Blog: books

Re: 15 Books with the Most Impact

2024-12-28 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

Tracy nominated me a while ago (more like July) to share my list(s) of books that have impacted me. Reiterating what Tracy wrote, many of these books had their moment with me and others still hold strong to me.

I won't go too in-depth for some of these for various reasons. I also don't wan't to give too many spoilers.

Books:

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Maus / Maus II - Art Spiegelman

  • A graphic novel where Spiegelman interviews his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. *I really enjoyed the various themes in the book.
  • This is a must read

1984 - George Orwell

  • This taught me many lessons and how eerie this period of time is currently. I'm pretty scared for what's to come.

The Odyssey - Homer

  • Many of the themes taught me some important lessons.

In The Hot Zone - Kevin Sites

  • This wasn't my favorite book but it made me aware of various wars and situations happening beyond Iraq.

Lady of the Lake - Sir Walter Scott

Yeruldelgger - Ian Manook (French)

  • This book me realize I can actually read French.

Ryan White My Own Story - Ryan White

  • Ryan White has always been an inspiration to me as I have in various periods of my life been involved with bringing awareness about HIV/AIDS. It fascinated me how well-versed Ryan was and his outlook on life as he was very unlucky getting the virus from tainted blood products.

Le Gone du Chaâba - Azouz Begag (French)

  • Le Gone du Chaâba (The Kid of the Chaaba), translated into English as Shantytown Kid by Naima Wolf.
  • I love this book as it shows the struggles of balancing two different cultures - the country you live in and the culture at home. This book understood me in various ways as I struggled to balance US life and my Mexican culture.
  • My French Professor gave me this book as a graduation gift.

Remaking Manhood: Stories From the Front Lines of Change - Mark Greene

  • I read this book right before I graduated college. Being a male teacher is very important as many students don't have a good male role model at home. I made it a goal in my teaching to help my students not fall for certain behaviors.
  • This book also helped me reevaluate my relationships and look deep inside of me.
  • Here's a good link related to Remaking Manhood

Winning the War On War - Joshua S. Goldstein

  • I minored in International Studies and this book really opened me up to deeper issues that continue to exist.

Constructive Living - David K. Reynolds

  • Although this book wasn't the solution to many of my problems during some very dark times, it has helped me address them and find the right direction. It has helped me get out of the rut.

Journey To The Future: A Roadmap for Success for Youth - Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch (Author)

  • This book has helped me in various ways to get where I am today. Consuela is a great presenter!

The New Koreans: The Story of a Nation - Michael Breen

Books I'm Reading at the Moment

2023-10-05 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

Learning to Read Books, again

Physical Reading is important

I've been relearning how to enjoy time for myself and with myself. Something I've been doing on my free time has been reading books. I'm always looking at a screen (such as the one I'm using to write this post) due to the world we live in and in my technology job. Whenever I can, I'm trying to not look at my phone as often. I started carrying a small tote bag with me everywhere with me. There is always a book in there. It feels great to disconnect and to immerse oneself in a book.

I think we all need to retrain to connnect with physical things. We're so connected to our devices. I feel so disconnected with technology around us.

I'd like to invite a few people to share their thoughts and what they are reading or planning on reading.

What is Pablo reading?

Update - 1000 Albums in 1000 Days

2023-09-28 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

Preview of visual site

Background from the previous post

I wrote a post, 1000 Albums in 1000 Days, that a started a challenge or an adventure to listen to 1000 albums in 1000 days. So far it's going well. I've discovered new music or music I've been slightly familiar with. It's been fun to travel back the decades and see what everyone has been listening. My music taste has been less stale than when I had started.

Posting on my blog

I haven't posted as much on what I've been listening to. I decided to create weekly post of the titles and artist of respective I've listened to. If there is an album I really enjoyed, I will make a dedicated post.

I built a microsite

I created a microsite on a subdomain on lifeofpablo.com. This microsite will display all the albums I've listened to, so far. I will update as I go or I will update when I do my weekly post.

The website is https://1k.lifeofpablo.com.

The site is relatively simple. It has the following:

  • Navigation Bar
  • Hero Image
  • Description
  • Album Grid (Responsive of course :D )
  • Footer

I will organize it by the decade to keep things manageable. This is how it is organized in the book.

It's just plain simple.

Docker and Github Actions

I will update it using github actions along with Dockr to recreate the site when I make changes.

Recomendations & Webmentions

As always, if any of you have any recommendations for music to listen to? Send them my way, I'd love to see what you all recommend!

Ways to contact me:

1000 Albums in 1000 Days

2023-09-11 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

cover of 1000-record-covers

Sunday Morning Adventure

It was a Sunday and I was simply looking for something to do on an afternoon. Yesterday, I went to the bookstore yesterday in a long time. Going to the bookstore is a fun place to simply browse with no goal. You can simply just look and hope that something catches your eye. Oh boy! did a few things catch my eye! One book I really want to talk about is 1000 Record Covers by Michael Ors. Just as the title describes, it is a book showing different record covers. The book organized by decade (50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s). It's a simple book with an record covers and a information about the record album. I inititally hesitated in purchasing this book. Then, I started thinking about my taste in music.

Breaking The Loop

I've been stuck in this loop of music where I listen to the same stuff over and over and over again. It's been something I've been disatisfied with myself for a while. I purchased this book not just look at all the vintage record covers, I want to expand my taste in music. So I decided to challenge myself to break away from comfortability by listening to music I don't listen to normally or never thought to listen.

I am using this book as a guide to find new music. Streaming services ideally make it easy to discover new music. At the same time it seems overwhelming and distracting to even know what to discover. A book helps provide content without other distractions popping out of every direction. I also want to learn more music history throught listening which will spark my curiosity even more. I want to be able to find more ways to connect myself and see the world differently through music.

The First Album

Today is Day One and we're starting at the 50's . I am listening to album Let's Go Dancing To Rock And Roll by Hen Gates And His Gaters

Frank Ocean Blonde Album Cover

Title
Let's Go Dancing to Rock and Roll
Artist
Hen Gates And His Gaters

So far, i've enjoyed it. It like the genre so far. We're off to a great start.

Some limitations

Not everything will be on Apple Music as I found out with Let's Go Dancing to Rock and Roll. Youtube is my next solution. That involves me making a playlist since it hasn't been organized by someone else. I won't let this discourage me but it will be challenging at times.

How long will this take?

I will share my progress in listening and what I have learned so far in future blog posts, at various cyles such as various intervals. Definetly will share at albums number 250, 500, 750 and of course at 1000. According to basic math, it will take me close to 2.75 years to complete this if I do one album a day. This could either go faster or slower depending the circumstances.

Build a microsite

I will create a web app or a static page that I update daily or every few days on what I am listening to from the book. It will take suggestions using webmentions and other forms of contact.

The link will come soon in an upate post.

Recomendations

Do any of you have any recommendations for music to listen to? Send them my way, I'd love to see what you all recommend!