I want to be augusten burroughs’ friend. his book makes you fall in love with this quirky, awkward, sophisticated young man. it also makes you kind of awkward, because if you’re reading in a small public space, such as an airplane, it’s awkward to laugh out loud. augusten’s writing makes you feel like you’re apart of his family’s dysfunction. you can feel the tension, smell the mold, hear the screaming, and taste the dog food.
i want to see the movie, but i have a feeling it can’t compete with the pictures i have in my head.

Don Norman’s companion book to The Design of Everyday Things (which everyone says is just wonderful, though I personally have not read it) was underwhelming. I thought he was repetitive and reaching for examples. I thought his “future” seems to have happened about three years ago. I thought that his almost total disregard to the internet seems absurd for this decade. And I thought he was at his best when talking about the abstract and not trying to bring in the case studies that again were overused and underinteresting. Not a glowing review, but only because I believe I had such high standards.

Natalie Angier’s whirlwind tour through the fundamentals of science (not including Computer Science, must not be real) is a nice—and light— introduction to a selection of the underpinnings of modern scientific thoguht. While, likely not a book to satisfy those looking for technical and mathematical depth—or any math at all—Angier is a talented writer, and her style here, mixing personal anecdotes, metaphors, and interviews with many top scientists makes one of the better popular science introductions around.

This has such a great premise: A divorced woman decides to spend a celibate year getting to know herself without the trappings of a relationship to tie her down. Broken into three sections (Italy, India, and Indonesia) it gets bogged down by her whining. Her time in India (in particular) was awfully written with long-winded and unnecessary explanations of her entire experience. It is really the other people that give the book what little life it has. Her “my life is awful, I must find myself” attitude is particularly difficult in the face of her supportive friends and family, strong career, and financial independence. While I understand and respect serious depression and that it defies reality it lacked that ‘spark’ that could made her depression relatable, and thereby moved me (the reader) through her journey.

This is a well written novel that I would highly recommend. Jim Sheeler looks at the price of the war-the human bodies. From the point of notification through the “reverberations” with friends and family, this puts a human face on a war played out on foreign soil. He makes no political points; some reviewers berate him for that choice but I think it is important for two reasons. (1) To respect the families he followed, who have a wide range of opinions and values. (2) This book isn’t about politics; it’s about respecting those who have made sacrifices for their country (whatever their reasons). This is a continuation of his Pulitzer Prize winning articles.

Before Bear’s Stern there had only been one other big bail-out of the modern era, and that was LTCM. I suppose I may think highly of this book because I finished it the day before the collapse of Bear’s Stern was made public. But either way the book is an excellent read though it may be too technical for some. It is an excellent recount of how some of the most promising “quants” on Wall St, including a couple Nobel Prize winners can go on to create a huge firm that fails even more spectacularly. An excellent read especially considering the current economic situation, highly recommended.

This is a short but satisfying history of cod. Not just cod, but a human history as well. Humans’ voyages of discovery parallel the flow of cod; a source of food that is easily preserved for later meals, early discoverers followed them on their travails. Even today the loss of cod is reflected by the shift of populations in fishing communities. An interesting and quick read.

A libertarian view about why voting doesn’t really matter and why there is not point to vote rationally. The book provides and excellent discussion about what the American population thinks to be the truth, compared to the numbers. With the election coming up it was an interesting read, though it may depress you about how intelligent (or not intelligent) Americans are.

An interesting perspective on the largest single factor that changed Israeli foreign policy. A good insight into why the Jordan, Syria, Egypt, and Israel act the way they do. Anwar Sadat is a really interesting man. I wish I knew more about him. It’s also too bad he was assassinated.

1998: Stanley Alpert is abducted and driven blindly through the streets of new york sandwiched between 2 dangerously armed men, eventually finding himself sitting on a mattress in a dirty apartment. He describes a surreal, yet true, experience, as he, an assistant U.S. attorney, helps his kidnappers realize they’ve chosen the wrong man. Sitting blindfolded(on his birthday!) with prostitutes having sex with his kidnappers around him, Stanley slyly manipulates his kidnappers— mildly befriending them. Retardely realizing that they had stolen a man with $100K in his savings account, who is a prosecutor, the kidnappers realize they are in way over their heads.

