Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

So Joshua Foer was a reporter for Discovery when he originally attended the US Memory Championship, after finding that the contestants were just regular folks who mastered a specific set of skills. He finds himself on course to learn all the secrets and returns next year to win. This book is the chronicle of that year. It touch on way more than just memory trick, the science of memory, the history the skills, how various ancients viewed memory, chapters on what it takes to master skills in general. So many topics between two cover. All well written and easy to follow.

Now I've had a look at some of the reviews on Amazon.com, and a lot of people complained about how it wasn't just a book of memory techniques and that you should instead read one of Harry Lorayne's books. Well first off I've never made it farther than half way through one of Lorayne's books. The half I did read didn't go over what to do if you get plateaued and find your self stuck unable to improve. And secondly nowhere on Joshua Foer's book did I find the claim that the purposes of the book was to teach you memory secrets.

I found this book to be informative and inspiring. The message is not how to remember more things but instead how anyone willing to devote the time and effort can master any skill set. The book caused me to think, even to re-evaluate how I read.

I'm giving this book a 10/10.

A Steampunk’s Guide to Sex

This book comes to me with an interesting back story. When it was just a dream on kickstarter I read about it on a blog, and thought that's interesting then I moved on and thought no more about it. Then I get an email from a band I follow and it turns out they were playing a launch party for a book in a town near me. The book was 'A Steampunk’s Guide to Sex' but I was more interesting in seeing my favorite band so I got my best friend and we went to the party and had a good time and my friend wanted the book. It turned out to only be $10 so I got her a copy even got it signed by one of the authors.

 It's a study of human sexuality through the lens of Victorian society. It's a rather small book but it's chock full of info, it's a little skimpy on actual steampunk info, instead it focuses more on sex in the Victorian age. I feel I more than got my monies worth but I also feel that it barely scrapes the surface of most topics. It leaves it up to the reader to go out and study the topic that interest them. Unfortunately it often lack enough base info to get a good start on the search for more info. By far my favorite section was the one on slang. I have to give this book a 10/10

The Optimist's/Pessimist's Handbook: A Companion to Hope and Despair

A delightful little book in that it is quite literally two books with opposing view points sharing the same binding. The books are turned so that when one is right side up the other is upside down. Each start at one cover and then meet in the middle. In fact I spent a minute or two flipping it over in my hands trying to figure out which was supposed to be the front of the book. Try as I might it seems that all the ways I could think of to determine a front and back were already covered. Each side had barcode and it's own copyright page the text on the inside of the dust jacket was set up appropriately for each. Each half is a collection of quotes and factoids that either support optimism or pessimism. I didn't read all of the Optimists side but I thoroughly enjoyed it and would not complain if it were in my personal collection. I'm going to have to give it an 8/10

I feel bad

I barely remember I have this blog, most of my postings to another blog on another account but looking at this blog make me feel like I haven't read anything in a while. Which is not true I just haven't read anything new or that I feel like reviewing here. Most of what I've read has been fiction and I don't like reviewing fiction. I prefer nonfiction books that I can say this is what its about and this is how well it reads and I don't have to worry about spoilers and all that.

Damned

Damned

• Written by Chuck Palahniuk
• Narrated by Tai Sammons

So big surprise I was in a library the other day and I was walking past the fiction section ruminating on how I wish the books were grouped by subject instead of author so I can find something in a genre I would enjoy then I came upon the audio books. And in the audio books were a new thing called a Playaway. A Playaway is a single audio book loaded on to simple mp3-player like device, just have to provide my own headphones. While their selection was quite small I just had to try one out and so I selected Damned by Chuck Palahniuk. While not exactly an audio book connoisseur it wasn't the first audio book I'd ever listened to.

So Damned is a loving heartfelt story about a boy and his dog. No its not but after a few minutes of listening to it you'll wish it was. It is actually about an annoying fat little thirteen year old girl banished to hell after over dosing on marijuana. The story is told first person from her perspective. That about all I can tell you because I quit listening after the first four chapters. The main character is just too damn annoying, I hated her, I wouldn't put up with this person in real life I'm sure as hell not going to listen to her rattle on for a whole damn book. The character had this super annoying habit of breaking the fourth wall every time she used a large word with “Yes I know 'character' I'm thirteen not 'retarded'.” the what she was not would change with each saying. Four chapters in and I was already dreading hearing any word more tough than could be found on a middle school vocabulary list.

I'm going to have to assume that the book is entitled damned because it's hell to listen to. I'm going to have to give it 1 out of 10 I hated the main character that much. Although I remain a fan of the Playaway concept.

