But this post is going to about books!
On the right hand side, if you've seen my reading list you'll have noticed it hadn't updated in a long time. That's because I'm lazy and felt like blogging about other things. But anyway, on to the reviews!
The first:
40 Watts from Nowhere by Sue Carpenter
This was a Christmas gift from my brother and sister-in-law. They're really good at recommending movies and books to me, so as a rule, I generally enjoy the things they give or lend to me. Sometimes I steal things from them too, but that's another story.
As was expected, this book rocked! It's the autobiography of Sue Carpenter and her time during the 90s running the most successful pirate radio station in Los Angeles. The book starts with a musically dissatisfied Sue who decides one day at her bore of a secretarial job that she'll start her own radio station. Upon discovering that radio stations and licenses cost millions of dollars and tons of paperwork she gets in contact with a pirate radio technician.
Starting during the early to mid 90s the FCC got mired up in a legal battle with Pirate Radio DJ Stephen Dunifer who argued in court that when the FCC cracked down and sued him they harshed on his right to free speech. The lawsuit dragged on in Justice-Limbo for several years, and during the time the FCC was busy in court, pirate radio boomed in the states.
So for $200 Sue buys her own transmitter, sets up shop out her own house, and thus KPBJ was born. Whats really cool is that she decided to be a dork name her call letters after a sammich. And nobody appreciates the finer points of a sammich than me.
From the humble beginnings of Sue Carpenter's pirate radio career to the conclusion of a legendary radio legacy, 40 Watts From Nowhere is a literary delight.
If you're into media stuff, you'll definitely enjoy this book. But it'll be a good read for anyone. Sue Carpenter's life story and take on things is great. She really has no idea what she's doing most of the time while running this station, and the attitude she takes towards the situation and her life is so human. Life isn't all sunshine and flowers, and in 40 Watts from Nowhere you'll find a story about a woman just doing her best to get by.
Overall, this books gets
As was expected, this book rocked! It's the autobiography of Sue Carpenter and her time during the 90s running the most successful pirate radio station in Los Angeles. The book starts with a musically dissatisfied Sue who decides one day at her bore of a secretarial job that she'll start her own radio station. Upon discovering that radio stations and licenses cost millions of dollars and tons of paperwork she gets in contact with a pirate radio technician.
Starting during the early to mid 90s the FCC got mired up in a legal battle with Pirate Radio DJ Stephen Dunifer who argued in court that when the FCC cracked down and sued him they harshed on his right to free speech. The lawsuit dragged on in Justice-Limbo for several years, and during the time the FCC was busy in court, pirate radio boomed in the states.
So for $200 Sue buys her own transmitter, sets up shop out her own house, and thus KPBJ was born. Whats really cool is that she decided to be a dork name her call letters after a sammich. And nobody appreciates the finer points of a sammich than me.
From the humble beginnings of Sue Carpenter's pirate radio career to the conclusion of a legendary radio legacy, 40 Watts From Nowhere is a literary delight.
If you're into media stuff, you'll definitely enjoy this book. But it'll be a good read for anyone. Sue Carpenter's life story and take on things is great. She really has no idea what she's doing most of the time while running this station, and the attitude she takes towards the situation and her life is so human. Life isn't all sunshine and flowers, and in 40 Watts from Nowhere you'll find a story about a woman just doing her best to get by.
Overall, this books gets
8.5/10
Eight points for being a great book about radio, full of interesting characters, fantastic narration, and lots of humour.
Minus two points for getting a bit boring at some points. There were also a few parts in the book where I think Sue didn't elaborate or explain enough. She definitely talked about a lot of cool stuff, but there was even more cool stuff she kind of glossed over. But then lots of illegal stuff is going on in this book, so I can understand the reasoning. I'll give the book another half point for talking about illegal stuff.
Because breaking the law is cool.
Next book:
Minus two points for getting a bit boring at some points. There were also a few parts in the book where I think Sue didn't elaborate or explain enough. She definitely talked about a lot of cool stuff, but there was even more cool stuff she kind of glossed over. But then lots of illegal stuff is going on in this book, so I can understand the reasoning. I'll give the book another half point for talking about illegal stuff.
Because breaking the law is cool.