After asking for legal advice, offering their blindfolded friend drinks, food, sex from their whores, and weed— Stanley escapes. (obviously, considering he wrote the book…)

Entertaining and interesting, considering the statistics on living through a kidnapping.

I was in a nonfiction kick and when a writer I love decided to write about another writer I love I knew this was something I had to read. Byron’s curiosity yet his need to stay true to facts makes this a very readable and short biography. The facts about Shakespeare’s life are very few and far between but this biography keeps to them. If you want to know more about the Bard but don’t want to be bogged down with hearsay and imagination this is the biography for you.

I was told to read this book about five years ago and began reading it two years ago. It took that long to finish, not because it isn’t interesting, but because I was very distracted and it is nonfiction so it’s easy to put down for a time. If you happen to have a degree in anthropology the first part of the book will be repetitive and a bit dull, but once you get past that this book is amazing. The scope of understanding why was it that Europe was able to take over the rest of the world in a extremely non-racist manner is incredible. This book won the Pulitzer Prize for a very good reason and everyone who wants to understand the history of the world should read this.

This was a FANTASTIC read. Short, irreverent, Cullen looks at select presidents and reveals how they made mistakes and then made up for them, during and after their presidencies. Ultimately, this is a great book if you are already somewhat familiar with presidential histories; part of the humor is understanding his little side comments. He has a great section for further reading in his source notes, where he discusses some of the materials that he used, along with reputable authors. How could I not like an author who, when referring to all of the literature on Thomas Jefferson, uses the phrase “blah, blah, blah.” A great read for history buffs.

The premise of this book is that to be completely happy is not something that should be attainable for long periods of time; he is not arguing that there are not people out there who are clinically depressed or have disorders. Rather, this is about how society (Americans in particular) are so focused on happiness that they do not understand that to be happy there must be sadness. This idea is interesting, but the book lacks convincing examples and discussion. It felt like the author just liked to hear himself ‘talk.’ I wouldn’t recommend this book.

Considering I work for J. Craig Venter, this might be a slightly biased review. Although, I must mention that this is really his side of the story and I would love to read someone else’s point of view of the same events.

With that said, it was great to hear how Craig has accomplished some of the most important biological discoveries of the current times. It also becomes more evident why others despise him for his ego. Was the book well written? Not really. If I didn’t work for him would I have enjoyed the book? Maybe, hard to tell.

Again, another story about how a dog reflects the growth of a family. In this case, this is a dog whose lovable nature belies its troublesome behavior. The Grogan family received Marley as a puppy, and there were times they considered removing him from the household. They tried various methods to curb his behavior, such as obedience school-only for him to be expelled. A good read, but again-sad because (ultimately) a dog’s life can only be so long, even if memories live on for longer.

After just posting Prose’s Primitive People I realized I never posted Reading Like a Writer, which I suppose I read last fall, just about a year ago (very shortly after it came out).

The book is a tour of how one writer (Prose–it is often quite autobiographical and personal) reads, for education, inspiration, and pleasure. By using a variety of examples she redefines the standard creative-writing vocabulary through works of the past. Moves on to discuss her own relationship with Chekhov’s work and finally provides a list of books that she believes anyone who wants to writes–should really have already read.

So for those of you wanting to write, or just who enjoy reading and writing and such related activities, you will likely enjoy this book.

So having finished my painful trip through the history of salt, I was ready to move on to the next book. Thankfully the next book was another by Erik Larson. Larson, who wrote The Devil in the White City is a fantastic author and well on his way to being one of my favorites.

Issac’s Storm is about Issac Cline whom you may not know was a meteorologist. While the title may clue you in as to the topic despite its probable loss of the true deadliest title, I shall belabor the obvious and direct your attention to the city of Galveston in the year 1900. A hurricane pretty much like no other nailed the city and resulted in a great loss of life. As per usual in hindsight it can be seen that the warnings were there, and were unheeded. The story mostly follows Issac who was the chief of the weather station in Galveston. It speaks of what he did right and what he completely missed. The story also tells of an age where mankind believed in the strength of steel, and knew that the Law of Storms would tell us what the weather would do, and moreover how through our actions we could stop hail and cause rain.

