Daily Thoughts 8/3/2011

"Robert Browning," oil on canvas, by Michele Gordigiani. 28 1/2 in. x 23 1/8 in. (724 mm x 587 mm). Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Daily Thoughts 8/3/2011

Today I checked the displays, updated the Twitter and Facebook page, and checked the gift books.  We are getting a security upgrade for the computers right now.  I also printed up some civil service position announcements which go to the reference desk.  There are going to be 4000 openings for Fire Fighters in New York City soon.

We had the Internet Job Search Hour this afternoon from 2-3 p.m..  There was a person working on their resume, and another person was working on business related material.
I am also going to a conference tomorrow called The Social Media for Nonprofits Conference.  It should be very interesting.  http://www.meetup.com/NYC-Tech4Good-a-NetSquared-group/events/25337891/

The book, Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne has come in for me to read.

Curation Nation How To Win In A World Where Consumers Are Creators by Steven Rosenbaum

Curation Nation Why The Future of Content Is Context How To Win In A World Where Consumers Are Creators by Steven Rosenbaum

Steven Rosenabum is describing a major shift in how media is being delivered.  Consumers of media are increasingly becoming prosumers and creators of their own content.  People create a variety of sites based on their interests from cooking to baseball.  Steven Rosenbaum runs Magnify.net which aggregates video content on the web so many of his ideas come from his direct business experience.

A prosumer is a consumer who proactively chooses what and how they will consume.  A good example of a prosumer might be someone who buys green products, or only buys from the Better Business Bureau.  Increasingly prosumers are becoming creators of their own content based on what they are interested in. 

The tools of content creation are becoming cheaper and easier to get access to.  Social tools like Twitter, Youtube, blogs, podcasts, and other social media tools are easy to get access to.  It is not just the software and web which is becoming cheaper, people now can easily afford smart phones, laptops, and inexpensive video recorders.  People can use these tools to spread their ideas and opinions.

The difference between this book and other books is that Steven Rosenbaum takes it one step further.  He describes how to curate content, picking out and organizing materials for blogs and websites.  He even describes content strategy citing Kristina Halvorson's book Content Strategy.

Then Steven Rosenabaum talks about how curation scales with aggregation mixed with selective content on websites like The Huffington Post, Blog Her, and Linked In. This creates a larger picture of curation both on the small individual level and on the larger scale of big commercial websites.

None of the material is particularly new.  However, how it is presented is new. This is a solid overview of how to organize social media tools.  It pulls many disparate threads together to create a picture of a strategy to manage and organize social content. The book can be a bit diffuse at times.  This book would be useful for people interested in new media.

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld

This book is an introductory text on information architecture for the internet.  The information in this book clarified and defined many ideas from this emerging profession.  It is quite relevant to librarians.  According to this book 40% of information architects come from a library science background.

Many of the concepts that were being described came right out of library school.  I remember reading about search engines, indexes, and classification in my cataloging class.  This book takes it one step further and describes how information on the web is turned into metadata, controlled vocabularies, and labeling systems. It also describes how indexes and search engines are designed.

It is more than just information systems, it is also the language of the nonvisible parts of websites.  It describes things which a chief information officer or a senior developer might talk about; web blueprints, taxonomy, wireframes, and content maps.  This is the planned architecture of enterprise websites.

The reader also learns the vocabulary and professional interests in education, strategy, and selling the profession.  Reading this was eye opening.  It gave me a description of how enterprise websites are created like evolt.org or the MSWeb intranet.

After reading this, I am beginning to get a context of how complex websites are put together.  There is the content strategist who puts in all the different kinds of content in the site, and the information architect who creates the framework on which an enterprise website is built..

This was an incredibly useful book.  It helped me understand the internet in ways which I had not done before.  I would highly recommend this to people who are interested in technology.

Smart Start-Ups How Entrepreneurs and Corporations Can Benefit by Creating Online Communities by David Silver

Smart Start-Ups How Entrepreneurs and Corporations Can Benefit by Creating Online Communities by David Silver.

David Silver is a venture capitalist and an author of over 30 books on business. This book varies between being a strategy guide to start an online community and a stream of ideas for starting a variety of online businesses. The book describes online communities as being both on the internet and on mobile phones.

I found the sections on how to start an internet company quiet interesting. He was focusing on social networks like myspace.com and twitter. Social networks are described as being successful because of the ability to generate mobs of people and focus on user generated content. David Silver describes them as requiring very little capital to create.

He argues for a different strategy in creating communities. His view is that it is important to be part of the crowd, not appear to have a lot of money, ask for tips, try to encourage people to provide content for you, and create services which people will pay for.

Part of the strategy he is describing is appearing to be in opposition to large media companies. For example if you are selling ebooks, you might tell people why you don't like paper books, or if you are selling music downloads, suggest why compact discs are obsolete. Being persuasive and generating controversy, even lawsuits will generate even more interest in your sites as well as money.

