Cams & Lorraine

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It follows the story of Mr Okada, a seemingly ordinary fellow at the outset but his life becomes weirder and weirder as the story progresses. My favourite chunks were the stories of Lt Mamiya. It's kind of built up of different people's stories, all of which affect the protagonist and leads to his becoming much more self aware.

It's a somewhat quirky tale that is quite unlike anything I've ever read before. It grabbed a hold of my attention like a thief in the park and kept a hold of it until the end of the story. I normally read fantasy or sci-fi so this is a bit of a step outside the box for me and one that I'm very glad I took. I'm recommending this to pretty much everyone I know and for good reason.

I've enjoyed John Irving's books for years now and this one just came out on Audible. It came at a perfect time for me. I kept it until we went our holidays to Tenerife in November and I started listening to it as I lay in the sun by the pool.

The book is the tale of Owen Meany narrated by his best friend, John Wheelwright. Owen is small and has a strange voice. It's really the tale of why he is small and why he has a strange voice, but it's so much more than that. The book moved me in a way that no other book ever has. I'm at a point in my life where my faith in God is developing and this book fits right into that. Owen believes in God and has a lot to say on the subject of religion.

One of John Irving's strong points is his character development. In all the books of his that I have read, I've found his characters to be fully 3-dimensional and believable. All are flawed, just as I am, and it makes the characters easy to relate to. I'm not sure whether I'm getting that across very well, but for those who've read Garp or a Widow for a Year, you'll know what I mean.

If only Audible would do more John Irving books. I'd be on them like a shot!

I've always enjoyed Ian Rankin's detective novels starring the dour Inspector Rebus. Rebus has just retired and Ian Rankin has developed a new character, Inspector Fox.

Foxy works for the complaints, which is to say he investigates other police officers. Like Rebus before him, he is a flawed character. This makes him seem very life-like and I think he will grow to be as well loved as the character of Rebus.

The plot is as good as any that's gone before, with clever twists and great secondary characters. The interplay between the police officers of different stations and different departments is very well done. Never having been a police officer I can't really say how true to life it is, but for the reader it's most enjoyable.

It's also bang up to date, referring to the credit crunch and the demise of Woolworths. I suppose one might be able to study Scottish social history through Ian Rankin's books!

This was an enjoyable throw-away detective novel and I'll be watching out for the next Inspector Fox book!

I used to enjoy whisky. I also enjoy Iain Banks's novels. So it made sense to read a book about whisky by Iain Banks. Ironically, I picked this book up from the boxes of books stored in the church hall where we have our Wednesday AA meetings. I put 50p in the honesty box.

The book is very readable. Iain travels around Scotland visiting distilleries and buying up hunners of bottles. One might say that it's a self-indulgent book by a writer with too much money and who likes nothing more than to talk about his cars and motorcycles and throws money away on expensive wine and restaurants. And that isn't entirely wrong either, but for all that it is still strangely compelling and enjoyable. He shares a lot of anecdotes about his life, many of which are rather amusing, such as his enjoyment of urban climbing. And although he talks a lot about his expensive cars, it's clearly more than just self-indulgent prattle; this is a man who knows and loves the automobile and his enthusiasm is infectious. He also knows Scotland very well and it's fun to read his descriptions of the various roads across the country.

Overall this is a great book. I enjoyed it a lot more than i thought I would. I'd give it a four.

I read this as it was the September choice for the Sword & Laser book club. Sci-fi is a genre that I've not read much of, not because of I don't think I would enjoy it, but because I never really got around to it. I read Stephen Donaldson's Gap series twice and they are included in my top 5 list. I also read Dune and enjoyed it too.

So, The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman. This is supposed to be a classic of the genre and, to be honest, I'm not sure why. I did enjoy it but it's quite forgettable in my opinion.

The main themes are war and time dilation. The main protagonist, William Mandella, is conscripted along with a number of individuals with a high IQ. They endure a tough training regime, during which many trainees lose their lives. This happens in a fairly come-what-may sort of way and we don't learn enough about the characters really to care. And this is one of the book's shortcomings: it's too short. Not enough time is spent developing the characters, or the plot. This makes it a short book. Another 100 or so pages would have allowed the author to give it some flesh.

