My Favorites

Return to CDog's Homepage

Books

General

• Anything by Stephen King, especially IT!
• Chicken Hawk - Robert Mason ... flying Hueys in 'Nam
• Blackhawk Down - - war at its best and worst
• How to Be a Star at Work 9 Breakthrough Strategies You Need to Succeed - Robert Kelley ... P&G supplied self improvement read. How to increase productivity in a "brain powered" corporate environment. Interesting ...mostly common sense stuff but some useful nuggets.
• Now Discover Your Strenghts - Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton, PhD ... ditto above. suggests how to id and develop unique strengths and talents...hmm

Sports

• Lance Armstrong - It's Not About the Bike - with Sally Jenkins .... this dude is unbelievable! great book
• new! Touch the Top of the World - My Story by Erik Weihenmayer ... blind mountain climber tops Everest...dude is awesome and a good story teller to boot.
• new! Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance by Lennard Zinn ... I'm fixin my own bike from here on out!

Law and Politics

• The Brethren, Inside the Supreme Court - Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong. Fascinating look at the judicial process
• The President of God and Evil - Questioning the Ethics of George W Bush - Peter Singer. If you can read this book and still support Bush in anyway, its beyond me. Highly insightful read. Confirmed a lot of the feelings I had about Bush policies. 

• Man on the Moon - Andrew Chaikin - THE definitive moon landing series from Time-Life
• Failure is Not an Option - Gene Kranz - Behind the scenes in the Apollo moon missions

Medicine

• Complications, A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science - Dr. Atul Gawande. An interesting read on a doctors recall of his years as an intern, stories about the good and bad of medicine with some fascinating case histories, especially the flesh eating bacteria one...yikees. This is a quick easy read.
• The Woman Who Swallowed a Toothbrush - Rob Myer, MD. Another book on weird, wild and sometimes gross medical cases. Entertaining and quick read as well.
• Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away - Suzanne Somers.  A coworker loaned me this book, before you laugh I think she makes some good points about eating right and avoiding sugars/ processed foods. Some interesting theories on losing weight and getting in shape. You decide...

Science

• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information & Envisioning Information - Edward R. Tufte (classics)
• new! Putt's Law and the Successful Technocrat ... How to win in the Information Age - Archibald Putt ... seems like tongue in cheek but sure could be real description of corporate technocrats and their rise to power...very quick read and very funny

