargames, Dragon Magazine, text adventures on…”

“I love Mindy Kaling so much, but she’s not nearly as funny in this book. The book is sort of an auto-biography, but not very deep, and with the obvious intent to be more funny than anything else. Throughout, she has short chapters which are meant to be funny little essays. Some are okay, but a lot…”

“A fascinating book which details an experiment which took place in 1976. Twenty-one subjects in Evanston, Illinois (north of Chicago) were followed for one year. All of the news that was published in the area was cataloged, as was all the news the subjects consumed. They were regularly interviewed…”

“An interesting book which explores how humans react to the news on an emotional/psychological level. It discusses the different types of news: political, economic, disaster, cultural, etc. and how we perceive and relate to them. Some interesting points I gathered: The true measure of news is if it…”

“This one was tough. It is exactly as advertised – a detailed historical account of the origins of newspapers, specifically in 14th - 18th century Europe. The problem is, that’s kinda boring. I can’t fault the author, but it’s very, very dry topic. And the book is very detailed. I’m glad I read it,…”

“There are books that inform and there are books that inspire. This is both. It’s a delicate balance between practical down-to-Earth suggestions, and large-scale though-provoking visions. Pulizzi navigates the line well. The book gets you thinking about content marketing – specifically, what’s…”