neat, inspiring, and weird
347140
i first picked up this book as a cynical, walled-off teenager and hated it! my first impression was "oh, cute. a sugary, doodle-y book by yet another free-spirit hippie telling us to be true to our selves and have fun and give hugs." yeah, i know. harsh. >_<

a few years later i'd softened out a little and had some of my bitterness disolved. i re-read "living juicy" and realized how much i'd been missing out on. this little, quirky, nifty book is not trying to prove anything- but it does show the way to living from the outside in. loving ourselves and bringing that love outside into the world. as a jaded, self-hating teen, i think that message was a very tough one to embrace. SARK asks us to look at ourselves, listen to our hearts, and live spontaneously with deep creativity and love. what i first mistook for flippancy and silliness is now seen as a profound, compassionate, disarmingly simple series of messages from an artistic angel and very cool woman!

i'm sorry i didn't mellow out and re-discover this book sooner. SARK brings the kid in us out to play, cry, read, shout, rage, love, meditate, walk, chat, and nap. and with the emotional spontaneity and straight-forward wisdom of a kid, she invites us to live juicy.
752439
Cool reading, inspiring and helps me see my world a little dif. We are unique creatures, yet somehow not as unique as we think we are.
1063487
The 4-Hour Body chronicles the research and efforts of 4-Hour Workweek author Tim Ferris as he attempts to strengthen his body to superhero-like proportions.  Oh, and tries to make himself into a Superman in bed as well (both in terms of sleeping habits and sexual prowess).

The chapters in this book, which deal with subject matter such as how to burn fat and lose weight while still eating like a pig, or how to bring a woman to mind-blowing climax with just a few simple moves and a couple of hours of practice, are often funny, bizarre and slightly awe-inspiring.  Tim Ferris really just puts it all out in the open in this book, describing everything from the obsessive medical testing he has had performed on himself to his exploits in the sack.

As in 4-Hour Workweek, there is lots in this book to be skeptical of, but many of the ideas may truly have merit.  Even if you didn't like 4-Hour Workweek, or came away from that book with the impression that Tim Ferris is a name-dropping, yarn-spinning lowlife, this book (which superior to 4HWW) is worth a look.
3348494
Tim Ferriss tells you right off that this isn't a book about cooking, just like Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance isn't about Zen or changing oil. He'll teach you how to handle a knife and make a few interesting dishes, but mostly he takes you on a long, strange, self-indulgent, and sometimes useful trip.

What I enjoyed:

-- Ferriss's storytelling. He has a nice way with words: "Mangalitsa acorn-finished woolly boar tasted just like acorns. I was chewing on fall, clear as crystal, in a sliver of cured ham."

-- His emphasis on the slow food movement and local, organic farming. (But strangely, his "Clean 15" foods include sweet corn, which is mostly genetically modified.)

-- His language hacking tips, which are gold. I've always wanted to master several languages and found his methodology solid and logical.

-- The 140-character Twitter recipes from almost every country in the world: fun, simple, and intriguing.

What I didn't like:

-- Ferriss's tangential teaching style. At one point he goes from braising to English's 100 most common written words to kickboxing to chess to tango spins in order to emphasize the importance of selection and sequencing. It didn't work for me, because I often lost track of the original concept.

-- His foray in into survival and hunting skills, just so you can make your own venison burger. (If you want some cricket protein bars, however, you'll need to mail order the crickets.) This section could have been a separate book and might have been fascinating as a metaphor/methodology for learning entrepreneurial skills.

-- His unrealistic (for the busy person) science experiments, such as making arugula spaghetti using a syringe and flexible tubing just to avoid that dreaded white flour. (Though some of his cocktails in the same section sound delicious.)

If I were to sum up this book in one word, it would be "manic": excessively enthusiastic and somewhat disorganized. Ferriss is obviously a curious and driven guy. I came away feeling he gets satisfaction from the ability to tackle and master anything, but not joy.
3523451
This book is full of ideas and creative situations.  It is funny and odd. I enjoyed it thoroughly.  It reminds me of William Burroughs, Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palahniuk, Anthony Burgess, Steve Aylett, or any off-the-wall author you might think of.  But this is not Mellick's best book.  I personally like his novellas better.  They are short, illustrated, and much more surreal.  Though Satan Burger is the best "punk" novel I've ever read.  It is about a group of punks who live in a world filled with strange races such as midget clones of American presidents, drunken knights, blue women, and violent sex-crazed lizard people.  There's also a thing about God closing the gates of Heaven and Satan running a fast food restaurant.  I recommend this to anyone who likes Vonnegut or Douglas Adams and happens to be a fan of punk, death metal, goth, or any alternative culture.
1919995
I never understood hipster culture. I knew that every now and then there'd be a musical flare up from an obscure artist/band that would set the indie scene abuzz, and it could be traced back to the nebulous hipster culture. I knew hipster culture may or may not have something to do with Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, veganism, bad facial hair, apathy and beatniks, but I wasn't sure.

