• Books Read

    Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops

    Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell Published: 2012 I got this for Christmas, and I had planned to read a few pages here and there over the next month, but I ended up reading it in one sitting. I’d seen it written about throughout the year and was excited to get my hands on it. I love both bookstores and laughing at people, so it’s really a perfect fit. Jen Campbell worked in a bookstore for many years, and decided one day to start quoting some of the bizarre things she kept hearing on her blog. She also posted quotes sent in from other bookstore employees. Eventually…

  • Books Read

    Bill Bryson’s African Diary

    Bill Bryson’s African Diary by Bill Bryson Published: 2002 I felt a bit guilty picking this up at a used book sale, as the full cost of the book is donated to CARE International when you buy it new, but I’ve donated to a few charities this year. My karma is intact. Stop judging me. To help spread awareness for the organization, Bryson was asked to visit their facilities in Kenya and tour Kibera, the second largest urban slum in Africa, and this is his diary of the trip. The organization works with local communities to try and provide relief for these areas. What he sees is the kind of…

  • Books Read

    Ghost in the Wires

    Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin D. Mitnick Published: 2011 Narrated by: Ray Porter If you were a geek in the 90s, you probably remember seeing Free Kevin plastered randomly throughout the web. This was in protest of Kevin Mitnick’s overblown charges when he was finally arrested for his computer crimes after a several year run from the FBI. I didn’t really know the story of how it all went down, so I picked up his recent autobiography. The begins in Kevin’s childhood as he steals a sheet of blank bus transfers and writes his own tickets, allowing him to roam the…

  • Meta

    2012

    This was my first full year writing here, so I get to do a proper wrap-up this time around! The Blog I honestly thought I’d get sick of this by now, but here we are a year and a half in. I’ve read more since starting, and it’s forced me to sit and think about what I’ve read before moving on. I’ve also found myself reading books I otherwise might not have picked up, and my attitude towards the classics have shifted from feeling like I need to read them to genuinely wanting to read them, so it’s actually become a rewarding hobby. As far as new things to come,…