Jim ’s Comments (group member since Oct 19, 2012)

Jim ’s comments from the BOOKD group.

My 2nd grade teacher read it to the class. When the ending came, I knew I'd have to re-read it myself. Funny, though, that before reading it again recently, I only remembered after all these years that it was sad. It's so much more!

Interesting comments left on our video:

"I understand that the author is using it as a metaphor, but I am uncomfortable with the idea of the term "sales" encapsulating so much. Sales are about financial transactions, and it's dangerous to add that subtext to creative or spiritual endeavors. Calling something like MLK Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech a sales pitch for civil rights indeed cheapens it."

And in response:

"I fully understand where you are coming from, and yes their is a fine line. But a politician like MLK sold his idea to the public. Selling an idea is as pure a form of sales as selling a shoe. When someone sells a shoe (per say), the consumer is buying it because they feel they will benefit from it - could be for image or sports, or just to look professional. Selling an idea is the same thing, the person is buying the idea that they will benefit from voting for MLK or Obama or Bush."

What do you think?

Re-reading this book as an adult, I was surprised to find dialogue like this from Charlotte. I'd be hard-pressed to find a franker way of addressing life and death to kids.

That's not to criticize it, by any means. I actually appreciate the book even more now for being able to connect with kids without pulling any punches. Its characters speak directly about somber realities.

This is definitely a children's book that adults can still appreciate.

I haven't read any of Ferriss' books but I have to say I'm a little skeptical, if not intrigued.

Got a couple books for Christmas...

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

I think my dad wants me to beef up on my history. I'm starting off with Founding Brothers and it's got me hooked just after 40 pages. Starting the story with the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr is a great way to kick off a book.

Wonder what Angelina Jolie thinks, as it appears she'll be directing the movie:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/pe...

I was surprised to learn that some people read this book all the way through like a novel. Do these people read encyclopedias like that too? I know this is a book of fake info, but isn't it better to appreciate this humor in doses?

My favorites would have to be:

Newton Fig
Robert the Tot
Fatman and the creature (note: there was no creature)

And my own nickname, hmm...

Jimmy Long Bones or Stair Hopper Schwartz (I can run down stairs fast)

The similarities between younger Zamperini and Jake Gyllenhall are striking: http://goo.gl/v8DcY

Just saying.

Author Chris McDougall talked about this in our episode: Is there something different about Louis Zamperini? "Zamperini is different, but how?" he asks. McDougall's own book, BORN TO RUN, is about characters in extreme circumstances (although in their case, they put themselves in those extreme circumstances), and he wondered the same about them: How do they do it? How does ultramarathon runner Scott Jurek defy odds by winning 100-mile races time and time again? Is there something special about these people that we're not quite putting into words? Is there something special about Zamperini that enabled him to survive it all - a plane crash, weeks at sea without food or water, years of torture and brutality at POW camps, then the mental anguish of PTSD?

One question a lot of book critics tackled was whether or not there's a point to the unique story structure of CLOUD ATLAS. Even author David Mitchell posed the question to his readers, albeit in a sly way through one of his characters, Robert Frobisher, whose Cloud Atlas Sextet mirrors the book itself:

"Spent the fortnight gone in the music room, reworking my year's fragments into a 'sextet for overlapping soloists': piano, clarinet, 'cell, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale, and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor: in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. Revolutionary or gimmicky?"

So, what do you think?

The latest episode of BOOKD is all about Laura Hillenbrand's bestseller, UNBROKEN, which profiles the extraordinary life of Louis Zamperini.

You can watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZMBp9...

If you have comments to make about the episode or would like to continue the conversation started in it, please do so here. Hope you enjoy!

I'm a fan of both of yours! Nice contributions. I had forgotten how many great lines there are in Sonmi's story. There's so much about civilization and what it means to be human in there.

For those who have read the book and seen the movie, how do you think the two compare? As a fan of the book, there were parts of the stories that I loved watching play out on the screen. But overall, I think the movie falls way short of the book. Its constant cross-cutting structure is difficult to follow (even for someone familiar with the stories) and its lack of subtlety made it all too cheesy. Maybe that's just me, though?

"Strip back the beliefs pasted on by governesses, schools, and states, you find indelible truths at one's core. Rome'll decline and fall again... Ewing will sail again... I'll come to Bruges again... you'll read this letter again, the sun'll grow cold again. Nietzsche's gramophone record. When it ends, the Old One plays it again, for an eternity of eternities. Time cannot permeate this sabbatical. We do not stay dead long." (Pg. 471)

Perhaps one of the coolest, most eloquent passages on reincarnation in the book, because it grounds the spiritualness with the idea of history repeating itself. That Robert Frobisher has a way with words.

Hi everyone, what's up? I'm Jim, one of the other producers on THNKR. I spend most of my time on BOOKD, so if you have any feedback on the show, whether recommendations, compliments or blistering criticisms, you can let me have it! My favorite books include Into the Wild, Matterhorn, and The War For Late Night. Anything written about tv/film, I tend to consume like crack. Too much info? Let us know what you like!