October 10th, 2010 is a special day. First of all, because it's three tens. Obviously. What isn't obvious is that 101010 is binary for 42.
10/10 falls on a Sunday this year. Wouldn't it be a great day for a Douglas Adams party?
By Charles Stross. Amazon link.
I heard about this, that it was a robo-pervy tribute to Heinlein. Sounded like a winner to me. But alas, it is astoundingly, mind-bogglingly boring. I couldn't get through it.
This is a book about groundbreaking and controversial psychological studies. Each experiment is discussed in a conversational, narrative style that really draws you into the social and political ramifications of the experiment. (Not political in the sense of world government, but in the sense of how others in the field of psychology reacted to the experiments.) The author includes relevant personal experiences as well. The result is a fascinating and moving read. Recommended.
"The Cats of Ulthar" and "The Doom that Came to Sarnath" have been added to Stories by Lovecraft. Also changed the alphabetization of the stories by title.
"The Rats in the Walls" and "Under the Pyramids" have been added to Stories by Lovecraft. Also fixed some character formatting problems.
The Dreams in the Witch House has been added to Stories by Lovecraft.
As you were.
Man, that Dave Barry sure is funny. There are many laugh-out-loud funny bits in this collection of columns. I'd heartily recommend this book to anyone.
Some of these I hadn't read since they were first published in the late 80s. Going back and seeing them again made me realize just how big an influence Dave Barry has had on my own somewhat warped sense of humor. Reading this book was like getting reacquainted with an old friend.
I'll probably be picking up more Dave Barry collections in the future.
A Dilbert book by Scott Adams.
I'm collecting and going through the Dilbert books one by one. This is the fourth Dilbert book, but only the second collection of syndicated strips.
Dilbert was pretty good in these early stages, but had not yet found its voice. There were a couple of strips that delighted me in this collection, but it was mostly average. If you're not going to pick up all of the Dilbert books, this is probably a good one to skip.
There are some books that are classified as light reading. In these books, one word follows another, tripping merrily through the narrative. Dune is not one of those books. In Dune, each and every word is heavy with purpose and portent. Dune is well-written and engaging, and it takes itself very seriously. Which is fine, if that's your thing. Personally, I got sick of it after 400 pages (7/8ths of the way through) and couldn't bring myself to go on.
So I went ahead and read the synopsis on Wikipedia to see how everything shook out. Which I'm glad I did, because I didn't like the ending anyway.
Dune is a classic, and for good reason. I fully acknowledge that it's an incredible piece of work. It's just not really for me.
Shulz seems to really hit his stride in the 60s and is in good form in this collection. On the other hand, there's a higher percentage of Snoopy strips than in previous years. Not so great if you're not as much into Snoopy. On the other hand, they're good Snoopy strips; the WWI flying ace is introduced and is still fresh and new. Also, Peppermint Patty makes her first appearance in this volume. Quality is pretty consistently high throughout, and I enjoyed reading it.