Jimzworld Homepage Central

NON-FICTION

I rarely read non-fiction, and when I do its how-to computer related books. For instance, with this website I am using the "Flash": and Dreamweaver" Bible to make things happen. To a casual reader, the first look at one of these books might be a bit intimidating. They are thick, chalked with chapters, etc.

Don't let the number of pages fool you. A great many of them are filled with screenshots, and sidebars, and tutorials. All the things you would expect from a how-to book.

I also read books and books on Writing. I had a number on all manner of fiction related topics; character, dialogue, plot, and setting. Those books though did not help me as much as actually reading fiction helped me.

However the other books like "So you Want to Write" "Bird By Bird" Strunk and White" "The First Five Pages" and Stephen King's "On Writing" did help quite a bit in the process of fiction writing. These books were indispensable in the mechanics, and the business, of writing.

I read over the first five pages, for instance, when I feel myself getting a little rusty, or lazy in my writing. There is also one last mantra I try to remember as I continue to update and revamp my website. It's a simple mantra and it helps me. Always spell-check.

MAGAZINES

I guess talk about writing would not be complete without the normal influx of magazines I read on a given month. They are MacAddict, MacWorld, Mac Design, Photoshop User, Wired, Premiere, and sometimes the Xbox gaming magazines (I am not the biggest gamer though).

Periodicals are good at keeping me up on things. The mac magazines keep me up to date on the evolution of the mac. Wired keeps me attuned more globally to innovation. Premier treats me to what's going on in the movie business (and what I can look forward to in a given month).

FICTION/LITERATURE

I have read some commercial fiction such as John Grisham, and in the early days, Steven Coonts and Mary Higgins Clark. I have also read some Elmore Leonard. "The Firm" by Grisham was a good book to read and I think I read it in one sitting. It was such a fast paced fun book that it engaged me on the first page. I also recently finished a couple of Dan Brown's books including the DaVinci code. They were real page turners and kept me interested until the very end.

"A Light In August," "Catch 22" and others were some of the books I had to read back in college. Looking back upon them now, I enjoyed many of them. "To Kill A Mockingbird" is a great book. In literature I also like the works of Douglas Coupland who wrote a great book called "microserfs" about the computer culture. His writing style is fun to read because it is loaded with pop culture adjectives and his storytelling ability has such gestalt attached to it. I also like Garrison Keillor and Kurt Vonnegut

The thing about literature that is so interesting is the style and voice these writers bring to their writing. Your not listening to the same mind numbing formulaic crap that pervades a lot of mainstream fiction nowadays. The prose is dense and deep, and thematic, and reflects some of the maladies of our time, as well as its attitude.

Then there are stories like "Great Expectations" that really deal with issues of social class, of the psychology of romance" and how the events of the past can shape our futures. Still it is the romance of that book, and the issue of being education and yet having no real marketable skills that has me coming back to the plate for more.

HUMOR

I rarely read books of this type. Sure occasionally I will go for the "Far Side" collection. I also have read Jerry Seinfeld, Paul Reiser, and Steve Martin's books. I suppose though that humor for the most part is more an audio/visual medium. They really should make sure they commit all humor books that are not graphic oriented to tape. (for instance the Far Side would suck as an audio book).