Where the book did not do well with me was the constant stream of ideas which he proposed. It is easy to generate ideas but it is much harder to show how to execute on them. David Silver talked about everything from online legal arbitration societies to social sites on how to reinvent the American car. This was distracting. The sections on strategy and implementation were much better than the suggestions for new businesses.

I liked his ideas on how to create an online business strategy. It very much describes how to think like a social networking business person. The book was written in 2007 and seems to have been right on target for 2010. If you can get past the constant stream of suggestions for new businesses this book is worth reading.

Creative Surplus Creativity and Generosity In A Connected Age by Clay Shirky

Creative Surplus Creativity and Generosity In A Connected Age by Clay Shirky

The central idea of this book is that because of social media people are able to pool resources in their free time to create unique digital projects.  These projects can range from free encyclopedias like Wikipedia to lolcats which is a collection of funny pictures of cats.  Social media in this book expands beyond computers to include smartphones and cell phones.




Clay Shirky is arguing people are moving away from passive forms of entertainment like television to more interactive forms of entertainment like the internet.  He compares television to gin which is a bit far fetched but entertaining.  This change represents a shift in values which should create a more interactive future.



I found the book to be very positive and a bit evangelistic about the benefits of social media.  He dismisses the disruption caused by deprofessionalization when amateurs volunteer to do many jobs that were professional in nature.  Clay Shirky touches only briefly on the concept of digital sharecropping where writers and other creative professionals work for free or very little money on blogs and other digital projects.



The description of the benefits of social media is the best part of this book.  We learn how cell phone use makes government more transparent, how people created open source software, and how computers are making us more connected.  He points out that services like http://www.meetup.com/ extend social networks into the real world and allow people who had only met on computers to meet in person.



This book had a conversational tone that spoke directly to the reader.  It tried to connect with peoples every day experience of using the internet.  I found it to be easy to read.  It was also well researched with extensive notes and an index.



Clay Shirky also wrote Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.  He is considered an internet guru and is a professor at New York University.

You Are Not A Gadget by Jaron Lanier

You Are Not A Gadget A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier

Jaron Lanier is making a statement against the current state of the internet. He was one of the original creators of virtual reality and proponents for creative commons. He is arguing that the internet has become dehumanizing, mob ruled, economically destructive, and poorly designed. This book is an argument for a different kind of internet; a single payer web, a place with less anonymity, a place where authors are acknowledged for their work, and a place where humans are more important than systems and codes.

The book is very much focused on a humanistic view of computing. The computer serves the individual to help them become more creative. It is against many network oriented ideologies. He thinks large computer networks threaten individual freedom and the idea of a singularity or the point where machines become smarter than humans is counterproductive.

There is a very nice reminder to not be fragmentary and try not to be anonymous. I feel that I need a little bit of anonymity to present some of my views. Jaron Lanier wants people to bring back a degree of civility to the computer world. In his view, the point of networks and social networks is to connect with other people. People are more important than networks.

Social networks are a way to connect with people. I am going to be at Book Expo America and the Bookbloggers Convention as part of this. Networks are not just disembodied voices. If you are using networks correctly, you will be invited to events in the real world like the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art receptions, librarian meetups, conventions, or lunches.

Some of the ideas he is talking about are front and center. There is currently a copyright war that is about digital rights. Central to this idea is who is the author. If there is no acknowledged author which people respect for creative works, the author cannot make a living. Very few people can make money selling knick knacks or speaking. He is correct on this. The internet has disenfranchised many authors, newspeople, and musicians. Acknowledge where you get your content from.

This is an excellent counterpoint to authors like Chris Anderson who talk about the wonderful new opportunities on the web. It is a counterargument against the impersonality of Wikipedia, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, and other new media darlings.

The writing is eclectic. It touches on some surprising subjects; cephalopod intelligence, the circle of empathy, theories of computation, music, virtual reality, the noosphere, and the singularity are just a few of the subjects.

If you want to read a very creative personal manifesto about the way the internet is heading, you will find this different. It is a humanistic and individualistic counter to many of the prevailing ideas. Some of it is a little far fetched, but still worth thinking over. I liked reading it.

Trust Agents Using The Web To Build Influence , Improve Reputation, and Build Trust by Chris Brogan

Trust Agents Using The Web To Build Influence , Improve Reputation, and Build Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

Chris Brogan is a master communicator using the web. He runs one of the top marketing blogs at http://www.chrisbrogan.com . His main focus is showing people how to build a following in social media using openness and trust. He is also the founder of Podcamp which is a conference on podcasting. Julien Smith is a web analyst.

The ideas in this book are actionable. Every chapter gives suggestion on how to improve your use of social media. I have already used two of the suggestions; make sure you follow less people than are following you on twitter and try to make all the sections about yourself on blogs consistent and professional.

