Daily Thoughts 4/3/2010

The Owl and The Pussycat, an illustration by Edward Lear, 1871, from the Book of Nonsense II.

Daily Thoughts 4/3/2010

While I was at Barnes and Nobles, I saw a hardcover copy of Live Free or Die by John Ringo which is libertarian military science fiction. I went to Baen's webscription site to see if it was available as an ebook. The ebook cost $6 through their webscription service. There is a cover price of $26 for the hardcover book. I have already read several sample chapters in the ebook. Financially, it makes more sense for me to buy the ebook if I cannot find it at my library. Ebooks are cheaper than books if you want to buy something to read immediately.

I have been reading The Ruling Sea by Robert V.S. Redick which is the sequel to The Red Wolf Conspiracy. It is proving to be an enjoyable piece of fantasy writing.

Daily Thoughts 4/6/2009

The Octagon Library at the Queen's or Buckingham House, original home to George III's collection of books, 1819

Daily Thoughts 4/6/2009

I read The Claws That Catch by John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor on the train to and from work. It was a light entertaining science fiction read published by Baen Books. If you need a little bit of escape with a mix of politics, speculation about future technology, and some fighting at the end it is a fun book. Oh and add in music as a weapon and a bit of mind bending anime and you have just the right amount of silliness to add an extra laugh.

Right now, I am reading Jack Kerouac On The Road, The Original Scroll. He was high when he was writing the scroll. He claims that it was only "coffee" but other people say differently. Supposedly he taped together eight long pieces of writing paper to make the scroll. I have started reading it. It reads continuously as one single story. There really is no need for paragraphs in the way he is writing. It is of a singular journey focused on a single character. The book is truly amazing and much more raw than the novel. The first part which is literary criticism is kind of boring, except for Jack Kerouac's life. But then writers biographies have always been more interesting to me than commentary on their writing.

I have been coordinating the shifting, weeding, and relocating of books of one of my colleagues who is on vacation. It took a bit of time to do it correctly. I also have been working a little bit more on Earth Day. I spent a little time this morning reviewing processing of books for the Job Information Center with technical services as well. I am waiting for them to finish processing We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People (Paperback)by Dan Gilmor(Author). I think there is quite a bit on blogging as journalism in the book.

Daily Thoughts 2/21/2009, Magazine Reading

This is a photograph of renowned Egyptian novelist,Naguib Mahfouz. I find his writing to be exceptionally beautiful. It is poignant and well worth reading.

I put The Claws That Catch by Travis S. Taylor and John Ringo on hold at my local library.

I took a short walk up to my local library. It takes me about fifteen minutes walking uphill to get there. My doctor has asked me to do some mildly aerobic exercise two to three times a week, so I kind of count this as such. This is in addition to the 25 minutes of floor exercises I do each night from Yoga RX. I picked up a copy of How To Disagree Without Being Disagreeable by Suzette Haden Elgin, Ph.D.. She is the author of The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense. Hopefully this will be of some use.

This article from Information Week which interviews Tim O'Reilly, may give you a better sense of the changes in the publishing world which are coming very quickly. Most libraries are not ready for this. Many are not even aware that it is happening. http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/02/tim_oreilly_unp.html

Magazine Reading

I am on a routing list at work for magazines. Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, and Searcher are routed to me every single month. On occassion, I will also read The New York Review of Books because of the quality reviews it gives.

When I have time, I will read Wired Magazine online http://www.wired.com/ . I also read Locus Magazine online http://www.locusmag.com/ , Bookselling This Week http://www.bookweb.org/ , I like the reviews section of the online version of http://www.libraryjournal.com/ . Mostly, I read magazines that give reviews of books and other material. I actually prefer reading magazines online.

I think in some ways, blogs are replacing many magazines. I still like the feel of paper. I don't like tearing up or marking magazines that much. Although, occassionally, I will mark a review which I like a lot.

Vorpal Blade by John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor

Vorpal Blade by John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor

This is a military science fiction story. The United States navy with the help of he Adar an allied alien race convert a nuclear submarine into a warp drive spaceship. It is the classic subs in space theme from science fiction. Man the torpedos.

The first part of the book is about training and selecting the crew for the ship, The Vorpal Blade. It goes over the specifications of the ship as well as the combat suits which the space marines wear called Wyverns. There are also a few other tropes from science fiction thrown in, the teenage genius girl with the alien pet, and the brilliant linguist. If you like military hardware it is kind of interesting.

The second part of the book is space exploration. The crew learns how to use the warp drive, they make some observations about astronomy, and they refuel water and oxygen from a gas giant. There is some science in this book. Travis S. Taylor, one of the writers, has several degrees including a Ph.D. in Optical Science and Engineering and a masters in Physics. The first half of the book is not that combat oriented

In the final part of the book, the space marines fight the tentacle crabs, then they save the bipedal space hamsters from the evil demons. The space hamsters, or as the author says, space chinchillas, need a lot of help. It is up to the marines to fight various beasties like armored insects, laser firing dragonflies, and dragon beasties. Of course the marines save the day, but not without some casualties. John Ringo who has written a lot of military science fiction novels does excellent combat descriptions.

This is a fun book to read. It is not particularly realistic, the space marines don't use any rocket launchers, flamethrowers or other very heavy ordinance in fights; it would end the battles too quickly. Just bullets, combat suites, grenades, and knives. It is a sequel to the book, The Looking Glass, but only references the Dreen, there are no actual evil alien Dreen in this book. The book already has a sequel which I plan on reading called The Claws That Catch.