Day 8: I Heart Enzo (Sat 3/26)

Today I powered through and finished the rest of the book. It was a really easy read for me and reading it wasn't hard at all. This last part was all about the trial and what happens to Denny, Zoe, and Enzo. I can't remember if I mentioned it before (I could look, but I have a headache and am kind of too tired to do so), but I really didn't care for the whole statutory rape part in this book. I get that the author did it so that there would be some drama in the book and a question on whether or not Denny would get Zoe back. I don't know what the author could have done instead, but I didn't care for that storyline. Anyway, the book has a happy ending and I wouldn't be surprised if they make it into a movie (I am sure that one is already in the works). The part that really got to me was when Enzo was at the end of his life. It made me really sad and I didn't want to see Enzo die. It also really gets to me when I see animals in movies being put down. I thought about how I had no emotional reaction to Eve dying, but was very sad for Enzo. I guess that is what happens when you like a character in the book!

I give the book 3.5 stars. It was very easy to read and get through which is always a huge plus. The story was alright. I didn't like a lot of the plot points and some of the characters I didn't care for (like Eve, who I think you are supposed to care for a little bit)....Well, I have to go to bed and I just wanted to finish up this post. Sorry that I didn't get into more details, but if you want any more information or have a question let me know!

Day 7: E-Readers are GRRREAT! (Fri 3/25)

On this day I actually only read a couple chapters of the book (maybe about 10 pages total), but I figured that was okay since I am ahead on what I need to read in the time I have allotted. Since I didn't read much I thought that I would discuss why I love my Kindle (and other e-readers).

When the e-readers first came out I thought that they seemed interesting, but I wasn't interested in owning one. I loved reading an actual book. I liked flipping through the book's pages, having an exact idea of where I was at in the book by looking at it, and the smell of books, especially from the library, is a smell that I enjoy. With an e-reader you don't get any of that. At the end of last year Amazon dropped the price of the Kindle and my husband decided that he would get me one as a belated birthday present (I think that it was just an excuse to buy a Kindle since he already got me a birthday gift on my birthday). The Kindle came and I wasn't too into it. I still had a lot of books at home that I wanted to read, so my husband was the one that used my Kindle mostly. Once I finally got around to using the Kindle I thought that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Then I had the baby and the Kindle changed everything I thought about e-readers for me!

Having a newborn there was a lot of time where I was just sitting around breastfeeding. During this time I couldn't do much else and I mostly just had one hand available to me. The Kindle became my new best friend because it was the only other thing that I could do (I could watch TV, but we don't watch it when my toddler is awake, so that was very limited). Since the Kindle is so small and lightweight I could hold it with just one hand and read. Instead of trying to turn the pages and keep the book open I just had to press a button and the "page" would turn automatically. It was so nice to not have an actual book. I also didn't ever have to go searching for a scrap of paper to use as a bookmark. The Kindle will automatically save your spot when you stop reading. It is easy to navigate through the books too. A very nice feature is that you can buy the books right from the Kindle and get the book in about a minute or less. It is so nice to have a book right away instead of waiting to get it in the mail or from the library or having to drive to a bookstore to buy it. My husband and I also got covers with lights, so that we could read when it got dark. Although, I don't use the light much because the light would probably bother the baby. The Kindle has been amazing for me! It is so nice to only have to use a small very portable device to read lots of books. The Kindle just recently added page numbers and that has been nice because I did miss those (they had location numbers previously). I still do kind of miss seeing exactly where I am in the book by looking at it, but it seems to me that I read books on the Kindle faster than if it was a regular book. I also love the books that have a lot of notes in the back, but I don't know about! When the Kindle says that I am at 75-90% done with the book, but it is actually the end of the book with a lot of notes at the end it makes me happy :) One other thing that I wasn't looking forward to was that I wouldn't be able to get books from the library, but they have an e-reader library where you can get books. I know that it doesn't work with the Kindle, but there are other options out there for you to read the book. I haven't tried it yet, but it is awesome to know that I can still get free books from the library and I don't have to worry about remembering to bring the books back on time! I really do think that the e-readers are great and if you are a breastfeeding mama that likes to read this is definitely something worth getting!

Day 6: Californication (Thurs 3/24)

During this part of the book Eve has finally died. I really wasn't sad about her death because I knew it was coming and like I mentioned before I didn't really care for her character. I wish that the author would have made her more likable. Then the author goes and makes Eve's parents, the "Evil Twins," (coined by Enzo) really unlikable characters too. They decide that Zoe would be better off if she was raised by them and not her father and that they were going to sue for custody of Zoe. When I read that I was thinking that there was no way that they would get custody of Zoe. I also thought that the parents would be crazy for even trying, but I figured that the author would make it so that somehow they did get custody or would make it hard for Denny to keep Zoe. Then we find out that Denny is being charged with statutory rape of a minor. The readers know that Denny didn't do anything and that it was the girl that came onto Denny and tried to do something with him, but he turned her down. I really didn't care for that part in the book either, but it gave the author a reason for Denny not to get custody of his daughter. When I was reading the part about the trial and statutory rape it reminded me of the show Californication. We have been watching that show from the beginning and this season has been a big letdown for us. In this season Hank Moody, the main character, is being charged with statutory rape but he didn't know that the girl was under age because she said she was older and she was the one that came on to him (he did have relations with her though). Kind of funny how this book and Californication have a similar story line in them!

