simra.net Doing stuff since 1973

I'm sitting up late tonight solely for the purpose of waiting for a Beastie Boys download to finish. While I'm waiting, I'm listening to TMBG's 'Here come the 123's', which downloaded a whole lot faster and seems to have the sole redeeming quality that if I worried that somehow the music my kids listen to cramps my style I can just put this one on and transform myself into alternadad.

Allow me to describe what it's like to wait for a big download on a Dell Inspiron 5100. For one, there's no spacebar, because my youngest ripped it off shortly after she learned to prop herself up to a standing position. I've become extremely precise at hitting the 3mm circle that now represents 'space'. Add to that, the whole right side of the keyboard seems to have become engorged with cookie crumbs, making backspace and right-shift a little tricky to nail. But these are only minor annoyances, a step up from the permanent marker scribbles all over the case. The real problem with this laptop is that it predates the concept of 'mobile' processors. It's got a white-hot 1.6GHz Pentium IV, which threatens to immolate me at any moment. Once I open Google Reader with a couple embedded youtube flash videos (even when they're not playing) and start iTunes the machine slows to a crawl. The only thing left to do is post inane comments and wait for that download...

In the end, though, it's all worth it:

I pre-tagged this post 'books' but now I forget why. I mentioned yesterday that Miriam Toews' A Complicated Kindness is super-excellent. It has even inspired me to finish Philip Roth's The Human Stain, the other piece of unread 'literature' kicking around the house (as opposed to the more conventional pulp SF/Fantasy that I read on the bus.) The thing about the Human Stain is that it strikes me as a book for the 'Thinking American', who wrings their hands over race relations. I won't go so far as to suggest that these issues are not present in Canada, but that they really don't enter the public discourse the way they do in the U.S. A book like Roth's might be considered profound south of the 49th whereas it's comes across as navel-gazing up here. ...but let me finish it before I write it off completely. :-) OTOH, I really can't figure out why I'm still reading the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, except that I've come this far and I might as well see how it ends. So much moaning and bellyaching ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/04/26/nosplit/...

I almost hesitate to admit that I found this one on Fark, of all places. Drew must be feeling bookish. Most of the usual suspects are here. Glaring omissions, imho: A Clockwork Orange, Crime and Punishment, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, Ulysses, anything by Margaret Atwood. The only one I really question is the Celestine Prophecy which I think ranks somewhere between the DaVinci Code and the Bridges of Madison County- that grey zone between truly bad and really awful.

Among my favourites: The Magus, Slaughterhouse Five, H2G2, GEB, On the Road (but I prefer the Dharma Bums), The Stranger, Siddhartha.

If I really wanted to be pretentious I'd add Gravity's Rainbow, Naked Lunch, One Hundred Years of Solitude or Foucault's Pendulum but I'll be the first to admit I found them impenetrable... Actually, I never managed to 'get' Ulysses, either, but there were moments when the fog cleared and my brain nearly exploded.

A Complicated Kindness, Miriam Toews. Won the GG's a year or two ago. The narration is absolutely brilliant. It's hard to wrap my head around the idea that Nomi Nickel's voice just emerged from the depths of Toews' brain.

On the bus ride home tonight I finished Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks, to which all I can say is 'wow'.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/books/18cnd-clarke.html?ei=5087&em=&en...

We've lost one of science fiction's greatest. He invented the geo-stationary satellite, inspired a generation of NASA engineers, co-wrote the greatest SF screenplay ever, and wrote or contributed to more than 100 books. Among my favourites were Fountains of Paradise and Rendezvous with Rama.

[Update: Hemant notes that Indexed has a fitting tribute.]

http://coolmel.typepad.com/iblog/2008/03/review-the-blac.html

C4Chaos has a nice review of a book about improbability that looks very interesting.

I've been tagged by Integral Options Cafe to name my five favourite dharma books. My list demonstrates how long it's been since I picked up something good:

• The Miracle of Mindfulness, Thich Nhat Hanh
• Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Shunryu Suzuki
• Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Chogyam Chungpa
• When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodrun
• The Dhammapada

Honourable mentions to Herman Hesse and Jack Kerouac, who planted the seeds.

I'll tag The Level 8th Buddhist, and Gomyo, the hoodie monk.

http://coolmel.typepad.com/iblog/2007/09/creepy-library-.html

C4Chaos plans to read and review the growing stack of A-list Atheist celebrity books out there. Could be interesting...

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/07/rip-author-madeleine.html

Sad to hear of Madeleine L'Engle's passing. A Wrinkle in Time was one of the books given to me as a wee lad when it became obvious the Hardy Boys weren't cutting it. She made an indelible mark on the sci-fi genre.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2007/07/16/jpod-series.html

JPod is IMHO one of Douglas Coupland's funniest books. The book holds a special resonance for me because, in one of those classic life-imitates-art-imitates-life moments, I interviewed at EA in Vancouver while I was in the middle of it. It was surreal having lunch with the fine folks there and hearing things come out of their mouths that even Coupland would have thought were over-the-top. In any case, it looks like other people agree that JPod is funny enough to turn into a TV show. I'll look forward to catching that one.

My last read was Simon Winchester's Krakatoa. Click for more...

30 second book reviews:

• The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini: A brutal and vivid depiction of the tragic decline of Afghanistan in the 20th century, coupled with a ludicrous plot which is only slightly redeemed by the non-Hollywood ending.
• Pandora, Anne Rice: My first Anne Rice. (Time is of the essence with a screaming infant in a public library.) No doubt her legions of fans will take exception, but this book takes a good 30 pages to get started. Once it's running it's not too shabby. Good pulp for the bus.
• The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith. Light, refreshing, unpretentious, and entertaining. Best delivered in small doses.

obit

An author I first encountered far too late. Better late than never.

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I've finally finished Dawkin's new book. On Easter Sunday, no less. My review can be found here: http://books.simra.net/node/37

My new commute gives me a lot of time to read. I haven't had a chance to put reviews together yet, but I've had a blast in the last three weeks with these titles:

• Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys
• Burrough's Naked Lunch
• Douglas Adams' Salmon of Doubt
• Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion

Actually, I haven't quite plucked up the courage to bring the Dawkins book on the bus. Maybe this week. I have a lot to say about it and I hope I get a chance to write it all down. Nevertheless, all four books are great reads.

Two new books over in the books section. Tad Williams' Otherland Vol 1, and Simon Singh's Big Bang. Enjoy!