City On A Grid: How New York Became New York
I am starting off 2019 with my book-a-month goal again. I slacked off the last year and I found myself really missing the time I had set aside to just read. So to start 2019, I am reading a book that has been on my list for a very long time.
City On A Grid by Gerard Koeppel.
Read with me!
September's Book: Undeground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
I started reading this book for the month of September. It's pretty fascinating so far as it tells of an alternate reality in the US where slavery still is legal in a few states. That's all I'll say about it for now since I don't want to spoil anything and since I haven't actually finished the book yet.
If you want to read along with me, you can pick up the book on Amazon.
One Book A Month (August): The Circle by Dave Eggers
Just started reading The Circle by Dave Eggers today. I'm not reading it because there's a movie based on the book coming out (although that's cool I guess), I'm reading it because it seems like a modern take on the whole dystopian future where information rules all. In many ways, the description of the book reminds me of my own interactions with Google and Facebook.
Anyway, pretty excited to read some fiction after last month's book. Have you read it? What did you think?
Losing The Signal: The rise and fall of BlackBerry
I'm going through this book quite quickly. I started Losing The Signal a little late for this month (it's my July book) but already I'm speeding right along, thanks mostly in part to the phenomenal storytelling and writing. The book revisits all of the spectacular coincidences that founded RIM (BlackBerry's parent company) and how the mobile device maker ushered in the era of data on mobile devices for consumers.
A really great book so far and hopefully one that I'll finish on time if it keeps up!
June book: The Song Machine by John Seabrook
I am now officially 1 book behind in my one-book-a-month schedule. That sucks. Been a crazy busy June I guess which translates to me having almost no time at all to do any recreational reading.
But if you're curious what I am reading for June, it's this book, The Song Machine by John Seabrook.
A Burglar's Guide To The City by Geoff Manaugh
I recently finished reading A Burglar's Guide To The City by Geoff Manaugh. It is probably one of the best books I've read this year so far. At the core of the book is a realization that not everything we see is as it seems by appearance. Sometimes there are hidden walls, objects that could be "ladders", and hiding places right in plain sight that burglar's use to commit crimes. I'm no burglar, but some of the things in this book really remind me of myself and how I tend to look at urban environments around me. It's those little details that I'm fascinated by and apparently, those little details on building facades also just so happen to lend nicely to theft. Go figure.
Geoff Manaugh gives a ton of examples of successful and unsuccessful burglars, many of whom could easily have been a separate book by themselves. If you want to a peek into the life of a burglar and the oddities that surround the definition of architectural space, this is a great intersection of the two fields.