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These posts mostly relate to books I am reading or series I am collecting to read in order (I tend to collect the series and then read it in one block). You can see a see a list of the books I am currently seeking, as well as a list of all the books I've bothered to catalog if you're interested.
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Thu, 02 Jul 2009
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Sun, 28 Jun 2009
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Tue, 23 Jun 2009
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Mon, 15 Jun 2009
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ISBN: 0307394913 Harmony (2007), Hardcover, 288 pages LibraryThing
| I seem to be on a bit of a trivia book kick, which is at least partially motivated by getting through all my Christmas presents so I can pack them into a box and move to a different country. This book was written as part of the production of the very excellent BBC quiz show Quite Interesting and is quite a contrast from the extremely average Why Do Men Have Nipples that I just finished reading. This book feels well researched, and is on par with Why Don't Penguin's Feet Freeze, although the style is quite different (the New Scientist book offers multiple answers for each question, and is written by real scientists in the fields discussed, this book flows as one manuscript). I suspect it helps here to have seen the quiz show, because many of the other reviews I have seen online complain about the style of the book, which reads in much the same manner as Stephen Fry's commentary during the program. If you're familiar with the format, then the book flows quite nicely (whereas if you haven't, you might end up why the book jumps around so much). I really liked this book.
Tags for this post: book( ) John_Lloyd_and_John_Hitchinson( ) |
posted at: 18:45 | path: /book/John_Lloyd_and_John_Hitchinson | permanent link to this entry
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Fri, 12 Jun 2009
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Wed, 10 Jun 2009
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Sat, 06 Jun 2009
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Thu, 04 Jun 2009
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Sat, 30 May 2009
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Fri, 29 May 2009
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Fri, 22 May 2009
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ISBN: 0812550587 Tor Books (1995), Mass Market Paperback, 222 pages LibraryThing
| This is a relatively short collection of Harry Harrison short stories. They are:
- I always do what Teddy says: what happens when we abdicate teaching our youngsters moral values to machine, and then don't test that the machine is working correctly? A short story about unit testing?
- Space rats of the CCC: this story is just silly. Its a little bit like Bill the Galactic Hero in style, but also a little bit annoying. It didn't really work for me.
- Down to earth: I'm sure I've read this basic plot line about a billion times, for example Hawk Among the Sparrows being just one example. This one didn't even have a good twist at the end.
- A criminal act: Harrison feels strongly about population grow (see also Make Room, Make Room!). Its pretty obvious in this story, although its not as preachy as Make Room, Make Room.
- Famous first words: I actually really liked this one.
- The Pad - a story of the day after the day after tomorrow: seducing women is hard work for billionaires, apparently.
- If: a pretty standard "don't alter the time lines" tale, with a small if predictable twist.
- Mute Milton: what important discoveries have been lost through the ages through racism or accident?
- Simulated trainer: this is an interesting story -- I quite like the concept, and the execution is more believable than most Harrison stories.
- At last, the true story of Frankenstein: this is a good story too, with a nice twist at the end.
- The robot who wanted to know: a pretty classic robot story, which could just as easily fit in an Asimov collection as a Harrison collection. I'm quite partial to robot stories, and I enjoyed it.
- Bill the Galactic Hero's happy holiday: I've previous complained about the overall style of the Bill the Galactic Hero series. I think it works better as a short story than a novel, because the level of annoyance it develops in the reader is smaller. This was actually better than the novel length Bill stories that I've read so far.
Overall, a solid collection, but not startlingly good.
Tags for this post: book( ) Harry_Harrison( ) |
posted at: 08:52 | path: /book/Harry_Harrison | permanent link to this entry
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Tue, 19 May 2009
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Sun, 17 May 2009
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Mon, 11 May 2009
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Sun, 10 May 2009
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Fri, 08 May 2009
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Tue, 05 May 2009
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Sat, 02 May 2009
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Thu, 30 Apr 2009
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