Generally speaking I appreciate black humour. Generally speaking I get that especially dry, uniquely British style of humour. Generally speaking any book that’s described as witty, much less as “a masterpiece of wit”, is right up my alley. Generally a book that makes excellent use of metaphoric commentary to satirize and skewer political systems, the general public, and the interaction… Read more →
Tag: Books
Notes From The Augmented Hobo Community
One of the things I’m interested in generally is the notion of augmented or mediated reality–everything from simple HUD overlays to the kind of stuff Karl Schroeder so excellent explored in Lady Of Mazes. Some of the ideas that were clearly science fiction just a little while ago are turning into real street level science fiction–you could be walking around… Read more →
Living In Interesting Times, Or, Friday Night With Fancy Books
While there were many exciting conversations here at Casa McLaren tonight about things that are not yet blog-announcement-ready, as far as actual action goes things were pretty sedate. Mostly it was me assembling some hardware store purchases, and then spending a few hours doing some sorting and organizing of the library. So, since I spent all my time doing that,… Read more →
There is no more speaking to the nation
I recommend that if you haven’t already you head over to this month’s issue of the Internet Review Of Science Fiction and read Kristine Kathryn Rusch‘s essay “What’s Louder Than Noise“, in which she puts forth her argument for why the Great American Novel is no longer something that it’s possible to write. The essay isn’t terribly long, but it… Read more →
Marco Polo, Nativity, Divine Fire, and blindspots in the mind
So I spent some time today–when I probably should have been doing something else–reading some of the Travels Of Marco Polo. Oddly, I don’t have a print copy of this in my library–an omission I shall have to correct at some point–but that wasn’t a problem since Project Gutenberg has a decent translation. I wasn’t reading for any particular purpose,… Read more →
The why of your eye, and the tricking of it also
This week when I was picking up comics at the shop, my daughter talked me into buying Jay Hosler‘s latest science comic, Optical Allusions, to read with her. This was a pretty easy sell, considering my previous enjoyment of Hosler’s Clan Apis and Sandwalk Adventures (both of which, it occurs to me just now, are good candidates for being pulled… Read more →
A Monday Night Gallimaufry
Let’s see if we can close some of the myriad tabs I’ve opened in the process of trying to catch up with everything that happened in the non-work world while I was off spending time at the Melbourne office: I’m quite impressed at the 16-year old (from the city where I did my university days) who managed to isolate plastic… Read more →
Now I’m Going To Have To Reread The Prince
I heard quite a lot–references and allusions–about Machiavelli during my early teen years, and that lead me to get around to reading The Prince at some point during my time living in Switzerland–I was 16 at the time. I remember being impressed and amused by the book, and by what I knew about how it connected to political life in… Read more →
Aside
My wife has been known to comment on her preference for the mass market paperback over the hardcover book, on the basis that it’s easier to read without tiring yourself out. As a collector, I do tend to prefer the hardback for books that I want to keep in the collection, but I certainly know what she’s talking about–reading Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle could give a guy tennis elbow. One hesitates to wonder what her reaction would be to the new limited edition of Agatha Christie’s Complete Miss Marple. (I love that it comes with a carrying case.)
Physical Culture and Self-Defence
Offered almost without comment: Both pages from Physical Culture And Self-Defence, one of the bazillion books at books.google.com. The internet keeps getting cooler. I note that you can download a PDF of the book for offline perusal. (Via Wondermark‘s David Malki!) Read more →
Goldstein interview and story
I’ve been a Lisa Goldstein fan since the first time I read The Dream Years. I have all her novels, including the ones she’s written under a pseudonym. Hell, in a strage bit of synchronicity my desktop wallpaper is Eric Fortune‘s artThis was a Tor.com bonus, so I’m not comfortable hosting a copy myself–but if you know how to use… Read more →
Punks and Parker
For some reason, reading that story about the 84 year old grandpa laying out the punks who tried to rob him makes me think of this panel from Darwyn Cooke‘s version of The Spirit: Speaking of Darwyn, his first adaptation of Richard Stark‘sa.k.a. the recently deceased Donald E. Westlake Parker stories is coming out soon. I was already pretty jazzed… Read more →
Aside
I am not one of the fifty. Sadness.
We Are Living In Science Fiction (Again)
When I was reading that story about the Canadian researched who uncovered the “GhostNet”–the gigantic system of compromised computers around the world, one that appears to be run out of China, and to target organizations of interest to China–my first thought was “Huh, that’s almost right out of Stross‘ Halting State. Apparently Charlie thought so too, since he just posted… Read more →
Eight links make a post
And now, for another exciting post of links and short comments: I’ve always been aware of having been gifted with a pretty powerful attention span. I have always kind of assumed it came from becoming a reader at a very young age, but I guess it’s equally plausible that things are actually ordered the other way and my resistance to… Read more →