Due to the physics of travelling above light speed, Mandella encounters time dilation. So while a few months pass for him, years pass on earth. When he gets back, things have changed so much that he no longer feels comfortable on earth. So he goes back to the army and gets back into the war again.

I found the idea of homosexuality off putting at first. This is something that happens on earth to prevent population increase. It's an interesting concept.

To be honest, I didn't really enjoy the book enough to write more about it than I already have. As this is not a recommendation list but simply a list of what I've read (because I do forget), I'll leave it at that.

My good friend Arjun recommended to me The Count of Monte Christo. I listened to the version read by Richard Matthews, a British reader and he read it very well indeed. Of course the book was originally written in French and I know not who did the translation that I read, but it was as if the book were written in English. One choice they made that, to my mind was the right choice, was to keep names and titles in the French, for example the Procureur du Roi, monsieur de Procureur, and so on, rather than the Royal Prosecutor. Knowing a little French, I had no trouble with this, but I wonder how it would have read to someone with no knowledge of French? It reminds me of my reading A Clockwork Orange and being a Russian speaker; my experience of that novel was not the same as it would be for non Russian speakers. Anyway, enough of that. On the book. Arjun is of the opinion that it is the best book he's ever read. I wouldn't go quite that far, but it was very, very good. It's the first and only Dumas novel I've read, and may in fact be the first French literary novel I've read. The tale is a simple tale of revenge for a wrongful imprisonment. The Count himself becomes almost God-like in stature; he seems to be omnipotent and able to influence people to do his will. In fact, that aspect seems a little unbelievable, sort of like Jason Bourne of 18th century France, but with Jason Bourne you know you're reading make believe as it's so far fetched. The Count seems much more credible than Jason, but he loses some of that credibility as his powers and knowledge increase. How, for example, could he possibly learn to speak so many languages like a native in so short a time? Language is something that I know something about and I know how far-fetched that really is. But, once disbelief is suspended, the novel becomes great. At some 30-odd hours, you would think it would be a little dull in parts, and to be honest it is, but at the same time it is easy to listen to. I was a little worried at the morality of the Count and his taking revenge with such little humility and sympathy, but the ending assuaged that fear of mine and he redeemed himself admirably. I think I can say that without a spoiler alert. All in all, I'm very glad that I read this book and I would heartily recommend it. I give it four.

This book came recommended by a good friend of mine.

It's all about how we are all not only irrational, but predictably so. A good example is seen in his example of the advert for a subscription to the Economist. The web-only subscription is $59, the print-only subscription is $125 and the print AND web subscription is $125. Most of his students picked the print and web subscription. But when the print-only subscription was removed, most students went for the web only. Nobody in either case picked the print-only subscription.

He explains that none of this has anything to do with rationality, but that the print-only subscription is placed deliberately as a decoy.

He looks at why we behave irrationaly when offered anything free, why a cheap asprin doesn't cure a headache quite so well as an expensive one, and so on. It was an enjoyable read, however I did find it to be a little repetitive and over long.

 [Posted on Vox on 28 July 2009]

I used to enjoy reading Stephen King a lot. I find his tales to be gripping and well written. I chose this book for my review of personal reading that formed part of my higher English exam. The theme was conflict. That was in 1991.

I just listened to it again and enjoyed it once more. It's quite an appropriate tale for the current swine flu climate actually! It follows a bunch of survivors of a superflu virus, devised by the US Government, that wipes out the large majority of the US population (no other part of the world ever gets mentioned, a shortcoming of the book in my opinion; it could at least have been glossed over). The survivors split into two groups, the first gathering around Mother Abigail, the goody, and the Dark Man, the baddy. So you see the margin for conflict?

Of course the goodies win, but it's SK's style and skill at character building and dialogue that makes the book worth reading. He's an astute observer of the human psyche and the characters are easy to relate to, even if they are all from a completely different culture to my own.

[Posted on Vox on 28 July 2009]

I don't recall much about this book. It follows the tale of a kid who becomes a wizard and goes to wizard school and unleashes an evil spirit and then has to beat said evil spirit.

To be honest, I didn't enjoy it that much at all. I probably would have enjoyed it when I was in my teens, but it was just a bit too formulaic and shallow for me. Perhaps it gets better as the series progresses. I don't really care though; book 1 didn't grab me enough to want to carry on.

