Tag: Boston

Book Group, Books

Book 266: Misery – Stephen King

Geoff W

Stephen King is a sick-sick man, but clearly incredibly talented to write these books. After reading Cujo, I wasn’t sure I’d read another, but my books into movies book group once again selected one. As I’m writing this I haven’t seen the film yet, but I’m sure I’ll be terrified. I’m not sure if I’ll read more of King, other than 11/22/63, but if they’re all like this I’d definitely consider it, even if I do get nightmares!

I’m a little torn on this novel, as with most novels that are just outside the realm of (my) possibility I’m not sure how much to enjoy it. If it’s something I could see happening, even if it’s a super stretch, then I get a little freaked out by it, and this is definitely one of those instances. And let’s face it with the number of weirdos out there this book is totally feasible! I mean it could happen today, even with all of the technology in modern society I could easily see this happening.

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Culture Corner

Culture Corner – March 2014

Geoff W

If I thought last month was Cultural, this month was an explosion. Seriously I started the day after I posted the February Culture Corner and haven’t stopped. From Oscar movies and video games to live theater and seeing podcasts live, you name it and it feels like I did it! At the very least look at the pictures and if you see something cool read that paragraph, sorry the post is so long! I’m still exhausted from the month.

2014 02-08 The OscarsI’m not sure why I didn’t include my visit to the movies to see August: Osage County in last months’ blog post, perhaps because I was momentarily obsessed with Frozen? Either way it worked out as I saw The Dallas Buyers Club the weekend after that posted. And what do they all have in common? The Oscars! I so rarely see Oscar nominated films, but these three I knew I wanted to see and I’m so glad I did. Both August: Osage County and The Dallas Buyers Club left me emotionally drained, but they are definitely worth seeing. I still can’t get over how much weight Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey lost for the films! And what was the most interesting part of the film is that it shows a part of the AIDS epidemic that isn’t often highlighted.

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Workout Wednesday

Workout Wednesday – March 2014

Geoff W

2014 02-19 Can't Make it to the GymNot much has changed this month. I’ve unfortunately not been to CrossFit but am looking forward to getting back into it, just need this weather to cooperate so I can get my butt out of bed in the mornings! No seriously look at the alarms I’ve had to set recently, and that’s not even all of them OR a gym day! That’s to get up and go to work. Thankfully the days have already started to get longer and hopefully that’ll make it easier to sort out my life.

2014 02-24 My New Favorite DressingIn addition to my struggling to get out of bed in the mornings, my eating healthier has been sort of hit or miss which is a bummer. However, the week before last I found this AWESOME dressing and it made my salads once again wonderful. I’ve also determined that it’s okay not to eat a salad every day of every week. They were starting to get so dull and repetitive that it’s perfectly okay to take a week off periodically and have sandwiches or wraps! Just not every week.

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Random

Reading Technology

Geoff W

So one of the most exciting things about being a reader in the 21st century are all of the changes! From E-books (electronic) to e-books (enhanced as Michael from Books on the Night Stand said in their most recent podcast) to interactive books on tablets and books with fold out maps and postcards and interactive graphic novels what more could we possible want? If you haven’t seen it yet the Boston based start up Spritz created the new “holy-shit” technology that could impact how everyone reads in the near future. I’m not going to go into the pros and cons of this, I just thought it was super cool and wanted to share it. (Thanks Matt!)

Image via the HuffPost and Elite Daily articles below.

Imagine being able to read a book at 600 words per minute with NO training. Look at the image to the right if you haven’t already, can you read it? As you can see that’s 500 words pre minute! My roommate, Matt, posted this on Facebook today and I was fascinated. I read super fast on my own and this completely captivated me.

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Books

Book 260: Openly Straight – Bill Konigsberg

Geoff W

I saw this book first on Sarah’s blog Sarah Reads Too Much and as soon as I saw the author and read her review I knew I wanted to read it. My first introduction to Bill Konigsberg was through his debut novel Out of the Pocket. It’s hard to believe I read it three years ago AND it was my very first book on my old Sony e-reader. The best part is as I did a quick re-read of that post Konigsberg answered quite a few of my critiques and he’s clearly matured as a fiction writer over the past few years!

As I read the book I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between this and Andrew Smith’s Winger which was a great novel I read last year. However, they are distinctly different and as much as I enjoyed Winger I would probably put this one ahead, not for the writing, but for the story and the subject matter.

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