His aim is to teach you how to use social media like blogs, twitter, facebook, and linked in to create a network. This is supposed to help you eliminate the need for resumes and cut back on using business cards.

In addition to the social media tools Chris Brogan and Julien Smith suggest philosophical and strategic outlooks for looking at business. These include looking at work as a game, jumping the gates to create new opportunities, life hacking, leverage, and digital nativism. These strategies are the strategies of the most successful producers of web content and marketing.

There is a message that marketing and communications are becoming more personal. Customer service is described as being public relations. Marketing is about being open and listening to people. Networking is about helping others achieve their goals by pulling them up.

The book is a tool to change your perspective and improve your ability to network on the web. It is the mindset of the native producer of digital content. The ideas are different and interesting. There is a lot that can be used directly from this book to succeed in building your own extensive network of contacts.

Me 2.0 Build A Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success by Dan Schwebel

Me 2.0 Build A Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success by Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel is describing how to create a complete social media presence for individuals. He calls this a personal brand. Companies, organizations, and recruiters now have a dearth of resumes and personal information available all over the internet. This book is aimed at people in their twenties who are just starting in their careers. However, most of the content is relevant to people in general.

There is a certain irony in reading this book. The word me in the title really does not say what the book is all about. It is about becoming embedded in social networks. Dan Schwebel describes how to integrate the use of Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, blogs, and other social media to create a complete image of an individual person. He also describes how to monitor and protect yourself while doing this.

Planning and long term goals are also integrated into his descriptions of social media tools. He even uses things like SWOT analysis (Strength, Weaknesses, opportunities, Threats), and checklists of goals to use when creating a personal brand.

There are many more advanced suggestions as well; creating a video resume, public relations and your image in social media, and entrepreneurial drive. This material is very corporate and entrepreneurial in nature. Donald Trump is mentioned briefly in the book which was kind of entertaining. It fits in very well with venture capital and the ideals of technology startups. Dan Schwebel says that Fast Company is his favorite magazine to read which is a favorite among young technology company workers.

I found the book to be useful. I even followed a few suggestions he made about Linked In. I found this book on http://www.mashable.com Mashable is a news site for social media.

Daily Thoughts 11/30/2009

Illustration of Peter Piper from the 1838 US edition of Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation

Daily Thoughts 11/30/2009

Today was spent dealing with spyware and malware mostly. My computer is clean now. It took quite a bit of time to convince people that I would not pay for security. Sometimes, you have to back date your software. I ended up reinstalling internet explorer 7 because some websites don't function well with the latest version of internet explorer 8, I also backdated my Java because some programs don't run well with the latest java. It is not always smart to update to the latest programs. I also have Firefox. This way, I can have more than one browser in case things don't work with one of the other browsers.

My internet explorer went out, then I switched to using Firefox, until the problems were fixed. I also have Opera.

I rested a lot also. It was a nice slow day.

Connected The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., Ph.D. and James H. Fowler, Ph.D.

Connected The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., Ph.D. and James H. Fowler, Ph.D.

Connected is about social networks both in the physical world and on the internet. The book talks about both the larger connections between people and how connections influence people in making decisions about their lives. According to the book, there are six degrees of separation between people and three degrees of influence.

There are many different ways people are connected together, both immediately and through networks. This book covers a wide spectrum of subjects; politics, money, sex, love, work, voting, and other circumstances. We learn about how a dollar bill travels, why not to seek sex on the internet, your friends can make you fat, why marriage is good for your health, and how one person can affect the voting choices of many people through their personal contacts.

The subjects being discussed are concrete and personal. I found them quite entertaining. In addition to text there are social network maps throughout the book. For example, there is a very interesting map of the strong social divide between democrats and republicans in the United States.

The first part of the book focuses on immediate social networks and their consequences for health, well being, and social status. The latter part of the book goes into the recent developments of networks on computers. Some of the social networks covered are World of Warcraft, Myspace, and Facebook.

Computer social networks are viewed as extenders of personal networks. Like the telephone and modern transportation, computer social networks extend the number of people who we can reach out to. While this may not have an immediate impact on close friendships and marriage, it does affect how we can reach out to larger groups. I found this section to be very useful. We learn how social networks increase our ability to reach out to find jobs, exchange goods, and learn more.

This book is entertaining, well informed, and well researched. It is full of gripping facts and thoughtful ideas. It made me rethink how I might use social networks on the internet and make personal connections. It is a book well worth reading. The book which I read is an advanced reading copy. The book is due out in September of 2009.

Fool's Gold Why The Internet Is No Substitute for a Library by Mark Y. Herring, McFarland and Company, North Carolina, c2007

Fool's Gold Why The Internet Is No Substitute for a Library by Mark Y. Herring, McFarland and Company, North Carolina, c2007

This book provides clear arguments to why the internet and also ebooks are no substitute for a physical library.