[Posted on Vox on 28 July 2009]

I bought this on the strength of a recommendation by freelance journalist and regular MacBreak Weekly panelist, Andy Ihnatko. His recommendation was based on the fact that the audible version is 32 hours long and yet is still only one credit! Thus, one can 'stick it to the man' with this audiobook. Well, there was a little more to it than that. My interest was piqued and the review I read convinced me that I would enjoy it.

I found it to be rather a clever book in that it seems to rise above the geekish realm of fantasy and sci-fi and enter the mainstream. Yes, it is in essence a fantasy book, but not like any other I've read. There are no elves and goblins, no magic talismans, no underdogs coming into their powers and having to save the world from evil against the odds. Rather this is a tale of 19th century England and features such historical characters as Napoleon and Wellington.

The style is a literary one, reminding one of Jane Austen and the Brontes and the characters would not seem out of place in a Dickens novel.

We begin in the north of England, where practical magicians no longer, well, practice magic and the theoretical magicians read books on magic and discuss it in their clubs and societies. That is until Mr Norrell comes along, a practical magician intent on being the only one of his kind. He agrees to prove to the theoreticians that he can do magic, but makes them agree that, if he is sucessful, the theoretical magicians should give up magic all together.

Then Jonathan Strange comes along as another real magician and we follow the relationship between him and Mr Norrell throughout the tale.

The audiobook is read by Simon Prebble and he does a good job. I enjoyed the book a lot but do feel that it could have been shortened without losing too much. The constant footnotes became a little grating but I had got used to them by the end. I don't think that I would read this again and I would be hesitant to recommend it to my fantasy-loving friends, but to those of you who do enjoy the 19th century novel, I'd have no hesitation in recomending it.

[Posted on Vox on 10 April 2009]

Lorraine bought me this book and told me she'd bought me it before I told her that I didn't have time to 'read' books any more. And fair enough, I hardly consume paper books any more these days but the fact is that if a book holds my attention for long enough, I'll find the time. More often that not it's whilst waiting for software to install, updates, that sort of thing. Yesterday it was uninstalling CS3 and installing CS4, an unbelievably long task.

And so to the book. This book was written just for me. I'm sure of it. John o' Farrell must have heard how I was feeling and decided to write me a novel. Honestly, that's how it feels. But I guess that a lot of fathers of my generation would be able to relate to this book. The main character wants what I would imagine most fathers want: the ability to do all the great things that make fatherhood such a joy, and go back to being a single man to avoid all the tough bits of being a dad and enjoy all the fun things that a single man gets to enjoy. Trouble is, as any dad worth his salt will tell you, that is an impossible thing to achieve. It's all about compromise and learning how to do the best one can for the family, and it has to be all or nothing. The rewards then far outweigh the investment.

I learned a lot from reading this book, especially its conclusion, which is that the most important thing is to be there for the family, to be there with the family, and to be part of the family.

And the title is very clever too. The man interprets it one way and his wife interprets in quite another. Being a man, I hadn't even considered that there was another way.

So in this book you will follow a 30-something dad who leads a double life, all the while thinking that he's doing a good thing, until it all blows up in his face and he realises that he was actually being quite deceptive. And the thing is that I totally understood his arguments for thinking it was a good thing and then, of course, his discovery that it wasn't was also a discovery for me.

I'd like Lorraine to read this book and see what she thinks about it. It would be interesting to get a woman's perspective on it .

The book had my attention from that first 'I'll just read the first page to see what it's like' moment and I must have got through it in a couple of weeks. Well, it is only 300 pages, but still, for someone with no time to read, it wasn't bad going!

[Posted on Vox on 16 March 2009]

I first became aware of Neil Gaiman a couple of years back when he was a panelist on Cranky Geeks. His novels and he are mentioned a lot on a few of the podcasts that I listen to and I decided to give Anansi Boys a try. I got the audiobook from audible and this one is narrated by Lenny Henry. I enjoyed it immensely and will definitely be consuming some more of Neil Gaiman's novels before long.

This one is about the descendent of Anansi, the Spider God. His descendent, Fat Charlie, does not know that he's descended from a God to begin with. He's just a regular schmo working for a firm in London and dating his fiancée. After he hears about his father's death, he attends the funeral and that's when strange things start to happen.

