Category Archives: Books

Books, Technology

I want to read my e-reader…

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So despite the fact that the prevailing opinion from my Twitter contacts and friends alike was that I should wait for the Kindle to grace the shores of the UK, the holiday in Denmark with three bulky paperbacks squeezed into a too-cramped rucksack and the impending implosion of my bookshelves into some minor singularity broke me, and I picked up a Sony PRS 505 from Play.com about two weeks ago. I’d seen my friend Rob with one and had a pretty good idea it would be decent, which its proving to be, and I had a feeling that the Kindle would be some time coming…

Here’s what’s good about it:

1) It stores lots of book in a sleek, elegant casing. I’ve shoved a 1GB SD card (at a cost of a not so princely £4) in there, which will cover me for at least 1000 books but potentially as many as 3000 – which is probably more than I’ll need on there

2) It works well with the open source Calibre, even under Windows7 RC1 64bit, which is something of a relief (as I gather the Sony software is its usual bag of decaying tripe)

3) The screen is amazing. E-Ink works like an etch-a-sketch, so reads well in any light. It also makes for…

4) …awesome battery life. Due to the etch-a-sketch nature of the device, it only draws power when turning pages. So one charge (by USB cable), will give you room for about 4000 page turns

5) You can get books. Waterstones has many, even if Amazon is probably banking on the arrival of the Kindle in the UK at some stage.

The not-so-good

1) I’ve already mentioned Sony’s software… the navigation on the device itself is not brilliant, no way to go directly to a page (that I’ve found as yet), not until you’ve made bookmarks (although it remembers what page you were last reading), and there’s no search functionality, ability to make notes etc. I’m also having some fiddling with page alignment (page numbers in middle of page, NBSPs, etc)

2) There’s no wireless connectivity – hence awesome battery life, but hey, if I want wireless, well, that’s what the iPhone I’m planning on getting will do…

3) The page-turning is not that speedy, although its not terrible

All in all, it’s up there with my Netbook in all-time useful purchases. I carry it around daily, have got through two novels on it in two weeks and will probably maintain close to that rate, saving valuable bookshelf real-estate, holiday packing and being stuck on the bus in between books…

Here’s a quick video demo from some dude on Youtube:

Cross posted on Chivalry House.

Books, Gaming, Update

Lotsa reading and some Wii

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I’m not even going to apologise, this time, for my latest bout of ignoring this blog. It’s been busy. Let’s leave it at that. Slap me in person, if you like.

I’ve spent my down time doing fun things – reading through the back catalogue of Robert Charles Wilson (following the excellent recommendations of Tom and Simon via Twitter), as well as the new Alistair Reynolds, the Sebastian Darke childrens’ books, the new Iain M Banks, and will soon be starting the Mike Carey (of Lucifer and Constantine fame) novels. I’ve got to this place where self-indulgence involves reading mountains of sci-fi and fantasy and its significantly healthier than pigging out on McDonalds so I’m running with it.

Have also been playing more of the new ‘Fire Emblem’ game on Wii than I’d like. This is a mediocre version of the brilliant GBA game that takes absolutely no advantage of the Wii control scheme and seems to have been scripted by a monkey prone to bouts of hysteria. The plot just keeps extending itself in explicable turns in order to cope with the fact that the game needs more missions to have justified its sticker price.

More excitingly, Wii Fit arrived last Monday and I’ve used it about 6 times, gaining some impressive and some not-so-impressive scores. It’s all part of my motivation to get fit, which has also seen me play squash for the first time in four years (admittedly only for 10 minutes, but, y’know…). Wii Fit also entertained about a dozen friends at the first BBQ of the season this weekend (mmm, chickan).

So, I’m busy, and I’m doing interesting things, and if you’d like to know what I’m up to find me on Twitter and Facebook as that’s where my social media output is going for the moment (book reviews on Visual Bookshelf, movie reviews on Flixster, random observations on life on Twitter).

Share and enjoy, people. Share and enjoy.

Books, Internet

The Victorian Internet

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I’ve been reading Tom Standage‘s book on the history of the telegraph this week. It is a fascinating read – Standage is totally accessible and every bit as brilliant as he gives the impression of being (he’s business editor at The Economist so I speak to him occasionally as part of my day job). Tom P and Matt made the point when they saw me with the book that it should be very short – simply reading “there wasn’t one” – but the parallels Standage draws to today’s Internet and some of the fantastic quotes he draws from makes it entertaining reading**.

A choice sample, James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald, writing around 1840:

“The telegraph may not affect magazine literature… but the mere newspapers must submit to destiny, and go out of existence.”

A conversation (and a destiny) that is very much going on today.

There’s another quote in there that I can’t find at the moment but talks about how the telegraph made it seem as it you were in the same room as the person you were talking to — which I found particularly amusing given that I spend quite a bit of time talking to journalists about how my client Cisco’s TelePresence achieves the same effect in ever-so-slightly higher definition…

Anyway, it’s an interesting read, and occasionally pops up cheap on Amazon.

