2000 Reading Record Comments
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Page Count Grade 0-9 Date I finished Source (FPL: Fargo Public Library)
Coolidge Coolidge
An American Enigma
by: Sobel, Robert It's amazing how Calvin ever got to be president. It also shows you don't have to be active to be successful. 419 pages 7.0 1/6/00 FPL
Reflections Of A Rock Star Reflections Of A Rock Star
by: Hunter, Ian It wasn't written that well, but it was a journal and read as such. It was pretty interesting. It deals with the 1972 USA Mott The Hoople tour. I ordered the book. It took three weeks. I figured they forgot about it. It came from the Southern Utah University Library. 104 pages 6.0 1/26/00 FPL
Saturday Morning Fever Saturday Morning Fever
Growing Up With Cartoon Culture
by: Burke, Timothy and Burke, Kevin This would have been better if it had started in earnest five years earlier. Still, I remember some of these Saturday Morning cartoons. 229 pages 5.6 1/28/00 FPL
Personal Injuries Personal Injuries
by: Turrow, Scott Not as good as Grissom but the story was better or at least more realistic. The ending wasn't as dissappointing as Grissom's usually are. 403 pages 7.0 2/24/00 FPL
Illustrated Red Baron Illustrated Red Baron
The Life And Times Of Manfred Von Richthofen, The
by: Kilduff, Peter A pretty good book, with lots of rare photos which followed his life and career. 140 pages 7.0 2/26/00 FPL
Dune- House Adreides Dune- House Adreides
by: Herbert, Brian and Anderson, Kevin J This prequel was an easy read. All the charactors were familar and the story filled in all the detail missing from the movie and my memory of the orginal series. 604 pages 7.9 3/3/00 FPL
Return To Mars Return To Mars
by: Bova, Ben Interesting book and an easy read. The science might have been better but the fiction was good. This is suppose to be a sequel but I don't remember the orginal. (11/13/1992) I've read many 'Mars' books in the last couple of years. 404 pages 7.5 3/14/00 FPL
Perfect Storm, The Perfect Storm, The
A True Story Of Men Against The Sea
by: Junger, Sebastian Well written, a lot like a New Yorker article. (First published in Outside magazine.) The storm of the century, the boats, fishermen and rescue workers. Interesting 227 pages 6.9 3/17/00 Suzanne
Every Man A Tiger Every Man A Tiger
by: Clancy, Tom and Horner, Chuck The second in Clancy's command series. I good overview of modern air power. The first book was better only because I knew so little about the modern army. 548 pages 7.2 4/4/00 FPL
Carrier Carrier
A Guided Tour Of An Aircraft Carrier
by: Clancy, Tom It was loaded with interesting information but it was rather dry. The last chapter with a fictional story overview was the best part. 321 pages 6.0 4/28/00 FPL
Brethren, The Brethren, The
by: Grisham, John Very good book and a good story. I got it Friday evening out of Victor's milk box and had it back by Sunday afternoon. I think the CIA should have just intercepted the mail and not let it get out of hand. Failing that just had the Brethren killed. They sure spent a lot of time and money of this black mail scheme. 366 pages 7.0 4/30/00 Victor
Age of Spiritual Machines, The Age of Spiritual Machines, The
When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
by: Kurzweil, Ray It was a little difficult to get through, no because the writting was poor, but because the concepts were so advanced. It makes me wonder how much of this will actually occur. People won't accept what they don't understand. I don't know how I feel about being converted to a computer file living virtually or in a robot body. 297 pages 6.5 5/2/00 FPL
Monty Python Speaks! Monty Python Speaks!
