In the second half of last year, I stopped blogging about technology on a regular basis and spent more time focusing on other writing projects. I know it was hard on all of you. Computers and the Internet are scary things, and you probably feel lost right now.

To help get you back on track, here are five tips geared towards embracing technology in the new year. And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter to catch all of my mini-rants on the latest tech news and developments.

1. Give streaming music a shot

I gave up iTunes for Lent last year and haven’t looked back since signing up for an Rdio subscription. I pay $9.99 per month and stream albums to my Mac and iPhone all day long.

The only hiccup in the growth of streaming music services has been the recent trend of bands (Coldplay, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Black Keys) withholding their new releases from Rdio and Spotify. It’s a messy situation, because these artists feel like streaming music is killing their industry, and meanwhile, Rdio and Spotify have almost no hope of becoming profitable thanks to the demands of the music labels.

My advice is this: if you are near a computer for most of your day, use Rdio or Spotify as your personal jukebox and as a way to explore new artists and albums. If you feel guilty about shortchanging your favorite bands and singers, then pay for the album on iTunes or, even better, pick up a copy from your local music seller.

2. Move your documents to Dropbox

I always thought of Dropbox as nothing more than a flash drive in the sky. Sure, it would let me store up to 2 GB of data online and give me access to it from anywhere – but I could already do that with Apple’s iDisk service or even just by emailing files to myself.

Then iCloud launched, essentially killing iDisk, and I took that as a sign to give Dropbox a try. I quickly discovered that the service is much more than just an online flash drive. Because of its desktop client for Macs and PCs, Dropbox can replace the need for storing files on your local computer. The magic of Dropbox is that your files are available whether or not you are connected to the Internet - and the syncing to your cloud storage is done entirely in the background.

As I mentioned before, Dropbox gives you 2 GB of storage space for free and offers paid plans for more gigabytes. I suggest you start with the free package and use it for your text documents, spreadsheets and presentations (music, video and pictures take up too much space). Dropbox will sync your data across all of your devices so that you never have to worry about manually transferring files or accidentally editing the wrong version of a document.

3. Get your Twitter life under control

The first step to getting your Twitter life under control is to comb through your timeline and unfollow all the accounts that you do not consider essential. Obviously everyone tweets at different rates, but I estimate that following any more than 100 accounts is dangerous (and yes, I’m currently breaking my own rule).

Then take all those people who you considered non-essential but are still interested in and filter them into Twitter lists based on their category, profession or whatever the hell you want. I currently have five Twitter lists set up to complement my main timeline: News, Tech, Sports, Local and Companies. Also, consider migrating any RSS feeds that you still check into Twitter lists.

Treat your lists as news tickers that you quickly scroll through when you have a free minute. But be careful about adding too many news sites and blogs to your Twitter lists, since their nonstop tweeting can quickly become overwhelming. And no matter what, DO NOT attempt to read every tweet from your main timeline and all of your Twitter lists. Trust me, I’ve tried it – and the journey back from Internet Addiction Disorder is a long one.

4. Cleanse your devices

Take a look at the icons on your smartphone. Do you still use or need all of those apps? What about the downloads folder on your laptop? Are you saving those dancing cat GIFs for a special occasion?

It’s easy for your digital devices to get cluttered. Why not try to reverse that trend in 2012?

Go through your phone and delete the apps, messages and contacts you don’t need anymore. Then sift through the folders on your computer, removing unnecessary files and transferring stuff that can be archived to an external hard drive.

If you are feeling really adventurous, format your computer or mobile device and force yourself to start from scratch. (Just make sure you back up all your data beforehand.) You’ll feel more organized, and your gadgets will probably run faster too.

5. Pick a new password right now

Look, I know changing passwords is a pain in the butt. I picked a password for my first AOL screen name in sixth grade, used it for just about every site and service I signed up for over the next decade, and didn’t come up with a new one until I graduated from college.

To be extra careful with your online security, you should really use a different password for each site or application and change them up every few months. But that’s a lot to ask, so I suggest starting with my approach: choose a new password at the beginning of every January and then devote a few hours to updating the credentials for all your online accounts. As the year goes on, keep a running list of every site that you create an account on, and that will help make the annual password change a little bit easier.

