Reads 2008
'Reads' is just a collection of very small reviews of books I've read this year. Nothing more, nothing less. I also catch a lot of this over at Goodreads.com.
June 2008
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
ISBN 1573225517 (ISBN13: 9781573225519)
This is one of those books which I've thought about reading for years, before picking up a copy in a second hand shop, and it sat on my shelf for almost a year, until I was ill one weekend and decided to plough though it. Firstly, it's not as much about music as I first thought, rather it's about a type of person who is somewhat obsessed with a thing. In this case, primarily, it's music, but beyond that it's the main character's obsessive, compulsive attitude to analysis of relationships. Many of the observations made are witty, some rather melancholy, but overall, it's an absorbing read, even if you're just left with a certain sense of being let down in the end , but it seems the plot closes with the point that for some life just goes on and there is no sharp shift or resolution. Again, this wasn't the book I thought it was going to be, but it is well written and interesting and whilst a massive music brain may be disappointed, it is in itself a very time-worthy read.
"Broken Angels" - Richard K. Morgan
(isbn: 0345457714 // isbn13: 9780345457714)
The follow up to 'Altered Carbon', this follows protagonist Takeshi Kovacs to another planet trying to exploit the ongoing war there, and hopefully ride out with money and influence on the back of a potentially humanity changing Martian technological discovery. Morgan's created world of sleeving (transferring a personality to a new body via a hardware 'stack' in the spine ), still works, and has all of the parts of a good Sci-Fi story in place, with some half decent support characters, but though I enjoyed the book, it feels a bit forced. Morgan, through Kovacs, mentions that Kovacs was an 'Envoy' hundreds of times throughout the book, and re-iterates that this gives him access to the training of the old job - empathy, suggestion, honed instinct and so on, but the references go on and on, to the point where you really don't care who the envoys were, or are. Indeed, exactly who the envoys were, or any more of their history, is still as clouded and muddled here as it was in the first book, so why the point is laboured so heavily, I'm not sure. Still, it's a good read if you want straight Sci-Fi, and Morgan keeps the door open to expand his universe (there is at least one more Kovacs based novel as far as I know), so there's scope, but he might need to get a new angle for his main character, as it's looking a bit worn now. That said, the rundown of the evolution of the nanotech was very good, and added much more to the story than any of the Envoy name dropping. In all a good book, but some bits grate, and others aren't followed up on, because you know from the beginning there's a sequel to come.
"Fatherland" - Robert Harris
(isbn: 0061006629 // isbn13: 9780061006623)
This was maybe not the book to read whilst fending off a vicious fever which mean't I was in and out of consciousness a few times at key points...
Set in an alternative history, which has forked from our own circa 1942, Hitler now has the run of most of Europe and Eastern Russia, an treaty with the US and is seeking to further consolidate its gains.
The real story set against this is of an SS police detective investigating a murder victim just outside Berlin, in the run up to the Fuehrer's Seventy Fifth birthday celebrations in 1964. The story is very tight and clever, and uses it's setting to it's own advantage, and to texture the whole plot. The confinements of a police state are really felt here, where even the police themselves have to be careful in an unfolding plot which has the main character, Xavier March, investigating more and more senior figures, and being investigated himself.
It touches on real life events too, such as documentation of the Jewish Final Solution, of relocation of Germans, and the dark ethics of eugenics in the Third Reich. The thriller woven into this though is very good, and keeps unravelling to the last page.
Not that I'm saying there's a twist or something, just there there's more and more new information which keeps coming, both about Xavier, the case, and his tragic relationship which his regime loyal son. Though there are elements of 1984 (itself partly based off some aspects of the Nazi systems) I think the book does manage to create a rather unique feel to its world, as a kind of offshoot to the Nazi regime in 'The Man in a High Castle'. What is well done is the interweaving of real characters, fake ones, and real ones who were kept alive beyond their 'real' deaths, to what they may have gone on to do. A good thriller, and a sinister reminder of what might have been.