by: Morgan, David A good interview book featuring the Pythons. David did the job for Graham Chapman. Terry Gilliam talked about John Tomiczek as a Dorian Gray charactor. The worse Graham acted the worse John looked. 315 pages 7.0 5/12/00 FPL
PC Tuning PC Tuning
by: Voss, Andreas This is almost the perfect book for the POC133. I wish I had seen it or checked it out months/ years ago. The CD-ROM which comes with the books suggest the entire text is on a pdf file. I hope so, I would like to copy it. 413 pages 6.7 5/12/00 FPL
Darwin's Radio Darwin's Radio
by: Bear, Greg A good read, especially near the end. I couldn't put it down. The main plot point seems silly but rest of it was good. 430 pages 7.0 5/18/00 FPL
PC Upgrade And Repair Bible PC Upgrade And Repair Bible
by: Press, Marcia and Press, Barry I read this in about an hour. I went faster and faster as I found less of interests. This books seemed to miss everything that I wanted to know. 1088 pages 2.0 5/23/00 FPL
Galileo's Daughter Galileo's Daughter
A Historical Memoir Of Science, Faith, And Love
by: Sobel, Dava Very interesting look at the personal life of Galileo and his times. Great ending too. 368 pages 6.0 5/25/00 FPL
Ender's Shadow Ender's Shadow
by: Card, Orson Scott Much better than the other Ender Sequels because it's a parellel book. It was time for a nice SF summer read. 379 pages 7.0 6/6/00 FPL
Terrible Hours, The Terrible Hours, The
by: Maas, Peter A very interesting and exciting story. I picked it up because there was nothing much else to read. I read it before supper and after until it was finished. 259 pages 7.5 6/9/00 FPL
Rock Lists, The New Book Of Rock Lists, The New Book Of
by: Marsh, Dave There were some interesting collections of acts. A fun read. I should have made my own list of LPs to look for at the Vinyl Connection. 600 pages 5.8 6/9/00 Craig
Sword And The Shield Sword And The Shield
The Mitrokhin Archive And The Secret History Of The KGB, The
by: Andrew, Christopher and Mitrokhin, Vasili Like Paul Johnson, it was very interesting but very hard to get through. The last chapter summary was a nice way to end the book, I wish more nonfiction books would use it. The KGB has such deep penetration but was unable to use most of it due to a paranoid view of the west 565 pages 5.5 6/15/00 Craig
Timeline Timeline
by: Crichton, Michael Interesting, but not as interesting as Suzanne made it out to be. It was the fake SF aspect, but the pacing wasn't as good as Crichton's other books. 444 pages 5.0 6/24/00 Suzanne
Martian Race, The Martian Race, The
by: Benford, Gregory A pretty good tale. I think he rushed the ending. He also left the story open for a sequel. The writing was clear as always for Benford. 340 pages 6.7 6/29/00 FPL
Cold Mountain Cold Mountain
by: Frazier, Charles A very good romantic/ black comedy set during the civil war. The Amercian Booksellers Association Book of the Year. The charactor and plot aren't the draw, but it's the clear writting style of Mr. Frazier. Lately I've felt most books fail with the ending. This one is debateble. It's predictible: the hero dies pages from end, but it's handled in an interesting manor. 449 pages 7.4 7/7/00 Suzanne
Patti Smith Patti Smith
An Unauthorized Boiography
by: Bockris, Victor and Bayley, Roberta The writing was okay, but I didn't care much for Patti Smith particularly after she dumped Tom Verlaine. Ha ha. 321 pages 3.0 7/11/00 FPL
Tis Tis
A Memoir
by: McCourt, Frank I read this book yesterday. I didn't want to put it down. Frank has a charming way with words. His life was a slow slow climb out of the muck. 367 pages 7.5 7/12/00 FPL
Venus Venus
by: Bova, Ben The story was good. The charactors were sort of cartoonish. I thought I had just read Bova's 'Mars' book, but it was a different author. In fact, "Venus" was a nice change of pace after a half dozen different 'Mars' books. 382 pages 4.5 7/14/00 FPL
Alienist, The Alienist, The
by: Carr, Caleb Suzanne gave me this book. The voicing of the charactors isn't perfect but the story was good and it wasn't hard to read. 599 pages 7.0 7/26/00 Suzanne
Angel Of Darkness Angel Of Darkness
by: Carr, Caleb I picked up the sequel to "The Alienist" from Suzanne, while she was in Florida. It was even better. It was a good story and a pleasant read. 626 pages 8.0 8/6/00 Suzanne
Defending Billy Ryan Defending Billy Ryan
by: Higgins, George V. I don't know why Suzanne bought this book. Okay lawyer story. The charactors are okay but the writing wasn't very clear. I didn't like the jumps back and forth in time. If he would clue the reader in it would seem smoother. 245 pages 3.0 8/10/00 Suzanne
Autobiography Of Henry The VIII, The Autobiography Of Henry The VIII, The
With Notes By His Fool, Will Somers (A Novel)
by: George, Margaret I enjoyed the story. It was well written and pacing was just right. It must have been good because I felt for Henry. I felt bad when he was hurting and good when he felt good. And I want to read more, namely about Queen Elizabeth I. 939 pages 7.0 8/26/00 Suzanne
Lotus Smartsuite Millennium Edition For Dummies Lotus Smartsuite Millennium Edition For Dummies