As an aside, I shall say a word about hurricanes, city planning, budgets, and New York. As I read the book my mind was drawn back to the relatively recent disaster in New Orleans, and how our own hubris allows us to believe ourselves safe, and then our greed and penny pinching dooms us in the future. People asked why the levees didn’t stand and I think the core of engineers colonel (if I recall correctly) said it most poignantly when he replied “they were built to levee level 3, the storm was higher than a 3 and they failed.” The incredulous reporter inquired as to why and the colonel replied “cause that is all people were willing to pay for.” So the levees will be rebuilt although almost certainly not strong enough, but New Orleans like Galveston knows to expect another blow. But I await the day with trepidation when the hurricane people continually warn about finally nails NYC and we all suddenly look up in shock like we didn’t know it was coming.

Anyways now that I have made this review significantly more verbose and a bit preachy allow me to continue. Larson again delivers an amazing ride through history. The story is written so well it is hard to believe that essentially you are almost reading a textbook. Again I am willing to recommend this book to almost anyone with a love of reading. I personally I looking forward to later this month when Thunderbolt his newest book hits the shelves paperback style.

A non-fiction collection of stories by Chuck Palahniuk. Some of the stories were pretty boring, but all of them were short. A great book to read when you only want to read a little at a time. Or if you’re ADD.

The most interesting stories in the book were the ones Palahniuk wrote about himself. Obviously the most detailed and with a first person commentary, these stories sounded the most genuine. The other stories recounted short interviews and brief encounters, which made it seem more of an in-depth journalistic study than a inside look into a topic.

So I was all proud of myself for actually posting the review of the Einstein book, which I had finished reading a week or so ago when I decided to sit down and start reading one of the new books I had purchased for myself today. Freakonomics was brought to my attention during a discussion about politics, legislation, and abortion. Now I must admit to being a big fan of economic theory, but I feel that almost anyone would have their interest piqued if I were to tell them that its been shown that Roe vs Wade was responsible for the sharp decline in crime in the late 90’s.

So already suckered in I sat down to read. That started about 6 hours or so during which I read on and off. Those six hours have earned me an even greater respect for the methods of economics when applied to real life. The book covers a number of recent issues seemingly unrelated to economics, but when viewed through the economic lens of incentives, are suddenly illuminated with new light. The topics range from the aforementioned abortion and crime link to why teachers help their students cheat on standardized testing, and cover in between why real estate agents rip you off, why sumo wrestlers cheat, why people name their kids stupid names, why people don’t steal as many bagels as they could, and many more.

The book itself is well written with Dubner smoothing out the economic theory of Levitt. The subject matter as mentioned above is relevant and interesting. The whole tone of the book is somewhat mocking and somewhat ironic, but most of all informative. Really what is encouraged is the challenging of conventional wisdom, which while conventional is not always right. The book I feel should be read by just about everyone it is that good, and while you may not agree with what the authors have to say you certainly will look at things in new ways. Now on to the amazing history of salt I go.

This book presents as one may expect from the title a biography of Albert Einstein. The author does a decent job of keeping the story interesting and flowing well. However, if you are into the math or science behind the story you may well end up being somewhat disappointed as the author’s treatment is not too in depth. This does have the upside of making it readable by a much larger audience. The life of Einstein is fairly fascinating. A man with problems and at the same time brilliant.

Definitely worth a read if you are a science buff or if Einstein is your cup of tea.

NNT’s argument is that things that we don’t expect to happen matter more so we should stop forecasting (most) things because we aren’t going to get anything (important) right anyway.

He has lots of bits about why we delude ourselves with narratives (and how to prevent narratives from doing that, or how to use narratives to get ourselves to be re-deluded to believe better things), how statistics do nothing for us, and how these “black swans” matter lots and lots and we should leverage them.

The bell curve is very bad. Mandlebrotion randomness is very good. Being a successful writer require random good luck.

Most importantly, one must find their own historical foundation from the works of forgotten/neglected/partially ignored scholars.

I have never listened to an audio book before (except some failed attempts at librivox.org recordings – that I never actually made it through). It was pretty enjoyable; though we certainly picked a giant to start with: 18 cds. I suppose since I refuse to listen to anything abridged this is bound to occur, but it was still a pleasant way to spend a large portion of the trip.

Sean Wilsey recounts his childhood, complete with San Francisco star parents, love affairs, boarding schools, sex, drugs, rock and roll, an overdose on Tolkien, escape plans, childhood fantasies, and eventually the building story of what he became (an editor at McSweeney’s, a published novelist, a successful journalist, a husband, a father).

