Eric Maynard: books

Idoru

Wed, 09 Oct 2002 00:27:23 GMT

I'm reading Gibson... again. This time his last three books - in reverse order for no real reason. I just happen to pick up a copy of All Tommorrow's about a month ago and then read a couple of reviews mentioning the connection to Idoru and Virtual Light. So now... I'm reading Idoru. I'm about 1/2 done. Gibson is a real easy read.

"Idoru lacks ambition. Just when Neal Stephenson is reaching out further into the future with The Diamond Age, Gibson pulls back into a closer, blander tomorrow. And loses his lyrical style and plot originality at the same time. Both of which were still strongly evident in Virtual Light. " The Poet Hiccups - a review of William Gibson's Idoru

I'm not sure what lyrical style The Poet is looking for, but I believe the story to be pretty solid so far. Perhaps, all the hub-bub over the being the "father" (man, I would hate that label if it hung on me) of cyber-punk is just too much for some people to stomach.

Personally, I can't speak for the reference to Stephenson (i'll add him to THE list though), but I do lean toward agreeing with this review on WIRED - Gibson's 'blander tomorrow' is really today reflecting back...

Gibson claims he does not write about the future. His novels, he maintains, are reflections of the present.

Check out the words of Gibson himself (if you're interested), in this Salon article. It offers some insight into Idoru as well.

I wonder... am I enjoying these stories because I'm reading them in reverse order written? Maybe that's the key... or maybe, I just simply like Gibson's 'bland' style.

Next up... Virtual Light. After that my wife's got a vote in for Timeline by Chrichton. She's neck deep in quantum theory as spun by one of mainstream fiction's masters. I love it.

All Tomorrow's Parties

Mon, 16 Sep 2002 12:33:40 GMT

Just finished reading Gibson's All Tomorrow's Parties this past weekend.

I found it a very enjoyable and easy read thanks to Gibson's usual "blunt" writing style. I guess I really can't agree with the majority of the reviews on Amazon, as I have not read the prior novels that this book supposedly brings togther. Perhaps, that's why I was able to really enjoy it as I didn't have any pre-concieved notions of 'sequel' as I dived in to the storyline and subplots being weaved together.

In defense of Gibson, a Salon.com article had this to say which I find myself agreeing with:

"...Gibson has trouble making his endings as vivid and precise as all the details leading up to them, and "All Tomorrow's Parties" suffers in this respect. The ultimate conflict has to do with introducing nanotechnology....Outrunning the future can be tough in the digital age. You have to hand it to Gibson for managing, once more, to stay at least one step ahead."

Although not a complete letdown, the ending did leave more than a few questions left unanswered. Open options on another book perhaps?

onfocus.com : free to the public

Wed, 28 Aug 2002 01:35:35 GMT

"I added support for Barnes & Noble and Powells links to the Weblog Bookwatch. So if you link to individual books at these stores (the ISBN must be in the URL) and notify weblogs.com when you update, they'll be included in the mix. It's books only, so the MediaWatch won't be affected by this."

BookWatch expands services. What is BookWatch: The top books in the blogshphere.

Also, check out Paul's photo gallery, I can only aspire to be so good a photographer...

Historical Fiction - My favorite genre

Mon, 26 Aug 2002 13:49:40 GMT

Our recent bus trip allowed me time to complete a couple of interesting reads:

The Difference Engine and Eaters of the Dead

Emergence

Mon, 26 Aug 2002 12:17:33 GMT

"So if you are interested in learning about tomorrows way of organize and build structures read this book. Are you already in to this area I don't think it will give you so much more." [ on kerusan.org ]

kerusan.org sums up the book "Emergence" pretty well.

The Old-Folks Home for Books

Tue, 20 Aug 2002 12:45:27 GMT

"The Old-Folks Home for Books:". How do bestselling novels end up on the bargain table at bookstores? The acrane, bizarre economies of the publishing business.... [ReRead]

"...For publishers and booksellers, it's all pretty slick and efficient. Unfortunately, the system leaves authors out in the cold. A typical book contract gives the author a royalty on each book sold in the first round. But in most cases, if the book is remaindered, the author gets nothing except the right to buy his or her own book for a song."

ReRead points the way to this Boston Globe article. I feel bad for the authors, but at the same time this is a great way for people like myself to stock up on expensive technology manuals you'd normally spend a good portion of your weekly wages on.

John Robb's Radio Weblog

Tue, 20 Aug 2002 12:35:27 GMT

John llinks to Woods Hole article discussing the prospect of a mini ice-age triggered by... global warming. It's a lengthy, but extremely well written piece, with lot's of diagrams to explain the processes at work.

"...We are walking toward the edge of a cliff—blindfolded. Our ability to understand the potential for future abrupt changes in climate is limited by our lack of understanding of the processes that control them."

