More bookblogging, found at Most Certainly Not:

1) A book that changed my life
Atlas Shrugged, of course.

2) A book I've read more than once
Atlas Shrugged, of course (2x). Also Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (4x). Funny story about that one: My Swedish friend heard me go on and on about that book for years, and one day at her friend's house I looked at his bookshelf and nearly fainted. There was Zen och konsten att sköta en motorcykel. My friend immediately borrowed it and started it on the train. And after about an hour, she looked up at me with this exhausted look and said, "Thank god I didn't try to read this in English." And I don't think she ever picked it up again after we got off that train.

3) A book I'd take to a desert island
Maybe I should take Gravity's Rainbow so I have nothing else to do except figure it out! Who am I kidding though; I'd probably take Atlas Shrugged or Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

4) A book that made me laugh
I read Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe and Don't Go Europe! when we lived in Germany, and they both cracked me up.

5) A book that made me cry
I finished East of Eden recently, and I cried through most of it. I sat there in an empty apartment on a folding chair and wept for a week.

6) A book I wish had been written
I had an idea for a book once. I started it, but I kinda fizzled on it. I still like the idea of it, but I doubt I'll ever go through with it.

7) A book that should never have been written
That's a hard question to answer. Not anything on my shelf, no matter how much I loathe Marcel Proust. Um, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?

A book I'm currently reading
I set down Gravity's Rainbow (I promise I'll come back to it) to read a certain book that arrived in the mail. More on that next week.

9) A book I'm planning to read
I got so many books the other day at Goodwill that it will be a struggle to choose which one comes first. Some on the list are Heart of a Soldier, The Way Things Ought to Be, Airframe, and Flying to the Moon (seriously, Goodwill must've known I was coming to put that one out.) I also still want to tackle Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis and Taking Science to the Moon. Still on the card are South Park Conservatives, The Wisdom of Crowds, and Diffusion of Innovation. My favorite birthday gift ever was when my parents took me to a used bookstore when I was 19 and told me to choose until my arms got full...

Posted by: Sarah at 08:58 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 I know what you are reading right now because I am too . . . do you like it?

Posted by: Heidi at August 28, 2006 11:30 AM (Rlz+k)

2 I know what you are reading too, and am itching to read it, but have to wait until I get my own copy when I arrive home next week. I am sooo curious about it!

Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at August 28, 2006 12:40 PM (186zJ)

3 You have to read Marley and Me. As a dog owner, I know you'd love it. I cried at the end.

Posted by: Tom at August 29, 2006 04:57 AM (PaxpS)

4 Marley & Me is on my list for this week! Can't wait to crack it open.

Posted by: Melinda at August 29, 2006 08:13 AM (mMRvT)

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Angie tagged me to do one of those blog things, so here goes.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your Blog (Please include the book and author) along with these instructions.
5. DonÂ’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag five people.

Well, the nearest book is the husband's textbook, Contemporary Strategy Analysis. Snooze, but here goes:

"The ability to share costs across different segments has been a major factor in automobiles where very few specialist manufacturers survive and most of the world's main car makers offer a full range of vehicles allowing them to share costs through common platforms and components. The analysis of a company's optimal segment range is similar to the analysis of diversification versus specialization. We shall return to this issue in Chapter 15."

Shoot me before I have to read any more. Thank heavens the husband understands this crap. The closest fun book is something on the shelves. The first one on the second shelf is probably more interesting to my blog readers: Culture Shock Germany.

"Attendance at state schools is free, as are some (though not all) teaching materials and resources, such as books. Compared to many other present day state systems, German education offers quality instruction and commendable results. At least as important when considering your child's education is that sending your children to a German state school is also one of the best ways to integrate them into German society."

That wasn't that fun either, was it? Let's try one last book, the first one on the fifth shelf, Another Roadside Attraction.

"[The cockroach] is the most primitive of winged insects and its fossils (found in the rocks of Upper Carboniferous) are the earliest known. No other creature has lived on this Eearth as long as the roach. That's rather an impressive record for the repulsive little geek."

That'll do nicely.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:09 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Oh, come on! You can understand that. An auto manufacturer, let's say General Motors, shares costs for all sorts of things across the board. New engine technology research, for example, would be recouped by new auto sales for the next model year it appears through Buick, Pontiac, GMC, and all the others. Commonly used parts can be standardized, using the same sorts of alternators, brake pads, fuel pumps, transmissions, and whatnot. You make a bunch of parts and they'll fit a whole range of vehicles made by the different divisions. That way you can spend less money on the more specialized parts for the more customized vehicles. Determining the optmimum balance between ANSI standard cars that all use the same parts verses more specialized vehicles that can't use the same parts makes for lots of pretty lines on lots of graphs and keeps marketers and focus groups employed. Chapter 15 should show you a lot of these graphs. This also shows why the military procurement system can be such a nightmare. Image all the vehicles in the motor pool...the Hummers, the M2/M3s, the M1 tanks, the 5 tons and 2 1/2 ton trucks, the M113's, the LAV/Strykers, Hemmits, M88's, whatever the artillery brigade uses, FAVs, all of them use different parts. A generator/alternator off an M113 will not fit in a Bradley or a M1, and vice versa. About the only things interchangable are nuts and bolts, a few gaskets, sparkplugs and glowplugs, and maybe headlights. Real parts aren't standardized. And don't even get started on aircraft parts.

Posted by: Deskmerc at August 28, 2006 05:50 AM (Lrs90)

2 Umm...You forgot to tag five people. Ooh-ooh, pick me!

Posted by: Erin at August 28, 2006 01:40 PM (023Of)

3 Sarah, This is funny. I opened the nearest book, which happened to be Faulkner's _Absalom, Absalom!_. I turned to page 123. There was only one sentence on the page and it was continued from the previous page. It isn't as bad as it sounds.

Posted by: herb at August 29, 2006 04:33 PM (oELOP)

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I thought that this blog would help me understand the world, but sometimes I think the more I read, the less I grok. The Left accuses the Right of being delusional. The Right accuses the Left of being delusional. And which accusation you believe hinges on which worldview you brought to the table in the first place. Neither will convince anyone who doesn't already agree with him. Our world is a sad and fragmented place.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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