SFist Reads
We're reading books both old and new, books accessed via the SFPL's online reserve system and our local independent bookstores. Thisd is why we love doing this column -- we love seeing the diversity of our friends book choices. What are you reading? Share with the class in the comments.
His thirst for the blood of aristocrats slaked (for now), SFist Jackson's attentions have turned from Revolutionary France to the British Empire, with the George Macdonald Fraser's infamous cad Sir Harry Flashman as his guide. Over the last week he's polished off Flashman and the Redskins (Flashy goes west!), Flashman and the Angel of the Lord (Flashy at Harpers Ferry!) and Flashman on the March (Flashy in Ethiopia!). He's just cracked Flashman's Lady, and is already bowled over by enough cricket terminology to confuse the most devout anglophile. Still, capital stuff, and deuced if it doesn't make Jack Aubrey look a sodding choir boy.
SFist Derrick is whiling away his BART rides with an advance copy of Chew on This, a teen-friendly repackaging of Fast Food Nation. He thinks it will also be a great read for adults who didn't read the original. For those who have read the original, the book will re-inspire you to turn your back on fast food once and for all. His crammed life (which is what he should be dealing with on BART) has inspired him to investigate the cult of David Allen, and so he's reading through Getting Things Done. He's not a rabid zealot yet, but he's daydreaming about the day when he sprouts the six extra arms and two brains he needs to deal with his life, which he imagines as the end result of Allen's book.
SFist Cheshire is reading P0ker Wisdom of a Champion by Doyle Brunson. It reads like someone put a tape recorder in front of Texas Dolly and just let him spin tales until he got tired, but it's an entertaining book, especially for the night table, with most chapters just a few pages. He recounts stories of games from Texas to Vegas, along the way offering bits of the titular wisdom along the way. He has specific tips here and there, but like the best of Elmore Leonard, you simply learn how a master thinks. It's pretty XY-centric (he often refers to the reader as "brother"), but other than that he's just a lovable old coot. One thing Cheshire has noted is that Doyle says he's not superstitious, but Chesh has seen on television that Doyle rents out his good-luck charm. Anyway, this is probably one book Chesh won't be abandoning.