[y66]

I just started What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry by John Markoff. I knew Douglas Englebart invented the mouse but I had no idea how influential he and other pre-Wozniak Mid Peninsula Californians were in shaping this business, including guys like Vannevar Bush, who wrote this in July 1945!:

Quote

Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and, to coin one at random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.

[Winstonm]

I just ordered The Blind Watchmaker from Amazon.

[blackshoe]

I'm reading Mike Lawrence's revised Complete Book on Overcalls just now.

[Hanoi5]

blackshoe, on Jun 12 2010, 07:42 PM, said:

I'm reading Mike Lawrence's revised Complete Book on Overcalls just now.

I have that one in my hands but I'm reading The No Trump Zone, The Catcher in the Rye & 1965-1969 Nebula Award winners (Short stories and Novellas). 'A boy and his dog' was great (I started with the one at the end) but 1065 ones are weird ("Repent Harlequin" was sort of wtf).

[pooltuna]

Hanoi5, on Jun 12 2010, 07:08 PM, said:

blackshoe, on Jun 12 2010, 07:42 PM, said:

I'm reading Mike Lawrence's revised Complete Book on Overcalls just now.

I have that one in my hands but I'm reading The No Trump Zone, The Catcher in the Rye & 1965-1969 Nebula Award winners (Short stories and Novellas). 'A boy and his dog' was great (I started with the one at the end) but 1065 ones are weird ("Repent Harlequin" was sort of wtf).

you must have seen the Don Johnson movie ....wasn't the short story by Harlan Ellison?

[Hanoi5]

pooltuna, on Jun 12 2010, 08:33 PM, said:

Hanoi5, on Jun 12 2010, 07:08 PM, said:

blackshoe, on Jun 12 2010, 07:42 PM, said:

I'm reading Mike Lawrence's revised Complete Book on Overcalls just now.

I have that one in my hands but I'm reading The No Trump Zone, The Catcher in the Rye & 1965-1969 Nebula Award winners (Short stories and Novellas). 'A boy and his dog' was great (I started with the one at the end) but 1065 ones are weird ("Repent Harlequin" was sort of wtf).

you must have seen the Don Johnson movie ....wasn't the short story by Harlan Ellison?

I'd love to watch the movie, and yes, that's the author.

[kfay]

The Good Earth, Pearl Buck

I've been looking to read this for a while. My parents told me if I liked 'Trinity' that this would be right up my alley.

[kenberg]

I just started The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

And I just learned that it's a movie! I'm so out of it!

[y66]

kenberg, on Jun 12 2010, 09:15 PM, said:

I just started The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

And I just learned that it's a movie! I'm so out of it!

My dad (83) saw that movie a few months ago. He liked it. Will look forward to your take on the book.

[mike777]

fwiw...see other thread


this is best movie of 2010 so far



I saw swedish movie.....made in what.....2008???

-----


Just finished third book...it was ok.........just ok......
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thus far for fun summer read see..."The Lion"

granted it is only spring.....

[el mister]

Reading 'Feet in the Clouds' at the moment - a book about fell-running and the people who do it. It's a look at why people commit to brutal training regimes to do obscure sports that receive no exposure, little if any financial renumeration, existing below the radar of the general public's perception [remind you of anything?] Great book.

I have Omensetter's luck by William Gass lined up for my holiday this year - anyone read him? Meant to be a modern American master. There's no point me even picking it up during the working week, just don't have the time to read anything serious since the wee man was born. Looking forward to getting stuck into it on holiday.

[helene_t]

Went to the bookstore to get hold of "Nomad": Hirsi Ali write why she chose USA. They had a take 3 pay for 2 offer so also bought A Little History of the World (a world history written for Austrian children back in 1936, now updated and in English) and Strange Days Indeed - a converted hippie writes about the crazy 1970's.

[Lobowolf]

y66, on Jun 13 2010, 04:38 AM, said:

kenberg, on Jun 12 2010, 09:15 PM, said:

I just started The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

And I just learned that it's a movie! I'm so out of it!

My dad (83) saw that movie a few months ago. He liked it. Will look forward to your take on the book.

I read the book about 6 months ago. I'm a detective fiction junkie. Interesting characters, well-written, good story. I didn't think it was outstanding; there are certainly some authors in the genre I much prefer to Larsson, but it was good. I'd give it about a 6 1/2. If you're Swedish, maybe the local color elevates to a 7 1/2.

[kenberg]

I'm not Swedish but I have read a few detective stories set in Sweden and the opportunity to osmose a little knowledge of the place is part of the attraction.

[Lobowolf]

Yeah, my previous comment was a little egocentric...non-Swedes who particularly enjoy "romantic distance" might find it elevated, too. I'm generally neutral on romantic distance, and + on local color.

[Phil]

Checked some poetry collections from Updike and Sandberg at the library today.

[kenberg]

y66, on Jun 13 2010, 04:38 AM, said:

kenberg, on Jun 12 2010, 09:15 PM, said:

I just started The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

And I just learned that it's a movie! I'm so out of it!

My dad (83) saw that movie a few months ago. He liked it. Will look forward to your take on the book.

I see from the movie thread that you just saw this. I plan to do so.

I liked the book quite a bit and I just started the second one, The Girl Who Played With Fire. My older daughter Ruth started Tattoo and didn't care much for it, my wife Becky is on the third in the series and is very enthusiastic.

Much more than with anything I have read recently, there were many people who wanted to talk about it. I was in a hospital waiting room with three other people and they saw me reading it. Two had read it and were very enthusiastic. The other had seen the movie and liked it. Another time two women came up and started talking to me about it. They had just started and were only so-so on it. Several incidents such as that. The only comparable thing was a few years back when Becky was going through various Harry Potters. But the people that came up her to talk about it were mostly around 12 years old.

I liked the eponymous Girl a lot. Of course she is drawn as an extreme case but her character was both very believable and attractive for me. Actually Ruth's objection was that at least in the early part of the book (and then she gave it up) there was far too little about the Girl and she didn't much care one way or the other about the guy. Patience is rewarded in this book.

Some of the finish was a little too neat but I was OK with it. I have heard a couple of NPR pieces about the guy from WikiLeaks. Not the same thing, but it brought the Girl to mind.

[PassedOut]

kenberg, on Jul 17 2010, 10:20 AM, said:

I liked the book quite a bit and I just started the second one, The Girl Who Played With Fire. My older daughter Ruth started Tattoo and didn't care much for it, my wife Becky is on the third in the series and is very enthusiastic.

Constance and I like to listen to audio books when traveling by car and we both enjoyed the whole series. Interesting characters, lots of plot, and good writing. We'll definitely watch the film when we get a chance.

[helene_t]

Just finished "Googled - the end of the World as we know it".

Tons of exclusive interviews with the otherwise not very open leaders of Google, as well as many interviews with the companies that compete against google and/or cooperate with them.

Very recommendable. A top quality historic document, but this time about the 21st century.

A theme that comes back again and again is that Google is an unusual company in that it is lead by engineers, not by people with a background in management. This has profound consequences for the company culture. Google's leaders see their mission as creating technically superior products. Making money is a by-product, and a necessity in order to feed the bill of the innovation machine. But the primary focus remains innovation.

[dicklont]

The last night in twisted river by John Irving.
Very good book, as could be expected from this author.

It contains something about his writing too; he starts the book at the end and works his way back to the start.
Who would have thought that?