Abandoned

When I started this project I decided that if I decided I didn’t like a book and couldn’t read any more, I wouldn’t. These are the books I abandoned this year:

Moneyball

Michael Lewis’ “behind the scenes” look at the front office of the Oakland A’s was intriguing, but I just don’t care enough about baseball. There was a time in my life, a time when I could name the starting lineups of every team in the National League (and a few pitching rotations), when this would have been a really fun read. But I just found no value in reading another 150 pages about how this team chose it’s players and saving money.

SimChurch

I thought this would be a valuable book, a strong theological exploration of a conversation that has been mainly focused on technology and culture. I was really disappointed by the cheerleading and the philosophical gymnastics engaged in to redefine things like “presence”. See more of my negativity in my post “Almost Book 5“.

The Sea of Monsters

The Lightning Thief was plenty of fun, brief, and in it Riordan treated his young adult readers like young adults. The vocabulary was relatively simple, and the context was teen-oriented, but the story (with the exception of a 12-year-old beating up Ares) was good and enjoyable. The Sea of Monsters was not so.

Actually, it’s unfair of me to say so, because I only read two chapters; I couldn’t force myself to read more. The major problem is that Riordan seems to either have suddenly decided his audience is stupid, or to have written this to a different audience. Percy, the smarter-than-Ares demigod is suddenly unable to recognize that there’s something amiss about his 6-foot buddy who can rip the doors off of lockers and catch flaming rocks. Sorry, time to move on.

Sense and Sensibility

I might pick this one up again, I just got bored and there was something more interesting waiting for me…

Pour Your Heart Into It

This is a recommended book for class, and my prof gave it high praise, so I decided to read it. I don’t really like memoirs or biographies, so it was hard at first, but he began with some interesting insights about coffee, culture, and how the two relate. But it started to seem like a monument to himself and his achievements, which just isn’t my thing.

Fourteen Weeks to Go

Just three months left, and I have a real chance to reach 40 books this year, which would be pretty exciting. I’m looking forward to seeing how close I get.