When he came back he found Jack arranging the score of their next duet on their music stands. Like many other heavy men Jack could be as sensitive as a cat on occasion: he knew that he had touched on some painful area—that in any case Stephen hated questions—and he was particularly attentive in laying out the sheets, pouring Stephen another glass of wine, and when they began, in so playing that his violin helped the 'cello, yielding to it in those minute ways perceptible to those who are deep in their music if to few others.

(Patrick O'Brian, The Wine-Dark Sea)

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The review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Omnibus review can now be found here.

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Here's what I've read since my last report:

The Ghost Brigades, John Scalzi I love Scalzi's Colonial Union universe. I hope he is able to find a way to keep it interesting for himself, so that he will write more stories in this setting.

1776, David McCullough I don't know why I put this one off for so long. It was actually a pretty easy and informative read once I started.

Magician, Raymond E. Feist. I read this book many years ago and enjoyed it again as I was previewing it for my 13-year-old. I'm not much for swords-and-sorcery (I prefer hard SF), but this novel is set in a nicely-planned universe reflecting careful world-building and plotting. I may actually check out a few of the other stories set in this universe.

The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, Christopher Hitchens. A quick read, inspired by the recent Time Magazine article about Mother Teresa's crises of faith.

In progress:

Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World, Chris Frith. This is a good one so far, but needed some more careful editing (I've noticed several sloppy typos that aren't the kind to be caught by spell-check; they would require a human copyeditor).

Consciousness Explained, Daniel C. Dennett.

Amateur Telescope Making Book One, Albert G. Ingalls (editor)

On Deck:

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens. My Sunday School class may be discussing this one in the near future, so I'll be getting a head start.

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas R. Hofstadter. Time to re-read this.

Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain--and How it Changed the World, Carl Zimmer. I love Zimmer's science writing (check out his blog here). This is of a kind with all the other cognitive science reading I've been devouring this year. If I could find another way to pay for my 3 kids' college today, I would quit being a lawyer and go back to school for graduate work in CogSci. It's one of the most fertile areas of interdisciplinary study these days, and I have a very personal interest in learning more about how the brain works.

About eight months' worth of Analog magazine.

I am reading more than writing, still, and hope someday to condense some of my reading down into worthy blog posts. In the meantime, please continue to enjoy Planet Stories' excellent contributions around here.

Posted by: JohnL at 09:39 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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The omnibus review can now be found here.

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Locus Online has posted retro-reviews of several of Heinlein's works. This ties in nicely with my completed review of Beyond This Horizon.

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Michael Swanwick has written a book on James Branch Cabell? I'm off to the bookstore to order this puppy right away!

Direct link to the book here.

Addendum (January 11, 200 : Swanwick follows up on some questions generated by the book.

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A medly of Pooh-ish whimsy in multiple literary genres. My favorite?

Pooh paced the deck, hands clasped behind his back. "Rabbit! Where's that blasted honey?"

Rabbit's whiskered face appeared in an instant, delivered the unwelcome verdict "Which it's already gone!" and disappeared again, leaving behind only muttering concerning something of a very little brain—fortunately at a low enough volume that Pooh could pretend to not have heard. Indeed, Pooh looked down and saw the honey pot was indeed there and empty. "Bother."

A sudden decision, and he swung his rather round and soft body into the shrouds and climbed to the crow's nest. There, he took out his glass and surveyed the horizon. Was that a sail? A sail that might be attached to a French merchant vessel, its hold stuffed full of honey? The crew hadn't had a real prize in months and Pooh's fortune at home could desperately use such a stroke of good fortune.

"Tigger!" he bellowed to the deck far below. "Fetch me Dr. Robin!" For he instinctively knew that he would need his friend's advice before proceeding.

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When you look at something like this (a 1965 miniature library), you get a sense of how far technology has gone (and might still go). I routinely carry around several hundred books and stories with me on a storage card the fraction of the size of this gadet.

Why stop at some books? Why not the universe in a library? more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Ultimate Guide to Free eBooks. Get downloading! Read! Expand your mind!

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Robert A Heinlein: Beyond This Horizon (Baen Books, 2001; ISBN 0-671-31836-5)

The review can now be found here.

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David Weber: In Enemy Hands (Baen Books, 1997; ISBN 0-671-87793-3). Echoes of Honor (Baen Books, 1998; ISBN 0-671-87892-1). Ashes of Victory (Baen Books, 2000; ISBN 0-671-57854-5).

The review can now be found here.

Free copies of all three of these books can be found here and here, but I would encourage you to purchase them from here.

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The review can now be viewed here.

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The list can now be viewed here.

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List can now be viewed here.

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Via Moleskinerie, an interesting article on journaling. This is something that I sporadically take up on paper and I'm determined to do it more going forward. Of course, since I've been blogging (on several platforms) since 2001 (9,000+ bits and pieces posted, good gravy!), you could say that I've been doing this all along. However, the internet, for all its wonders, is somewhat more temporary than paper.

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"To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, to hold conversations with men of unseen generations; such is a pleasure beyond compare."

(Yoshido Kenko, Essays in Idleness, 1340 A. D.)

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The host of the CBC's Vinyl Cafe swears he is never going to buy another book. Never. Never, never, never, as long as he lives!

Let's see how long that lasts!

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"At his feet I noticed,...a girl in a loose coral pink gown, who was his very antipode. Princess Heru, for so she was called, was resting one arm upon his knee at our approach and pulling a blue convolvulus bud to pieces—a charming picture of dainty idleness. Anything so soft, so silky as that little lady was never seen before.Who am I, a poor, quarter-deck loafer, that I should attempt to describe what poet and painter alike would have failed to realise? I know, of course, your stock descriptives: the melting eye, the coral lip, the peachy cheek, the raven tresses; but these were coined for mortal woman—and this was not one of them. I will not attempt to describe the glorious tenderness of those eyes she turned upon me presently; the glowing radiance of her skin; the infinite grace of every action; the incredible soul-seaching harmony of her voice, when later on I heard it—you must gather something of these things as I go- suffice it to say that when I saw her there for the first time in the plenitude of her beauty, I fell desperately, wildly in love with her."

—Edwin Lester Arnold, Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (a.k.a., Gullivar of Mars).

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Spook Country by William Gibson for $25.95 (sale price) or $23.36 (newsletter price)? Sounds pretty good...until you realize that this is an eBook you're buying and you can find a copy of the hardcover for significantly less than either of those prices in your local store (and save even more if you are a member of one of the big box chain clubs).

Reality check, please!

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