I finished 1Q84 myself this weekend and found this quote, indeed this entire review, reflected my opinion of the experience. I still recommend “Wind Up Bird,” “Norwegian Wood,” and “Hard-Boiled Wonderland” - steer clear of this one, the payoff and ingenuity are sadly nowhere to be found.

Over on Moby, there’s a bunch of speculation related to some off-topic, pro-Kindle commentary that has been coming in as blog post commentary through their queues. Given that a whole string of these appear to have listed the same exact URL, despite coming from various IP addresses, I have little doubt that they were indeed being astroturfed (a term for individual reviews or comments which are actually orchestrated by a single entity in order to achieve the illusion of spontaneity or grass-roots support). What I do doubt, however, is that Amazon would be behind such a campaign.

As somebody who used to manage the customer review process for Amazon (many moons ago) and with significant knowledge (I worked there 9.5 of the last 12 years) of the internal policies and practices of the company, I will state unequivocally that there is no way that any Amazon employee found “fostering” spurious astroturfed reviews, let alone submitting them themselves, would keep their job. I’m not going to say that it couldn’t happen because, hey, let’s face it, some people are incredibly clueless – but I will say that there is no way that this would be condoned. In my opinion, anybody perpetrating that offense, or paying somebody to astroturf on their behalf, should realize that their job at Amazon is in jeopardy.

Oh, and by the way, I love my Kindle 2. ;^)

The free Frye: One of my favorite things in town.

I could sing the praises of The Frye Art Museum until the end of time. After all, who can argue with the power of free – especially when you’re talking about a wonderful collection of art and the outstanding rotating exhibitions (see “The Old, Weird America: Folk Themes in Contemporary Art”) that come through the place?

Last weekend I went over to the museum to peruse the smallest exhibit in the museum (because that’s exactly what you can do when price is not a barrier), “Soft Glowing Light: Viewing Art in the Home of Charles and Emma Frye.” I wanted to learn more about the Seattle power couple who started it all, to understand the genesis of their legacy and a bit more about one of my favorite places in Seattle. What I found out surprised me, although in retrospect it shouldn’t have. The Fryes were incredibly prolific in their art collecting, but they were also undeniably generous with their purchases, opening up their personal home gallery to charity functions and special groups with great frequency, long before they were able to establish a free museum for the entirety of the public. Their house gallery, along with the Henry’s across town, were major cultural outposts in Seattle, bringing art to a much broader audience.

The exhibit itself is quite small – I counted 21 photos and a reproduction of a 1917 Society Page from “The Seattle Sunday Times” – but the passion of the Frye’s is undeniably in every photo, art covers every possible inch of the walls in the Frye home gallery – floor to ceiling, wall to wall.

According to the literature describing the exhibit, the Fryes hung and rehung paintings constantly in order to surface new connections between their paintings; one day might show paintings from given artists grouped together and the next day might show them instead grouped by subject matter or style. Like Rob, the main character from “High Fidelity,” you get the sense that the Fryes were constantly revising their own “Top 10″ lists and finding new connections between the paintings they owned, ceaselessly exploring the narratives created between them on their walls. It’s probably a bit like me and the organization of my book shelves. At least the enjoyment of collecting cannot completely elude we plebeians.

The lost female plot, feline fascination, and whimsicality of Haruki Murakami; the brain bending introspection of Paul Auster; the multi-faceted realities of Borges; and the “space between space” worlds of Neil Gaiman – are you noticing that this guy is in some serious company? “The Raw Shark Texts” is a sharp first novel with some beautiful – ahem – hooks. If you can’t get into this book, check yourself thoroughly for luxophages (a small vampirous “idea lamprey” parasite which removes the human ability to think quickly. “They tend to make their hosts quiet [...] well behaved and firmly entrenched in whatever rut they happen to be in.”)

If, on the other hand, you think you’d enjoy a well-written pastiche of the authors mentioned above, then you’re in for a quickly paced treat. The plot revolves around Eric Sanderson, a protagonist with with dissociative disorder so strong that he can’t recall who he is or anything from his past. Luckily, he has his pre-psychotic-break self to help. Nearly every day, Eric receives a package or a letter from his former self filled with cryptic puzzles and warnings of a dangerous “mnemonic predator” hunting him. The obscurity of these packages actually turn out to be a meaningful cloaking mechanism to keep him hidden from his predator. In an effort to rid himself of this malevolent hunter, Eric embarks on an adventure to find the only person he believes can help, a mysterious scientist by the name of Trey Fidorous, a doctor of language who may be able to help trap the creature, free Eric, and maybe even rediscover a past love from a past life that Eric may lost under mysterious circumstances.

TPN Rating: 4 stars out of 5 – An inventive and wild read with just a touch too much of Peter Benchley’s schmaltzy chum in the water.

Alan Bennett has written a charming, albeit short and self-congratulatory (and reader flagellating) little story in “The Uncommon Reader.” While I’d highly recommend the little book if you can find it free or cheap, it’s rough to think that people will pay $12.00 for this, something so slight that it can be read in 1-2 hours.

The cover is graced with a quote from noted NYT critic, Michiko Kakutani:

“Delicious and very funny… A delightful little book that unfolds into a witty meditation on the subversive pleasures of reading.”

