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What I'm reading What I'm reading »  What it says: what I'm reading and what I 've read. Wednesday 24th December 2003 »  Russell Crowe inspired me to have another shot at Master & Commander by Patrick O'Brian. The nautical language deterred me a few years ago - and nearly did for me again this time. Luckily the penny dropped and I realised that it really wasn't necessary to have a clue what a studdingsail is or was. "Master & Commander", Patrick O'Brian, 1996, Harper Collins, ISBN 0006499155 Sunday 16th November 2003 »  Finished Lance Armstrong's Every Second Counts in the early hours. Strangely readable - well perhaps not that strange really - and strangely enjoyable. Of course Armstrong takes the cgance to put his side across, and of course he's particularly pissed at the French press and authorities. And at times - well most of the time - the book is cloying and sentimental. But I did keep turning the pages - just like the first volume It's Not About the Bike. I must stop reading cyling books for a while - after Graeme Obree's Flying Scotsman. Saturday 8th November 2003 »  Away for weekend in Dublin. I started reading Matt Seaton's Escape Artist on the plane over and finishing it on Saturday night. A slim book about a growing addiction to cyling and then a growing apart as real life intervenes. Lots of cycling lore and detail combined with self awareness on what cycling is about for Seaton. I suspect that many people will read a lot of their own experience into this book - but the writing is none the worse for that. It doesn't cloy (that much) and the read across are more subtle than Lance Armstrong's two books. Two strange notes in the book. First, real life only intervenes in quick bursts and then it's back to the cycling again. Second, is it possible to write in such detail, and with some passion, about cycling and really have grown that far away? "The Escape Artist", Matt Seaton, 2002 Fourth Estate, ISBN 1841151041 "It's Not About the Bike", Lance Armstrong, 2001, Yellow Jersey Press, ISBN 0224060872 "Every Second Counts", Lance Armstrong, 2003, Yellow Jersey Press, ISBN 0224064665 Tuesday 9th September 2003 »  Slowly making progress with the King's Peace. Through the scene setting - a 90 page survey of the King's people and his lands. Now onto the King's church and Archbishop Laud. Readable and clear though, like most stories, it needs a sustained push rather than a 10 minute burst before falling asleep. Monday 25th August 2003 »  I started CV Wedgwood's The Kings Peace a couple of days ago. It's an oldie from the 1950s re-printed by Penguin in 2001 who, for some reason have now dropped it from their backlist along with all of their Classic History titles. Bizarre, although PostScript Books have stocks of its sequel. An odd publishing format this - cheap paper and by the look of it the original typesetting. but still a pity that Penguin did not persist. "The King's Peace", CV Wedwood, 2001, Penguin Tuesday 12th August 2003 »  New technology - reading glasses. The near world is in focus again, though I've not got the hang of reading in bed yet. Saturday 12th July 2003 »  Holiday reading was Claire Tomalin's Samuel Pepys, plus a good part of Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class which has its moments. One of the many fascinating parts of Claire Tomlin's book was the way in which Pepys kept his lips zipped when dealing with his royal masters. Useful skills to be employed when it comes to my views on Florida's book. "Samuel Pepys", Claire Tomalin, 2003, Penguin, ISBN 0140282343 "Rise of the Creative Class", Richard Florida, 2002, Perseus Books Group, ISBN 0465024769 Tuesday 24th June 2003 »  Finished Louise Welsh's The Cutting Room in two days. That's not bad for a novel while I'm working. Another Glasgow based tale of woe - with superior writing. "The Cutting Room", Louise Welsh, 2003, Cannongate, ISBN 1841954047 Sunday 8th June 2003 »  Still reading Permuation City - I've not had much time to read recently. I said before I found the science plausible - that was based on the first 100 pages or so. I'm now getting to the crunch point and I'm less convinced. There was a similar point in Distress. Susan Stepney doesn't believe dust theory either - though she clearly understands it. Not sure I do. The detail supporting the plot is still fascinating and worked out. Sunday 25th May 2003 »  The Wi-Fi supplement in May's Wired harks back to its illustrious past. Nasty big business, nasty telcos and nasty regulation threaten to stiffle innovation. Oh, and I forgot so do the nasty mobile telcos who messed up on 3G, though that's us Europeans. But never fear, atomistic consumers and hackers offer salvation - though of course all of this depends on big business making the hardware cheap and accessible. And on those re-born mobile telcos who have seen the wi-fi light. Incidently, I thought the technical side of this supplement was quite weak - or is that because we have a wireless network at home? Thursday 22nd May 2003 »  Something that impresses me about Permuation City is the plausibility of the science. It's obviously not feasible now, but you get the impression that it is thought out and could be. I do not know enough to make an informed judgement on this but the signs are good. The economics seem to be thought out too, Monday 19th May 2003 »  Bathtime on Sunday and I started reading Greg Egan's Permuation City. There are some common themes ("copies" living in virtual reality) to MacLeod's Stone Canal. The opening scene in which Paul Durham's copy is activated is remarkably simliar to a scene late in MacLeod's book. As I expected from Egan's Distress Permutation City is written in a style that's more terse and more memorable than MacLeod's work. "Permutation City", Greg Egan, 1994, Millenium, ISBN 07527816497 Sunday 18th May 2003 »  I finished The Stone Canal by Ken MacLeod in the early hours. The book started well for me - and that's not just down to walk on part for Glasgow - but the narative seemed to sag in the middle before returning to form in the final chapters. Is this book simply a "SF western"? I suspect that the politics aren't though some of the action could be. "The Stone Canal", Ken MacLeod, 1996, Oribt, ISBN 1841490601.

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