I just finished Takedown, by Rick Cowen and Douglas Century. This is the story of how a NY city cop managed to go undercover and bring down dozens of mob members.
It's actually a remarkable story - mosty because it was all made possible from one cop's quick thinking. In fact, the cop probably allowed the whole investigation to happen simply because he parked his unmarked (but obviously noticeable as a police vehicle) car a few blocks away from a crime scene. If he was lazy and parked in front, this story would never had happened.
I'm not always a huge fan of mob movies and such, but I decided to take the plunge here. It was worth it - the stranger than fiction behavior of the mobsters was precious. From their eating habits and sense of justice to their expressions - it was hard to believe real people act this way. But apparently, they do.
This was one book that I truly appreciated listening to. The author provided a few different New York accents which were priceless.
One major annoyance of the book was that it was abridged. I hate that. But even with missing some parts of the book it was still quite worth while.
I give the book a 8/10 for acting and for being a fun listen. It very much helped that the good guys won out and the bad guys lost big time.
--Ben
The vast majority of the books I read are actually books on tape (or now, books on CD). So, technically, I should probably be more careful and say I just listened to a book, rather than read it.
ReplyDeleteSo, durning my commute and every other time I'm alone in the car, I basically listen to a book on tape, rather than music or the news.
I usually stop by the library and pick up books in groups of three (a novel, a biography and a self help) and make my way through them. You can't beat the price of the trip to the library.
I started adding reviews to my blog because I would make my way through interesting books, have some brilliant insights into them (ok, brilliant is a bit strong of a word, but you get the idea). And then a few months, weeks, etc. later, I'd totally forget what I read much less what I thought.
By throwing a review up on my blog, I know that if I ever wanted to, I could look back at those insights. Or at least get the title of some book I kinda remember.
So, I'm a huge fan of audio books (and podcasts) and that's what allows me to vary my reading. If it weren't for audio books, I can't imagine how few real books I'd actually make it through.
The only down side of listening to books every chance you get is that I typically have no knowledge of current events, because I don't listen (or watch or read) the news. Oh well. The news is depressing. Adventure books are fun.