Lenny Henry was the perfect choice as narrator for this novel. A lot of the characters are Carribean in style and he does the accents perfectly.

[Posted on Vox on 3 Jan 2009]

The novel is funny, clever and engaging. Four stars.

I finished this book a couple of months ago and haven't written about it. I was given it by a Belgian/French friend of mine in Luxembourg not long before we left for Scotland. He'd read it and thought that I would enjoy it as it's set around the theme of a murder at a rock festival and mentions such notables as Pink Floyd and Led Zep. It is two murder tales in tandem, one set back in the 60s and one in the present day. Obviously there is a connection, and it is the job of the present-day detective, whose name escapes me for the moment, to figure out the connection in order to solve the crime. Naturally he achieves this, and I don't see it as a spoiler to say so since it would be rather a different detective novel if the crime were not solved by the end!

I read the bulk of this novel whilst watching Windows XP reinstall twice on the au pair's computer and failing to rewrite the drive with the Ghost image that I took originally. Those updates are unbelievable now.

Anyway, I did enjoy the book in the sense that I cared enough about its development to read it to the end, but it was in no particular way a memorable read, other than because of the author's attempt to include rock-n-roll superstars in the plot.

[Posted on Vox on 3 Jan 2009]

I'm getting behind in my book reviews. Last week a new BBC adaptation of John Buchan's The 39 Steps was on and I missed it. Thankfully it's still on the iPlayer, but I fancied reading the book again as it's been a long time since I read it. A quick shifty on audible and there it was, read by none other than Robert Powell, who played the leading role in a previous TV version.

It's as gripping a tale as I remember its being, a tale of spies and intrigue and the pluck of a rather dandy character by the name of Richard Hannay. To be fair it is rather unlikely in some parts and Richard Hannay's opinion of himself is a little high, but I would imagine that the novel is representative of the times in which it was written (1915) and displays the sensibilities of its upper-class author.

But for all that, it's a gripping yarn. I just sat listening to the last 90 minutes on my iPod shuffle, sat with the lights dimmed beside the coal fire and it was simply a joyous hour-and-a-half. And now I'm off to watch the beeb version on the iPlayer. :)

[Posted on Vox on 3 Jan 2009]

I finished this audiobook a couple of weeks ago after hearing several tech podcasters recommending it. It's a cyberpunk novel, whatever that might mean, set in the near future. The main character, Hiro Protagonist, starts out as a pizza delivery guy working for Uncle Enzo, head of the Mafia. The USA is broken up into corporate franchises and the mafia is now one such franchise.

Hiro is a hacker and was involved in programming The Black Sun, the geek hangout in the metaverse. The metaverse is an idea of the future of the internet, more sort of AI where users goggle in and wander round using avatars to represent themselves.

The book gets into religion and linguistics and, as a former linguist and a current geek, I found Stephenson's ideas intriguing. Some of the best parts of the novel are when Hiro is discussing science and linguistics with the librarian (a piece of software that has access to the digital info archives).

All in all I found it to be an enjoyable, well-written and well-researcehd novel and I liked it well enough to consider reading more of Stephenson's novels.

[Posted on Vox on 28 Aug 2008]

I just read this novel for the second time and enjoyed it a lot. The first Kelman book I read was A Dissafection, back when I was on my year abroad in Odessa in 1995. Upon my return I got How Late it Was, How Late and liked it a little better.

The novel is written in the Glasgow dialect, which is very close to the Ayrshire dialect that I grew up with. It's partly the poetry of that language that really appeals to me. Having studied linguistics and socio-linguistics probably makes the book more appealing to me than it might to others, as well as the fact that I do not have any trouble with comprehension (as when I read A Clockwork Orange because I speak Russian - not sure if that spoiled that for me but that's another story for another time).

The story is a slice of life, social realism in great form. It doesn't have a traditional beginning, middle and end, rather it portrays the events that surround the main character, the bold Sammy, over a period of a few days. He gets into a scrape with the sodjers (the police) early on and winds up blind. We then follow his journey through the police cells, the benefits offices, medical assessors and such like.

I would certainly class this novel as literature rather than throwaway. I'm not sure how enjoyable it would be for anyone that struggled with the dialect but I'd be interested to know.