Children of the Ice Age: How a Global Catastrophe Allowed Humans to Evolve by Steven Stanley covered pretty much this same ground suggesting a slightly different result some million years ago or so - us.

Fri, 12 Jul 2002 00:00:49 GMT

"New Scientist . Scientists generate complete polio virus from scratch using little more than commonly known data and widely available tools. This was anticipated but never done before.
Frankly, this process sounds too easy. What's not mentioned is that low cost DNA manufacturing machines could make it possible to mass produce the virus in a couple of weeks (most of the older model equipment can be bought at low cost, it's just a little slower). I suspect that this process would also work in building designer proteins (like prions). Note: this kind of work can be done in a very sloppy manner and still generate signficant results.
Let me announce that this little experiment makes it officially the day that one person with a $50 k basement lab could declare war on the world, and make it an even fight. Very, very scary thought. No need to wait for nanotech grey goo, or nuclear proliferation, etc. Too bad that almost nobody will pay attention to this. Read " The White Plague " ASAP."
On John Robb's Radio Weblog

I was just about to suggest the White Plague myself, but I see John's already pointed to it. Scary stuff... kind of like The Stand, only bit more reallistic.

Marooned in Realtime

Sun, 07 Jul 2002 00:12:07 GMT

"You bet I recognize Venor Vinge's works!"

With the affinity Doug and I share for books, this one will have to added to the waiting list. :)

Life of a one-man IT department

Thu, 13 Jun 2002 01:58:17 GMT

"Hmm I think I'm going to have to spend more time this summer doing reflective activities. Walking to the local library yesterday evening (where I picked up a copy of Small Pieces Loosely Joined, can't wait to dig into that!)"

Mike's reading a 'blogspace' favorite. Looking forward to comparing notes after I've read it myself.

Wed, 12 Jun 2002 03:23:56 GMT

Did This Man Just Rewrite Science?. Dr. Stephen Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science" may be the scientific publishing event of the season, but whether it is a revolution in science as well must await the judgment of his peers. By Dennis Overbye. [New York Times: Technology]

The Times' review the book that is creating some interest in the 'blogsphere these days.

The Next Fifty Years

Sat, 25 May 2002 02:28:41 GMT

"What Lies Ahead As part of this month's subscription, I bought The Next Fifty Years : Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century from Audible. I thought it sounded interesting, and maybe you will, too. It's an edited volume of speculative essays by 25 scientists. One strange thing is that Amazon has incorporated Audible's titles into their system, so you can order the MP3 version, but yet it doesn't show up for this title. Weird."

I was this (pinching finger to thumb) close to buying this book last night at Barnes and Nobles. I opted for something for pure pleasure instead.

Something I haven't done in a reeeeal long time....Buy a fiction book for just plain entertainment. "doug" will no doubt recognize the title. Earth by David Brin.

A New Kind of Science

Thu, 23 May 2002 01:42:13 GMT

>>> Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science discusses the universe as a manifestation of cellular automata. (That is, all the complexity of the Universe, according to Wolfram, is generated from very simple rules along lines similar to Conway's Game of Life.) This review of ANKOS by Ray Kurzweil is a fascinating read in itself, and a lot shorter than ANKOS's 1,200 pages. <<< [Gary Robinson's Rants]

This is sort of the same thing that Ubiquity by Mark Buchanan proposes. I've (wishfully at least) commited myself to reading New Kind of Science by summer's end. I skimmed Kurzweil's review and have every intention of reading it in it's entirety at some point here in the next few days.

Scribner: Let Us Listen to Steven Johnson's book

Tue, 21 May 2002 11:10:52 GMT

I added my name to "jenny" 's petition. The book is definitely worth reading, in any format and I hope to own a copy of my own at some point.

KurzweilAI.net

Sun, 19 May 2002 14:21:17 GMT

Reflections on Stephen Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science"

Kurzweil coments on this interesting sounding book. Adding it to my To Read list, but at 1100+ pages and with summer coming, reading may be come someting more of a luxury.

Sun, 12 May 2002 08:38:36 GMT

The Filming of Philip K. Dick (Slate via [Memo To Myself])

Interesting discussion of Dick's works that have been turned in to films and how they have translated from literature to film. A brief mention of the upcoming Spielberg directed Miority Report starring Tom Cruise is also made.

Emergence

Mon, 06 May 2002 00:39:52 GMT

"It's a fascinating book, and the topics are woven together beautifully. I get the feeling that Johnson did thorough research, planned out the entire structure of the book, but then wrote many sections straight through without stopping to edit -- it flows with a rhythm and pace that makes for an easy read." [via manton.org]

This book gives you the feeling of sitting with the author as he reads these related essays.