by: Meadhra, Michael and Weingarten, Jan The book was okay, but the program was no great shakes. If there was no such thing as Claris Works or Microsoft Office, this would seem like quite a good program. I only bought the Suite because I could get it at NDSU for the same price as downloading only ScreenCam. Once my computer was upgraded, ViaVoice was interesting and hence Word Pro was okay. Organizer would be okay if it ran on a Mac. Freelance is nothing more than Powerpoint. Approach okay in a pinch as a database (Better than Access). The other programs are okay if you're running a office full of Lotus Notes and Smart Suite users. 392 pages 3.0 9/4/00 Craig
Dutch Dutch
A Memoir Of Ronald Reagan
by: Morris, Edmund At first I hated they way Morris approached Reagan's bio, but then I came to understand the reasons and it was't too bad. Reagan come off as one dimensional, but that's not all bad. Everyone in the book said, "What you see is what you get." Which if you're a good man like Reagan, makes for a great President, but a dull biography hence Edmund's fiction. 674 pages 3.5 9/5/00 FPL
Treasure Island Treasure Island
by: Stevenson, Robert Louis I started reading this story- to the POC300. It was part of the Via Voice training scripts. I decided to finish reading the book. 297 pages 6.6 9/12/00 FPL
Battle Born Battle Born
by: Brown, Dale Pretty good tale of a super B-1B Bone. I thought the post-cold-war plot was pretty good too. 397 pages 5.7 9/16/00 FPL
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I
by: Johnson, Paul Another good Paul Johnson book however I would like to learn a bit more about the person and times. The times must have been outside the scoop of the book, and the person- a lack of data and not Paul's forthe. 444 pages 5.5 9/23/00 FPL
Big Trouble Big Trouble
A Novel
by: Barry, Dave A fun book, not a great laugh riot, but still fun and silly at the same time. Dave needs more work on his fiction writting skills. It seemed like a bunch of columns tied together with one idea or just one very long column. 255 pages 6.0 9/30/00 FPL
Portrait Of An Artist, As An Old Man Portrait Of An Artist, As An Old Man
by: Heller, Joseph Bittersweet novel, knowing this is his last. It rabbled around, on purpose, starting a number of interesting ideas including a bit about Isaac, Sarah and Abraham which got me thinking about writting my own peice about Esau and Jacob 233 pages 6.0 10/2/00 FPL
Austin City Limits Austin City Limits
25 Years Of American Music
by: Davis, John T. The pictures were good. I thought the stories could have been better. I liked the Chronology in the back, but even that could have been better. 189 pages 4.5 10/6/00 FPL
Valiant, The Valiant, The
The Untold Story Of Picard's First Command!
by: Friedman, Michael Jan Star Trek Next Generation story. It was pretty good. Star Trek is pretty corny anyway. The ending was good. I liked how he bookend the story with a substory. 279 pages 6.5 10/7/00 FPL
No Laughing Matter No Laughing Matter
by: Heller, Joseph and Vogel, Speed A light hearted look at Hellers bout with Guillain-Barré syndrome. Interesting but not depressing. 335 pages 7.2 10/16/00 FPL
Designing Web Usability Designing Web Usability
by: Nielson, Jakob It looks like I'm on the right track for D&M. I don't know that I want to give up design control on font size in particular with CSS. I should put some sort of Site Search engine on the sites. I should also review the size of pages and do more product comparisons - or canidate comparisons, etc., more ALT tags and Link Titles. 397 pages 6.2 10/19/00 FPL
Simply Speaking Simply Speaking
How To Communicate Your Ideas With Style, Substance, And Clarity
by: Noonan, Peggy The book is arranged sort of sloppy which works against her own advice about writing speaking and using an editor. Her main advice is be yourself, don't fake anything because American's are tired of slick and can see through it. 208 pages 5.0 10/24/00 FPL
Riddle Of The Bones Riddle Of The Bones
Politics, Science, Race, And The Story Of Kennewick Man
by: Downey, Roger It seems like there should have been more to the story. It reads like a long newspaper article. It needs more science. 189 pages 3.9 11/6/00 FPL
Logan's Return Logan's Return
by: Nolan, William F. It was a difficult download and I paid at least $3.50 for it. The books doesn't even seem like Nolan wrote it. Logan 3- who the hell is Logan 3. The story was stupid and way too short. This wasn't worth 50˘. The charactors were paperthin and the plot was nothing more than a fleshed out outline. 81 pages 1.7 11/10/00 Craig
Be Cool Be Cool
by: Leonard, Elmore I got the reference from Pete Townshend. It was a fun book to read. It should be made into a movie. 292 pages 7.3 11/20/00 FPL
London London
by: Rutherfurd, Edward An interesting book dealing with half a dozen families who inhabit London from Roman times to 1997. A delightful read. I even managed to keep track of the family names which is hard for me. 829 pages 7.0 12/7/00 Suzanne
Eater Eater
by: Benford, Gregory A very good book. I like reading about aliens who really are alien. Good charactors and plot 340 pages 7.0 12/21/00 FPL
Dutch Treat Dutch Treat
The Hunted, Swag, Mr. Majestyk
by: Leonard, Elmore All three stories are good. After leaving off of "Rum Punch"- because it seemed to be "Jackie Brown" and I didn't want to read that- I was happy to see I still enjoyed reading these shorter novels. 568 pages 6.5 12/22/00 FPL
Let It Blurt Let It Blurt
The Life And Times Of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic
by: DeRogatis, Jim Pretty good book, interesting story, but not too many rock stars. 265 pages 6.0 12/29/00 FPL
  60 Books / 19,855 Total Pages