May 2008
"On Writing" - Stephen King
(isbn: 0743455967 // isbn13: 9780743455961)
It's been a long time since I tried a Stephen King book. Honestly, I still feel a bit burned from him not finishing 'The Plant', when I'd paid on chapter by chapter 1USD fees, but when it was dropped, I had no way to read the ending. Anyway, as I'm trying my hand at writing, it would be a good idea to see how King views the occupation. Up front then, this is not a novel as such. It's a three sectioned work which weaves how King got into writing, how he recommends you write, what textbooks you learn from, and then back into how his writing developed. The first an last sections are almost an autobiography, but as he says, he's only really discussing his life how it relates to writing, and he pretty much stays true to that. The book really is a very good read, even if you don't want to be a writer. King moves from his early life and how he got published, to discussing pitfalls in grammar usage , word usage ('the adverb is not your friend!'), to how to find an agent and improve your writing. I think I learned a lot more from this book than I ever imagined, and bought the grammar books he recommends, even though he picks holes in them a little, he even re-enforced things I knew, but just wasn't doing like a fix word target per day, and sticking to it. The book does address the down sides he's had - from the jubilation of the success of 'Carrie' do his slide into drug and alcohol abuse, which he deals with candidly, as it pertains to his writing. It's a well written section. Just as you're thinking that he mentions beers a lot he jumps in and says: yes, I was drinking as much as it sounds, and then admits that he doesn't even really remember writing books like Cujo. So basically, even if you don't want to be a writer, and maybe even if you don't like Stephen King books, definitely pick this up if only to see a bit more of the 'how' and the 'why' behind his works.
April 2008
"Jupiter's Travels" - Ted Simon
(isbn: 0965478521 // isbn13: 9780965478526)
I'm not usually one for travel journals myself, which is perhap ironic, as I likely moving, travelling, be it a business trip or a weekend in the moutains. However, I'm also a bit of a biker, so I thought I'd give this one a try. I found it whilst watching "Long Way Round" and Ewen McGregor and Charley Boorman met Simon in Mongolia, and he said quite a succinct passage:
“I think the motorcycle is best because it puts you so much in contact with everything. You experience, much more closely, the nature of the terrain, you can almost taste the cultures that you’re riding through. Because it exposes you to the climate, to the wind and rain, it’s a much more complete experience.”
So I tracked the book down and gave it a read. It's very, very worthwhile. It's not about bikes for the most part, and those parts which are are kept to the specifics. This book is about people, journeys and how they affect a person. Ted Simon took over four years to go around the world, he gave it the time to see the people and their ways. It really is a fascinating account of what happens when you just set your mind to something and do it. Simon's recollection of imprisonment in Brazil, love in America right down to waiting to cross a river in Australia just make you realise all the intimate and interesting things which go on which many of us are either not open to, or just tune out. An unlikely purchase perhaps, but definitely a book worth reading.
February 2008
Book Review: Getting Things Done
by Dave Allen
ISBN 0-14-200028-0 // 15 USD
I think firstly it’s probably worth pointing out that I don’t usually read 'self help' books, and broadly speaking I don’t touch any book which is by a self-proclaimed ‘guru’ of anything. That’s my personal thing though.
Somehow then, I ended up with this book, Getting Things Done, by Dave Allen. Weighing in at just 260 pages, I didn't see any harm in trying it out. I actually heard about it from a podcast, where Merlin Mann was interviewing the author. The omnibus version of that is here (Warning: that link starts playing as soon as you go there).
It's hard to define what this book is, but I think the single easiest approach is that given on the front cover of my copy: The Art of Stress Free Productivity. That's essentially the goal - having a system, a way of working that means that you're never thinking about issues in the shower, or worrying on the train about something, as the system has already captured that, and it's in progress, and you wont forget about it. It also means that the aforementioned times can be spent on more leisurely, creative, ideas.
Getting things done, or 'GTD' as it's become known seems to have acquired a system all of it's own - there are whole websites and other books dedicated to it, and indeed whole software packages designed around it.
Back to the book though. It's an easy read, but the biggest problem I had was that some of the ideas are so good, you're tempted to put the book down and implement them straight away, which I suspect is somewhat counter productive.
Anyway, I don't want to just restate everything the book talks about, but rather just go over a few of the more immediate things I've already started using and find quite useful - again, a lot is common sense, but bear with me on this.
The first thing is actually going through everything, and knowing what it is you're dealing with, all your inboxes, those piles of papers etc., and deciding what it is, and what the next action is for it. Capturing all your inputs and giving them the 'next action' treatment is quite satisfying in it's own right.
