Somethings I've Learned--

1.  If you are an Imagine Dragons fan best thing to do for an update is to check their Facebook or Wikipedia Page.

2.  President Monson has a biography out called To The Rescue: The Biography of Thomas S Monson by Heidi S. Swenson.  He looks very dashing on that cover and being a fan, I am looking to invest haha.  I felt like that would be a very Pres. Monson type thing to say.

3.  I just finished reading Freakonomics by Steven Leavitt (famed economist under age 40) and am now on to Black Rain and Silence.  (Though both are Japanese novels--one on the atomic bomb dropping and the other on Christians being persecuted and forced to renounce their religion in the 1600s)

4.  I am somewhat ET-like in that I have a bump between my eyes because my swimming goggles are a little too small for my head.  So if you see me, please don't run away.  Don't be afraid.

5.  Sometimes at the stupidest times we all miss Ned.  I even ran into a girl who came to his farewell--she is very cute and I thought, wow, where is Ned now, hahaha...it's fantastic when you are like getting back but of course it's not so cool when you are a young missionary...so probably we shouldn't mention that to him.  Just shooting from the hip here.

goodreads.com

Well, you know all about the coolness of sites like ratemyprofessor.com which is extremely useful for finding good teachers your first few years of college and getting the low down on how they teach and how tough they are.  But do you know about goodreads.com?  I recently found out about another way cool site-- goodreads.com.

The premise is that you can keep track of and rate/review all the books you read.  They have pretty much every book ever on the site and you can read synopses or updates on new books by favorite authors.  You can also "friend" your friends and see what they read or recommend.

I am on this, Jeremy Foote and some others are too.  I like it because then I can look back at great books I've read from time to time.  I think the coolest thing here is that there are a lot of serious readers on it so that if you want some great opinions on what books to read you can rub shoulders with the wits of your very own wise-man.  You need their names or emails to find people (a lot of people go by first name only).  My email is joemeservy@gmail.com

www.goodreads.com

READS

I am currently at page 305 of Brandeon Sanderson's The Well of Ascension (3rd book in the series--Sci Fi and fantastic).

In the Book Club this month (ends next week) we are reading Persuasion by Jane Austen.

So, if any of you Book Clubbers are reading this. . . suck it up and be a Man.


Later,
Joe

The Triumphant Tale . . . The Start of 2009 Book Club.

Between the Sound and the Echos: Escape For A Moment . . .

For the first time in the history of our 5 year old book club: 'The Unofficial Official Book Club', there are now 4 members of a single family membering. No, it's not the Foote's as much as they might dream and claim they were all member and its not even the Reynolds.

Fondly known as 'The Book Club' our elitist cadre has a rich history of which I am proud to be a founding member. A couple less known facts:

1. We decide books purely based on suggestions determined by votes (No, Harpo you are not invited).

2. There are treats every week (by the treat committee)

3. We find the occasional quiet moment to play tag in the library.

4. Memberships are not freely given and we pride ourselves on the quality of members we have (previous members include at least 1 Med student, 1 UCLA grad/Lawyer, 1 Stanford Law student, 3+ H.S. Valedictorians, and many more).

5. The discussions have sometimes elicited slide show presentations, BYU professors/ field expert seminars, and even Neil Diamond quotes.

6. There are elements of the book club which I am not at this time allowed to divulge.

7. There are T-Shirts yearly -- "Good Books Good Looks" . . . feel free to send some respect when you come across 'em.

With the restructured new year, we are kicking things off with a book called:

(SEPT) BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: Escape From Tyranny (Zainab Salbi)

This is the account of the daughter of Saddam Hussein's personal pilot. She escaped to the USA. Let the story commence.

I am really looking forward to this year and the electrocool conversations. This summer I felt like getting some good books read and so I made my way through 4 hefty books. My recommendations from the summer: The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas), Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy (Adams), Jurassic Park (Crighton). Especially liked Jurassic Park -- Michael Crighton is brilliant.

It's the Best!