audioreader - aNobii

Books (202)

All books Added (Newest) Title (A to Z) Title (Z to A) Rating (Highest) Rating (Lowest) Finished (Newest) Finished (Oldest) Published (Newest) Published (Oldest) Added (Newest) Added (Oldest)

- The Face of Battle (27)
- A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme
- By John Keegan
- Reading since Feb 11, 2012
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
- Second Foundation (260)
- By Isaac Asimov
- Finished in 2003
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
- Foundation (455)
- (Foundation Novels)
- By Isaac Asimov
- Finished in 2003
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
- Islam (30)
- A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles)
- By Karen Armstrong
- Finished on Feb 11, 2012
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
Islam

Good book on the complete history of Islam from Mohammed till 2000. It can help give a view of what many muslims want and yearn for; to understand them better and their motivations. However, the conclusions she draws in the last chapter I believe are unjustified.
One thing I took away from this is ... (continue)

Good book on the complete history of Islam from Mohammed till 2000. It can help give a view of what many muslims want and yearn for; to understand them better and their motivations. However, the conclusions she draws in the last chapter I believe are unjustified.
One thing I took away from this is that there really is no thing called "Islam". There's been numerous reinterpretations and creations along the way since Islam's inception so that different people in different groups have different ideas about what Islam is. This is also true of Christianity and other religions.
That's why I think it's difficult sometimes when we refer to a religion with a single word like "Islam" as if it is a uniform set of beliefs and practices. It can vary shockingly widely between groups and over time.

Is this helpful?

— Feb 12, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Understanding Variation (5)
- The Key to Managing Chaos (2nd Edition)
- By Donald J. Wheeler
- Reading since Jan 30, 2012
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List

The sevent-
h prince-
ss
- The seventh princess (1)
- By Nick Sullivan
- Finished in 1995
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
The seventh princess

Read this in Grade 6

Is this helpful?

— Dec 29, 2011 | Add your feedback
- The Mysterious Island (49)
- (Modern Library MM)
- By Caleb Carr, Jules Verne
- Finished on Jan 23, 2012
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
The Mysterious Island

I think this should be a novel study in middle school. It's such a great book for growing kids because Jules Verne manages to weave many forms of science into the plotline to demonstrate how amazing and useful our knowledge of the universe is.
A group of 5 gets stranded on a desert island with no r ... (continue)

I think this should be a novel study in middle school. It's such a great book for growing kids because Jules Verne manages to weave many forms of science into the plotline to demonstrate how amazing and useful our knowledge of the universe is.
A group of 5 gets stranded on a desert island with no resources but their own wits. One of their group is an engineer with practical knowledge of all of the sciences. I love how they build themselves up from nothing to a "civilized" existence. We take for granted that just about everything around us comes from our knowledge of science. Jules Verne weaves this in when the engineer calculates their unknown position on the planet by measuring the Southern Cross star location without even having an instrumentation other than sticks, and correcting for the height of the hill he was measuring from using trigonometry. Or to create nitroglyercin to drain a lake to create their home. Or to create mud bricks from raw ingredients which they could then make a furnace out of to make iron in order to make tools in order to etc. etc. You can see how their colony builds up.
On top of that, it's just a great adventure story, desert island story, and there are some mysterious happenings around the island that don't get revealed to the end. AND Verne ties up storylines from two of his earlier books; I won't say which ones so I don't ruin it for you.
How can it get any better than that?
The reader who recorded this in audiobook form on librivox.org is professional and enjoyable.

Is this helpful?

— Jan 24, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Flow (97)
- The Psychology Of Optimal Experience
- Finished on Nov 28, 2011
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
Flow

Excellent abridged audiobook. I loved seeing the breakdown of flow activities and I understand more fully why I love the things I love to do and why I hate the things I hate to do.
Will be a valuable tool to structured thinking in determining what I'd like to do in the future.

Is this helpful?