He argues against the uncluttered, unauthoritative, often inaccurate nature of the information made available on the internet. Mark Y. Herring abhors internet pornography, spam, the presence of hate sites, and plagiarism rampant on the web.

There are reminders that internet sites disappear quickly; a phenomenon called link rot and are not cited or footnoted like in books. There is an excellent set of footnotes at the back of the book with extensive, often ironic commentary.

Some of the most striking ideas were that Wikipedia is a secondary source; copyright has not been sorted by Google and the best electronic information is still in propietary databases.

I do not agree with some of his points,especially the ones on book, this book was written in 2007, so it was just before the advent of the Kindle and the expansion of many of the archives of free information on the web like wikimedia.

Also, his statements about the pure decline of reading because of the internet are starting to change. People have become much more aware of the decline in reading. This may be in part because of books like this. This is a link to the latest National Endowment for the Arts study
http://www.arts.gov/news/news09/ReadingonRise.html

This book was ironic and coherent; a strong statement against web evangelism. It gives solid arguments on why we should keep a physical library and not just turn everything over to the internet.

Mark Y. Herring, the author, is the Dean of Library Services at the Dacus Library, Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He has written extensively for Library Journal and other academic publications.

Books And Chicken.

There is a famous saying that librarians survive on "Books and Chicken". Because I am already in the library I can get most of my magazines, books, dvds, cds, and videos that I want to watch or use fairly easily.

But, a librarians salary does not let you spend a whole lot on things. This means many public librarians bring their entertainment home from their job. I bring several videos and books home every week from where I work. It is natural that librarians become specialists in the things which they happen to like.

My boss orders most of the videos in the collection. I end up ordering a lot of the graphic novels.

This is probably even more true for booksellers. Most booksellers don't earn huge amounts of money, they are doing their job for the love of books. In New England, it is traditional for many booksellers to have their living quarters directly above their shop. They pay down their mortgage and eventually have a piece of property.

Even with the closing of many small bookstores this can still be said to be true. Instead of selling out of a storefront many booksellers sell directly out of their garage or house on ebay or other online services. This was even true before the internet. Instead of having a web site, many specialty booksellers would have a printed catalog of their books for sale which they would send out to customers. The customer would either meet the person to pick up the book or get the book by mail order. I think of mail order having just moved to the internet.

It used to be to find the price of a book before the internet you would look in small catalogs put out by specialty mail order places, auction catalogs where lots and blocks of books were sold. Also there was something called Bookman's Price Index which is a huge reference work by year which lists the price of a book. Then there were various price guides for books, paperback books, comic books, and other books. The standard price guide to comic books in the United States which is most used is the Overstreet Comic Books Price Guide. We have a copy at our library. You would look through these, approximate the condition and rarity of the item and then price it accordingly.

You might also wander around to other bookstores and see how they were pricing books and check their inventory. Sometimes, the bookseller might even buy something which you thought was mispriced by another bookstore. Booksellers are like a giant grumpy fraternity which can't survive without other booksellers.

Now, there is the internet where you can see comparative prices for books instantly on places like abebooks.com. The prices seem to vary wildly when you are looking for books. But, the variations in prices are not just about the item. People often buy from a particular seller paying a higher price, because they are more accurate in grading their items, have better shipping and handling policies, and better customer service.

There is an ambivalent relationship between librarians and booksellers. Because of this relationship, The Friends of the Library are the ones who hold the book sales to avoid conflict of interest. I have known many librarians who have worked part-time in bookstores on the side to earn extra money or just because they are really obsessed with books. Sometimes, I think it is more likely, they are obsessed with books.

It seems there is a revolving door between publisher, librarian, and bookseller. People who publish library books, especially reference books often hire librarians. Baker & Taylor and Ingram the giant distributors all hire librarians to help libraries select which materials to buy.

Now, the bookseller and librarian are spreading into the internet. Google, Yahoo, and most of the big search engines hire librarians to index and tag their databases. With Google and Microsoft building specialty search engines for books it creates even more of an interconnection.

I am writing this as I search for the Secret History of Moscow which I am almost done reading. I wanted ro read it, but I put it down and can't find it for the moment. I'll find it later today and write a review.

Perception And Format In Media

The Globe Theatre

One of the things I notice a lot is that people are being assigned to read plays in high school and college. Shakespeare is one of the most assigned authors. The thing which bothers me about this is that in the class room Shakespeare is read not shown. I enjoy watching Shakespeare far more than I enjoy reading his work. In fact, there is very little effort to get people to critique the live play in the classroom setting. In effect the experience is being changed from its original intention. The context changes. Individual words on the written page are analyzed for their meaning.