I am sure this book will be pleasant to read or listen to, and well presents one man’s story of growing up in and out of San Francisco.

I like audiobooks.

Overall a quick read and entertaining. Marjorie Hart and her best friend Marty decide to go to New York City during the summer of 1945 when the sorority sisters at their Iowa college decide to rent apartments and live “the life.” This memoir focuses on a very specific period in her life, detailing her summer as they become the first women to work on the sales floor at Tiffany & Co.. This reads as a “who’s who” of the celebrities of that time-Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, et cetera but this does not detract from the story. While she repeatedly returns to her small town roots to establish how “new” this new world is, I think a wiser choice would have been to begin with her family background, and return to it only when necessary. This summer is also of import since that August is when Japan surrenders. She glosses over a lot of the items they were forced to live without-she only notes at the beginning of the book that she leaves Iowa with her rations and stamps. These details would better shape how extraordinary her summer was during a period of loss and hardship.

I was in a really bad mood this morning.
Then I read this book.
And I feel very happy now.
Notice this all happened in one day.

This book is awesome, because it is about a drag queen and her male hooker boyfriend.
What about that doesn’t scream awesome to you?

Fully entertaining. I laughed out loud several times, and I learned a lot.
You may be wondering what exactly I learned…
Probably things you’re supposed to learn on the street, but luckily this guy brought it into a book.

boys. sex. drugs. vodka. parties. fish. love.

I really like the title of this book.
I suppose there are a few connections between this title and the actual story.
Literally, Danielle’s father was a “tunnel rat” in Vietnam during the war which, as you can probably assume, involved him crawling though dirt tunnels below ground (Danielle later visits Vietnam and crawls though a such tunnel) (and these tunnels scare me, as does Vietnam).

More metaphorically- Danielle’s life: choosing to live with her drunken, traumatized, mostly heartless father, living her childhood and adolescence in bars hearing war stories and about her father’s sexual escapades.

So, in the end, I really liked the title of the book.

This book presents an overview of the combat leadership in the Civil War. The author examines the war through the eyes of six generals, three for each side. It is an interesting semi biography for the six men the author follows: Grant, Barlow, Thomas, Lee, Hood, and Gordon. It is fairly well written, however it seems apparent from the get go that the author has a soft spot for General Thomas. As such he is excessively critical of the other generals when they clash with Thomas. None the less it provides interesting insight into some of the less well known generals of the war.

The author gives an interesting introduction to the world of economics. You will learn why sweatshops are good things and fair trade coffee isn’t quite fair. Harford guides the reader, through many examples, to a new way of looking at the world. This book, while it may be simplistic to those familiar with economic theory is still a playful, fun, and most of all education read even if it does have like the longest secondary title ever.

Still not good.

Doctors are bad.

“Cold saline on the brain can actually stop a seizure in its tracks.”

This is a casually written memoir. It was a really fun and easy read, but in a way the tone almost trivializes the very subject it is on, neurosurgery.

Katrina Firlik, a neurosurgeon (one out of about two hundred women in the field), talks about her seven years as a resident. She thoughtfully chooses which cases to tell and which words to use and shares a glimpse into the OR, while she jovially interjects interesting facts and entertaining reflections.

I want to be a neurosurgeon.

“The brain, by far, is the most complex and interesting organ of the human body (take note, guys, if you thought otherwise)…”

The title of this book refers to one of a string of thirteen serial murders done by the “Boston Strangler.” Junger chooses this particular murder for the title because he is from Belmont, and the man who eventually confessed to the boston stranglings did carpentry work on his house. There are pictures of this man with Junger’s mom and himself as a baby. I find that really creepy.
The book was well-written. I just think it sucks that they never figured out who the boston strangler was.
I was unaware that this was an unsolved mystery when I started reading the book.

I read this book in one day, and I was sad when it was over.
Jeannette and her family bounce around from trailer park to trailer park, from run down apartments to abandoned train stations. Having parents with no money, no sense of responsibility and huge unrealistic dreams (such as building a glass castle), Jeannette has to develop her own plans, and actually achieve them.
The Walls kids learn to take care of themselves, as well as their parents (who are quite interesting characters).