Well, that was the biggest ordeal in this section and I have to go get ready for bed so that is all that you get for today's day! Only three more days of catching-up!!!!

Day 5: I Love Lucy (Wed 3/23)

Once again the reading of this book goes really fast because it is easy and the story is one that is fun to read. Since I have been lagging in here I didn't keep great track of where I was at each day in the book and I finished the book, so I will do my best to split the book up into sections. This point in the book Enzo knows that something is wrong with Eve, but Eve doesn't know what it is yet. The reader (well at least I did) gets the feeling that she has cancer and you wish that Enzo had the ability to talk to let her know so that she could get treated for it early. It was interesting that the author put this in there because you hear of dogs that can tell when people are going to get seizures and I am sure that dogs can also probably tell when a person isn't well. I am not sure if I have heard of dogs knowing if a person has cancer (I could Google it, but I am too tired to), but it wouldn't surprise me. The part that I didn't like about this section was how Eve didn't want to go to the see the Doctor at all. I understand that some people are afraid of doctors and don't want to go, but I just don't get it. I know that if this was me and I was having crazy headaches my husband would make me go to the doctor with no questions. He would definitely not be like Denny and not take me! I am not a huge fan of Eve's character and maybe that is because Enzo didn't like her as much and it is told from his point of view? I wonder if the author was basing Eve on his own wife.

This book is making me love and appreciate my dog Lucy even more! Seeing what Enzo is going through and how he acts made me think of my dog Lucy a lot. Although, she is not as good of a dog as Enzo is (she lingers in the kitchen while we eat to try and get scraps even though she knows she is not allowed!). It was fun to read what Enzo was thinking and think about Lucy in the same respect. Every night that I would read this book she would get some extra loving before bed! One part in the book that I related to was when Eve would want Enzo by her after the delivery and when she was just coming home from the hospital because she felt like Enzo knew what was going on and he was the only one that could take care of her. I have felt sometimes that the animals know what is going on and that they seem to be extra sensitive and caring when I need them to be. When I am not feeling well it seems like they are hanging around more and there have been a couple of times when I felt like they just knew something was up.

Day 4: The Art of Racing in the Rain (Tues 3/22)

This is the second book that my book club is reading. It is 317 pages and is a work of fiction, unlike the last book that I read. I have also heard good things about this book and I was really looking forward to reading it. On Amazon the rating is 4.6 out of 5 stars, which is really high. Coming into the book I only knew that it was told from the dog's point of view, which sounded interesting to me. The below comes from the author's website and summarizes the book,"A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life...as only a dog could tell it." Of course, there is more about the book on the website too if you wanted to check it out.

One thing that I noticed when I started reading this book was that there were a lot of chapters and they weren't very long. This is something that I really like. I like being able to have a stopping point when reading and having that stopping point at the end of a chapter is ideal. It really bothers me when the chapters are super long because I feel like I have to get through the whole thing to stop. I also usually find that when there are a lot of chapters that are on the shorter side I can get through the book faster. Anyway, something quirky of my reading habits that you now know about!

Since I am really behind on my blogging I can't remember how far I read on this first day, but it was further than the 50 pages. The reading is really fast and easy. The first part of the book we are introduced to Enzo, the dog, and his family Denny, Eve, and their daughter Zoe. Denny is a race car driver and a lot of the time Denny and Enzo watch videos of races. Denny is also a really good driver in wet/rainy conditions hence the title of the book.

Okay that is it for now because I have a lot more days to catch up on and I need to go get some dessert! Yes, I am still addicted to dessert :)

Day 3: Memory Champ (Mon 3/21)

This day I read from page 163-271 (108 pgs).

This last section of the book gets into the good stuff (at least I thought so). It is Josh's journey to becoming the US memory champion. After Josh decides that he will compete in the competition he starts practicing A LOT! He uses the memory techniques that Ed and others have taught him. He spends a lot of his time in his parent's basement just going over numbers, lists, cards, and other things that he will be "tested" on in the competition. He even gets a researcher to study him to see how his memory and brain changes after he has gone through the rigorous training to remember more stuff. While training Josh comes to a plateau and can't seem to get his times faster. Josh called this the ""OK plateau", the point at which you decide you're OK with how good you are at something, turn on autopilot, and stop improving." The researcher told Josh that the best way to get off the plateau was to "practice failing." It is a really interesting concept and it makes a lot of sense that you would learn more by making mistakes and pushing yourself harder to get better. It worked for Josh and he was able to start getting his recall times faster and faster.

