January 29th - Book Seven: The Game

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Originally uploaded by cherubichomer.

This is Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden's famous book about one week in his last year with the Montreal Canadiens. Mr. Dryden, now a famous Canadian politician, certainly has a way with words. Bob Clarke, the heart and soul of the Philadelphia Flyers and Dryden's teammate on many National team events during the seventies, once said of Mr. Dryden, "If you asked him the time, he'd build you a watch. You didn't dare ask him a question because you'd have to stand there and listen to him spout off for half an hour." Yeah, his writing is pretty much the same. However, his writing is interesting and intelligent. It gives great insight into the meaning of hockey to Canadians. I suggest that every Canadian, hockey and no-hockey fans alike, read this book. Actually, I think it should be a future recommened "Canada Reads" book. I give it a 5/5. (248pages. Total for the year: 1836 pages)

January 24th - Book Six: Early Bird

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Originally uploaded by cherubichomer.

My sixth book was Early Bird by Rodney Rothman which I purchased from Book Warehouse for the fabulous price of $4.99. I bought the book primarily because it has a jacket cover "praise" from Jon Stewart of the Daily Show. (Now, I know everyone is hyping the Cobert Report right now but nothing, not even Stephen Colbert, can hold a candle to Jon Stewart.) Obviously, if Mr. Stewart finds this book funny, it's gotta be funny. And it is. It's a great book. His writing style and humour is akin to David Rakoff or David Sedaris but much easier to understand as he's heterosexual - so the sex jokes he writes actually makes sense to me - and younger - so the sex jokes he writes acutally makes sense to me. Mr. Rothman was once the head joke writer for "The Late Show with David Letterman" and writes hilariously of retiring in his late 20s to a retirement facility in Florida. Slowly morphing into the type of people the he finds himself surrounded by in Florida, he sheds light on how it feels to be old and retired in the US. I recommend this book highly - and if you rush out you can probably find a few still available at the $4.99 table at any of the Book Warehouses in Vancouver. I give it 4.5/5. Pick it up! (256pages. Total for the year: 1588 pages)

January 21st - Book Five: About the Author

I finished another book yesterday. Book five is John Colapinto's book "About the Author" published a few years back. I bought it at Book Warehouse for the great price of $4.99 a couple of years ago. A crime/mystery story about stealing, blackmail, and deception, the book has a very good opening chapter that "hooks" very well. However, the ending is somewhat less well developed and it makes the telling of the story a little disjointed. Similarly importnat points that took Colapinto hundreds of pages to describe at the beginning of the book only took him a few pages to write at the ending; It felt very rushed at the conclusion. Regardless, though, the book is very well written and a very exceptional read. (Recommened by Stephen King, what more endorsement is needed to get anyone to read this book? Okay, more proof: It also rate very high on Amazon.com.) The story plays out in a very unpredictable way and surprises with each passing chapter. I give it a 4/5 and recommend it to anyone that can get their little paws on it. (272pages. Total for the year: 1336 pages)

January 15th - Night out

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Originally uploaded by cherubichomer.

Finally, I got a night out. Here's Guy, Howard, and Mariko outside of Shopper's Drug Mart.

January 14th - Book Four: The One Minute Manager

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Originally uploaded by cherubichomer.

My fourth book of the year was The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. It' s a very good book based on providing a plan for good managing. The writing is very simple and somewhat dry but I guess people don't read this book for its amazing writing but for its amazing management plan. It's concept is basically the same one that is provided to us during education school. However, the defining difference is to make it clear that there is a difference between a person that understands how it works or wants it to work and a person that follows the steps and actually puts it to work. The only thing that this book doesn't provide is clear case-study examples of following the steps to make it work. I think it's a 4.5/5 and recommend it to everyone. (111 pages. Total for the year: 1064 pages)

January 12th - Book Three: Pure

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Originally uploaded by cherubichomer.

