Now reading...

[BillF]

[BruceH]

4th book in the series - I am absolutely loving these. Improving my geography no end; and by the time I get to the last in the series I'm sure I'll be able to rig a frigate.

I read the whole series with pleasure, more than once, and I still couldn't tell a yardarm from a thingamajig.

[jlhoots]

Gunther Schuller: Early Jazz

[crisp]

Hot Water by Wodehouse was superb, so I've started on the next one in my list: Luck of the Bodkins. I'm pleased to see it's also set in France (where I think the author was living at the time).

[BillF]

[Jazzmoose]

Eric Foner's Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution.

[Pete C]

I saw the New York premiere of Mountain Language as the opener to a bill that had The Birthday Party with Jean Stapleton. She was perfect!

[BruceH]

I had a girlfriend for a few minutes who pronounced Evelyn Waugh "Evvalynn Woof." That's one of the reasons it lasted not much more than a few minutes...

It would be hard not to reply, "Nice doggie."

[paul secor]

I saw the New York premiere of Mountain Language as the opener to a bill that had The Birthday Party with Jean Stapleton. She was perfect!

When I was in college I saw a performance of The Birthday Party with a very fine young actress playing the role of Meg. I can imagine that Jean Stapleton would have been great playing that part.

[Shawn]

Larry Niven - N-Space

[GA Russell]

I finished Walter Isaacson's book about Steve Jobs last week.

I suppose that any idiot can say that a successful businessman is a genius. I wonder what people would have said about Jobs and his products if he had put out the same things but not many people bought them.

[jlhoots]

I finished Walter Isaacson's book about Steve Jobs last week.

I suppose that any idiot can say that a successful businessman is a genius. I wonder what people would have said about Jobs and his products if he had put out the same things but not many people bought them.

But that's not (obviously) what happened.

Who's the "idiot".

Certainly not Isaacson or Jobs IMHO.

I liked the book.

[GA Russell]

jlh, by no means am I saying that Isaacson is an idiot. But over the years I have seen very little analysis of the Apple products, and a lot of applause for their sales figures. Any idiot can do that.

In fact, I learned a great deal from the book about why someone might want to be an Apple customer.

By the way, I did feel that Isaacson glossed over the fact that Apple products are (relatively speaking) for those for whom price is no object. Jobs focused on making the best products, rather than offering the best value. Of course, it's for each consumer to decide for himself whether Apple (during his second tenure) offered the best items and whether the closed system offered the best value.

[B. Goren.]

[ejp626]

I've been delayed in finishing up The Engineer of Human Souls due to reading/browsing a lot of poetry for my (potential) anthology. I did manage to finish Pitouie on a ferry ride, and it was an entertaining read though it had some plot holes, which I can't really discuss for fear of spoiling the plot. I would recommend it for anyone looking for light entertainment.

Hard to say what has really stuck out the most from all this poetry. In Cars by Kimmy Beach was pretty great - a book-length exploration of her teenage years in rural Saskatchewan where the only thing to do was drive around aimlessly and then go to the roller rink. (Not so different from my teenage years, though we had a mall and the roller rink had past its prime in my teenage years and video arcades were the up and coming thing.)

I also found Mortal Arguments by Sue Sinclair kind of snuck up on me and I found myself thinking about it a bit after I had finished reading it (a good sign). She's even got a good poem in there about taxis (maybe I'll post in the poetry thread after this is all over).

I've also just discovered W.H. New, who is a Vancouver-based poet. I particularly like his collections Stone | Rain and YVR.

[jazzbo]

[BruceH]

Finally reading some of that Sherlock Holmes stuff. I've been meaning to for the last 30 or 35 years or so, but somehow something always came up.

[jlhoots]

Anouk Markovits: I Am Forbidden

[BillF]

McEwan's latest. He's always readable.

[Pete C]

I've preferred McEwan's darker, earlier stuff to the more recent work, and I think he's become too self-consciously literary. I have the same problem with Peter Carey.

[BillF]

I've preferred McEwan's darker, earlier stuff to the more recent work, and I think he's become too self-consciously literary. I have the same problem with Peter Carey.

Yes, he was better then. He's become too much of a literary personality - too hitched to the marketing machine. You have a sense all the way through of his books being put together for a certain identifiable audience - all the right buttons being pressed. "Too clever by half", I remarked to my wife as I was reading and the final pay-off in Sweet Toothfully vindicated that remark. But, as I said in the last post, he's always readable and as the local public library always buys multiple copies of his stuff, why not borrow and read - the implication being that I wouldn't spend money on it.

[jlhoots]

S.J. Watson: Before I Go To Sleep

[B. Goren.]

[BillF]

[jlhoots]

Jo Nesbo: The Devil's Star