During this section Josh goes over what it is to be a savant and to be a "memorizer." There was this case of a British man named Daniel Tammet who supposedly had some major seizure when he was little and that effected his memory and from it he became a savant. The big difference with him and other savants was that he was talented in many areas and not just one, which most savants are. Josh became a little suspicious of this guy and dug around and interviewed him and it seemed to me like the guy was fooling everyone and he is just a really good MA (mental athlete). I bring this guy up and this part of the book because my husband and I actually watched this special on this guy and we both remembered it. I remember being especially amazed at how this guy could learn a new language so fast. It was very interesting to hear how Josh was basically saying this guy is full of BS and here is why. This guy became so famous and even was on a show that I watched and he was probably pulling one on all of us! Josh does go on to talk about Kim Peek, the real Rain Man, who is a true savant and what he is able to do and not do.

The last section of the book was about the US memory championship. Since the US isn't big in the sport of remembering Josh felt that his chances of doing well were pretty high, especially with all of his training and being mentored by a top MA. Josh got to the competition and he did really well. He broke a US record of memorizing a deck of cards the fastest. As Josh kept doing well and making it further along he couldn't believe his luck. When he got to the semi-finals he felt like he was just lucky and one of the other contestants didn't get so lucky and that is why he proceeded on. In the final round it was all about remembering a deck of cards and Josh was really good at that and he ended up winning without much effort. It was exciting to see this reporter become a US memory champ all in a year. Josh did go onto the World Championship and didn't do so well! He also decided that he was done with competing (I am sure it was because he wanted to start writing his book!).

I really enjoyed the book. It was a fast, easy, and an interesting read. I learned that the name of the book comes from a number in the deck of cards. Of course, I forgot to mark what it was, but it was a visual reference to remember a card that was put in his memory palace. I learned that this book wasn't really going to give me a better memory unless I put a lot of time and effort into it, which isn't something that I would be doing anytime soon! One way that I can judge if I liked a book is if I google more about the book, which I did for this one. After I was done reading I looked up videos with Josh Foer and here is a good one from The Colbert Report. I would give this book 4.5 stars (out of five). I just hope that my fellow book club members enjoy it as much as my husband and I did!

Day 2: Memory Palaces (Sun 3/20)

Even though I am almost a week behind on this blog I figured that I would go ahead and break out each day by the day instead of doing one big summary. Hopefully, I can get all caught up in here. In case you were wondering, I am still sick along with the kiddos and the hubby seems to be getting sick too :( The baby seems to be getting better, which has allowed me more time to do other things including this. Knowing my luck he will probably wake-up in the middle of me typing this! I will go knock on some wood right now!

On the second day I read from page 89-162 (73 pages). The first part of this section Joshua Foer describes how the MA's are able to remember all that they do and it is by their Memory Palaces. Memory Palaces are places (usually buildings) created in a person's mind that the person is very familiar with and when they are trying to remember something they put that image in their memory palace so that when they visually take a walk through their palace they see the image and remember what it was they wanted to remember. To get a better example I will describe a scene in the book. Ed, Joshua's mentor, tells Josh to remember his childhood home and picture it really well. Then he tells Josh that he wants him to remember Ed's to do list by putting mental pictures in his childhood home. Ed says that the pictures have to be something related to the object to be remembered, but there has to be something about them that is really exaggerated so that your brain will remember them. The first thing on Ed's list was pickled garlic. He had Josh imagine a BIG jar of pickled garlic out by the garage. The next item was cottage cheese. Ed had Josh imagine a pool of cottage cheese with Claudia Schiffer in it by the front door. Smoked Peat Salmon was next on the list and it was to be imagined in Josh's piano. The next item was six bottles of white wine. Josh was to imagine the six bottles of white wine talking to one another in another part of his house. After Josh went through the whole list and placed them in different parts of the house Josh took a mental walk through his house and was able to remember all of the items! It is a pretty cool trick, but one that would take a lot of work. Just trying to come up with ideas of what to make things so that they will be memorable is tough! I tried this exercise and did half of the items on Ed's list and I can still remember all of them and the images of them that I put in my memory palace! When you get really good at this you start to create many memory palaces to store all of the information that you need. You have many memory palaces because you don't want to mix any images up.

Here is a quote that I liked that goes with the above, "The general idea with most memory techniques is to change whatever boring thing is being inputted into your memory into something that is so colorful, so exciting, and so different from anything you've seen before that you can't possibly forget it." That is why many of the images for everything they want to remember are usually sexual!

Josh starts practicing his memory techniques and takes a trip to England where they are having the world memory championship. He is hoping that he can learn more tricks and talk to some of the people that are big names in his "sport." After reading about some of these people I googled them to see what they looked like and they looked more "geeky" then I imagined them, but I guess that I should have expected them to look this way!

The rest of the section that I read was about memory and remembering and where it all started from (first records of remembering something on purpose). He delves into how things were passed down before there was any written word of them. Then what happened once stuff started being written down and how that effected everything. It was interesting to read that most of the texts were written without spaces, so it was really hard to read those and one had to be really familiar with the work to be able to read it. It made me realize that I take spaces for granted and I am very grateful that we have them becausetryingtoreadasentencewithnospacesisreallyhard (trying to type that was hard because my hands were automatically hitting the space bar). This section was kind of boring and my least favorite part in the book.

I was still really enjoying the book and it is a fascinating and easy read. He described the techniques in this section and frankly it doesn't seem like it is something that I would have time to do. It sounds really time consuming coming up with images for things to put into your memory palaces!