I consumed over 30 books in 2011 (my second year as a Kindle owner). But at the end of October, I started to panic. The year was almost over, and I had yet to read something that I felt deserved a five-star rating. Looking over my finished reading list, I noticed the problem. I wasn’t being strict enough when choosing books. My Amazon shopping cart was growing out of control because I had a habit of adding every book that got any public notoriety or had the slightest hint of a compelling premise.

To fix this mess, I immediately changed my strategy and only permitted myself to purchase books that truly, truly excited me. Not surprisingly, most of the titles below were a part of that shift.

So I guess that’s my advice to readers for 2012. Remember that reading a book is a big commitment (especially if you’re like me and refuse to quit in the middle). Depending on how fast you read, each book you pick up will be a part of your life for days, weeks or even months. Don’t waste time reading books that you think you should read. High school is over. Real life doesn’t have a required reading list. Go ahead and experiment with new authors and new genres, but don’t commit to anything that you will need to force yourself to finish. This is supposed to be pleasurable reading. And if the pleasure is gone, then what’s the point?

With that said, on to the list!

 

1. The Visible Man, Chuck Klosterman - amzn.to/sdsekO

There’s one thing you need to accept in order to enjoy The Visible Man: Chuck Klosterman is smarter than you are. If you’re a fan of Klosterman’s nonfiction work (most notably Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs), chances are you’ve already accepted this.

The man’s brain operates differently than any other writer out there. He focuses on parts of life that most people ignore and can dig into a topic so deeply that you wonder if he is trying to rescue a Chilean miner with his words. Klosterman has created some clever essays by combining that approach with pop culture topics, but fiction is a different game.

I think that’s probably why I loved The Visible Man so much. It works just fine as a captivating narrative, but the level of philosophical and cultural exploration pushes the limit of what a novel can do (reminiscent of one of my favorite authors, Paul Auster). Klosterman somehow manages to entertain you with a coherent story and, at the same time, challenge everything you know. It may sound like this book is a headache waiting to happen, but I swear it’s worth it.

2. The Art of Fielding: A Novel, Chad Harbach - amzn.to/sykYdE

While I have plenty of reasons for putting The Art of Fielding on this list, I’m not exactly sure why it has received so much fanfare from the literary community. Honestly, it seems like the type of novel that book snobs would dismiss for being too simple or shallow.

Harbach builds a story on the core of four main characters and how their lives intersect on the campus of a midwestern college. Focusing on the perspectives of a group cast instead of a single main character is not a new approach to storytelling, but I found it refreshing to have the pieces of the novel fit together in a logical manner – instead of the abstract way they do in recent acclaimed titles like Let the Great World Spin and A Visit from the Goon Squad (both of which I hated).

My point is this: having a straightforward plot does not automatically remove the literary quality from a novel. Harbach’s book is proof, and I’m glad it is being recognized as a worthy piece of fiction.

The heavy baseball themes in The Art of Fielding have probably skewed it towards an audience of sports fans, but don’t let that taint your attitude about it. Harbach keeps the focus on his characters and how each one is screwed up in his or her own special way.

 

3. The Marriage Plot: A Novel, Jeffrey Eugenides - amzn.to/vLXHsq

If this book had been written by an unknown author or first-time novelist, I would have ranked it at the top of my list. But The Marriage Plot was not written by a nobody. It was written by Jeffrey Eugenides, the author of the super fantastic Middlesex (and The Virgin Suicides – which I still need to read).

The same one word kept popping into my head as I made my way through The Marriage Plot: safe. It’s a book about English majors from the northeast who can’t stop talking classic literature, can’t figure out who they love, and can’t find a way to deal with their depression. In terms of literary topics, that’s about as safe as it gets.

I tried and failed to construct an opinion of Eugenides’ new book without comparing it to his most recent work. The disconnect between the two novels goes beyond the obvious contrasts in their tone and subject matter. When measured against Middlesex, The Marriage Plot lacks the creative and emotional edge needed to distinguish itself as a literary masterpiece.

Eugenides is still a master at crafting words and developing detailed characters, but after producing something as daring as Middlesex, perhaps a minor letdown was inevitable.