Many students come in confused about Shakespeare because they have no way to place the words with the actions. They set aside the script of the book unable to understand and ask for the movie. The problem with this is which movie. Are they going to take the Laurence Olivier stage dramatization, or are they going to take the action film Romeo Must Die with Jet Li in it. This actually happens. Quite often they take the wrong movie. Those who take the video get a context for what they are reading and can understand it far better. I think generally if a first person first sees a play, then reads it, there is a better context for understanding.

However, the Jet Li problem with Romeo Must Die is not a joke. Imagine a person in high school or college in the future coming into the library and asking for the Neil Gaiman version of the dvd of Beowulf. It is not out yet, I am looking forward to the dvd. They come in and get a fantasy version of Beowulf then use it to write their class assignment. Angela Jolie as Grendel's wife is very different than original. Because, they don't want to be bothered they don't read Beowulf because it is "too hard" and they hand their assignment based on the movie. I can imagine the confusion on the teachers part. Beowulf is a lot harder than Shakespeare for many students to understand. The language is older.

Another thing which quite often happens is that people come in to get the unabridged audiobook of an assigned book like Catcher In The Rye. I think this may have an opposite effect on understanding. Although, they are not reading the book in question, they are hearing every world in the book being pronounced. If they have difficulty reading, they are still going to get the full experience of the book. In many cases, this leads to better ability to write about the book than reading the title.

I think this is one of the reasons why audiobooks are so popular. People have different learning styles. Some people understand more when they see the movie, other people understand more when they hear the story, and others need to look up close and hold the book. People learn differently.

Getting back to Shakespeare. I notice that very few people read Shakespeare's sonnets. They are meant to be read. I can understand people analyzing individual sonnets much more than analyzing a play.

The other thing which happens is that people read Blooms notes or Cliff notes. These are canned summaries of a book. They guarantee a canned answer which will give a student a passing grade. Many people just want to pass the class and only read the notes. These will most of the time guarantee a passing grade. How do you guarantee a person read the book with these kind of things? I don't think you can. These, however, are better than watching a movie about a book because they at least attempt at accuracy. Many people have lost that sense of value tied in with the concept of a "liberal education." Education in literature is supposed to expand your horizons...

Teachers are finally noticing the multiple formats in the classroom. Quite often people are being assigned to watch movies. Freedom Writers is a popular assignment. I haven't seen it, it is just an example. Maybe, they are asked to watch the Color Purple and comment on the film.

It is also becoming acceptable to use multiple formats for assigned topics. Many people don't even bother with reading books, they just go to the internet. This brings up the idea of authority. How do you know the information being presented to you is accurate. Let us take up the issue of Wikipedia, we say when people want to use Wikipedia, "We cannot guarantee the accuracy of this material." Apparently, Wikipedia is about as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica. http://www.news.com/2100-1038_3-5997332.html In away, this is both disturbing and hilarious.

Sometimes authority is more about control of access to information than accuracy. I think people are more disturbed about the loss of the authority of information than accuracy. However, with certain subjects like math, history, or science the wrong information can be presented. There is a real attraction by some students to use radical versions of history that more closely align with their ethnicity or background. These are readily available on the internet. Schools want the standard version so everyone can be on the same page. This must make it very hard for teachers on occassion.

Using multiple formats is often the best thing to do for many assigned topics. Let us take the example of Martin Luther King Jr. A college student is assigned to write about Martin Luther King Jr. Generally, watching video clips of him, listening to his speeches on audio, and reading about him at the same time will give a much better understanding than just reading alone. This is becoming expected because it gives a more comprehensive understanding of the subject.

I wish there were more forward looking teachers who both showed the video in the classroom of Shakespeare, the right one, and asked the student to read the book at the same time. Literacy in both the printed word and media literacy are becoming equally important. It is very easy to make bad decisions about media.

How to: Be an uber blogger, by Cory

An interesting talk about how to promote your blog by Cory Doctorow, Editor of Boing Boing and Science Fiction writer.

Authors@Google: Cory Doctorow

How is this possible?

Glyph of the Galactic Library

I get up very early in the morning and have quite a long commute to work. This gives me plenty of time to read in the morning. The same goes for at night. I enjoy reading on the train much more than driving. Usually I have two or three books in my bag, usually a hardcover and two smaller paperbacks.

Because I work as a librarian in the public setting, it leaves me with almost unlimited access to books. I read several review type magazines, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and the New York Times Book Review whenever they come out. Also, I check locus magazine, science fiction site, and a few other places each day for things to read. Because I am in a library all the time, I can wait for holds to come in to read. The same goes for magazines and videos.

The main problem with being in a public library is the griping about salary. It really is not so bad once you get into a more senior position. There is a saying that librarians and booksellers survive on "books and chicken", in New York, you can add subways. So "trains, books, and chicken."