Fri, 03 May 2002 02:21:40 GMT

"Are you the kind of person who presses the "door close" button in the lift, to make it go that little bit faster? I certainly am. If you are, you might enjoy James' Gleick's Faster [buy it from Amazon]. | [link] | [email] | [comment] [17] | " [via not.so.soft » life.unfolding]

This is the second BloggerPro site today that I haven't been able link to. Must be something up with the 'perma-link' rendering. I've manually cut-n-pasted this quick quote from not.so.soft on Gleick's "Faster".

Upgrade due for 'talking books'

Thu, 02 May 2002 23:58:16 GMT

""Digital technology used in cameras, cell phones and MP3 players will soon make the written word more accessible to the blind, visually impaired and physically handicapped...
Karen A. Keninger of the Iowa Regional Library in Des Moines looks forward to the leap forward, both as a service provider and user. "As a blind person, I'm really excited about it because I'll be able to navigate a book a lot easier," she said.""

I like the part about the digital audio player going through the wash...and still working. Of course, solid state doesn't mean indestructible, but it does underline the dual nature of the technology.

The bits can flow as easy as water from source to device. Here today and gone tommorrow at the click of a button, but having no moving parts there is a persistance to the data that makes the it easily accessible with little or no degradation.

A Kingdom Space: global blog

Wed, 01 May 2002 01:50:46 GMT

"this is an organic living example of "emergence theory" becoming a reality in the global church."

Karen wraps "Emergence" around religion...hmmm

Talk Miramax picks up Tarantino's debut novel

Thu, 25 Apr 2002 00:59:29 GMT

Talk Miramax picks up Tarantino's debut novel ~ "''Kill Bill' is a novel, a cinematic novel,' Tarantino said. 'I'm moving away from screenplay format, keeping what I do like of the form and throwing away what I don't. I write tons of prose. It's all about the page; it's the writer in me. 'Kill Bill' is not a novelization. It functions as a script, and it functions as a novel, but it's not a script and it's not a novelization. It's something in the middle that gets across my writing style as its purest.'" (CNN.com) [Memo To Myself]

I'll be interested in seeing this. I'm a big Tarantino fan. One of these days I'll get around to my own Top5everything list. Reservoir Dogs (1992) is like definitely on my Top5 movies of all time list.

Ubiquity's End

Sat, 20 Apr 2002 10:51:45 GMT

"Buchannan's Ubiquity is ultimately disappointing, moving on to other books."

Doug and I seem to share many of the same interest in reading material. And discussing a good (or bad ) book is always such a enjoyable time with someone like Doug.

ENIGMA - The Film...a tale of love, patriotism, obsession and betrayal.

Tue, 16 Apr 2002 03:05:11 GMT

...a romantic thriller steeped in the tense atmosphere of wartime Britain, this suspenseful drama centers on the mysteries of WWII cryptography while telling a tale of love, patriotism, obsession and betrayal.

Ok, so does that mean we're looking at another (as my wife says) chick flick or will this movie give us some historical perspective as well? Emergence has spark my interest in Alan Turing and I'm intersted in learning much more about his accomplishments during and after the Second World War.

The movie Enigma is based on the Robert Harris novel of the same name. Harris also wrote Fatherland (It's 1964 and Hitler Won the War) which was itelf turned into the 1994 Fatherland (TV). I've read Fatherland and seen the movie, both where very decent in their own right.

My wife, who has read Enigma as well as Fatherland, comments that she felt it was not quite as good of a story as Fatherland. I'll have to definitely give it a read now, in order to be able to compare it to the movie. A act of futility in most cases I know.

onfocus.com : Weblog BookWatch

Tue, 16 Apr 2002 02:02:59 GMT

"Weblog BookWatch Top 10 The Weblog Bookwatch searches weblogs that pass through the Recently Changed list at weblogs.com looking for links to books at Amazon.com. The books below were the most frequently mentioned. "

Onfocus is a blog worthy in and of it's own, but the Bookwatch feature of this site is really a cool and original idea. Similar to Daypop, but limited to book titles referenced in Weblogs.com blogs. Uses ISBN numbers from Amazon track the top books being referenced.

>>> So what can you do with all this? How about using Amazon's API** and some XML-formatted data from weblogs.com to build a list of the most linked books on the Web (more info)? And you know what the best part is? You can use BookWatch's RSS document and Google's API to add the most recent search results for each of the books on the list, which is useful because Google searches for book titles and authors often yield links to authors' Web sites, sample chapters, and reviews. <<< [via kottke.org ]

Hmm...I like that idea of combining the Bookwatch list with the Google API. I think "jenny" will be interested as well. I'll have to give that one some thought.

Thu, 11 Apr 2002 02:57:59 GMT

Finished reading Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson. Very interesting book. Easy reading...interesting subject matter...allowing the book gel in my brain and then I'll post some reflective thoughts.