One of the most intriguing parts of this book is that you already know that Jeannette Walls is a successful journalist. You know the ending already, so this is solely about the journey.

This is a short follow up to Sam Harris’ The End of Faith. This is his response to many of the letters he received from angry readers, particularly Christians (although this applies to those of all faiths). The focus is on arguing against many of the Christian rights’ beliefs and reasoning why these beliefs by necessity should be kept out of public policy. This is concise and well written, and was an excellent way to handle many of the responses he received and make their arguments public-and then break them apart using the very sources they were using to solidify their arguments.

This was an excellent read. It is about Archie Astor and Amelie Rives Astor and their tumultuous marriage. But it is more than that-it explores the Astor family and their role in the rise of New York City and their relationships with some of the most famous people of the time. Amelie wrote racy stories and painted herself in the nude, and Archie was a “player” in his day, and their story fed the gossip columns of the times. It reads like a novel but is well researched and the author travelled to their homes and used primary sources along with the newspapers to establish their love affair.

Franklin Foer explores the world of soccer and how it is a testament to local political and religious ideologies. He says that instead of the Left’s notion that globalization will destroy local beliefs, it reinforces them. While the book had great potential, I don’t think that it stood up to its intentions. However, he does explore some long standing rivalries in soccer and what they mean within the larger discourse on nationalism, such as the Protestant/Catholic soccer groups in Scotland, and the commercialization of the soccer “hooligan.”

(Reprinted from TheTartan.org)

I honestly tried to like Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter by Joe Maguire. I am not saying that because I am in some way addicted to or affiliated with Ann Coulter, I promise; I am not a fan of anyone with the massive record of demeaning quotes Coulter has to her name. Unfortunately, Maguire’s book forgets to rehash her most maddening remarks and instead he merely mumbles about how much he really hates her.

Few of the just over 200 pages of this book are actually spent dealing with the inaccuracies, possible plagiarism, and misconstrued facts that Coulter has produced in her more than 10 years as a political figure. Coulter has, in many ways, redefined the political punditry landscape. She has described herself as someone who likes to “stir up the pot” and in doing so she has made myriad controversial statements across her five best-selling books.

Maguire even thanks Coulter in the acknowledgements for being “such an easy target,” and honestly, she is. From her comments on women (“[T]he problem with women voting and your Communitists will back me up on this is that, you know, women have no capacity to understand how money is earned”) to her views on Senator Joe McCarthy’s policies (“[He had] a gift for appealing to the great common sense of the American people” and “Liberals like to scream and howl about McCarthyism…. They’ve had intellectual terror on the campus for years…. It’s time for a new McCarthyism,”) she has certainly expressed her extreme opinions. Worst of all might be her comments towards the family members of 9/11 victims: “These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I’ve never seen people enjoying their husbands’ death so much.”

While Maguire does get around to blasting apart one of Coulter’s “lies,” the book focuses on her "lunacy" and, specifically, on sarcastically and back-handedly insulting her at any opportunity he gets. The sarcasm becomes so thick it is hard to handle at times, and even the language dries up – any book that uses the phrase “Pete’s sake” twice in the first 18 pages is one I want to put down.

At times it seems that Maguire has simply run out of material. In the middle of his chapter Ann on Women, he goes off on a tangent discussing the three things you say when you want to make a woman hate you: “You’re a bad mother. You’re a slut. You act like a man.” At which point he discusses how Coulter probably would be a bad mother, going further to say “she’d probably be the absolute worst absentee, simultaneously neglectful and domineering, and with nothing but white wine in the fridge.”

This is cracked! Maguire forms this book around the thesis that Coulter distorts the truth or simply avoids it by distracting people with outlandish and attention-getting statements, and yet he does the same thing; this book is, ultimately, really a tribute to the method Coulter has developed. The writing style reminds me of something a bitter ex-boyfriend might write about his bereaved ex-lover. I believe it is possible that Maguire is secretly in love with Coulter… and then she broke up with him, so he wrote a book about her. This makes perfect sense: He can call her an awful, horrible person, but at the same time compliment her for being a brilliant writer. I only wish he would have picked up some of those writing skills.