** I admit freely that part of this fascination with all this may derive in part from the fact that I studied the History of Science at university and spend a increasingly large proportion of my time talking about the Internet’s impact on communications / news dissemination.

Books, Writing

Short stories

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I’ve been reading a lot of short stories lately. Neil Gaiman and Alistair Reynolds in particular; they’re learning me structure and tone of voice; both things I need a bit more practice with so that I can rein my imagination in and actually write something down.

Neil G seems to be master of two things in particular: atmosphere and singularly dark plotlines.

Reynolds has tight control over story structure, and space-operatic universe in which to play.

Me? I got nothing. This writing lark is hard. But I’m plugging away…

Books, Miscellany, Personal, Television

…then I had a good Sunday

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Today was a good day. And there was me getting stressed about not having much planned for this weekend.

After nice, quiet drinks with Sheila, Dave, Afo and Chris at the pub last night was up at a sensible hour this morning, and finished reading the new Kevin Anderson novel. It is awesome – now have to wait frustratedly for the next one.

Then I caught up on phone calls to family and friends, which is always good.

Then I caught up on last week’s opening episodes of season 3 of Lost. Which was less obviously good, but I’ll reserve judgement.

Then I bore witness to Spurs 3-1 victory over Wigan. I have one word for this, and its [[w00t]]!

Now, going to try to work on the ever ephemeral novel for a bit before heading out to see Bond.

Yes, it has been a good day.

Books, Comics

Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway

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No, no I haven’t taken up devil worship. But, as part of my birthday present, Arvind decided to loan me (he’s so tight ;)) a set of graphic novels by Neil Gaiman about Lucifer Morningstar, as incarnated in Gaiman’s bestselling (and awesome) Sandman series.

Just finished the first book, and glad that Arvind decided to restrict the loan to one of the ten volumes at a time, as its fantastic and I would likely have been up till 4am finishing them off. Gaiman’s got this syrupy, mythic way with words which is completely appropriate to his otherworldly subject matter.

Recommended, thumbs up etc. If you haven’t read Sandman, you’re missing something amazing.

Books, Personal

Creovationâ„¢

Just finished reading the v. entertaining ‘Who moved my Blackberry‘ — a book which hits so closely on everything that is bad about big corporate and marketing environments it is just eerie — and thought, as a laugh, that I’d check if www.creovation.com was registered. Creovationâ„¢ is a concept that the lead protagonist, one Martin Lukes, comes up with – marrying innovation with creativity (obviously!) — which is singled out as being a particuarly ridiculous marketing non-concept.

And amusingly, a London-based marketing firm has that name, although its proposition seems a little more solid than most of the rubbish that Martin Lukes comes up with in the novel.

Thanks to Douthers for pointing me in the direction of the book and lending me his copy.

Books

Sad book

Just finished reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for a work book club and am appropriately depressed now. Not going to say too much (have to turn up to the book club meeting first!) – but it was an awesome book, for the most part (even if the postmodernism / parallel narratives confused the hell out of me for a while there).

Very emotional, very sad, very poignant. It’s about a kid whose Dad died in the WTC, and he discovers a key, and then decides he has to find the lock… But it’s about a lot more as well; childhood, growing up, dealing with loss, family, marriage, true love, responsibility, friendship… well, I could get soppy about it and I’ll avoid that. Suffice it to say its about the most compelling and mystifying 9 year old you could possibly imagine.

A very courageous piece of writing. I enjoyed it hugely.

Books, Writing

I’ve really started this time

This weekend has been relatively peaceful. Following East End Fun (check the photostream) on Saturday – I’ve not been out and about too much. Some dim-sum and novel planning on Sunday, a quiet dinner with Sheila and Dave on Sunday, and most of today – watching rubbish TV and working on the novel.

Not made huge progress – in that now I’ve kicked off properly I’d like to be able to write more than 1,700 words in a weekend. But this is one of the first pieces of fiction I’ve worked on since I was about 17 that I haven’t wanted to tear up within a day of writing it. So a good start.

It helps that people keep asking me what the novel’s about. It means I have to think about it; do things like write what it would say on the jacket, think about who the novel’s target audience is, who the heroes and villains are, what the plot complications are… etc. You know, obvious stuff, but which when all you have in your head is “I’d like to write a novel” you don’t really process it all.

So the planning’s been important. Been tapping stuff down in notes all over the place and just about got it under control, and the first few hundred words, characters, sets, scenes — they have got me pretty excited about it. And the filler — the descriptive stuff that I was vaguely worried I’d struggle to write (I’ve been practising concise, functional writing for years now) — well, that seems to be working out ok too.

It’ll be a little while before I publish anything here. I think I’m going to stick to my original plan not to put the straight text up here but perhaps to record podcasts. Hopefully get one up by the end of this Sunday, but we’ll see…

Wish me luck! For what its worth, the working title of the novel is Elemental, its set in contemporary London and it is slightly fantastical in nature. My dream would be to hit a tone somewhere between Eddie Izzard, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Joseph Heller, Phillip Pullman and Martin Amis.

Hey, I said it was a dream. Wish me luck!