Amazon thinks I am a degenerate gambler

It is funny what you can find out about yourself while perusing the books that Amazon.com suggests for you. Right now I have The Barbarian Way: Unleash the untamed Faith within and Positively Fifth Street at the top of the list. The first is by one of the foremost authorities on the emergent Church and the later a tale of Texas Hold'em in Sin City. The list goes on like this alternating between the divine and the debauched. Both teach you to read people but one wants you to see the need and feed it and the other wants you to see the weakness and exploit it. We are funny animals aren't we.

I just finished reading a couple of books that I thought I would share with whoever stumbles on this page. The best of the three was Devil in the White City by Eric Larson. It is a non-fiction book that chronicles the Worlds Fair in in Chicago in 1893. It parallels the story of Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. The book seems at times to be fiction because of the fantastic story but it is a great read. I dug it for the historical context, the imaginative story, and the race to out do the Paris World's Fair four years earlier.

For our new book club we read Balzac and the Little Seamstress byDai Sije. This was an interesting book that was better for the talking about it then it was for just my reading. I enjoyed it while reading it but I loved it after hearing what others has to say. If you love reading then a book club is a must have for the many facets it brings to the books you love. The story is that of two boys in China that are sent for re-education because ethey have been to school. They come across some books and the their world expands with their minds. An interesting dual tail of education and re-education.

The most recent book I read was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon. The book is a mystery as told through the eyes of an Autistic Boy. It is a great book that explores the difficulties of relating to everyday life while trying to solve a the Mystery of who killed the dog. There are a number of diagrams and pictures as you come to view the events through the narrators lens and I enjoyed the quirkyness and the insight tremendously.

Well there you have it, those are the three most recent books I have read (not counting computer books). What are you reading lately?