Now, Mr. Maguire, please explain to me the chart which takes up half of page 129 called “Nicknames for Ann Found on the Internet.” There are only seven names on this chart, and I could do better than that in five minutes. Though maybe this was the right direction to head in. Overall the best way to improve this book would be to have simply created a list of Coulter’s outright lies, misleading statements, and hypocritical quotes, with citations that show they are false. Yes, I believe this whole book could have been reduced to a chart. A really giant chart.

Maguire was an editor at Reuters until they saw this book. According to a piece in The New York Times, a Reuters company statement states: “Our editorial policy and The Reuters Trust Principles are prominently displayed for all to see on ”http://www.about.reuters.com">www.about.reuters.com. Mr. Maguire’s book will soon be available. Both speak for themselves."

Brainless suffers from a few major problems. The pacing is off. The second chapter of the book, Ann on Beauty, Race, and Culture is 42 pages, more than double most of the other chapters, which really slows down his argument. This, coupled with the fact that there is no real conclusion to the book, completes the impression that this whole exercise is simply a tirade that fades off into nothingness. Also as mentioned earlier, the language is not compelling, and it is often too informal. Finally, the humor isn’t there. Maguire is not a comedian; he is (was?) a journalist, and he often fails when trying to go for laughs.

In conclusion: Don’t read this book. It is easy enough to make fun of Ann Coulter without a guided tutorial.

A book from the woman who brought us When Harry Met Sally, it addresses all types of seemingly random problems we face as women, such as the bottomless pit that is our purse. While she is reminiscing about being “old,” I think that readers of all ages can find something to identify with, be it the apartment that you fell in love with, and refuse to move out of, or the process of aging. A collection of short thoughts, it is an easy read.

I read this right before I left Buffalo so I could give it to Amy, so she could read it. While I found the idea of using economics as a framework for looking at other problems a pretty obvious idea, I thought Lewitt’s execution was very good, though I would have liked to see even more formalization of the process he used, and thought the book bordered too close to simple storytelling.

It seems people feel much better about themselves when they believe they are reading science, regardless of how scientific the science is.

This is one of those books that makes you think about things you never have to think about. Like why someone looks happy or what does it actually mean to pay attention? A lot more on the pyschology side than the neuroscientific side, this book explores many everyday phenomena that we miss on a regular basis.

Not only does Johnson explore our reactions to our own experiences, but he also tries to explain why, evolutionarily speaking, we function that way.

An interesting look into the biggest biological mystery.

The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions.

Upon picking up this book, I knew little about the M.I.T. Blackjack team and what they did. I had heard stories of how they were very good at what they did and made some money, but I had absolutely no clue to what extent they had taken it.

Ben Mezrich cleared this all up. His great story telling takes the reader through the ins and outs of this operation, from smuggling hundreds of thousands of dollars in casino chips and cash through airport security to living a double life; work Mon-Fri, 9-5 and making millions of dollars on weekends.

This book posed a lot of interesting questions about Progress and the future of religion. What are the issues that people who have “faith” must face to continue to believe? He separates people into Religious Moderates and Religious Extremists, and discusses both thoroughly and coherently. Moderates must pick and choose their beliefs because today’s society conflicts with our basic religious texts. Religious Extremists put too much faith in the literal words of that text. What I like about Harris’ arguments is that he uses these doctrines themselves to argue against continuous unquestioning faith in written word over progress and reason. In the end, he suggests this unquestioning literal interpretation, as well as our conscious decision to ignore what we dislike about them, does more harm than good. A really interesting read. While you may not agree with his points, I think the questions he raises are valid, and makes you question and consider where you position yourself within this debate.

Why more (options) is less (satisfying). This fellow did a great job at researching the effects of choice and the supposed freedoms associated with it. He outlines how the excess of alternatives, such as 250 types of cookies in a grocery isle, actually inhibits your decision making process and will probably leave you less satisfied than if you only had to pick between 4 kinds of cookies. He offers many scenarios to illustrate how people choose their partners (and thus how they are satisfied with them) as well as many other anecdotes from personal or research experience. Now while all that’s well and good, after the great research Mr. Schwartz performed, he didn’t really delve in to any one topic. In fact, he skipped over a lot of ideas and didn’t examine the psychology or history very much at all. He repeats himself throughout the book. He repeats himself throughout the book a lot. But, he also uses conjunctions at the beginning of sentences a lot too. Still, it’s a good read and very informative – you might just learn something about yourself.