Blurberati Blog

Yeah. We’re a bookish group. I’m sure you’ve sensed that. Every now and then we like to share what we’re reading, so here’s the latest Blurberati reading list. We’ve grown a bit, so this will be a two part post. (Catch the second list on Monday.) Let us know what you’re reading too. We’ll be looking for something new as soon as we finish these:

Yoga and the Path of the Urban Mystic by Darren Main. Since I’m studying to become a certified yoga instructor, and Darren Main is my teacher, this makes sense. It’s actually a great book about how to incorporate the ideals of yogic philosophy into today’s crazy world. Much easier said than done.

-Sara

I finished The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, a few weeks ago and enjoyed it tremendously. The plot focuses on a boy who must survive on a life boat with a Bengal Tiger for an impossibly long time. The story rises and falls wavelike between psychological and magical realism in order to explore themes like faith and reality. If nothing else, some of the passages are written with ferocious wit and visceral detail. I was shocked and moved.

-Samuel

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Stephen King’s most gruesome tales have never disrupted my entrenched sleeping patterns. I slept like a baby in an old country mansion through thunderstorms while reading The Exorcist. And were Mr. Poe alive today, he might take offense at the serenity of my naps I enjoy between pages of his prose.

But the clinical, icy and plausible tale of murder and conspiracy in Donna Tartt’s, The Secret History, kept me up at night. My mind raced with guilt in the mornings until it dawned on me I was not actually wrapped up in the plot. The lies the characters tell mount until you wonder what you would have done, what you would have said. Tartt expresses the psychology of criminal minds as vividly and truly as Dostoevsky does in Crime and Punishment, and The Secret History was the most compulsive read my nerves have enjoyed in years.

-Jeremy

The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain. Tales from the road by the author of Kitchen Confidential and the star of “A Cook’s Tour” and “No Reservations”. This guy is funny, snarky, and a great writer. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I just started this one. It’s an end of the world story…more info soon. I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert. Humor on the same level as his TV show, “The Colbert Report”. This is my BART book this week.

-Jay

Continuum Books’ 33 1/3 Series. Every Christmas, my friend and fellow music and book-lover, Cory, and I exchange books. This year he sent me a copy of The Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique by Dan LeRoy, part of the 33 1/3 Series. These books give the history, the backstory, and all sorts of goodies about the records you know and love. I enjoyed Paul’s Boutique so much that I immediately picked up In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and Sign ‘O’ the Times. Up next? Songs in the Key of Life or Doolittle.

-Alysha

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. My wife received A World Without End by the same author as a Christmas gift. I hijacked the book, thoroughly enjoyed it, and went back to read the preceding book, Pillars. Fortunately the two stories are roughly 300 years apart so I only missed out on the subtle references between the two.

-Brent

Maximum City: Bombay Lost & Found by Suketu Mehta. Inspired by co-worker Shetal’s recent trip, and a review on BoingBoing last week. 50 pages in, and I’m convinced I need to witness the most-inhabited square mile of earth for myself.

-Laura

I’m reading The Elements of Typographic Style in an attempt to learn a thing or two about proper typography. Bek recommended the book to me and so far I’ve found it to be quite good. Someone is applying chapters of the book to Web typography; I’ll be reading this site as I go through the book.

-Nathan

Peter the Great by Robert K. Massie. I love long biographies and have a really hard time finding good fiction. It won the Pulitzer and was recommended by a friend. I am about half way through and it is really excellent. Peter the Great was responsible for the “modernization” of Russia in the late 1600′s and early 1700′s. He imported a lot of western ideas, decreased the role of the church in Russia, built the first Russian navy, and built a modern Russian army (rather than just an armed rabble). At the time that he took power, Russia was landlocked and Peter fought a 20 year war with Sweden (a military power of the day) to gain some Baltic ports. He founded St. Petersburg and moved the capital there (where it remained until the Bolshevik revolution). So it is both about Peter the Great as a leader and about the modernization of Russia.

-Doug

The Beautiful Fall: Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris by Alicia Drake. It’s about Yves St. Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld and their cliques fighting for power in the fashion world from the 50′s onwards. I’m very into the history of fashion and enjoy going to textile museums, as I find who wears what and why to be an interesting story of how humanity has progressed. And decadence rocks.

-Milisa

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan. Super geeky, epic fantasy series known mainly for the fact that it still hasn’t ended – with 12 giant books already in print. Of course, by the time you realize that you’ll be reading twelve 1000+ page novels, you’re too involved with the characters to stop. I’m currently rolling through book seven, Lord of Chaos. One of the “must reads” for fantasy enthusiasts, but only if you have a *lot* of spare time. Lucky for me, I’ve got a long train commute everyday.

-Jamie

Stuck on layover in Denver I finished A Sense of the World which was a pleasant surprise. One of the more engaging non-fiction books I’ve read in awhile. Given I had another 6 hours between airport and home, I picked up Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I’m a bit of a sucker for literary fantasy. So far it’s a bit slow, but it is growing on me. The downside is Alysha told me she was very disappointed and it could use a bit of editing, but I’m too far in to turn back now.

- Chad