Posts Tagged ‘books’

Book bytes

In Reviews on 8 January 2009 tagged Art, books, comics, fantasy, fiction, graphic novels, reading, recommended, sci-fi

I had some time over the holidays to do a lot of reading, mostly short stories and graphic novels. Here’s a list of recommendations:

Pretty Monsters: Stories – terrific contemporary fantasy and modern fairy tales, by Kelly Link
The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet – collected shorts from the underground contemporary fantasy zine, edited by Kelly [...]

Beep

In Reviews on 24 November 2008 tagged ambient, Audio, beverages, books, electronic, fantasy, fiction, graphic novel, literature, mastering, movies, Music, plugin, recommended, synth

Recent consumption:

Listening: Monolake in the morning, Biosphere in the afternoon
Watching: My Neighbor Totoro, Dark City (Director’s Cut), Thieves Like Us, Quiet City
Reading: The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll’s House, Coraline, Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Drinking: Starbucks Serena Blend Organic Coffee, Xingu Black Beer, Red Stripe Lager
Playing: Circle Synth, AAS Modeling Collection, iZotope Ozone 3

Elseworlds

In Reviews on 12 November 2008 tagged books, comics, graphic novels, reading, storytelling, worlds

After a few false starts trying to get into some books on my to-read list, I switched strategies and have been rediscovering graphic novels. Besides some sparse interest in my youth and again in college, I never really got into reading comics. These days, I’ve been interested in the various ’story worlds’ that exist in [...]

Doing you are what?

In General on 21 August 2008 tagged books, design, experience, interaction, making, movies, Music, place, placemaking, reading, space, watching

I haven’t been thinking much about posting lately; mind focused elsewhere, and all that. Facebook and Twitter get my status updates, so here’s a heavily-linked mishmash of my recent activities:

In Reviews on 28 April 2008 tagged books, fiction, reading, recommended, short, stories

I finished The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2) last week but am taking a break before starting the final book. It’s interesting, and reading that it’s a retelling of Milton’s Paradise Lost makes me want to dive into that epic poem (some day). For now, I’m reading some early pulp detective stories in [...]

Review: Dreaming in Code

In General, Reviews on 31 March 2008 tagged books, code, coding, computing, design, history, innovation, programming, project-management, software

I recently finished Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software by Scott Rosenberg. It covers the development of Chandler, an open source, cross-platform personal information manager (PIM).
A project of the Open Source Applications Foundation and led by Mitch Kapor, Chandler was meant to revolutionize desktop [...]

Currently Reading: 'The Starfish and the Spider' & 'Dreaming in Code'

In General on 2 March 2008 tagged books, code, decentralized, development, organizations, programming, reading, Reviews, software

I’ve switched gears to reading non-fiction and resumed The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, which I intend to review shortly. Also, Scott Rosenberg was kind enough to send out copies for review of Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software, and [...]

(Deathly) Hallows be thy name

In General on 27 February 2008 tagged books, fantasy, fiction, magic, reading, series

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night. What a ride! The relentless pace and spiraling plot lines of the final book in the Harry Potter series kept me engaged to the very end. The glimpses into Dumbledore’s life and the arching Horcrux and Hallows back stories reminded me of another epic [...]

Aw, Horcruxes!

In General on 21 February 2008 tagged books, fantasy, fiction, magic, reading, series

I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yesterday. I think it’s a testament to J.K. Rowling’s storytelling ability that I forgot what I already knew was going to happen, because I was so engaged in how everything unfolded at the end. I’m a bit late in reading the Harry Potter series, having read books [...]

Currently reading: Looking for Jake

In Reviews on 25 November 2007 tagged books, fantasy, recommended, science fiction, suspense

I am about halfway through China Mieville’s Looking for Jake: Stories. I enjoyed his novels Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council, and this compilation presents 14 short fictions which combine elements of fantasy, horror and sci-fi. To me, Mieville’s writing style is reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges, H.P. Lovecraft, Samuel R. Delany, [...]

Big box books

In General on 22 October 2007 tagged books, business, cards, customer-service, discount, experience, marketing, member, retail, sales

Whenever I go to make a purchase at the local Borders, Barnes & Noble or other big box bookseller, I am invariably hit-up with the “Do you have/would you like/why wouldn’t you want/are you really sure?” sales litany for their member discount card. Eventually I have to get rude and say, “No, I don’t want [...]