I think I agree with Kakutani’s general sentiment. The book is well written and quite funny, however, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Bennett’s book had created an artifice just to congratulate book readers on being book readers. It’s a nice trick but it came off feeling a bit smug and grating, like it was written for the self-important crowd that already feels superior. It irked me a bit. I didn’t feel cheated at the end, but I did feel like I got the book just to give myself a pat on the back, and that felt a little dirty.

The book at Amazon:

The movies referenced in the book:

Long on promise, short on delivery. Kluger’s subtitle “Why Simple Things Become Complex (and How Complex Things Can be Made Simple)” indicates that the reader is going to explore ways that complexity can be dialed up or dialed down. Instead, what a reader gets is 11 formulaic chapters expressing a question in the form “Confused by [blank]. Why do we … [insert irrational human behavior here]?”

While each chapter is well written with the aim of exploring subjective complexity – how our individual viewpoints determine the level at which we comprehend the complexity of any given subject – the book never even attempts to provide a framework for controlling the chaos (as the title would seem to suggest). Kluger writes clearly and enticingly, albeit listlessly and without structure, about a wide variety of subjects: stock markets, human psychology, Zipf’s law, the Availability Heuristic, Probability Neglect. In attempting to make complexity theories available to everyone, however, Kluger has created a bit of overly-simplified fluff (perfect for people that think “Freakonomics” is the best book ever) that doesn’t do service to the material or propose ways of applying the concepts beyond the cases in the book.

This is my first experience reading Vinge and I’m excited by the possibility of picking up a few more of his books. “Rainbows End” opens fantastically, intertwining thoughts on politics, scientific research, psychology and technology into an unholy amalgamation which sets the story cranking. While not quite the frenetic pace of the opening scenes in “Snow Crash,” it was darned close – a slightly dystopian vision of technology-enabled society and its impact upon our collective consciousness. This society is one never-ending stream of interruptions and threats. Real-world protests occurring for millions of fans while a small group of government spooks investigate the possibility of a terrible new weapon.

The July 18 Pseudomimi and the advertising at the football match – together they amounted to an extremely well disguised test of a new weapon concept. In its developed form, such a weapon would make the Sunrise Plague look like a malignant toy. At the least, biological warfare would become as precise and surprising as bullets and bombs: slyly infect a population with the slow random spread of disease, all but undetected, and then bam, blind or maim or kill – singly with an email, or by the billions with a broadcast, too quickly for any possible “defense against disease.”

Unfortunately, after about the first 100 pages or so, the story becomes a bit derailed and tired, eventually chugging to a stop after a lackluster climax. The characters all have Dickensian quirks but lack depth. The plot is an artificial structure made only to hold the ideas which are indeed dazzling. The writing is lyrical and sharp. While this is all good enough, it’s not great. It’s recommended only for those singularity/futurist types who really lap this stuff up.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to which Vinge I should try next? They’re all open game… If you do, please post it in the comments.

This is a business book that needs to be on the shelf of anybody who wants to get better at their job, especially those who may not see a direct path to the next step or who realize that they may not be as successful in their current role as they have been in a past one. It’s a mature wake-up call that asks you to gather feedback from those surrounding you in your workplace and then to act decisively upon it so that they will know you are addressing your shortcomings and that you have heard and appreciated their input, no matter how brutal it was to receive.

Marshall writes with the practiced ease of somebody used to speaking truth to power. He’s a diplomat and a realist who has earned his stripes the hard way – directly coaching executives. He’s come up with a way for stalled careers to start rolling again. While it’s not easy (in fact, it can be downright painful), it is honest and you may even come out a more insightful person for following through on it. The plan to improve starts through the solicitation of 360-degree feedback. At this phase, you gather feedback from your co-workers, management, and direct reports. There are helpful tips for getting to this in as objective manner as possible in the book. You then aggregate the feedback, own up to what you’re going to change in a very public way, and set about fixing it, re-soliciting feedback when it makes sense to do so.

My favorite part of the book was section 2, which is dedicated to “The Twenty Habits That Hold You Back from the Top.” This is basically an excruciating list of flaws wherein any passionate person will see themselves reflected. How many times have I committed habit #5, “starting with ‘no,’ ‘but,’ or ‘however?” Many many times.

When you start a sentence with “no,” “but,” “however,” or any variation thereof, no matter how friendly your tone or how many cute mollifying phrases you throw in to acknowledge the other person’s feelings, the message to the other person is You are wrong. It’s not, “Perhaps you are misinformed.” It’s not, “I disagree with you.” Its bluntly and unequivocally, What you’re saying is wrong, and what I’m saying is right.” Nothing productive can happen after that. The general response from the other person (unless he or she is a saint willing to turn the other cheek) is to dispute your position and fight back. From there, the conversation dissolves into a pointless war. You’re no longer communicating. You’re both trying to win.

How many times have I made excuses, habit #12? I can count one today… I will return to this section of the book with some frequency to attempt to track my progress and ensure that I’m not picking up any new foibles. I get my annual review next week, which includes 360-degree feedback from peers and managers and I can hardly wait to put it to good use!

I originally heard Marshall Goldsmith on the Cranky Middle Manager podcast in January and liked what he had to say. The book does not disappoint. It’s one of the rare business books that doesn’t pound you over the head repeating what it could have made clear in 5 pages. “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” is a cogently written and thoughtful set of exercises and self-examinations that will help you get where you need to go.

Updated: Make sure to check out Marshall Goldsmith’s comments to this post below! He’s got a wonderful repository of resource materials available for free on his site. Check it out:

http://www.MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com