The Official Theory Test for Motorcyclists
» Questions down one side of the page, answers down the other with explanations of variable quality. If you buy the correct edition of the book you'll have the
bank of questions from which your Theory Test will be drawn. Read this once and you should get through, though it may be an idea to try one of the DSA's
on-line practice tests too.
[Rating = unmissable | worth reading | passes the time | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]
if you want to pass your Theory Test.
"The Official Theory Test for Motorcyclists", Driving Standards Agency, The Stationery Office,
2000, ISBN 0115522239. Entry added 28.12.01.
John Cassidy Dot.Con
» I'm not totally convinced by this book. Emily Bell's Observer
review notes that much of this book is
taken from secondary sources. There's nothing wrong in that - though a good number of the sources are fairly accessible and obvious. The value
added comes from the way in which the theme of financial speculation and manias is used to structure the book's history of the "Internet bubble".
Again the sources used are obvious, but it's a neat narrative trick. The book's other strength is that the narrative is wide ranging, although at times
I felt that the breadth stretched my credulity, such as the material on William Gibson and cyperpunk. In the end though I found the
book's almost circular reasoning on the bubble unsatisfying. In particular I remain unconvinced of the role that Cassidy attributes to the Fed and
Alan Greenspan .
[Rating = unmissable | worth reading | passes the time | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]
"Dot.Con", John Cassidy, Penguin, 2003, ISBN 0141006668
Entry added 20.4.03
[Rating = unmissable | worth reading | passes the time | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]
"English Bread and Yeast Cookery", Elizabeth David, Penguin, 1979, ISBN 0140467912.
Entry added 1.9.02
![[DSA motorcycle riding]](dsa_skills.jpg)
» Driver education has moved on apace in the two decades since I learnt to drive a car. No bad thing really. "Essential skills" starts off with basic material
such as bike controls, types of bike and clothing almost at a pre-CBT level. More CBT material - but this time on actually riding the bike - is covered in the next couple of chapters.
Gradually the book moves onto systems - OSM, PSL etc and their application to various traffic situations. For me these were the best parts of the book - clear explanations and good graphics.
The book closes with chapters on riding in various conditions and on motorways, plus travel in Europe and the environment. On my second pass through the "systems" chapters I became
frustrated by the organisation and marked various pages - typically those that applied the system - with post it notes. This made subsequent use of the book far easier.
![[DSA motorcycle theory]](dsa_theory.jpg)
» Questions down one side of the page, answers down the other with explanations of variable quality. If you buy the correct edition of the book you'll have the
bank of questions from which your Theory Test will be drawn. Read this once and you should get through, though it may be an idea to try one of the DSA's
![[Cairncross Green inc]](greeninc.gif)
» By now it's a cynical commonplace to observe that big (& small) business often appeal to green sentiments as a marketing ploy
while not taking these sentiments to heart. You could be even more cynical and observe that Frances Cairncross pulls off an ironic variant of this
trick with her book. The title, let alone the subtitle ("A Guide to Business and the Environment"), plus a plug from Howard Davies
(with his ex CBI status carefully flagged) might imply that this book is a guide to doing business "the green way". Fortunately it's not.
What we have here is a good old fashioned application of the idea that left to themselves there is no reason to expect that markets will generate a
socially optimal solution, but that with some ingenuity on the part of policy makers, markets (and especially prices) can be used
to move towards reasonable outcomes. Add to that some sensible observations on environmental priorities and uncertainties and you have a nice read.
It's also nice to say that I still enjoyed reading Frances Cairncross all these years after I first read her economics column in
The Guardian when I was at school. (I'm not sure that the schoolboy crush remains, but that's another story.)
![[Cassidy Dot.con]](dotcon.jpg)
» I'm not totally convinced by this book. Emily Bell's Observer
![[The Bread Book]](collisterblake.jpg)
» My copy is getting quite stained now. A good sign that it's actually useful for what it claims on the cover "A step-by-step guide to making" bread.
The action photos are clear, as are the instructions - including explicit alternatives for fresh, dried and easy-blend yeast. Good range of breads and some nice plain
shots of the finished products. There are some romantic pictures of bakers too if you like Hovis ads. Ignore the
really awful staged pictures of bread with flowers, candles and rustic apples.
![[David English Bread]](edavid_bread.jpg)
» An odd book this. I've not managed to read it cover to cover in the many years I've owned a copy, but I do come back to
it. I count the book as a favourite, yet I get so pissed off with Elizabeth David that I look for sanity elsewhere.
The book is full of fascinating detail while reeking of some of the worst aspects of England in the 1970s.![[O'Farrell Things get better]](getbetter.jpg)
» Like John O'Farrell, I missed voting in the 1979 election by the accident of being born too late.
Unlike him, I got round to joining the Labour Party a few moths after Mrs T took the piss out of St Francis on the steps of Number 10, but that's a mere detail.
My late teens / early 20s "growing pains" were similar to his. I too suspected that flowers were "right" wing - still do in fact. I was a member of Battersea CLP
(but in the next ward along from Queenstown) at what must have been roughly the same time as him - and yes, reading the Alf Dubbs saga brought tears to my eyes (again).
So this book was a very personal read for me. Not because I knew John O'Farrell nor most of the people he mentions - though some of the names were familiar and
I did live across the square from Martin Linton (who was admired from afar at ward meetings - what else for a person who wrote for the Gruniad?). Creating
personal affinity through "shared" experiences must be the knack of writing a book like this. Easier for Nick Hornby as affinity with football is widespread and
it seems OK for men to get soppy about Fulham, Rangers or whatever. Much less so with pinkco politics whose adherents are spread thinner. Just for the record,
I left Battersea before John O'Farrell after serving my time as assistant membership secretary (my highest office in the Labour Party!). A few years later, I left London too.
The rest is history, but I do miss Clause Four on the back of my membership card.
![[Bread]](treuille.jpg)
» I first read this book in the small hours while rolling around with stomach ache on the bathroom floor of a hotel near Tarbet. Despite that I enjoyed this
book's approach. There is a definite Dorling Kindersley style and when they get it right the style works. I think that's the case here.
The photography is particularly good: clear close-ups of basic steps such as kneeding, dough at various stages of its life and the and shaping of loaves. Compared with
![[Wurtzell Prozac Nation]](prozacnation.gif)
» Spike Milligan (in his book with Anthony Clare) says that it's well nigh impossible after the event to describe accurately
what he felt like when depressed. That thought kept running through my mind as I read the 300 odd pages describing Wurtzel's experience.
After 100 pages it was joined by Wurtzel's own view that her friends must be fed up with her screaming that she wants to die.
They weren't, but I was. Read the Prologue, the final two chapters (on how Prozac started to work for Wurtzel)
and the Epilogue on the widespread use of Prozac (including the advent of feline sized prescriptions) plus a few random pages and
you'll get all you need from this book. Kay Redfield Jamison's book covers similar ground (though for a bipolar manic depressive rather than the plain vanilla unipolar variety)
and does a far better job. It's clearer on the links between mania / depression, the perception of self and more acute on her feelings about medication.
Perhaps Jamison's day job as a psychiatrist helps, though Wurtzel's day job as a journalist ought to have helped her write something better.