I got a $50 Barnes and Noble Gift Card...

[ISiddiqui]

...what should I spend it on?

Basically this is a what book should I read next (or DVD I should buy I guess).

[lcjjdnh]

Two recommendations from my own summer reading:

The Number's Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination With Statistics by Alan Schwarz

If you're a fan of baseball, I think you'll find this book very interesting. It traces the history of stats from Henry Chadwick in baseball's early days to what they can do online with computers now. The only big complain I had is that it is probably not organized in the most effcient way possible, but that's understandable considering how much material he sets out to cover.

City Room by Arthur Gelb

Gelb started at the New York Times as a copy boy in the earlier 40s and eventually worked his way up to managing editor by the end of the 80s. His memoirs detail his years at the newspaper, providing anecdotes about some historic events. It is also noteworthy that he held many different positions throughout that period, from cop beat reporter to lead drama critic, so there's a good number of interesting stories from those times ranging from coverage of murder trials to when he first saw Woody Allen perform at a small cafe. It really is a great look inside the Times, and it is interesting to see how it evolved over a half century. It is focused toward the earlier part of that time period, so there's not that much stuff from the 80s and 90s, although he does criticize some of the paper's recent stances (Jason Blair for example) and show how it's just not as fun there as it used to be. It's a bit long (600 pages or so) but I managed to tear right through it.

[SackAttack]

Two recommendations from my own summer reading:

The Number's Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination With Statistics by Alan Schwarz

If you're a fan of baseball, I think you'll find this book very interesting. It traces the history of stats from Henry Chadwick in baseball's early days to what they can do online with computers now. The only big complain I had is that it is probably not organized in the most effcient way possible, but that's understandable considering how much material he sets out to cover.

It's funny you should mention, because I bought this book from Borders a week and a half ago, and absolutely loved it. It's not for everybody, but if you're even remotely interested in the history of baseball statistics, I can't say enough in its favor.

[Raiders Army]

Get The Traveler. Great read, and book one of a trilogy.

Two brothers in Los Angeles may be among the last surviving members of a once-powerful secret society known as the Travelers. But their lives are in jeopardy: they have been targeted for assassination by members of another secret society, the Tabula, who are dedicated to the complete eradication of the Travelers and to total control of the world. All that stands in their way is a young woman, part of a small band of warriors who call themselves Harlequins. Their mission: to protect the Travelers at all costs. If this all sounds a little wacky, don't panic: the author, a gifted storyteller, makes this surreal and vaguely supernatural good-versus-evil story entirely believable. Although he has a lot of explaining to do (he has to tell us about three distinct groups of superbeings, to start with), he manages it without clogging his narrative with whopping great chunks of exposition. He writes about Travelers and Tabula and Harlequins as if we already know what they are; he thrusts us into this world as though we already know it and lets us pick it up as we go along. The pace is fast, the characters intriguing and memorable, the evil dark and palpable, and the genre-bending between fantasy and thriller seamless. There are dozens of ways Twelve Hawks could have tripped up, and he avoids every one of them.

[ISiddiqui]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. That Baseball book sounds interesting and I remember looking at it a few weeks ago. Thanks for reminding me of it. I'll have to check out Travellers and City Room to see if they are for me :).

I think with the $50, I can easily strech it out to at least 4 books (if I don't want a DVD with it, that is) :D.

[jbmagic]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. That Baseball book sounds interesting and I remember looking at it a few weeks ago. Thanks for reminding me of it. I'll have to check out Travellers and City Room to see if they are for me :).

I think with the $50, I can easily strech it out to at least 4 books (if I don't want a DVD with it, that is) :D.


dont buy dvd's there. there overprice there.

[AgustusM]

most interesting book I have read recently -
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything


http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=sE5uEsZB1X&isbn=006073132X&itm=1

[Peregrine]

I definitely second Freakonomics.

[ISiddiqui]

I'm actually thinking about getting Freakanomics when it comes out in paperback ;). Trying to streach my free BN card, you know? But I have been looking at the book... it appeals greatly to me because it's what I've been arguing for years (ie, everything comes back to economics ;)).

edit: Though it seems it isn't that expensive at BN.com