Patrick

Excellently Simple and Refreshing

Revisado: 12-14-17

I've been playing advanced level guitar now for 20 years and I highly recommend this book to anyone who plays, or even is thinking about learning to play the guitar.

Zen Guitar is one of the most important and enjoyable books out there covering playing an instrument. The concept of zen is familiar to many, and this book is certainly laden with familiar concepts, but it manages to relate those concepts incredibly well to the art of learning, practicing, and playing an instrument (not necessarily guitar; this book applies to any instrument... it is not an exercise book), all the while reminding you that those very same concepts seamlessly overlap into everyday life, and stretch far beyond the scope of playing an instrument.

Overall: This is a broad range of mental techniques that can change a person's perspective when applied to an instrument. That's what makes it different than the other books out there. There's really no technical knowledge, just spiritual and overall well being as the goal. I really can't say enough good things about this book. If you play any instrument at all... or hell, even if you don't... give it a shot.

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esto le resultó útil a 21 personas

Entertaining for Runners & Non-Runners

Revisado: 12-07-16

I hate running; I'll admit it. I can't stand it. It can be boring, exhaustive, and just down right painful. So why did I choose this book? I asked myself that same question. Yet, the more I listened to this book, the more interested in running I became. Soon, rather than walking my dog in the evening, I was running with my dog instead. The author's experience is more extreme than my own – he ran 2000 miles in his first year as Quinquagenarian which included a bunch of half-marathons, several full marathons and an ultramarathon of over 50 miles. I'm not even gonna get close to any of those distances, and that's fine by me.

The book begins with an underlying tale of the author attempting to forge a closer relationship with his daughter, who had suggested he return to marathon running and agreed to join him in this venture. The initial idea and the training for the marathon takes up the first half of the book. As it progresses he realizes he’ll have to intensify his training significantly – to double the number of miles he runs each week, essentially. This is hard-core and starts to have a significant impact on his life: the number of hours he’s out on the trail means he’s got precious little time for anything else other than sleep and work. This part of the book gets more interesting as he describes the weather he endured and the grueling toll running for hours at a time takes on his body.

This book opened my eyes about running. It changed my perception of running, and now I find it a little more enjoyable. I'd recommend it for sure.

The narration was good, since the author is a newsman, he's not new to the microphone.

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Nostalgia for a Simpler Time and Place

Revisado: 08-25-16

This book brought back a lot of memories for me. High school football can be the moment of glory for many out there, then reflected upon as a chapter in life that one will spend the majority of his life with his best days behind him.

This book isn't completely focused on the Permian program itself, but also shows how life was in 1980's Odessa Texas. It covers the town history, racial tensions, and oil boom/bust periods. But above it all, it reveals a town's pride for its high school football team that shines through—pride that is fundamental to its nature, to its identity. These people depend on high school football to survive. More than just an escape from the financial ruin that has set in since the Texas oil bust, high school football is the only thing that matters. They live vicariously through these teenagers, these children, as if they are somehow their only connection to anything good or right in the world. Bissinger describes how as the seniors finished their final games, the shock of no longer being relevant sets in, and they turn into just another fan afterwards.

I found myself getting caught up in it: the excitement, the rush, the adrenaline of the game. It’s dangerous. It’s dangerous to glamorize something that should really only represent a small part of someone’s life, but it was easy to understand how one could get wrapped up in it. That's a concept a lot of former players can relate to.

Overall: I liked this book. Although at times I thought the history of the town portions were too much of a page filler rather than useful information. The main problem is that this book is about so many things - the history of the town, the lives of the people in it, and obviously, football. If you've got an interest in Texas and football, this is a good place to start. Heck, you might even get an itch to go see a high school football game yourself afterwards.

The narrator Tom Stechschulte is a personal favorite of mine, and he did a great job on this book.

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esto le resultó útil a 55 personas

A Good Creepy Mystery

Revisado: 06-01-16

I had come across this story on a couple of occasions but had very little information on it and was so glad to have located this book while browsing Audible. It's the true story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident and the inexplicable deaths of nine experienced hikers. It's one of those strange but true tales that leaves a person shuddering. Speculation and theories surround the mystery of what happened to make them leave the security of their tent, in subarctic temps, scantily clad, and which ultimately brings them to their death.

The book was well researched and fascinating. But, this is Eichar's (the author) take of what he suspects happened to them, and is not completely concrete. I'll stop there to not get into spoiler territory.

Overall: This was one of those books that had me totally engrossed and when finished spent an hour researching the Internet for photos of the mountain and places named in the book. The narrator was perfect, and had the "documentary" type of voice. It reminded me of a voice you'd hear on NPR.

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Real, Brutal, & Honest

Revisado: 05-09-16

This book is a very strong revealing testament to the Russian experience of war, both during training and fighting. It's a hauntingly stark, but captivating read of a Russian Soldier's experience in the Chechen war. Beware, this book is not for the squeamish, and it will stick with you for a long time. A substantial part the book deals with the author's experiences behind the front lines, waiting to be sent to war. It's during this time that Russia is extremely hard on her own soldiers. There were periods during the book that I had to remind myself that these events happened not during WW2, but in the 1980s-90s.