The Big Con

The Big Con

by

David W. Maurer

            When I go to the book stores I usually know what I'm after but I always take a look at the bargain rack. The Big Con was one of those books that I just happened to find at too good a price to pass up. I love just anything to do with con men (I'm a right dab hand at the three shell game myself) so at ~$8 I just had to have this book. So I bought it and I read it and here I am telling you about it.

            So as I understand this book was first published in 1941 and its author is not an ex-cop or detective, nor an ex-criminal or con man. Its author was a linguist fascinated by underworld slang. This linguist found and befriended all sort of underworld types to learn about the jargon they used. He did this and published a book about it but it seems that the argot of the con was so great and fascinating that it deserved its own book. I imagine that getting the underworld types to talk was no mean feat but he did it and even managed to keep the secrets he promised to keep by having his personal collection of notes destroyed upon his death. If you cannot tell I find the history of the book and its author just as fascinating as the book itself.

            This book has two introductions being a second edition printed nearly half a century after the first, the first introduction tells how the book came to be and about the author and reminds us that $50,000 in 1940 is like $500,000 today which is important to remember. Some of the touches (con jargon for total money made from any one running of the con) are impressive even before you do the mental math. $300,000 is a lot even today but with inflation that $300,000 is the same as $3,000,000 today.

            There are a lot of con games out there but for the most part the book only cares about “the big cons” which is basically defined as any con in which the mark is sent on the send (the sucker is sent to go get more money than he has on him) this is the opposite of “the short con” where the mark is only taken for all the money he has on him. Obviously the money made from each big con is significantly higher than that made from the short con. While I'm sure there are loads of big cons out there the book only mentioned three that were the popular when it was written; The Wire, The Rag, and The Pay-Off. Two of them were cons about horse betting and the other was about the stock market.

            All three con's went the same basic way a con called a Roper search the countryside looking for a good mark. A good mark being someone with larceny in his blood (meaning someone that wants to get something for nothing) and a hefty bankroll to lose. When a roper finds a good mark he befriends him and takes him to where the insideman (a con that runs the show that loses the mark his money) is running his big store. There they put on a little show that fans the larceny in his blood (some marks have more blood larceny than others, one anecdote from the book tells of a mark that suggested killing the insideman and taking his money, needless to say the mark was cleaned out extra hard) they fire the mark up till he is ready to turn all he owns into cash to play the game. After that they clean him out and  get rid of him in a myriad of ways.

            While that all seems like a lot of information it actually only constitutes one chapter while I won't get as in depth with the contents of the other, you can read it your self for that, I am going to give a brief description of the other chapters. First up is 'The Mark' this chapter talks about what else, the mark. What a con looks for in one and such. Next is 'The Mob' which talks about the various specific jobs in a con and who fills them. Then comes a chapter entitled 'Birds of a feather' in which the book goes over con men themselves, shared characteristics and what con men say makes a good con man. My favorite part of the book is probably in this chapter where it talks about the cons that con men pull on other cons and criminals. After that we have 'Tin-Mittens' this chapter is about people that make money off the con but are not part of the con itself such as policemen who get a cut to keep the marks from taking any complaints to trial. Then comes a fun chapter called 'Short-con games' where there are explained eight short cons a con man my run if he is low on funds. Almost all require two con men to play though. Next to last and one of the most enjoyable of the chapters is 'The Con Man and His Lingo' which is like a bad guy glossary. The last chapter an amusing when you consider it was wrote ~50 years ago is 'Looking Toward the Future' which is about three pages long and closes out the book.

            Over all I really enjoyed this, it was a fun easy read about a subject I love. About the most trouble I had was that sometimes slang is used that while common in 1940 is no longer in modern use and I can only wonder at what was meant. I always worry that I'm going too hard or too soft on grading a book but for me this one totally gets a 10 out of 10.

About Bizarre Magic

About Bizarre Magic
P. Craig Browning

What can I say about a free book. Well its thirty-eight pages which makes it longer that a lot of other e-books I've gotten. This book was written for magicians that are interested in a style of performing known as Bizarre Magic. Generally speaking Bizarre Magic is bit on the macabre side a bit darker, and very much more theatrical than other forms of magic. This book proved to contain a good introduction to the realm of Bizarre Magic, but it was clear to me that the purpose of this book was to wet the readers apatite so as to convince them to buy one of the authors more expensive works. My biggest problem with this book would have to be the near constant typos. These are not your letter out of place typos these are the I hit spell check and put the wrong word in sort of typos. It made the book rather arduous to read.

I'm going to have to give this book a 6/10 for the typos.