Next book:
Flint the King by Mary Kirchoff & Douglas Niles
I know the picture looks like it's from Windows 95, bear with me
I know the picture looks like it's from Windows 95, bear with meThis one book of a series in the Dragonlance Saga. I'm a geek for things with dragons in them. So naturally I read Dragonlance books voraciously. In case you aren't aware, there are tons and tons of Dragonlance books. For the most part they're pretty good, and I'm not ashamed to say this, a certain Dragonlance book holds the title of being the only book to ever make me cry a little bit.
It wasn't this book, but this was an alright book nonetheless.
To fully explain what's going on this book would take too long because there are many many other novels that deal with the minor details of this book. So I'll quickly condense and concentrate Flint the King.
Flint Fireforge is a dwarf (the hairy ale-drinking axe-weilding type, not the ones from that show on TV) living in a town called Solace. He catches wind of trouble going on in his hometown (Named Hillhome) to which he hasn't been in twenty years.
He heads to Hillhome, some racism and prejudice is going on, one thing leads to another and Flint becomes the king of a group of retarded dwarves called "Gully Dwarves." They're not really actually retarded, more like Peter Griffin style stupid.
I know, my condensation sounds ridiculous. But thats to be expected when you haven't spent the last ten years of your life reading geeky books. But trust me, it's not that bad. The romance in the book was really awkward though. Some dwarves 'get it on' and that put some gross pictures in my mind.
So much hair. Everywhere. *shudder*
Anyway, I'm not actually going to recommend this book to the public at large. If you read Dragonlance, then definitely have look at this one. It's funny, sad, uplifting, and other fancy words. Plus it has Gully Dwarves! They're always good for a chuckle.
But if you haven't read Dragonlance, don't even bother unless this review has truly piqued your interest. If you have nothing else to read, you won't go wrong, but you probably won't understand a lot of the references and significance of the stuff that goes on.
Overall, I give this book
It wasn't this book, but this was an alright book nonetheless.
To fully explain what's going on this book would take too long because there are many many other novels that deal with the minor details of this book. So I'll quickly condense and concentrate Flint the King.
Flint Fireforge is a dwarf (the hairy ale-drinking axe-weilding type, not the ones from that show on TV) living in a town called Solace. He catches wind of trouble going on in his hometown (Named Hillhome) to which he hasn't been in twenty years.
He heads to Hillhome, some racism and prejudice is going on, one thing leads to another and Flint becomes the king of a group of retarded dwarves called "Gully Dwarves." They're not really actually retarded, more like Peter Griffin style stupid.
I know, my condensation sounds ridiculous. But thats to be expected when you haven't spent the last ten years of your life reading geeky books. But trust me, it's not that bad. The romance in the book was really awkward though. Some dwarves 'get it on' and that put some gross pictures in my mind.
So much hair. Everywhere. *shudder*
Anyway, I'm not actually going to recommend this book to the public at large. If you read Dragonlance, then definitely have look at this one. It's funny, sad, uplifting, and other fancy words. Plus it has Gully Dwarves! They're always good for a chuckle.
But if you haven't read Dragonlance, don't even bother unless this review has truly piqued your interest. If you have nothing else to read, you won't go wrong, but you probably won't understand a lot of the references and significance of the stuff that goes on.
Overall, I give this book
6/10
Good, but not great. I've read far better Dragonlance novels, and I was actually a little disappointed with this one. Flint is a cool character, one of my favourites from the series, so this one had lots of potential. But it failed to deliver. It also loses major points for the ending. The book climaxes within the last 4 or 5 pages, which left no room for a denouement of any sort. It felt tacked on, like an afterthought. This book was seriously in need of another chapter just to wind it down. It did have a good epilogue, but that doesn't count.
So that covers the reviews I needed to get off my chest. Next week: Music.
So that covers the reviews I needed to get off my chest. Next week: Music.
2 comments:
Jake -
Thanks for your comment on my blog - see my response re: "For Your Consideration"
www.zagrodny.blogspot.com
The Sue Carpenter one sounds right up my alley!!! I'm going to check that one out!
But I think I'll leave the Dragonlance one to the die-hard fans. Even though I do love hairy dwarf sex.
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