The complete lack of any discipline, the outright barbarism and the total corruption of this rag-tag gang posing as an army is shocking, disturbing, and in all ways gruesome. Combine this with the futility of a war fought for unclear reasons far from home, in an inhospitable country against a fierce and cruel enemy, and you have Babchenko's experience as an 18-year old boy.

The narrator did an excellent job and told the story perfectly.

Overall: Superb; and one of the best war memoirs I've read. Babchenko's account realistically reveals the modern Russian army and its wars in Chechnya--but fundamentally his perspective rings true for soldiers' experiences of every nation and every generation.

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esto le resultó útil a 21 personas

Great Narration - Decent Story

Revisado: 02-17-16

I've made numerous attempts at the fantasy genre and it's still a challenge with these books sometimes.

The main reason I got this book was because it was free and the narrator (Ray Porter) is one of my favorites. He can transform a bland story into a great one.

From what I've read about this book, it's based on a role playing game. I've never played a game like Dungeons and Dragons or any of the others either. But, I figured I'd give it a shot. This book was pretty predictable and didn't grab me like some of the other readers out there. At times the storyline was a little hard to follow.

Overall: Unfortunately, I could not really get interested in the plot and the characters; aside from the main protagonist, were undeveloped or otherwise lacking. I'd like to say it was a good book, but that'd be stretching it for me.

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Repetitive, Typical, & Generic

Revisado: 12-30-15

I've read a lot of SEAL books out there, and they all tend to have the same wartime mission stories.

"Here's what we did in combat, now let us teach you how to transfer those methods over to the business world." Which is the basic premise of this book. Except there's one thing that's different. These guys were trained for extremely high stress situations that mostly involve life/death scenarios with firearms and explosives. An office/business setting is different, and the authors probably don't have much experience dealing with unruly workers who underperform in providing reports on budgets. The authors devote a majority of each chapter harping on their experiences in Iraq, and maybe a few paragraphs or pages contrasting those situations to the business world. It's about 90% wartime stories, and the rest is actually applied to business. (Sort of) The reader must realize these guys aren't exactly ideal office companions. The wartime stuff is really all they know, which was their job at the time.

The leadership principles are hardly earth-shattering. Example: A business group doesn't do well in a scenario, and it's the VP's job to take the fall if it fails. Not that hard to figure out, and certainly doesn't need a Navy SEAL to explain how his mission in Iraq that took up 10 pages in the book to contrast with it.

Overall: if you like war stories about Navy SEALs and Iraq, this book and basically any other recent SEAL written book out there has the same stuff. If you want actual business resolution suggestions, I'd advise you to look beyond books like these. Way too much emphasis on their missions rather than actual office issues.

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Good But Not Great

Revisado: 11-25-15

This was my first Martin book that I actually finished. I tried the Game of Thrones books but they quickly lost my interest and were extremely long. This book was just the right amount of time, but there weren't any illustrations to help with the story. Apparently the physical book copy has illustrations.

The adventure portion of the book was pretty good, but I'm still not convinced to go jumping for joy in the streets like some of the author's faithful followers. The narrator actually did a good job, but I felt like he lowered his voice almost to a whisper sometimes and I'd have to rewind 30 seconds to hear what he said.

Overall: It was a good/decent book, and I'd probably listen to the next one. I still can't say the Martin world has hooked me yet though. I wouldn't be surprised if some listeners couldn't finish it.

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A Study of Shallowness & Vanity

Revisado: 09-25-15

In this dark and tragic commentary, Oscar Wilde spares no liberties in discussing morality, religion, society, and the depths of the human condition. This is a book in which beauty seems to be considered as an end in itself — except that Dorian’s great love of beauty ought to have induced in him such a revulsion at the growing ugliness of his character.

Dorian Gray is beauty in human form. His friend Basil Hallward, a painter, sees Dorian's beauty and is driven to portray it on canvas. Per Dorian's wish, he will remain beautiful, and Basil's portrait will bear the ravages of his soul. Basil's homoerotic fascination with Dorian, and its expression in his portrait of Dorian, will unwittingly lead to tragedy.

Overall: This is a deep novel, and requires some thinking about the lessons and messages throughout the writing. It's "a book that has never finished saying what it has to say."

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Disappointing Mix of Recycled Information on WW2

Revisado: 08-28-15

The title of this book is completely deceiving. Only during the first and last parts of the book does O'reilly actually get to the "Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General."
The inbetween is a huge amount of filler information that you can get from a 2 page summary of WW2 in Germany on the web or your local library.

If you're new to the subject and haven't studied up, this book might be a nice read to get some basic information on the war's events in Europe. I've already had my fill of WW2 books and was hoping to get something new or interesting about Patton. This was not the case. It starts off strong, but then deviates to topics that I've already heard throughout several WW2 books.

Overall: if you're intrigued by this "mystery" of Patton's death, you won't be satisfied with the very small amount of info in this book devoted to the actual case. O'reilly does a good job of narration, which he should, he's a television broadcaster. I'd say you're better off just doing some searches on the web rather than devoting your time to this falsely advertised book title.

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