Book 3 is Pure by Rebecca Ray. I bought this book from Heathrow Airport on my way home to Vancouver. It's a book about the trials of a high school girl growing up in England and contains a lot of references to schooling in England, which is ultimately the reason I bought it. About an eighth into the book, it dawned on me that this book is either: (a) a young adult fiction book or (b) poorly written. I think it's the latter as the topics written about are not really young people issues. As well, Rebecca Ray left school at 16 to write this book and having taught in an England school, I can say these types of grammatical errors have an origin. She writes with strong knowledge of certain issues and I believe that she probably experienced a lot of the things that she writes about. I wonder if this book is actually an autobiography for Ms. Rae. The story has to do with the weird relationship between father and daughter and it's very difficult - confusing, maybe - to figure out how everything goes wrong. I don't think the book is available in Canada anyways so my rating of this book can't persuade you to read it or not but here it is anyways: with poor writing and a moderate plot, I'd rate it a 2/5. (416 pages. Total for the year: 953 pages)

January 7th - Book Two: Shanghai Baby

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Originally uploaded by cherubichomer.

It's amazing what a person can do when they don't have anything else to do, I've finished another book. Book 2 is Shanghai Baby by Wei Hui. I bought it some time ago from Powell's Books in Portland for $5.95. It's a book that I read a review about and the fact that it was banned in China left me wanting to read it and I remember feeling pretty lucky finding it at Powell's. Obviously, it's been translated (which explains the many grammatical errors) and I think that the book probably would have read much better in its original form but I'm sad to say that this copy of the book is very disappointing. Actually, I think, based on the copy that I read, it's a poorly written and poorly told story. I'd give the book a 1.5/5. (258 pages. Total for the year: 537 pages)

January 4th - The 50 Book Challenge

I'm taking the 50 books in 52 weeks challenge as my New Year resolution. I don't really think I've ever read 50 weeks in one year before - even when taking education and having to read all of the stuff they make us read - and I don't know how much time I'll have to spend reading during the year, especially when, or if, I get my next job but whatever. I'll just have to exclude 9 billion page tombs and stick with Archie Comicbook-like easy reads. So, no "Infinte Jest" by David Foster Wallace or Tom Wolfe's "I am Charlotte Simmons" and more books like Billy Corgan's "Blinking with fists". Actually, I'm off to a good start. I've already read one book and I've started my second and I still have three days left in the first week of the year! Yippee for me. I read "Praise" by Australian author Andrew McGahan in only three days. I bought it at a $2 table at Black Bond Books at Lansdowne Mall in Richmond. Really, the only reason I purchased it was because Mr. McGahan is a past winner of the Australian/Vogel Award. I don't exactly know what the award is for - it could be for the best book about albino cats set in the jungles of Africa or best first biographical book on one of the three stooges - but having that line on the cover sold me. It's an okay book...not exactly the best writing I've read but it has its moments. A moderate story about a 8 month period for twenty-something while he's on the dole. A lot of drug and sex references. I'd recommend it if you see it for $2. (279 pages)

January 1 - 87th Annual Polar Bear Swim

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Originally uploaded by
cherubichomer.

My New Years wasn't very eventful. I worked at the hospital and then went home. The hospital was surprisingly busy. It's usually not. I did get to break open one of the boxes of alcohol chocolates that I found in the filing cabinet but that's as close as I got to a conventional festive New Year's drink. Very unlike my last New Years, that's for sure.

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Originally uploaded by cherubichomer.

Narv, Guy, and I took in the annual Polar Bear Swim. The 87th Annual at English Bay in Vancouver. This meet is one of the oldest of its kind in the world. Impressive, eh? Our intention was to go to the one in White Rock, actually. The 1st Annual Surrey Naturist Polar Bare Plunge at Crescent Rock but we kinda ran out of time to get out to White Rock. This nude event is the one that Guy and Narv really wanted to go to...I guess they really wanted to get that full body experience. (It looked like it was probably a good thing that we missed this as the news showed some clips of it and the water looked really rough and the turnout looked like it was 6 older white dudes.) We arrived at English Bay a little late due to parking issues but we still got to swim. The water was cold but it wasn't too unbearable. Fun times. I got a free button. Here's a picture of Dwarf at the 2007 Polar Bear Swim sign and another of me and Guy waiting our turn to enter the water. (I'm the guy on the left without any color. Guy is on the right giving the half moon to Narv.)