New Blog Up (Finally!)

Hey everyone,
The new blog is finally up! You can view it at sd-review.blogspot.com (url subject to change).

*Edit: The correct url is now: www.TheReviewOnline.info

Last Day

I know this post is a few days late (SORRY!), but it's here nonetheless.

The 30 days for my quest are now up. I do believe that I changed a little bit, but not how I predicted I would. I said at the beginning that I wouldn't be so grouchy/grumpy all the time after this. I lied.

That hasn't changed, but something has. As a direct result of this quest and this blog, I have decided to continue doing the book reviews on a seperate blog tied to this one. This blog isn't set up as of yet, but I will put polls up with 2 or 3 books and have people vote on which one they want me to review the most, I will read the book and review it at the end.

I will also put up updates as I read to let my readers what is going on in the story.

I don't have access to my star system right at this point in time, but I give this quest 5 Stars!

For Those Who Fell

The second book is "For Those Who Fell" by William C. Dietz.

• After the destruction of the ex-battleship that served as its capital, the Confederacy searches desperately to find a new home planet for its government. But the alien Ramathanians are not finished fighting-and no planet wants to host the Confederacy knowing the Ramathanians will follow.
• But a new capital is born-on the snowy, windswept planet of Algeron, birthplace of William "Bill" Booly III. The move meets with resistance from the Algeron natives, forcing the part-alien Booly to fight political battles just as a disturbing discovery is made. Intelligence has detected a faster-than-ship communications antenna in a Ramathanian fortress. If this technology is integrated by the aliens, battles will be lost before they are begun. A special ops mission to seize the research facility is launched, under the command of First Lieutenant Antonio Santana, who is no more by-the-book than when he distinguished himself during the LaNor Rebellion.
• The stage is set for an epic struggle on both fronts, as two men-the much-decorated elder officer and the young upstart-each face enormous odds in their efforts to save the Confederacy at any cost. And in the course of the struggle, they will both suffer losses above and beyond the call of duty...

All above text from the dust jacket is Copyright © 2004 by William C. Dietz.

Please remember to vote for whichever book you want me to review more.

The Teeth of the Tiger

The first book is Tom Clancy's "The Teeth of the Tiger"

• In the Brave New World of terrorism, where anybody with a spare AK-47, a knowledge of kitchen chemistry, or simply the will to die can become a player, the old rules no longer apply. No matter what new governmental organizations come into being, the only ones that could be truly effective are those that are quick and agile, free of oversight and restrictions... and outside the system.
• Way outside the system.
• In a nondescript office building in suburban Maryland, a firm named Hendley Associates does a profitable business in stocks, bonds, and international currencies, but its real mission is quite different: to identify and locate terrorist threats, and then deal with them, in whatever manner necessary. Set up with the knowledge of President John Patrick Ryan, "The Campus" is always on the lookout for promising new talent, its recruiters scattered throughout the armed forces and government agencies-and three men are about to cross its radar.
• The first of them is Dominic Caruso, a rookie FBI agent, barely a year out of Quantico, whose decisive actions resolve a particularly brutal kidnap/murder case. The second is Caruso's brother Brian, a Marine captain just back from his first combat action, in Afghanistan, and already a man to watch. And the third is their cousin... a young man named Jack Ryan, Jr.
• Jack has grown up around intrigue. As his father rose through the ranks of the CIA and then to the White House, Jack received a life course in the world and the way it works, from agents, statesmen, analysts, Secret Servicemen, and black-ops specialists such as John Clark and Ding Chavez. He wants to put it all to work now- but when he knocks on the front door of "The Campus," he finds that nothing has prepared him for what he is about to encounter. For it is indeed a different world out there, and in here... and it is about to become a lot more dangerous...

All above mentioned text from the dust jacket is Copyright © 2003 by Rubicon, Inc.

Please remember to vote on whichever book you would like me to review more.

Indecision

As you all know, I haven't been reading books for the past few days. This is due to the fact that I don't really understand "Schild's Ladder".

I have two books that I would like to read, but I'm am caught in a pickle. I do not really know which book I want to read first. This is where you, my followers, come in. I will post a poll up where you can vote on one of the two books. I had thought about this and figured that not many people would know anything about these books, so I will post what is in the dust-covers and let you know what they are about.

Makeup of a Reader

People all over the world like to read. It is a universal way to learn, relax, or just something to take up time while waiting to do other things. One person that loves to read is my dad, Chris. I recently interviewed him about his reading habits and learned some interesting things about him.

First, my dad is in his late 30s, balding and slightly overweight. His day pretty much consists of getting up and going to work. But almost every time he’s not working, Chris is either watching TV or, you guessed it, reading. But why does he read? What does he get out of it? These were the things I sought to find out.

The first thing I asked him was “How often do you read?” I figured it would be some extravagant number like 20+ hours a week. I was wrong. I ended up getting an answer of at least every other day. Either he watches a lot more TV than I had thought or he doesn’t read that much when I don’t see him.

The next question I asked concerned why Chris liked to read in the first place. “Reading is a way for me to calm down. It acts like a relaxant.” That’s a fair enough reason. With the world the way it is today, everyone could use a way to just relax once in a while. I asked him why he likes to read, but I didn’t get to a somewhat important question in my investigation.

I never asked him what kind of books he likes to read. Not really a big deal at first glance, but to truly get a picture of what a typical reader looks like, one must know the genres of the material in question. Based on what I have seen, however, I can give a pretty accurate idea of the kinds of this Chris likes to read.

He’s not really one for series, but he loves Tom Clancy’s books. Anyone who has read any of Clancy’s work knows that all the books are connected in someway. Whether that way is through characters being carried over or plot lines crossing, it is pretty easy to tell that they are in a series together. So, political thriller novels are definitely one of his favorite’s types of books. Another thing that he has been reading recently is books dealing with the Templar Knights. These are also high up on his list.

As you can see, a typical reader isn’t much different from the rest of us. They are our age and read around the same amount as us. In my case, their favorite genres of books are even the same. Hopefully this has helped to uncover what makes up a reader.

Update

As it turns out, I have been really busy as of late. This has not really allowed me to put up any new blogs recently.

Since my last blog, I have been taking a break from Schild's Ladder to read other things. I took this unscheduled vacation because that book is hard to understand at points and I couldn't really get into it that well. (Here is a good time to reference back to my post about time management) However, I haven't started a new book yet. I have just been reading the newspaper and the news online for my quest.

While this may sound strange to some people, I happen to enjoy reading the newspaper, if for no other reason to laugh at the stupidity of some Americans or the comics. The comics make me laugh when no other thing can. As far as American stupidity, it amazes me at some of the stupid things people do that end up on the front page of the newspaper or on the main page of Yahoo! News.

Which do you like to read more? An actual newspaper or online news? Answer in the poll on the right.