The internet pulls at me sometimes. There is a lot of technical magic and the promise of a higher salary, but you lose the magic of being constantly able to read and look at books. I have looked and looked to see if there was a magical solution combining the internet and books, but sadly internet bookstores pay just as much as real bookstores, close to nothing, even less than libraries.

Anyways, back to what I have been reading lately. I decided to look for paperbacks laying around the house. These books have some issues with them. The three of them are all extremely violent science fiction to the point where one of them, The Weapon by Michael Z. Williamson probably had trouble getting it reviewed. There is no specific dates for the three paperbacks. I couldn't find these at the library so I bought them from a bookstore. Yes, I wander around bookstores sometimes. I like the Strand in Manhattan a lot both for its mega szie and eclectic variety.

The first is Man Kzin Wars XI created by Larry Niven. This is part of the endless battles between the Kzin, giant cats, and humans. This book has several stories about the Protectors, alien super beings created by a root called tree of life. I liked the story set in the swamps of Wunderland, Catspaw. I am surprised at how long the series has gone on.

The second is Shadow Kingdoms, The Weird Works Robert E. Howard, Volume 1. This compiles many of Howard's tales from Weird Tales. It has several Solomon Kane stories in it, a kind of grim puritan warrior in it. I think of Solomon Kane as being the character that Robert E. Howard most wrote about. Howard didn't write that many stories with Conan in them. L. Sprague De Camp wrote most of the Conan stories.

The third is The Weapon by Michael Z. Williamson. It is the story of a special forces covert warrior from a planet called Freehold. Freehold is a kind of libertarian paradise. It sends the main character, Kenneth Chinran through several military adventures, and finally to earth where he ends up destroying large swaths of cities on earth as part of a war between Earth and Freehold. Some of the philosophy is quite far right with a strong libertarian independent streak. It is not something you would see reviewed in Locus Magazine or Science Fiction Site, and most public libraries don't carry it.

Book Calendar

This is an attempt to log everything which I have read from this point forward.

November 7, 2007
I just started reading Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis. It is a biography of the Charles Schulz. There are peanuts strips throughout the book which correspond with his personal life which is kind of interesting. It is interesting even if it is a very normal quiet seeming life. There are some interesting insights into the comic strip throughout. So far, it is worth reading.

October 25, 2007
I finished reading Our American King by David Lozell Martin, oil has run out, and the country has collapsed, the super rich have formed themselves into armed gated communities. The story begins with a starving university professor and a woman convincing a man he should be king. They succeed and it turns into a left leaning political farce, where if you have joined the king you wear string on your left hand. There are a lot of moments thrown in. The most dangerous marauders wear shower hats and wedding gowns and are called Patagonians. The Canadians are America's worst enemies. It gets more ridiculous from there. A light read that is at moments too serious.

October 16, 2007
I finished reading A Taste of Magic which Andre Norton wrote the outline for and Jean Rabe finished. It is a classic revenge story with the blood oath, village gets destroyed, heroine swears oath to get the killer. The difference is that this has a slight twist, instead of a brother against brother, it is brother against sister in the end and the evil ruler is the empress not the emperor. It makes the story kind of interesting. The magic in the story is the magic of taste and tracking.

October 3, 2007
I started reading Halted States by Charles Stross, this is a near future book about 5-10 years down the road. Some people playing orcs and a dragon have robbed the central bank of a giant MMORPG repository, they have stolen all the golds and loot which costs a fortune through ebay, paypal and other sources. The company which owns the virtual repository call the cops to solve the virtual crime, they are going IPO soon and the crime will cost them a lot of money. It is quite amusing and often on point about this group of people...


September 17, 2007
I am reading Tony Dungan, Quiet Strength, an autobiography about the first African American professional head football coach. It runs, football, god, family, more football, a quote from the bible, travel with family to a new football team location, inspirational statement, statement about leadership. In a way it is actual kind of very calm reading and very relaxing.


August 16, 2007
On that thought, I finished reading Going Postal by Terry Pratchett, a wonderful and funny read on a con man being forced to revive a dead postal service, who must compete with a fantasy semaphore service. It was quite entertaining. I am looking forward to the sequel Making Money, about a con artist reviving a mint.


August 11, 2007
I just finished reading another bestseller, The Black Swan, the Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This book divides the world into two camps Mediocristan where most things are very predictable, and Extremistan where very highly improbable events occur like winning lottery tickets, writing a bestseller, or having your house hit by a hurricane in Brooklyn, New York last weekend. It is light nonfiction reading. It was a solid book, nothing exceptional.I also read a posthumous book of poetry by Charles Bukowski, The People Look Like Flowers At Last, New Poems. I really enjoyed this poems about drinking, smoking, race tracks, sex, and remorse about sex. Not for the prudish.


