Reviews and Comments

Okay. Not great. Maybe I'm too familiar with Carey's work writing comics, but this really reads like the mini-series that launches a new title, rather than a full-fledged work of its own.

Herb Cohen may be a good negotiator, but his writing leaves a lot to be desired. It was often hard to sift out the points he was making from the huge volume of anecdotes and jokes. A lot of the material seems really dated because Cohen repeatedly refers to "Soviet" tactics. But the book was written in 1980, so I can excuse some of that.

There is some good material here. Cohen explains quite a bit about how various tactics work. If you're aware that someone is trying something (for example, stalling to increase pressure, or drawing out a negotiation so that you're invested in seeing it come to a conclusion) you can respond to it better.

A lot of emphasis is put on actually removing the adversarial nature of the negotiating process, and finding ways in which the deal can meet the needs of all parties concerned. Thinking in those directions may help me in future salary negotiations, if not in my carpet-trading.

I liked this one less than the first two. Like them, it's a coming-of-age story, but it has elements of the prophesied chosen one pattern that I dislike in fantasy novels.

Generally good. A little sparer than I'd like.

Solid information about weightlifting. Establishes a theoretical foundation, then explains how to do a small set of very effective lifts in exhaustive detail. Tells you what to do, and why, in order to increase useful strength. Definitely the best strength-focused program I've ever used.

The area where this book is weak is "programming". It describes a basic program (schedule of which exercises to do how often), but doesn't detail when to start modifying it.

This is one of those books where I dislike every character, and not in an entertaining way.

The narrator seems to think that he's wiser than his friend John because he's decided to teach himself to maintain his own motorcycle, while John has instead bought a reliable new bike (a decision which the narrator ascribes to a "romantic" fear of technology). He points out some of John's rookie mistakes, and related frustrations (trying to start the bike with the choke on when it was warm).

But his method doesn't seem to be any better. He fails to notice that he's out of gas and has to abandon his bike because it won't run. He strips a screw and can't complete a repair. More seriously, he endangers himself and his passenger by starting a long road trip with a badly worn tire, and somehow manages to destroy his chain guard along the way. Over the course of the trip in the book, the narrator sends a significant amount of time doing maintenance and fixing problems that John simply doesn't have.

I've tried both of these approaches. I've owned a motorcycle that required a lot of maintenance. Sure, I learned lot about how motorcycles work, but it was also a waste of time to be constantly needing to fix it. I gave it away (okay, sold it for $1) and replaced it with a much newer model that requires almost no maintenance. That's not me being afraid of technology, it's me liking riding better than wrenching.

I didn't find the philosophy in the book any more convincing than the arguments about motorcycles.

This was one of the assigned readings for a class on Nonlinear Fiction that I took back in 1995. It's a early novel, so Sterne is experimenting in a form that's not quite fully established. Instead of a straightforward narrative, the author keeps interrupting himself to careen off on diversions.

I've been strolling through this book for years, reading a book or two at a time. It's lots of fun (it's divided into 9 books).

This would have been a solid book, if it hadn't changed directions several times midway through. As it is, it's an amazing book. It's about a prodigy, raised, and home-schooled, by his unmarried mother. His mother won't tell him who his father is, telling him that it's better that he not know. He takes matters into his own hands.

This looks like a good first book in Topology, which I've meant to study since my interest in math hit full steam. I made it as far as I could go on just reading the definitions. I'm going to have to start working the problems if I'm to make more progress.

Recently (okay... in June 2001) reread Dune, and was even more impressed than the first time. I remember the series going sharply downhill after that, but I think I'll give it at least a try.