— Dec 5, 2011 | Add your feedback
- The Epic of Gilgamesh (22)
- (Penguin Classics)
- By Andrew George, AA. VV.
- Reading since Oct 4, 2011
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
- National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of Canada (1)
- Reference since Sep 6, 2011
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List

- National Geographic (43)
- The Photographs
- Finished on Oct 15, 2011
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
National Geographic

Fantastic collection of photos. It also provides a less "officially worded" history of the National Geographic and focuses more on its writers and photographers than "High Adventure: The Story of the National Geographic Society". I enjoyed reading about the adventures and lives of the authors and ph ... (continue)

Fantastic collection of photos. It also provides a less "officially worded" history of the National Geographic and focuses more on its writers and photographers than "High Adventure: The Story of the National Geographic Society". I enjoyed reading about the adventures and lives of the authors and photographers, what their thoughts were, and what they did to get their stories and pictures.

Is this helpful?

— Oct 22, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Farthest North (1)
- By Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Neumann Sverdrup
- Finished on Nov 23, 2011
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
Farthest North

Nansen was a humourous, likeable, down-to-earth, and very driven, very determined guy.
The book is about Nansen and team's ship and dogsled journey to by far the furthest point north on the planet that anyone had ever been at that time.
This account is very detailed and will probably be too boring ... (continue)

Nansen was a humourous, likeable, down-to-earth, and very driven, very determined guy.
The book is about Nansen and team's ship and dogsled journey to by far the furthest point north on the planet that anyone had ever been at that time.
This account is very detailed and will probably be too boring for most. But I enjoy that kind of detail in an adventure story, and it's all worth it as leadup to the emotional ending in which they return. In fact, because your journey with Nansen was so long and detailed, you can appreciate the long wait to return home more and so get closer to the emotions that Nansen must have felt.
It's a really cool adventure once they leave the ship and get out on dogsleds; hunting bears, harpooning seals, walruses trying to tip them in their kayaks and once even a fight with a bear! Well, at least an up close encounter with a bear in which Nansen's partner Johansen got knocked over by a bear swipe before they were able to shoot it.
Very enjoyable. I will be reading other polar exploration narratives, notably Robert Peary's.

Is this helpful?

— Dec 5, 2011 | Add your feedback
High advent-
ure
- High adventure (2)
- the story of the National Geographic Society
- By Mark Jenkins
- Finished on Sep 12, 2011
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
High adventure

I really enjoyed the content, and it was great to get a quick historical overview of the magazine I love so much, but I felt it was rather dryly written. I expected something in line with the engaging, informative, witty articles that typically appear in the magazine.
Although, my 3-star rating pro ... (continue)

I really enjoyed the content, and it was great to get a quick historical overview of the magazine I love so much, but I felt it was rather dryly written. I expected something in line with the engaging, informative, witty articles that typically appear in the magazine.
Although, my 3-star rating probably doesn't give enough leeway for the fact that it would be much harder to attach those qualities to this history than to a typical Geographic article.
Short and enjoyable.

Is this helpful?

— Sep 15, 2011 | Add your feedback
- The Business Forecasting Deal (1)
- Exposing Myths, Eliminating Bad Practices, Providing Practical Solutions (Wiley and SAS Business Ser…
- By Michael Gilliland
- Reading since Jul 11, 2011
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
- Treasure Island (962)
- (Bantam Classic)
- By Robert Louis Stevenson
- Finished on Aug 30, 2011
  
  Review
- Add...
  - My Shelf
  - Wish List
Treasure Island

Thoroughly enjoyable! The quintessential pirate tale. The story of a boy tangled up in a mutiny on the high seas, pirates, buried treasure, fighting, discovery and adventure. Besides being a fun and exciting book to read, well-written, with a number of contrasting A vs. B themes woven into the dialo ... (continue)

Thoroughly enjoyable! The quintessential pirate tale. The story of a boy tangled up in a mutiny on the high seas, pirates, buried treasure, fighting, discovery and adventure. Besides being a fun and exciting book to read, well-written, with a number of contrasting A vs. B themes woven into the dialogue, this book shaped about how we think of a stereotypical pirate today.
I first got the idea of reading this book after spending an afternoon on Norman Island, in the British Virgin Islands, which is considered the most likely setting inspiring the fictional Treasure Island. That was 3 and a quarter years ago, and now I've finally read it. Interestingly, Norman Island with the site of real buried pirate booty in the mid-eighteenth century which was dug up!

Is this helpful?

— Aug 31, 2011 | Add your feedback