July 26, 2007
I finished reading Slan Hunter by A.E. Van Vogt and Kevin J. Anderson. It is an attempt to complete a novel which A.E. Van Vogt partially finished. Unfortunately Kevin J. Anderson is nowhere near the level of writer that A.E. Van Vogt was. The book is still an entertaining light read, but cannot create the clarity or directness in writing style which A.E. Van Vogt had.

July 21, 2007
I just read A Spy's Journey, A CIA Memoir by Floyd L. Paseman. It was kind of interesting, it gave a basic outline of what it was like to rise through the ranks of the CIA. The book was very general with not a huge amount of specifics, but there were some interesting tidbits here and there. It covered a lot of Asia, China and North Korea more specifically with a bit of commentary on the different directors. It was kind of interesting. A lot of it was cold war brinksmanship. Tennis matches, restaurants, places with private baths and hot tubs seemed to be places of espioage, even a couple visits to nude beaches to meet his contacts.

July 14, 2007
I just finished reading a truly giant book, Radicals for Capitalism, A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty. It is a very interesting book covering a huge amount of ground, everything from solid right wing stuff like Ron Paul to crazy libertarian technobabblish stuff like some of my favorites, Robert Anton Wilson, The Erisians, and Rossetto the founder of Wired Magazine. It confirms my blatant hatred of Ayn Rand and my desire to read Milton Friedman and say that Alan Greenspan did a good job. Any ways it is well worth reading if you want to learn the history of this particular mode of thought.

June 23, 2007
I just finished reading Michael Chabon's, The Yiddish Policemen's Union which was kind of interesting, it is an alternate history story where Israel didn't succeed and there is an alternate homeland for the Jews in Alaska. It is a mystery. It was kind of interesting.I have just reading Sherri S. Tepper's The Margarets, another new book, about a woman who splits into six different versions of herself, each following a separate archetype, thief, slave, leader, soldier, healer, etc. The settings are very cool earth has become excessively crowded and used up all its resources, the only way to keep things going is to sell people into terms of alien bondage. There are some interesting ideas throughout, the evil alien ghyrm, the dancing cats, and a few other things make it very entertaining.

June 15, 2007
I am reading the Dragon Quintet, Five Original Short Novels, Edited by Marvin Kaye, It is a nice collection of stories by five decent authors, Orson Scott Card, Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee, Elizabeth Moon, and Michael Swanwick. The Tanith Lee story is the best so far.

May 19, 2007
I just finished the final volume in a series, The Last Colony by John Scalzi-- in it there are hundreds of different species trying to colonize space, it is hard to find good real estate, you have to fight for it most of the time. The first two books were Old Man's War and the Ghost Brigades.

May 5, 2007
I just finished reading an older nonfiction title on military strategy called, The Strategy of Technology, one of the authors is Jerry Pournelle, who is famed for creating the Codominium science fiction setting.

April 27, 2007
Just finished reading an anthology of short stories called Overclocked by Cory Doctorow. I espcially liked the story I Row-Boat.


April 14, 2007
I just took a look at the Internet 100 Top Science Fiction Novels. http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/6113/t100256.txt I've read most of them. Just tried out Earth Abides by George R. Stewart about rebuilding after a mysterious plague that wipes out most of human. I especially like the descriptions of how nature comes back after civilization collapses. An interesting little tidbit is that the main character Ish is named after the famous Native American, Ishi who was the last of his tribe.


April 3, 2007
Just finished The Hero by John Ringo and Michael Z. Williamson. Far future covert operations. I liked it a lot. The hero in this story is an alien pursued by a psychotic human. It makes it interesting. Good story. John Ringo and Michael Z. Williamson write war stories, they also follow in the libertarian right philosophy of Heinlein. It was pretty interesting.

March 29, 2007
I have started China Mieville's new book Un Lun Dun. It is illustrated by China so it is a bit better than the other books. The illustrations are wonderful and strange so it is worth looking at even if you find his writing a bit off putting. This book is written for young adults, but the style can be read by anyone.


March 28, 2007
A truly excellent read is Every Inch A King by Harry Turtledove. It is a nice humorous fantasy about a circus acrobat and his friend who is a sword swallower passing themselves off as a king and his aide de camp, for several days then absconding with a large portion of the royal treasury. Lots of memorable moments, a sea serpent swalling a vampires coffin, a werewolf putting on gloves to pick up silver coin, and many other memorable pieces.

March 13, 2007
I just finished reading A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by ishmael beah. It is a rather interesting story about survival in Sierra Leone, first boy gets his family killed by rebel soldiers, he wanders trying to stay alive then gets recruited at 12 to join the army, then wanders through the forest fighting rebel groups, then he gets sent to United Nations rehab, and eventually escapes Sierra Leone when civil war restarts.