[Posted on Vox on 13 Aug 2008]

I was born in 1971 so a lot of my formative years were spent under Maggie Thatcher's premiership. At the time I cared little about it, other than through the wonderful Spitting Image, which was food for playground banter.

Having recently moved back to the UK after a long spell abroad, I find myself becoming interested to learn about the period that I lived through but knew so little about. Though I cared little about politics until, well, until now really, Maggie stands firm in my mind like an icon.

John Sergeant's book is engaging and entertaining. It is interesting to hear the point of view of one who was so close to the action with the luxury of hindsight. For the layman (and I consider myself such), the book is easy to follow, although I did benefit from a few visits to Wikipedia and YouTube to learn more about the workings of British politics and see news reel footage from the time.

I have no other benchmarks against which to gauge John Sergeant's opinion of the events, but when he does give his opinion, it is always well backed up well. He does a great job of relating the key events, not only of Maggie's time as PM, but of her rise to become leader of the Conservative Party and her influence on her successors and her party; in a word, her legacy.

For those who do have a strong opinion of Margaret Thatcher, and I know that there are a lot of you out there, I think that this book will help to show the other side of the story, whatever side you happen to be on. But for those such as I without much of an opinion, you'll find this a highly informative book that gives a broad overview of Margaret Thatcher but it may leave you still wondering what to think. That's where I am anyway. I'm contemplating reading her memoirs, although I do like John Sergeant's book for its apparent lack of idealogical bias and I could really use some more books like this one.

In short, I enjoyed this a lot and could listen to it again quite easily.

[Posted on Vox on 2 July 2008]

I just completed this for the second time and enjoyed it more than I did the first time around. This is the first of a trilogy, although it was never meant to be a trilogy, just that Mervyn Peake died too soon.

The imagery that this novel conjures up is simply wonderful. The descriptive writing is some of the best I have read and Peake's use of the English language is a joy to behold.

The story is about the 77th Earl of Groan, Lord Titus. He is born in Gormenghast, a place of strange rituals whose origins seem to have been forgotten, but which are rigorously adhered to nonetheless.

The calculating and devious Steerpike manages to escape from the kitchens and the abhorrent chef, Swelter and beings manipulating the characters of Gormenghast for his own personal gain. He throws the castle into turmoil with his antics and therein lies the tale.

I 'read' the audiobook, downloaded from Audible, and it was very well read indeed. I highly recommend this book.

[Posted on Vox on 25 June 2008]

I just finished the audio book of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was rather long and could have done with being edited down a bit in my opinion. That said, it was utterly gripping, especially into the second half. The whole series has now been raised in my esteem (for whatever that is worth) to the level of the Narnia and Tolkien books. Perhaps that will change as I continue and hear them again (as, having two children, I have no doubt that I will) but there is just so much in these books: morality, fear, ego, jealousy, fame, the media, etc.) I also see some parallels with the Star Wars trilogy (i.e. New Hope, Empire and Jedi) but without the apparent religious aspect.

It's actually doing me some good as I learn about how an apparent ordinary boy deals with overwhelming odds one day at a time and I think that children in particular will learn a lot about values from these books.

Oh, and the quality of the writing is really rather good too. It seems to have improved since the first book and is rather more literary.

And naturally I'm into the sixth book and will not stop until I reach the end. It's really a gripping tale and I have no inkling as to how it will turn out.

[Posted on Vox on 12 December 2007]

Been neglecting the blog of late. Too busy with stuff. So some quickfire diary style entries, starting with finishing Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. Bloody brilliant. Seriously. I can see now why people get hooked. The first was meh, the second, a bit better, the third, yeah, not too bad but the fourth! That fight scene had me riveted to the steering wheel (I was in the car listening to Stephen Fry doing a bloody marvellous job I must say).

I'm into the fifth now and enjoying it too. Bring it on! Wheeee!

[Posted on Vox on 28 Nov 2007]

Three down, four to go! I finished this one today. It took me rather a long time as I consumed two entire back series of photography podcasts. It was nice to get back to the book again and I enjoyed this one. I'm looking forward to getting to the fifth one most though, as I've seen the first four films and so there were no surprises for me in Prisoner.