 

4. The Postmortal: A Novel, Drew Magary - amzn.to/uZfyWF

Magary, who is best known for his wild sports writing on blogs like Deadspin, ventured into fiction territory for the first time in 2011.

The Postmortal has the best premise of any novel I read this year. Like, I’m legitimately upset and annoyed that I did not think of it first.

In the not too distant future, scientists have discovered a cure for aging. However, it’s not exactly a prescription for immortality. The drug will halt your body from getting any older and prevent you from dying of old age, but you can still be killed by other means (natural disaster, murder, cactus wrestling, etc.). The legalization of the cure creates a boatload of political, social and cultural conflicts, which Magary examines through blog entries written by his narrator (an approach clearly inspired by the author’s day job).

Magary’s style in The Postmortal is more subdued than his online rants (meaning no poop jokes) and there weren’t as many laugh out loud moments as I hoped, but the escapades of the main character gnaw on some fascinating questions. This is speculative fiction done right.

 

5. In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives, Steven Levy - amzn.to/uXwu2i

Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs was the top selling book of 2011 just about everywhere. As a result, it has overshadowed Levy’s engrossing look at the history and evolution of Google, which should be recognized as the best technology book of the year.

Levy is a god in the tech journalism world. He’s covered every major company and product over the last two decades, first at Newsweek and now at Wired. It’s too bad that Jobs wanted a non-geek to write his authoritative biography, when someone like Levy could have given that icon the true retrospective he deserved.

But let’s get back to In The Plex, because it tells a story that is arguably just as riveting as the semi-fabricated plot of The Social Network. Thanks to his unprecedented access to Google’s campus, its employees and even its founders, Levy is able to provide true insight into the company that blogs and journalists on the outside just can’t produce.

Levy devotes the same level of depth to the company’s great successes (web search, advertising) and to its massive failures (Google Buzz, the China experiment). The story of Google is far from over, but In The Plex provides it with a worthy opening chapter.

I’m running an advertising campaign for my debut novel, Train Wreck, on Book Riot right now. Book Riot is a fun book blog for readers and writers, and the folks over there post a lot of great content on the current literary scene.

My first novel, TRAIN WRECK, is available today as an ebook on the Kindle and Nook platforms.

To check out the Kindle version, go here: http://amzn.com/B005KDD3TC

To check out the Nook version, go here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1105281380

Don’t worry if you don’t own an e-reader. Thanks to the Kindle & Nook apps, you can download and read TRAIN WRECK on almost any device.

The Kindle app is available for Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7. Details are here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_ipad_mkt_lnd?docId=1000493771

The Nook app is available for Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads and Android. Details are here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/free-nook-apps/379002321/

Thanks for your support, and I hope you enjoy reading TRAIN WRECK!

Mac OS X Lion is a couple weeks old, and although I’m still a tad skeptical about the blending of the iPad and Mac operating systems, I’m trying my best to embrace the changes and new features.

But there’s one change that seems obvious to me, and I’m confused as to why Apple declined to make the switch in Lion.

I’m talking about the desktop.

Since the birth of modern operating systems, the desktop has served as the place for users to dump all the crap they need (and some they don’t). When you look at most people’s desktops, they’re cluttered with all sorts of icons for shortcuts, documents and poorly named folders.

The small screens of iPhones and iPads don’t have room for that kind of clutter, so Apple smartly left the desktop out of its iOS operating system and replaced it with a grid of app icons that serves as a program launcher.

That same idea made it into OS X Lion in the form of Launchpad – a very simple dock tool that takes over your entire desktop and displays the icons of your apps in an iPad-like grid.

Combine that with Apple’s big push for full-screen apps in Lion, and the desktop just seems unnecessary.

If I was the OS X team, I would have made the Launchpad grid the default function of the desktop and routed all file and folder management through the Finder.

The magic of the iPhone and iPad is their simplicity, and part of that is the ability to rearrange the homescreen and keep your device organized with so little effort. No matter how hard you try, it’s impossible to make an iPhone screen look cluttered.

So why not bring the same level of simplicity to the Mac? Kill the idea of traditional icons on the desktop and make it the home of your wallpaper and nothing more. The current approach to the desktop is just an invitation for disorganization and confusion – two things that will lead users to detest their Mac instead of adoring it.