Books

Ten books you're supposed to like but I didn't

MissPrism over at A Somewhat Old, But Capacious Handbag has created an interesting meme: Ten books you’re supposed to like but I didn’t. So here is my list (in no particular order):

Lord of the Rings (1939-1944) by Tolkien – I was upset to discover that I did not like this book. I forced myself to read the whole book while on holiday in Sardinia but felt often enough that I wanted to chuck it into the pool. Sorry I just don’t get fantasy fiction or science fiction (see below). But I really like the movies.

Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson – This upset me less. For me science fiction is great for movies but not worth reading about. The only exception to the scifi rule for me is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which is actually a great comic work which just happens to be in space.

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintanence (1974) by Robert Pirsig – This is still annoying and I will probably give this another shot. I know it’s not important but it was for a while just “one of those books” and I just couldn’t get into it.

Great Expectations (1860) by Charles Dickens. I blame my schoolteachers for this. Why on earth would they think that this book would interest young children? It ruined Dickens completely for me. I would not be shocked if I eventually tried and enjoyed Dickens at a later date but still today after 30 years I have no desire to read this book, or any others by him. Good work teachers!

A Brief History of Time (1988) by Stephen W. Hawking. Apparently has been printed in over 9 million copies. Honestly folks I know you have it in your bookshelf – have you read it? I could not. The title and author make me want to but as soon as I get close to it, I pick another book.

On the Road (1951) by Jack Kerouac – you have got to be kidding me. Boring, boring… but wait! the next book is the same…

Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J. D. Salinger – again, you have got to be kidding me. Maybe this and On the Road is a generational thing. Boring, boring, boring. I think I would rather read Dickens (see comment above).

Heart of Darkness (1902) by Joseph Conrad. Yes, yes I know. The horror, the horror. I own two or three copies of this book which is proof of my valiant effort to enjoy it. I have read it from cover to cover more times than it deserves. Give it up it’s just not good.

To the lighthouse (1927) by Virginia Woolf. Didn’t like it. Is this a gender thing? Nope! I just didn’t want to finish it. It wasn’t worth reading.

For whom the bell tolls (1940) by Ernst Hemmingway. Nope. The one dimensional macho characters just don’t grip me. It’s just a boys own comic without pictures. A time capsule. But some people are fascinated. Go figure.

Well there it is. Another list. Think of it as light Friday entertainment. Think of it as an admission of bad taste. But what do you think? What would be on your list?

Posted on by mklang

Terms of Use

My friend, collegue and fearless explorer of the public domain Eva has sent me a copy of her new book “Terms of Use”

Love the tigers on the front… If it is anything like her last book it will be great. I will be reviewing it here later but I just wanted to give anyone a heads up straight away – this is an interesting book.

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Highlights in the History of Concrete…

What have the following books got in common:

How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art (Ten Speed Press)

How to Avoid Huge Ships (Cornwell Maritime Press)

Highlights in the History of Concrete (British Cement Association)

Bombproof Your Horse (J A Allen)

Well they have all won the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. This prize has been awarded for the past thirty years and you can check out the other strange titles here. Some of them are just odd, but who knows with the right marketing…

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Thousand Splendid Suns

Over the holiday I read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner) the book tells the tale of the horrors faced by women in Afghanistan. It’s the kind of book which is impossible to put down – so filled with tragedy and misery that compells you to read on.

There were some small sparks of optimism among which is the wonderful quote of a woman being led to her execution after a life of total misery. The spark of positivism is probably an exaggeration of reality but it was necessary to enable the reader to carry on…

Miriam wished for so much in those final moments. Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing , a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Miriam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate belongings.

Cannot explain the value of this quote – just read the book.

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The God Delusion

Yesterday I bought and began reading Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion – The book is a well written, good humored approach to the subject. He includes plenty of quotes throughout the book, an early one in the beginning is from Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: “when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion.”

So far I am very pleased with the book – it’s very nice to read a clear lucid argumentation on atheism. So I guess I will be posting more on this later.

