My name's Eric Kibler and I'm a lawyer living and practicing in Lisbon, Ohio.

Unregistered books I've started/finished recently:

The Fool's Progress by Edward Abbey: I borrowed this book from a friend about two years ago and it was high time I finished it. I'd been unaquainted with Abbey, who was more well-known as an environmentalist. This book is a loosely autobiographical novel that gives you a picture of him as a womanizer, man's man, and liver of life, who tried as much as possible to live outside the world of nine-to five. Seven stars. Finished it 1/1/05.

I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe: Listened to an unabridged recording of this on my long walks. Wolfe seems a bit out of touch for the first time, in writing about contemporary college mores. His attitude to prevalent sex and alcohol seems one of shock at how things have changed. I went to college over twenty years ago, and the events depicted in this book don't seem that removed from what went on in my day. Still, a compelling book. Seven stars. Finished it 11/30/04

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris: Another unabridged audiobook. Sedaris is funniest in his discussion of the differences between the American Santa Claus and the Dutch St. Nicholas, and in his portrait of his redneck brother. Eight stars. Finished 12/24/04

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser: Audiobook. How fast food has changed how the world eats, the economy, the landscape, and how it affects public health (in many more insidious ways than I at first thought). Everyone should read this book. Ten stars! Finished 12/30/04

Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Audiobook. A Fantasy. Started it 12/31.04. Finished 1/20.05. Pretty standard fare. Kind of impressive when you consider it was written by a nineteen-year-old kid, though. The way magic is dealt with in the book is refreshing in that limits are placed on it. Three stars out of ten.

A Series of Unfortunate Events, Part One: The Bad Beginning, by Lemony Snicket. These books are mildly clever, and more slight than I like my reading to be. I had seen the movie, and that may have ruined this for me to some degree. I picked up the second book (The Reptile Room) and started to read it, then thought, "Gee, I don't have to read this, do I?" One device that initially seemed clever eventually became annoying: where the author uses a word (often a familiar word every hip kid would know), and then gives a definition. Two stars.