I'm still not sure I understand hipsters very well, but this book is as close as I'm ever going to get. Ehrlich and Bartz are the Jane Goodalls of the hipster world. They have planted themselves in dimly lit bars, foggy music venues and coffee joints swimming in soy milk--the hipster's preferred habitats--to bring you a comprehensive understanding of this unusual creature.

These two are cultural anthropologists for a segment of society that seems contentedly (purposely?) misunderstood. They dig into the nitty gritty--sometimes dirty and hilarious--details of the hipster's bizarre life, from grooming habits to courtship rituals.

This book doesn't have to be read cover to cover. You can pick it up, skim it, put it back down, or read different parts.

It's a great read for sheer entertainment or for a dear friend who's hot on a skinny, elusive hipster and isn't sure how to lure him or her in--if ever there was hope to succeed in that impossible endeavor, it's in this book.
2013036
It's an odd book, in that there's virtually no plot, but somehow I found it mesmerizing. Plus the incredible backwoods competence of the author is impressive.
3955014
If you haven't heard of Carlton Mellick III before, you need to check him out. He is the author of a bunch of crazy weird books that have been popping into print like somebody spilled water on a gremlin. Twelve books in 4 years?  That's damn prolific. And every one is worth its weight in gold. I'm not sure if I can even call these books novels, or anti-novels. They are more like fascinating chunks of Carlton's brain.

Satan Burger is one of his first books.  Not a masterpiece, but it is so packed full of imagination and fun ideas that it's irresistable.  Fans of Kurt Vonnegut or William Burroughs should check this out.  But be prepared for something much different than anything you've read in the past. If there was a genre for Carlton Mellick's books it would probably be "perverted punk rock alternate reality surrealism."

Read a few of his books.  He'll grow on you like a genital wart.
1089851
For the past two years, Neil Pasricha has dedicated himself to identifying one new awesome thing every weekday, and posting it on his blog. Without fail, these things are commonplace. Things we experience in our daily lives without ever paying them much attention. Because of the regularity with which we experience them, it's easy to overlook how they make our lives better in big and small ways.

What's delightful about the blog, and now this book, is that Neil gives us a chance to hit pause, and look back on our experiences, celebrating them, albeit belatedly. His writing is celebratory, engaging, funny, and inspiring.  What's more, you don't have to read too many of his entries before you start paying attention to perfectly toasted toast, the last crumbly triangle in the bag of potato chips, or the smell of books, and smiling when you experience them. You also begin recognizing new awesome things yourself. Somehow, when you start paying attention to how the little, seemingly inconsequential things can brighten your day, the genuinely bad stuff doesn't seem so consuming. The world seems a little bit friendlier. A little bit smaller. A little more wonderful.

Now that I've said that, I think it's really important to tell you that this is NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK (despite how I've seen it promoted recently). It's not a psychology book. It's not an instruction manual. It's a catalog of short, joyous essays about awesome things. I promise that you will walk away from this book having mastered no new concepts. However, I also promise that you will find yourself smiling and nodding in appreciation while you read -- a silent toast to awesome things you never took the time to recognize.

I had high expectations for this book, which were well-exceeded. In fact, I liked it so much that I bought copies for my parents and my sister, who have enjoyed it as well.
2781701
Looking for inspiration? This is a great read!
98520
I'm not sure anymore how I came across this unusual book of stories, but I'm glad I did. They are a bit odd at times (odd in a good sense of the word) and have some wonderfully quirky characters. There are three rounds of stories, each one culminating in a Christmas tale; the Christmas tales are the best of the bunch. The stories are told in a bumbling and loveable way, more as a storyteller might tell them than as a writer might write them. That, however, only adds to their down-home charm.

The stories reveal the best and the worst of any community, particularly small, devoutly religious communities. From the introduction one can infer that they are at least semi-autobiographical, stories of the painful childhood of one storyteller and writer. However, the stories are full of hope and the hope comes mostly from the characters on the margin of society. In particular, there is Gletha, the person that the community by-and-large considers to be unsavory and clearly not a "christian" by their standards. Gletha, in turn, lives with grace and love in the midst of the shunning that comes to her from the "good" people of the community, caring for the child whose adoptive parents can barely see beyond their own inner turmoil and mental illness.

This is a great book, one that is overlooked and unknown. It is worth at least one read-through. For myself, I keep it by my bedside and over the years I have read most of the stories numerous times. The pages of the Christmas stories reveal a wear and tear that are testament to those many readings. I wish that more people would find this book.
2744001
I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book, other than hopefully a charming MG story. I was also pleased to discover that there were illustrations included as I read through this weird tale.