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Two New OA Books (+1)

This has been a busy week for books on Open Access. On Wednesday I blogged about the book Understanding Open Access in the Academic Environment: A Guide for Authors by Kylie Pappalardo. Today Open Access News wrote about two more new Open Access books:

E. Canessa and M. Zennaro at the Science Dissemination Unit of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste have put together an edited book Science Dissemination using Open Access.

From today’s announcement:

The book is a compendium of selected literature on Open Access, both on the technical and organizational levels, and was written in an effort to guide the scientific community on the requirements of Open Access, and the plethora of low-cost solutions available. The book also aims to encourage decision makers in academia and research centers to adopt institutional and regional Open Access Journals and Archives to make their own scientific results public and fully searchable on the Internet. Discussions on open publishing via Academic Webcasting are also included.

The other book is a 144 pp. collection of articles on OA by 38 authors, edited by Barbara Malina entitled Open Access Opportunities and Challenges: A Handbook, the German UNESCO Commission, July 2008. This is an English translation of Open Access: Chancen und Herausforderungen – ein Handbuch (2007).

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The Kindness of Strangers

In Tennessee Williams‘ “A Streetcar Named Desire” the tragic figure of Blanche Dubois has the great line: Whoever you are— I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. While this is an apt line for Blanche it is not really a seniment I share. This attitude may be cynical but it makes the moment when I experience the kindness of strangers all the more important.

Today when I got to the office a brown envelope was waiting for me. The address was printed on a computer, the stamps were Swedish but otherwise no identifying marks. Inside the envelope was a copy of Elias Canetti’s The Voices of Marrakesh.

I have no idea who sent me the book, it is a new copy without any identifying marks or inscriptions. Very mysterious and what a wonderful gesture. I have not read it and I am looking forward to begining on it later this evening – thank you!

Posted on by mklang

The cultural significance of Free Software

Finding new books is always exiting and I am looking forward to reading Two Bits: The cultural significance of Free Software by Christopher M. Kelty

Free Software is a set of practices devoted to the collaborative creation of software source code that is made openly and freely available through an unconventional use of copyright law. Kelty shows how these specific practices have reoriented the relations of power around the creation, dissemination, and authorization of all kinds of knowledge after the arrival of the Internet. Two Bits also makes an important contribution to discussions of public spheres and social imaginaries by demonstrating how Free Software is a “recursive public” public organized around the ability to build, modify, and maintain the very infrastructure that gives it life in the first place.

My only concern so far was that in the beginning of the book I found the sentence: This is a book about Free Software, also known as Open Source Software, and is meant for anyone who wants to understand the cultural significance of Free Software.

It is always disconcerting when people mix up free and open source software – to many the difference may not be important but when someone writes a book about the subject they should know that these are not synonymous terms. Despite this after browsing through the book – it looks very promising.

The book is available under a Creative Commons license (by-nc-sa) and can be downloaded from the book website.

Posted on by mklang

Books as decoration

For some books are more than just reading material they provide collectively a visual and tactile experience. Some would even go so far as to compare it to a fetish – Candida Höfer’s gorgeous book Libraries (some images here) is hot stuff! Others are more creative with their design of shelves – check out thirty creative bookshelves here.

Via Boing Boing another focus for books emerges – no longer is content king but over at Book Decor you can now buy old leather bound books by the meter. This is not really new but what I like is there different styles and their descriptions. In particular these two:

Hand Picked – This books are carefully Hand Picked for their beauty and craftsmanship. They are highly detailed with gilt (gold) with beautiful images such as flowers, animals, people, cherubs and intricate patterns, Embossed on wonderful leather, the workmanship is exquisite and rarely seen in today’s mass produced books. Our Hand Picked books are truly a small work of art. They will grace any home with there beauty for years too come. Available only in limited numbers and most likely will never be recreated. Truly a book anyone would be proud to have in there home.

Less Than Perfect – The Less Then Perfect books do not quite meet our usual standards. These books have bits and pieces of the spine missing, maybe a small tear. Sometime they may be in a color that is less desirable, however none of these books are falling apart. When put together they look beautiful and it is only on closer inspection that it is noticeable that these books have been lovingly used over many years, and as such have developed that worn patina look that some find very desirable.

Now its OK to love the books without caring to read them. How strange that the artifact has become greater than the content.

Posted on by mklang