Friday, August 28, 2015

5 Ways to Carry a Goat

5 ways to carry a goat by Ben Groundwater
The title was what won me on this one - any goat is ok by me, and when it said on the blurb ' the tale of a blogger who travelled the world, sleeping on couches offered by his readers' I figured it'd be worth a read. It was - it started slowly with Korea and Ben admitted that there really wasn't much insight available crashing with Aussie expats, in expat bars, drinking Australian beer. It got better, nad Ben admitted some edginess when he met some of the hosts and wondered about their lives and motivations beyond the obvious. He acknowledged that the single women who asked him to stay left him with some unresolved questions about what, really, he was getting himself into - -or I suppose, what they were. I'm glad he addressed it as it is always a part of the reader's awareness and we do wonder what is going on behind the scenes. Later in the book he points out that this early concern disappeared completely after the nth visit. Ethiopia nad Bangladesh were interesting and unlike any picture of third world life I'd run across before. The boys hoping for a sponsor left me moved, and I respect Ben's admission that he felt it, but didn't act on it - the level of selfawareness and honesty was good.
As the travels went on things got bot more and less interesting. The modern European cities - were more and more about the people. The feeling of homesickness by Canada was palpable, so again I respect Ben's honesty. It would have been tempting to rewrite things to make Ben superman and superfunny. I'm glad he didn't, it was a fun read and it reminded me of my own travel stories - didn't go up Everest, but did go to interesting places and pushed my own comfort zone.
And I did go to the website and look at the pictures from the trip - a good idea from a publishing point of view as plates presumably are expensive...


It turns out the EVE universe is a big online thing which I haven't checked out. It feels reading the book that there is a backstory, and it felt as though through the middle of the book that perhaps it had had some significant editing and some of the edges hadn't been joined up completely, but that could have been me. I'll have a look for others in the series, in the end it's a bit like the big ebook Space Opera stories, a bit overblown but a story about people rather than spacetech. Not as grand as Ian M Banks or as aggressive as Peter Hamilton...
This was great - myth, comedy, farce, classic Gaiman if there is such a thing, along with deleted chapters, comments from the author and the whole nine yards. Read it fast and enjoyed the whole thing. Magical realism? I guess so. The writing is fun, and the character development where Fat Charlie morphs into the self he ought to have been (but wasn't possibly because of the way the cool part of him was split away when he was young by the Voodoo aunty)reminds me of the character development in The Shipping News where Quoyle becomes part of the community and his growth is reflected in the prose and text.
I'll read Neil often - he's got the chops afterall. Did I review Stardust here? Read that earlier this year. It was good too, in the way The Princess Bride is.

I'd read the sequel of course, about Kit and Ossie when they were in Malta. This book sets up the Battle of France and has some great flying and fighting sequences. It also has Hannah and Bebe and frankly their section went on about twice as long as I think it should have. The book is primarily a war story and the other thread is relevant but I was bored in the end. It's brutal and pulls no punches in the war and fighting scenes and moves as fast as you'd expect, so the slow pace of the contrasting story arc feels like it takes forever.. Good to complete the set but will skim the dull capters if I re-read.


Another good maths book, follows on from the Alex in Numberland with deeper exploration of some good maths ideas and concepts. Alex writes well and clearly and explains concepts well, diving into appendices if the derivations look like they'll detract from the story. Good for a repeat read. Great stories about the usual topics, plus the Game of Life. Some good stuff on imaginary numbers too - that was a very good chapter for me.

Alex's Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos: The pictures are out of order, but this is the book I read first - and really enjoyed. As above, Alex writes clearly and well, keeps you interested, and tells the good stories about number theory and history with the kind of storytelling I used to do. Very enjoyable and would dip in again to remind me. Certainly would read any other books by Alex.





Hey ho, another ebook series. I got into them, and ended up with three. Will probably carry on as the books aren't bad, although the 'enforcer' aspect of Jack's life gets increasingly taken over by the rakoshi monsters and the supernatural. And it's not what I usually read, so I'm struggling to decide. Jack is a good enigmatic and reasonably well drawn character, although he seems to go through the same issues with his Dad, his girlfriend and her daughter. He's a loner in the Reacher mould, and a fixer, so I guess I was expecting a Reacher type story. In many ways they are, but the supernatural does set it apart. Read the first one, and decide.
Whether I want to dig into the parallel 'Adversary' series I can't say...but if I do looking for a new series, I would be doing ok, the author is ok by me.


Monday, August 3, 2015

Short Fat Chick to Marathon Codebreaker

A funny couple this week
Kerre Woodham/McIvor's
 

for light reading, and by another New Zealand author, Jack Copeland, the story of Alan Turing which I expected to be a bit drier.
So it turns out that Turing was a runner, and a fast one, so there is an unexpected link between these two books. And Prof Copeland is a professor in Canterbury and is a prolific writer on Turing and his work and history. 

Kerre writes like she speaks but tells an entertaining story that is inspirational, that doesn't assume you know who she is (but does refer to times and people that have had a brief flash of fame but are no longer in the limelight. Someone Holmes, for example). The book is in two halves - training for the first marathon, the aftermath, and then training for and completing the New York marathon. She describes herself as a type A personality blond, and perhaps milks this to cover a few sins  - 'of course I haven't finished the book, darling, I'm blond' but is honest and self aware enough to come across as real and I liked that well enough (I think we ran into her at Paradiso many years ago in what she described as her bad years). I liked her description of the piss fairy - the one that says 'a friend at the door? Open a bottle, finish the creme de menthe, send the kids out for McDonalds, the piss fairy's in the house'. I could identify with that. I have my own relationship with that fairy.

The book has a hint of 'written in a weekend after a lot of nagging by a desperate publisher' about it and the two halves suggest the publisher was unhappy about the length of it - that and all the 'my marathon story' bits by the other people who were there - but that doesn't detract from the value of the story or the book - a decent read. If I'd read it two years ago, maybe I'd have passed, but having become a runner, it was relevant enough to hold my attention and have me nodding at some of the stories. And a bit in awe of her times too...baggage.

The Turing story is also a book of two halves. A biography and tale of cryptography and espionage - excellent. The story of post war computer development, interesting. A comment on the mysterious death - a personal opinion without a lot of exposition - maybe because records were destroyed. The british PM's apology was mentioned but some further discussion on this might have been useful. Overall, readable, interesting, I would read more by this author - except that all his other books also appear to be about Turing or Colossus. Will pursue that...

PS Turing attempted to qualify for the Olympics and was fast enough but injured himself. FAST...