Stephen Fry doesn't half bring them to life though, I'll tell you.

[Posted on Vox on 16 Oct 2007]

Just finished reading this, which is, I believe, the first of John le Carré's novels that I've read. I was lent it by a friend and fellow translator.

The main character is an interpreter of various minority African languages and a few European ones. Having worked a little in this field, it was interesting to me in ways that it might perhaps not otherwise have been.

It was rather slow paced until it reached the latter third, when the tension really began to mount. Stylistically, it seems much more literary than, say Robert Ludlum, so not quite as enjoyable on a superficial level but more memorable.

The story focuses on the Congo. The premise is that an anonymous syndicate is putting up the funds to bring peace to the region. A secret conference is organised and held, seemingly by the UK intelligence services, between Congolese warlords on a remote island whose location is never revealed. The main character of the novel is the interpreter at the conference and we learn of his mixed loyalties and his ethics in his role as an interpreter.

It was an enjoyable novel but not one that I would be too excited about recommending to anyone without at least a passing interest in linguistics or Africa. I'm glad I read it though.

[Posted on Vox on 15 Oct 2007]

I just finished this one this morning. Utterly, utterly brilliant. I read Cannery Row a while ago and bought Sweet Thursday a while ago too. Since the bairns came along, my books tend to be consumed in audio fashion rather than in the more tangible paper form. As we were travelling to Scotland and back recently and would be spending time in a B&B, I thought I would take a book along. I grabbed this one off my shelf and was hooked right from the start.

It's hard to describe why this is so good. Being blessed with a poor memory, I really don't recall much of what happened in Cannery Row. I do recall how much I enjoyed it though, and having forgotten its plot didn't mar my enjoyment of Sweet Thursday at all (it's a sequel, in case you didn't get the connection).

The plot is simple: it's a love story. Not much else to it than that at the plot level. It's at the writing level that it really breathes. The characters are wonderfully crafted and the book is full of depth without seeming deep. There's a whole bunch of philosophy in the book and it will certainly warrant a second read. Although it's set a million miles from where I grew up, both in geographical and temporal terms, it reminds me of just that. It could quite easily be me and my pals from back in the day if we were still in the same little town and had never 'settled down'.

Doc went on, "Let me put it this way: there is nothing I can do. They say of an amputee that he remembers his leg. Well, I remember this girl. I am not whole without her. I am not alive without her. When she was with me I was more alive than I have ever been, and not only when she was pleasant either. Even when we were fighting I was whole. At the time I didn't realize how important it was, but I do now. I am not a dope. I know that if I should win her I'll have many horrible times. Over and over, I'll wish I'd never seen her. But I also know that if I fail I'll never be a whole man. I'll live a gray half-life, and I'll mourn for my lost girl every hour of the rest of my life. As thoughtful reptiles you will wonder, 'Why not wait? Look further! There are better fish in the sea!' But you are not involved. Let me tell you that to me not only are there no better fish, there are no other fish in the sea at all. The sea is lonely without this fish. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!"

That was Doc talking to his rattlesnakes.

As I said, the book made me think of my pals so I just ordered Cannery Row and sent it to one of those pals, the one that I think would enjoy it the most. I really should go back and reread it but I've got a borrowed John Le Carré book to get through for now, but Cannery Row is next up in my actual-book list.

[Posted on Vox on 10 Sep 2007]

Just finished the audio book of Harry Potter and the Chamber or Secrets (read by Stephen Fry). That's me caught up to where I stopped the first time around. I enjoyed this one a bit more than I did the first. The ending was rather gripping.

So, bring on The Prisoner of Azkaban!

[Posted on Vox on 9 Aug 2007]

Now that the last one's out, I reckoned that it was time to give these another go. Stephen Fry reads these audio books and is very good. I read the first two back in the late 90s but got bored with them. It's more enjoyable to have Stephen read them to me I think - very entertaining.

As for the story, well, it's predictable and essentially not terribly gripping, but it is a kids' book after all. I like it well enough to listen to the rest of them and, having two young 'uns, it's a reasonable assumption that these will be a good investment.

When all's said and done, knowing what I know of the series, I prefer the Narnia chronicles and even the Hobbit. That might change as I get through the series though, you never know.

[Posted on Vox on 30 July 2007]