Thursday, August 9, 2012

Caponomics On Amazon: The List

I thought I would share a list of each of the books I review on Amazon, so you could search for them as you check out the site. I'm under "Caponomics," just like the name of the blog. Here is what you can find thus far...

The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson
Chanukah Guilt by Ilene Schneider
Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Maus by Art Spiegelman
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Julie And Julia by Julie Powell
One Second After by William R. Fortschen
The President Is A Sick Man by Matthew Algeo
Destiny Of The Republic by Candice Millard
Hearts In Atlantis by Stephen King
The Green Mile by Stephen King
Bag Of Bones by Stephen King
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
The House Of Thunder by Dean Koontz
The Servants Of Twilight by Dean Koontz

I will continue to update this list as I review more books, so keep checking this list.

Caponomics On Amazon

I have an announcement I would like to share with those of you who check out my blog. I have begun to submit book reviews for Amazon.com and will be submitting more of these reviews in the days and weeks to come.

There are a few reasons that I am doing this. The first is that I want to do what I can to make an impact on what people shop for on Amazon. I feel that good books should be bought and bad books should be ignored, which is an obvious train of thought. It's also an act of preventing others from following the path in which I myself did in the negative aspect and encouraging people to following the path I did in the positive aspect. In simple talk: read good books, not bad ones.

While it's of lesser reasoning, writing reviews, let alone book reviews, on Amazon puts me in a competition. You are ranked based off of how helpful you are and you can earn titles for being in the Top 10, Top 100, and other valuable honors. I have always been interested in competition, not necessarily comparing myself to others, but seeing how far I can go with my writing and reviewing talents.

For those of you who are interested, my reviews will be under "Caponomics" on Amazon. The reviews that have been released include...

The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson
Chanukah Guilt by Ilene Schneider
Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

There will be plenty of reviews to come of several other books. I ask and encourage you to check them out. At the moment, I'm only getting the feel of how Amazon reviews, but will eventually warm up and become casual like they are on this blog.

I will continue to review books here on Caponomics and will give a more straight forward rating on a scale of 0-10. Amazon has a 1-5 star rating, which doesn't allow an option to give absolutely dreadful books a zero-star rating. Unfortunately, but ehhhh... that's life.

So if you get the chance and want to buy some books on Amazon, check out my reviews and enjoy!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Let's Be Brutally Honest: Orange Juice Pulp Is Oh So Burdensome

I am not one to constantly drink my calories. I believe water is the best thing to drink when you're thirsty, as it contains zero calories and quenches your thirst. I will, however, have an orange juice in the morning in order to boost my intake of Vitamin C, calcium, and it gives me the caffeine spurt to start the day as coffee does to many others. What I mean by drinking a nice, refreshing glass of orange juice in the morning is drinking a nice, refreshing glass of smooth and sweet orange juice. NOT orange juice with pulp. Yes, I am one that likes things in a natural state, but orange juice is something I prefer without the pulp. Then again, I don't like seeds in a watermelon or crusts on a white bread (when it's the only option, because I'm not into white bread so much), but pulp is not something that suits my interests.

For the record, pulp are the little objects that shed off of the orange when being eaten. When you're drinking orange juice, you can feel these flaky objects entering your mouth that feel like something that is thicker than dandruff and thinner than finger or toenails. They are oh so burdensome to your morning glass of OJ and take so much away from your experience of having a refreshing morning.

This led me to the question of whether or not pulp was good for you or it didn't make much of a difference at all. It turns out... pulp is really good for you... which is unfortunate for people like myself who just can't stand it. Pulp has a nutrient in it known as a flavonoid. This nutrient has been known for fighting diseases such as diabetes or cancer. Then again, as it goes, things that don't taste so good end up being better for you than things that don't, reasonable for the fact that keeping healthy should be challenging. Drinking orange juice with pulp in it joins this list of things that are healthier in the more burdensome state.

There are plenty of examples in which taste doesn't judge nutrition level. Broccoli tastes like a cold tree when you eat it raw, but juicier and more delicious when you cook it. Chocolate is another food that is more bitter than sweeter in its authentic state. We all comment on how chocolate is so sweet, but it actually tastes like dirt when it contains more cacao. This is also referred to as "dark chocolate." Milk chocolate, which is sweeter, actually contains more sugar and cocoa butter that isn't as natural. White chocolate, which is the sweetest of the bunch, contains no real chocolate.

Back to what I was saying about pulp, it's healthier, but it's not really better. Orange juice is something that should be refreshing during the morning and little objects swimming in your drink and are ready to rub against your mouth and tickle your throat are only going to crash your party. There are plenty of other less burdensome ways in which you could fight diseases such as diabetes and cancer. I'm perfectly fine with having broccoli, because at least I know what I'm in for.