A smattering of opinions on technology, books, business, and culture. Now in its 4th technology iteration.
26 May 2005
* “The Rings of Saturn”:amazon. Difficult to get in the mood of this one. A solitary travel through modern england – dry, depressing tourism. There are no characters in the book besides the author, despite his wandering about present day England. I couldn’t finish – I guess it reinforces that life is all about the people you live it with, not about the places or things. * “Starfish by Peter Watts”:amazon. Wow a seriously good story. Characters have real meat, deeply damaged (by life? by design? an unresolved mystery) but deeply human. Layers of story here, it really draws you in. * “Freakonomics”:amazon. A solid nonfiction read. Entertaining, crisp, not bloated. The right length. The kind of economist I’d love to be, if I could. And a nice blog * “The Magic Mountain”:amazon. I am really struggling with this one. The characters are boring but subtly compelling. But boy a whole lot of nothing happens in the story. I may need to save this book for a quieter location and time.
Oh and another award winner list – the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Some of these look interesting.