Josephine has just moved to Awkward Falls, location of an insane asylum housing cannibal Fetid Stenchley, who manages to escape through a very poorly planned event. That is unknown to her when she stumbles upon the titular orphan, Thaddeus, a mad scientist who lives with his grandfather's robot servant (awesome!) and a talking reanimated cat, among other oddities. These people and more collide in a crazy adventure.

I have to say that I was somewhat reminded of the Series of Unfortunate Events while reading this. I'm not sure if it's because of the presence of an orphan, the presence of a sauerkraut factory in the town, or if it's the odd happenings or something else. But, whatever it was, I liked it.

Josephine and Thaddeus are sweet kids with understandable motivations and desires. The aforementioned robot servant is wonderful: loyal and brave. And Josephine's parents even get to play an important role in the book-yay for parents who care about their children, who believe and trust even when the truth sounds crazy!

Boo on mad scientists as Thaddeus' grandfather is revealed to be. Boo on cannibals, even though Fetid is revealed to be a bit more complicated than that. He does have his own loyalty system but he spares no hurt for innocent people and too singlemindedly pursues his own desires instead of considering others.

Don't worry though! In the end, our heroes will end well while the cannibals receive a just punishment. A quirky story with good characters and some imaginative escapades.
1698008
The title of this book certainly fits its main characteristic, since if I had to describe it in one word, I would use odd! Odd Thomas sits down to write his story at the urging of Little Ozzie, his humongous friend. One of the requests is to keep the tone of the story light, and not fill it with sadness and sorrow. In his effort to comply with this, Odd delivers a narration that is bittersweet and mixes portions filled with despair with some filled with joy.

Odd is a cook at a dinner in Pico Mundo and has dreams of going into the tires or shoes business, he has a peculiar girlfriend, Stormy, who is very serious about delayed gratification. His father is a little weird too, and is trying to parcel and sell the moon, not to mention his mother, who is totally cuckoo. But the strangest of all, has to do with the fact that Odd has a sixth sense. I think I have seen this idea before, as probably you have too, Odd can see dead people.

Odd uses his gift to help others, and there is a select group of people, including the police chief, who are aware of his special ability. He can also see a type of spirit, called bodachs, who appear around people who are going to die violently. This is of course a useful tool in his journey of public service.

One day Odd starts seeing a vast number of bodachs appear all over town, and sets out to discover who is behind these future tragedies. Up to this point, the story even though not all that original, was interesting, but at this point, we enter an area of boredom in which the author tries to blend different pieces together without much success. The motivation behind some of the things that happen are not clear or come out of left field and we are left with the sensation that we are wasting our time. The end of the story tries to be a surprise, but you can see it coming from a mile away. The book is not terrible, but I find it hard to recommend it when there are so many other efforts within the same gender that are way better, including some by Koontz himself, like the Frankenstein series.
4629560
I really loved this book. Weird and cool all in one.
1323406
Weird but cool book looks cool BUT it is AWESOME!!!! really cool kind of ridiculous and I think that is cool
4893176
Accumulation is a rather unique book that doesn't really fit into any genre, at least the ones that are commonly associated with books. This is a really fascinating book that's completely different, amusing even, and quite engaging. The book is about a guy named Cam, who goes to Vegas, hits the jackpot, parties until he can't remember what the hell happened that weekend, and gets a tattoo to serve as a memoir for this amazing happenstance.

However, strange things start happening once he gets back home. Strange little tattoo inks keep coming up magically and unknowingly on his body, and he has no clue what the hell is going on. Each day, there's something new. It's either a symbol, a blotch, or an illegible piece of writing. Soon enough, these 'tattoos' start becoming too obvious to ignore, and begin affecting Cam's life in a not-so-positive way.

There begins his journey of self-discovery and transformation, as he starts out to find some answers for this inexplicable and undesirable phenomenon. Accumulation is a great book for those who want to know more about themselves, do some serious introspection and self-exploration, and aren't entirely sure what they want out of life. So if you are someone who would like some inspiration for a bit of soul searching, you should read this book.
1117720
This book covers 28 interesting events and odd stories that unless you are a history nut you have never heard about.  The book is written in National Geographic's normal, accessible style. Each chapter contains it's own story so you can read it either straight through or over a period of time.

The first chapter deals with the 896 trial of the corpse of a former Pope by the Pope that replaced him.  This is clearly one of the odder happenings in history.

There is one chapter on the "filibusters"  which were small bands of heavily armed men whose goal was to overthrow Latin American governments and turn them into puppet states.  The most "successful" of these was William Walker who ruled  Nicaragua for part of 1856.

Other stories include: When China Ruled the Wave, Guano: How the world was changed by bird droppings, the Russian discovery of America and the Nazi's quest to find true origins of the Aryan race in Tibet.

 It's an enjoyable and enlightening read.