Read Reid's Blog » Books/Magazines

I’m reading again

Reid — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:39:46 +0000

Kolina and I were killing some time before picking up my repaired Samurai Jeans (another blog post later!) and dinner at DOSA (yet another blog post), so we spent some time at Dog Eared Books, a great bookstore in the Mission. I found Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain and am now a third of the way through.

Feels good to read a book again.

And yes, I’d recommend either reading the book or watching the one season show on Hulu. Or both!

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I’m reading again

Shantaram

Reid — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 07:52:46 +0000

Since coming back to California, I’ve quickly made a point to visit all my favorite cuisines and restaurants that I missed while I was in Hyderabad – Gooyi Gooyi, pho, shabuway, Del Taco, dim sum, and Panda Express. But, I’ve found myself really missing India, in large part because I’ve been reading Shantaram, a 900+ page mammoth of a novel by Gregory David Roberts. The book, although fiction, is based upon Roberts’ own life – a convicted heroin addict who escaped from a maximum security Australian prison, winding up in Bombay, where he set-up a free health clinic in a slum neighborhood, fought in Afghanistan, and ran a counterfeit passport business as part of the local mafia. Many of the landmarks in the book – Cafe Leopold and the Taj Mahal Hotel, were locations attacked by terrorists this past November, providing me with some context in which to understand the city and its people. And if you’re not keen on reading the book, you can always watch the movie, which is due out sometime in 2009.

I know that there’s a lot of anxiety about going to India – health, access to clean water, culture shock, and of course, now you can throw safety into the mix. If you can’t afford the five-star hotels in the big cities, you’ll probably have to sacrifice some comforts you’re used to, especially if you want to travel to some smaller cities. I think the beauty of the country and people more than make up for this, though. What I still can’t get over was how friendly everyone was – talking to you on the street, giving you directions if you’re lost, or simply smiling at you. I’m certain these exchanges happened because I was a foreigner that stuck out like a sore thumb, but on the other hand, it’s one place I’ve traveled in the world where people work hard for the rickshaw ride, local tour, or food they provide to you, instead of trying to rip you off.

I think what I’m missing, was that while I was in India, I was going out almost every night, traveling every weekend, and working long hours. In short, I was overstimulated. Now that I’ve settled back here, coming home to a book and an empty house is not nearly as exciting. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of things to do around here and plenty of people to do things with. And relaxing is probably good for me, especially since I did catch a small cold while I was in St. Louis. But, does there become a point where “Let’s hang out!” crosses the line from being social to desperate?

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Shantaram

Stuffs People Like

Reid — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:25:42 +0000

Google brought Christian Lander, the viral blogger turned book deal author of Stuff White People Like, to speak. For me, it was fascinating to see how fast his blog and popularity skyrocketed due to the Internet. He claims he only started the blog after having a conversation about The Wire [which as you may know, I highly recommend]. If you’ve just tuned in and need to catch up, I recommend the following posts to get started:

At the talk today, Lander revealed that the Asian Girls post was done by his Filipino friend, so I guess he’s off the hook on that one. :p

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Stuffs People Like

Conservatives and Priceless Artifacts at the Hoover Institution

Reid — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:28:25 +0000

A few coworkers this morning were doing a bit of Stanford bashing, talking about the neo-conservative bastion that is the Hoover Institution. No doubt this is justified, as the Hoover Institution is well-funded and shielded think-tank, which is a complete antithesis of the liberal-minded student body. What makes the Hoover Institution so conservative? Well, it starts with the fellows, such as:

Newt Gingrich – I’m sure this is a more laudatory appointment, since this former Speaker of the House continues to preach the conservative agenda with groups like the Defense Policy Board and as general chairman for the American Solutions for Winning the Future, which does awesome things like promote extensive domestic drilling to “solve” our oil dependency/crisis.

Caroline Hoxby – Many probably don’t know her, but she’s well-known in the education-reform circuit for her widespread support of the vouchers system. When I did high-school debate, her views on school vouchers (aka giving students a voucher to go to whatever school they wanted to) were wide-read. Vouchers are a pretty divisive subject, but my own views are that they would exacerbate educational inequalities. Contact me for further details.

Condoleezza Rice – My favorite member of the Bush administration. I’m very honored to have her affiliated with Stanford…

Alice Miller – I saved the best for last. Miller is a former analyst for the CIA with expertise in Chinese foreign policy. I took a class with him in my junior year of college on early Chinese History. An astute reader would know that I just said him in the previous sentence. Yes, in between my junior and senior year, H. Lyman Miller got a sex change and became Alice Miller. You can imagine how hard such a thing might be for a place like the Hoover Institution to digest. That’s probably why there’s no picture of Alice on their website. They ignore the issue very tastefully in the final point of Miller’s biography: “Formerly H. Lyman Miller, she transitioned in 2006.”

