Review: Born to Walk: The Transformative Power of a Pedestrian Act

Born to Walk: The Transformative Power of a Pedestrian Act by Dan Rubinstein
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The author mentions in this book using Google to look things up. As I read through this book of walking and noticed the sections, including sections on the physical and mental benefits of walking, cops walking a beat, walking (more marching) in protest, and more, I found myself wondering if the author had just googled the term “walking” and categorized the results, writing parts of the book based on how popular the categories were. This is a broad overview of the term “walking”, and the sections do not congeal. Perhaps “walking” is too loose a connection between these topics. I think a focus on walking as a method of civic transformation, like the subtitle hints at, would have been enough of a topic to make a fine book. This just reached a bit too far. I enjoyed the voice of the author, and would consider reading more of his work.

I listened to this in the Booktrack audio edition. In this version, the book narration was accompanied by light background music and occasional appropriate sound effects. For instance, when quoting cops walking a beat, car horns and other city traffic noises were mixed in. I had mixed feelings about this experience. I actually enjoyed the sound effects and most music. I felt it raised the feel of the performance to be similar to listening to a well done NPR radio story. However, I noticed a few times while listening in the car that the choice of music was more of a repetitive industrial noise than music, and more than once I thought I had brake problems, or was dragging a metallic object, because of that noise. I recommend the Booktrack folks consider where their listeners tend to be when listening, and try not to send the wrong message with their additions to the monologue.


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Review: What Is Your What?: Discover the One Amazing Thing You Were Born to Do

What Is Your What?: Discover the One Amazing Thing You Were Born to Do by Steve Olsher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have read so many “find your purpose” books, I wonder why I keep going. But I know. It isn’t reading the book, it’s actually doing the work that, purportedly, help you find your purpose. And I don’t have a good track record at doing this work. So I continue, and I notice the differences in these types of books. This is one that is more of a workbook, with lots of fill-in-the-blank sections to work through. I actually found the exercises to be more thorough than many of the books I’ve read, so this was a good thing, but there are also plenty of blanks to fill in, which all require a lot of reflection. Hence more work.

I liked this book. It was ambitious. It had more steps than I was expecting. Although it was set up as a workbook, it’s hard cover – you don’t see that combination often. The font was a size smaller than I expected, and the text covered more of the page than I’m used to, with smaller margins. It felt like the author had a lot to say and wanted to maximize that paper. I wish he had used higher quality paper, though, instead of the typical disposable workbook paper that yellows quickly. Nevertheless, I found the design of the book was interesting and lead to me liking it more that I otherwise would have expected.

Overall, I found this one of the more interesting examples of the “find your purpose” genre.


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Review: Biopunk: Solving Biotech's Biggest Problems in Kitchens and Garages

Biopunk: Solving Biotech's Biggest Problems in Kitchens and Garages by Marcus Wohlsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very enjoyably written set of articles on home-brew biology as it exists in the early 2010s. Reading through this book felt like reading a long pop science magazine focused on this topic. There are lots of anecdotes about the people doing this. It actually starts off quite tame, describing people building diagnostic medical tests to test their own families and building inexpensive equipment or finding expensive equipment for sale second hand. Only as you go on in the book do you see DNA manipulation and the like. The book ends with a discussion of the risks involved.

I just attended a TEDx conference that included a speaker running a local biohacking lab. The talk focused on what they could do, how they share information with other researchers, and how they were using equipment that was home built for cheap or purchased for a fraction of what the functionality cost just a few years ago. Many of the advances talked about came about after this book was written (its copyright date is 2012). The cause of the strength of this area of “non-corporate” research, according to the speaker, is the continued lack of regulations. This continues to be a fast moving area, and on that will get more interest from the general public as time goes by and as “things happen”, good or bad, based on this research. “Biopunk” remains a good introduction.


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Review: Robicheaux

Robicheaux by James Lee Burke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have listened to the audio version of most of James Lee Burke’s Robicheaux books, narrated by Will Patton. Patton has become the voice of Dave Robicheaux for me, as well as the voice of the bayou country as described by Burke, in a way that can be called atmospheric, if that atmosphere is humid, hot, and kinda menacing. According to Amazon “Look Inside”, the word “mist” shows up 14 times in this book, mostly relating to seeing people appear or disappear. Moody. Robicheaux is having a bad time, more than normal, in this one, making this one of the more depressing stories in the series. The story is very similar to other Burke mysteries, as many of the recent books have seemed. But that doesn’t bother me yet, since what you are getting here is a more than plot, it is a mood that Burke knows how to impart very well. To the good is seeing Dave fall apart but hold it together enough to finish the story – there’s no grave injuries and superhuman recovery so prevalent in recent Robicheaux stories. Also, Clete is well-written comic relief (and is well performed by Patton). And you run across some inside jokey bits where you can sense Burke is winking at the reader, one bit playing off of earlier Robicheaux novel titles. I found this a refreshing entry into the cannon.

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Review: The Capitalist Code: It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich

The Capitalist Code: It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich by Ben Stein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have an Uncle that I knew was an investor, along with his full time job as a draftsman. He owned stocks, and he was a partner in a fast food place in Fort Leonard Wood. He’d occasionally give my Dad old copies of Value Line, and I read those voraciously when I was in high school. I understood, in part from listening to my Uncle and my Father talk, that investing was the way to go. But my Uncle liked to invest in particular stocks, hoping to beat the market. Fast forward to today’s investment landscape shared on social platform Reddit, with the FIRE folks, interested in gaining financial independence. These folks have done the research, and seen the value of investing not in individual shares but in broad swaths of the market in low cost ETFs or mutual funds, diversifying away the risks of individual stocks and putting faith in the power of the market and compounded growth. If you mix my Uncle with the philosophy of FIRE, you get Ben Stein’s book “The Capitalist Code”. Lots of basic advice, lots of personal anecdotes. A fine introduction for a young person beginning investing. For those already dipped in this philosophy, this is just a nicely written, fun (or is the word "droll"?) reminder. And you get to relive a little of “Ferris Buehler’s Day Off” in the beginning.

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Review: The Magic of Tiny Business: You Don't Have to Go Big to Make a Great Living

The Magic of Tiny Business: You Don't Have to Go Big to Make a Great Living by Sharon Rowe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you’ve read a lot of Inc magazine articles, or other books are starting your own business, you will find this book trods familiar ground. The focus was on operating your business, not on the initial sparks of creation. So you learn it's not all magic. Then you learn about the "tiny" side of the title. The focus was also on “tiny business”, but while some of the book is about those tiny businesses you tend to call side-hustles, much of the book is about businesses that are larger. The book is short, so it has the feel of an extended magazine article or series. The author includes many anecdotes about her own experience of growing her business, an early eco business, which makes this interesting (although a bit dated) and more than a how-to book. A nice, short reminder of how to think about problems as you grow your small business.

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Review: Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street

Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street by William Poundstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Some interesting stories revolving around the science of information, investments sometimes using this science (and sometimes not), and the law revolving around RICO. These things fit together loosely, and the author does a good job of tying stories back to the scientists described early on in the book. But there is a lot of ground covered, in many directions. This is a book of stories related to information theory, not a how-to book. I did not pick up on enough science to be useful for my own investing and gambling, but this book does give you the basics on how it can be applied, and whets the appetite for learning more. I thought the variety of stories helped the narrative – I wasn’t expecting Rudy Giuliani to make such a large appearance.

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