Physics & Cosmology

• The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes ... absolutely awesome account of the A-bomb science, great background on the scientists and political events
• Dark Sun - The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb - Richard Rhodes ... less technical and more political  than the A bomb book. Amazing the level of Soviet espionage during this period of history
• Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! - Richard P. Feynman ... Great stories by a preeminent physicist ... He must have been fun to hang out with. I found myself laughing out loud several times. What a character!
• QED (Quantum Electrodynamics) The Strange Theory of Light and Matter - Richard P. Feynman... short lectures on quantum theory. Best description of theory of the four fundamental forces of nature that I've ever read (and no equations!). Also touched on quantum Chromodynamics (nuclear forces)
• Niels Bohr's Times, In Physics, Philosophy and Polity by Abraham Pais - A real tome but fascinating reading about the greatest physicist ever plus a great history of science and physics (especially atomic, nuclear and quantum) in the late 1800's through 1960's.
• 'Subtle is the Lord...' The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein by Abraham Pais - This was probably the hardest book I've ever read, all 500+ pages. If you skip all the technical stuff, its a fascinating story of Einstein's life. Did you know that he was canonized?? The technical stuff was good too but some of it was just too heavy to keep from flying over my head. Good explanation of a Bose-Einstein condensate...I learned something new! Pais' two books while different in content type, maintain the same flavor which I found quite riveting. The Bohr book had quite a bit less technical discussions than did Einsteins.
• Paul Dirac, The Man and His Work by A. Pais, M.Jacob, D.Olive and M Atiyah - Dirac was a noble laureate and one of the greatest physicists ever, standing in the ranks of Newton , Einstein, Maxwell and Bohr. This is a small book of four guest lectures upon the placement of a memorial slate at Westminster Abbey for Dirac in 1984. The first by Pais is an interesting read on Diracs life and work, that of Jacob a quite readable discussion of Dirac's impact on the discovery of antimatter, the 3rd by Olive on Dirac's proposed magnetic monopole is also quite readable. The last by Atiyah, while I got the 30,000 fot view, the rest of the technical details I understood exactly zero. The subject was Dirac's Equations and Geometry. In one sentence there were at least 10 words I had never even heard before. The math was WAY over my head but fun to slog through anyway...maybe it will sink in later (-; 
• A Brief History of Time - From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Steven W. Hawking. Another great physicist weighs in on the beginning and end of the universe and how it all fits together. Tough to grasp on some of the concepts but written for the general public. Food for thought for sure! 
• The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene - Best book I've read on relativity, quantum mechanics (see QED above however), especially string theory and the origin of the universe (also a TV Nova series)
• new! The Fabric of the Cosmos - Space Time and the Texture of Reality  by Brian Greene. Companion to Elegant Universe although a much meatier read. Greene's love of Physics is contagious. The possibilities for the reality of the world we live in is mind boggling
• Uncle Tungsten - Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks - A thoroughly enjoyable recall of Sacks boyhood growing up in a large family of doctors and scientist, his exploits with chemistry in his basement lab...stuff probably illegal or at a minimum too dangerous for kids to play with by today's standards. Sacks includes some short biographies of the scientists who made breakthroughs in chemistry that caught his imagination growing up. A great refresher on chemistry I've long forgotten...and a fascinating trip around the periodic table of the elements through his young eyes.
• new! Tuxedo Park - A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science that Changed the Course of World War II - Jennet Conant : Story of Alfred Loomis' leadership, contributions and financing of critical wartime programs of radar, LORAN and the atomic bomb...fascinating story of his personal and professional life and his impact on the war effort....

Magazines

• The Week - A distillation of point/counterpoint of world affairs taken from leading news sources, both columnists and editorials. A quick and important read on current affairs once a week. I read it cover to cover as soon as I get it.
• Wired Magazine - Techno-geek stuff and its impact on the world. Great articles always on a wide variety of stuff
• Bicycling Magazine - Keeps me rev'd up on biking. Good gear reviews and human interest stories abound. Required biker reading

Movies - TV

• Top Gun ... it doesn't get any better than this. The jet scenes were the best in movies.. "I feel the need...The need for Speed"
• Braveheart - Mel Gibson at his best
• 5th Element - Bruce Willis fights baddies in space...Mila Jovovich was HOT...and kicked some ass too.
• Private Parts - Howard Stern ... he cracks me up
• From the Earth to the Moon - HBO 10 part miniseries directed by Tom Hanks
• Band of Brothers - 10 part HBO miniseries
• The Sopranos - HBO ... inside the NJ mob
• Six Feet Under - HBO ... quirky but always entertaining
• The Wire - HBO .... they just keep pumpin out these great mini series - Baltimore drug scene
• Deadwood. HBO ...another one! Like Shakespeare in the old west. quirky but super engaging
• Lucky Louie - HBO ... this time a comedy series...Louie's wife is super funny...
• Seinfeld - What can I say...number 1 with a bullet. I was bummed when they ended it.
• Alias - ABC ... corny sometimes, but I like it (well I used to till this season '05)
• Melrose Place - canceled ... yeah I know its a soap, what can I say (in syndicated reruns on cable but too corny to stand now)
• Tour de France 2004 - Lance takes #6 ... Time Warner cable did a 10 minute review of every stage  .. viewed on demand!

Music/Radio

• Howard Stern ... I'll cry when he moves to satellite radio (he did!) cause I'm not subscribing (I didn't), but he made me laugh like no other. Some of his gags are just plain stupid but a lot of it is simply great
• NPR - Mystery Theater - great for the ride home

Updated 12/01/2006