Oh yes, so now that I’ve more or less hammered in the point about the conservative bent of the Hoover Institution, I want to highlight that the Institution is more than just this stuffy think-tank. It’s a library and an archive. The library is impressive, containing about 750,000 publications. But the archives is where the jaw should drop. It’s a researcher’s dream – “more than 5,600 collections, including 100,000 political posters, 100,000 audiotapes, 10,000 videotapes, and 5,000 movie reels, filling twenty-five miles of shelving.”

Let me tell you about some of the fascinating things you can find in the archives:

X-Rays of Hitler’s Head
One of the first copies of the Communist Manifesto, apparently with many typos
The military order to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki
An Al Qaeda training manual
The handwritten diaries of Chiang Kai-Shek

The best part is, this collection, first started with the collecting of former President Herbert Hoover, and expanded to collections from around the globe, is free for Stanford affiliated students and faculty to access. As an undergrad, I had the priviledge of sitting alongside senior researchers in the depths of the archives, looking through memoirs, papers, and photos, trying to piece together a unique artifact or source for my various history papers. Ahh, good times.

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Conservatives and Priceless Artifacts at the Hoover Institution

Then why did you buy the book???

Reid — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:40:00 +0000

In the effort to recoup the massive amount of money I have poured into textbooks over the past four years, I’ve been selling books on half.com. It’s really easy – just type in the ISBN of each book, set a price, and that’s it! No need to monitor a bidding war like on eBay. You only pay a commission when the item is sold. Since school is starting again, I’ve been able to make a few sales.

Most of the interaction I receive with buyers is through the seller feedback area, where users can leave comments about the interaction. Yesterday, however, I received the following letter in the mail:

“To whom it may concern:

Received the book on **********. Its very nice but was surprised at the price of such a small book. Is there a reason for such a high price? Was expecting a bigger paperback.

Thank you,”

…

Are you serious? Then why did you buy the book? I didn’t force you to buy the book. In fact, if you look at the book information, it tells you how many pages are in the book as well as its dimensions. I can’t believe someone spent more money and time writing back to me. And, now that I think of it, it’s slightly sad that I took even more of my time to blog about it here.

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Then why did you buy the book???

Remember what the correct title of a book is when you’re recommending it to a friend

Reid — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:45:00 +0000

J had raved to me about reading “The Inheritance of Loss.” In an effort to be erudite, I had purchased the book and started to read it last week. I unfortunately had trouble getting through it, ending up on around page 100 after a few hours of half-hearted reading. So, talking to J a few minutes ago, here’s what transpired:

Me: so far i’m liking the story of biju in new york better than the things going on in india
J: biju????
Me: maybe because the narrative is something that i can understand and picture a little better
J: who’s biju?
Me: the cook’s son in new york
Me: who is going between lots of jobs
J: who huh?
Me: lol didn’t you read this?
J: ummm
J: i don’t remember a cook
Me: the cook in india
Me: the cook for the judge
Me: who has a son in new york city
J: wut judge?
Me: WHAT
J: ummmmm
Me: are we reading the same book?
Me: The Inheritance of Loss?
Me: by Kiran Desai
J: OMG
J: i guided u to the wrong book
J: O_O

I’m supposed to be reading “The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri! I’m going to pick that up tomorrow after I return this other book!

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Remember what the correct title of a book is when you’re recommending it to a friend

Rediscovering Reading

Reid — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 05:16:00 +0000

To occupy my newfound freetime, I’ve taken up reading. In the past month I’ve read Prep, The Search, The Headmaster Ritual, HP7, and the Time Traveler’s Wife. All excellent books. Well, the Headmaster Ritual was the worse of them all. I’m now onto The Inheritance of Loss. I feel like I’m doing some hit parade right now, going to Border’s and picking whatever was a NYT bestseller a few months ago and is now discounted. Either way, these are good books to occupy myself when I’m tired of staring at the computer all day.

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Rediscovering Reading

HP7 / Arrested Development

Reid — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:17:00 +0000

So yes, I finished Harry Potter. I don’t want to give anyway any spoilers to the vast majority of people who haven’t read the book, but suffice it to say, it was much different than previous versions, although not in a bad way, but in one that just made the book not as exciting as others have for me. Plus, since it was the official end to the series, I thought the ending was cliche and somewhat contrived, but in many ways it really did finish an excellent series. So read it, definitely.

And while you’re at Borders or Barnes and Noble, be sure to get:

Arrested Development.

I just bought season 1, and holy shit, it’s hilarious! The Bluth’s are a seriously dysfunctional family and what’s better is that their interactions are shockingly funny. It almost feels like a reality show, like Real World, mixed with an element of third-person narration to keep the plot moving. I particularly enjoy Tobias, who is struggling to be an actor, is a “never-nude,” and likes to cry in the shower. Good stuff.

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HP7 / Arrested Development

HP7 is Coming

Reid — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 05:56:00 +0000

Of course the internet is buzzing with spoilers, activity, etc of the upcoming HP7. Myself included, will be getting the book as soon as possible and reading it this weekend. Hopefully the next update will be my own impressions of the book. Post from: Read Reid's BlogHP7 is Coming

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HP7 is Coming