March 3, 2007
I am currently reading the Space Opera Renaissance, Edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. It is a collection of short stories and novellas. It is 940 pages long and contains a lot of classic and good quality space opera. Among my favorite stories so far are The Remoras, Enchantress of Venus by Leigh Brackett, The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith, Empire Star by Samuel R. Delany, Donald Kingsbury-- The Survivor, and Recording Angel by Paul J Mcauley. This book has a lot of really good space opera in it.

February 23, 2007
I am starting The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke. The best part of this collection of short stories is the illustrator, Charles Vess, who does fantastic fairy tale style illustrations in the victorian tradition.

February 22, 2007
I just read the Iraq Study Group Report. It was a very disappointing watered down document. A lot of it was rhetoric-- which didn't say much at all. Because it is bipartisan, many of the things in the document would be only implemented by Republicans, and many of the things would only be implemented by Democrats. The document read like it was split down the middle. I can't imagine that it will actually make a huge amount of impact, no matter who is in office. Too much of it is unimplementable.


February 18, 2007
Worldchanging: A Users Guide to the 21st Century. A huge book with the latest in clean technology, and environmental politics. This contains a lot of material from the website http://www.worldchanging.com , which is chock full of stuff on clean tech.Big & Green-- a book about green skyscrapers and very large green buildings. Diagrams and photographs of green buildings abound.

Christopher Moore-- You Suck. This is a humorous vampire novel. It is set in San Francisco. The locales are both accurate and funny. He is a bestselling fantasy humor writer.


February 3, 2007
David Weber has a new book, Off Armageddon Reef. This book is published by Tor so it has a different style than the earlier Baen Honor Harrington series. I think the writing is better with more thought in it. Earth has been destroyed by the Gbaba, a secret colony world has been established with low technology and a medieval religious mind set so they can avoid Gbaba detection. A hero arises from the first colonists, an android who is there to bring back technology. A good read so far. I think the writing has improved considerably.


February 1, 2007
I am reading a cross between a hard boiled crime novel and a vampire novel. Charlie Huston, No Dominion. I read his earlier novel Already Dead. Nothing like a really solid mix of crime and detective novel where the main character is a hard boiled vampire named Joe Pitt. This novel is set in New York city with fairly accurate descriptions of the locales. Also it has different vampire territories the Hood, the Enclave, The Society, the Coalition, and some No Man's land territory. The writing style is clean, and the dialogue style is different but very well done. Lots of one liners and plenty of action.


January 26, 2007
I am reading The Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o. The literary quality and readability of this book is excellent. It is on par with Borges or Italo Calvino, entertaining and extremely well written. It is set in the mythical African dictatorship of Aburiria, a mythical place controlled by the crazed Ruler, who has different ministers, I rather like that one of the ministers has giant ears, and the other has giant eyes and they hate each other. The book is full of absurdist and often comical ideas about politics. For example people stand in huge lines to give bribes to get contracts for Marching to Heaven a national program sponsored by the Ruler and the Global Bank. Most people can't get a job unless they pay huge bribes, even the educated wander around begging. Some of the action occurs in the Mars Cafe where the propietor is completely obsessed with space travel. The book is huge 768 pages long, but so far it is enjoyable.


January 23, 2007
I just finished a novel by Tyler Knox called Kockroach. It is about a cockroach that turns into a man then through a combination of greed, violence, fear, and lust rises first through the criminal underworld, then through business, and finally becomes a US senator in the end. It starts out in Times Square of the 1950s I think. I rather liked it, in a sort of grim way. The other novel I am just starting is Ines of My Soul by Elizabeth Allende, a writer who I like very much. It is a novel set in the world of Pizarro. So far it has been quite interesting. I finished it, it covers the conquest of Chile, especially the fight between the Mapoche and the Conquistadors.

January 12, 2007
I read the God Delusion and found it rather disappointing. He successfully attacks the bible and other written works but has no real answer or challenge to deism or scientific rationalizations for god. He mainly is arguing against theism, but once again fails by only focusing on western theism. He calls buddhism and eastern religions a personal philosophy which is not quite accurate and pontificates a lot. It was an interesting but lukewarm book.

January 5, 2007
I just started reading Pulse-- The Coming Age of Systems And Machines Inspired by Living Things by Robert Frenay. It is a doorstopper book.I started Naturalism capitalism on January 5, 2007 and finished it on January 20, 2007. This is an excellent work.
Natural Capitalism: Creating The Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins.This was a very substantive book with a lot in it. It took a long time to read because there was literally no filler. It covered a wide area from the Rocky Mountain Institute to smart cars, green architecture, industrial ecology, natural water treatment (it talked about living machines-- John Todd's work), science and biomimicry, advanced organic farming, green economics, remanufacturing, molecular disassembly of products so they can be reused. A lot of very green technology. It is worth reading if you are interested in green industrialism.Other than science fiction, I really enjoy popular science type titles.