Category: books

Nov 2nd, 2014

On By Rick McIn books, hiking, travel2 Comments

I spent my 57th birthday tenting in a stone Yak shack at 4110m, close to the Tibet border in Nepal.

Langtang campsite

Next morning I scrambled up that gap towards Tilman’s Pass.

During the long, cold night cocooned in down and nylon, I listened to one of my favourite authors, Peter Matthiessen, read one of my favourite books, The Snow Leopard.

It’s his classic philosophical account of a November 1973 Nepal trek to Shey Gompa, Crystal Mountain. A spiritual journey.

If you wonder why I keep returning to Nepal, read Snow Leopard. Matthiessen is most eloquent on the joys and challenges.

Sex Lives of Cannibals

On By Rick McIn books, humour, travelLeave a comment

J. Maarten Troost 2004

Hilarious.

cover

At the age of twenty-six, Maarten Troost—who had been pushing the snooze button on the alarm clock of life by racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs—decided to pack up his flip-flops and move to Tarawa, a remote South Pacific island in the Republic of Kiribati. He was restless and lacked direction, and the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better.

While his wife worked, Troost planned to write:

It would be a big book. Tolstoyan in scale, Joycean in its ambition, Shakespearean in its lyricism.

He ended up with this. 🙂

He and his stalwart girlfriend Sylvia spend the next two years battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricity, and a paucity of food options (including the Great Beer Crisis); and contending with a bizarre cast of local characters, including “Half-Dead Fred” and the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of Tarawa (a British drunkard who’s never written a poem in his life).

AMAZON – The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific

another book by Troost – Lost on Planet China

Peter Hessler – driving in China

On By Rick McIn books, travelLeave a comment

Peter Hessler (born June 14, 1969) is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of three acclaimed books about China …

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze 2001

Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present 2006

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory 2010

countrydriving
Amazon

I read his third book while in China. It’s excellent. Hessler does a terrific job of painting a picture of how China has changed since he first arrived 1996 with the Peace Core.

Emulating the USA, China built many roads before the population had cars to drive them.

Chinese road

Surprisingly, the stories of what happens to him while driving rent-a-cars across the new roads of the emerging nation are fascinating and informative.

Every Province is different. Every town within a Province is different. And every Chinese citizen he meets is a unique individual with their own story.

So different than the simplistic stereotypes assumed by myself and most other westerners.

In 2011, Hessler received a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in recognition and encouragement of his “keenly observed accounts of ordinary people responding to the complexities of life in such rapidly changing societies as Reform Era China.

Those 3 books are highly recommended for anyone visiting China.

Maura Elizabeth Cunningham, in 2010, posted a review of all the writing by foreigners who have lived and traveled in China. She rates Hessler high.

FreedomTM – Daniel Suarez

On By Rick McIn books, economics, governmentLeave a comment

Highly recommended. The plot of the Daemon (book series) is brilliant. And important.

Picking up a few months after the end of Daemon (2009), Suarez continues his popular technothriller and SF saga.

The computer program Daemon has taken over the Internet, and millions have joined its virtual world. Now the effect is spilling into the real world as Daemon assumes control of financial institutions, and the program’s real-life converts flock to small towns to re-create a sustainable lifestyle amid the agribusiness monoculture of the Midwest. …

Amazon

Freedom_MMIsometric02

It would make a great movie. But nothing is in the works yet.

who’s honouring my brother now?

On By Rick McIn books, McCharles familyLeave a comment

Seems he’s collected an Aurora Award (say that fast 3 times) for Best Fan Organization for WWC.

You know it’s true when you see it in Wikipedia:

Best Fan Organizational: Randy McCharles, Chair and Programming, When Words Collide, Calgary.

Randy Aurora

Congrats Bro.

Auroras 2013

The Prix Aurora Awards are given out annually for the best Canadian science fiction and fantasy literary works, artworks, fan activities from that year …

Rebus – Saints of the Shadow Bible

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Saints of the Shadow Bible (2014) is 19th in the Inspector Rebus series. More evocative Scottish intrigue.

Amazon

Rebus is back on the force, albeit with a demotion and a chip on his shoulder. He is investigating a car accident when news arrives that a case from 30 years ago is being reopened. Rebus’s team from those days is suspected of helping a murderer escape justice to further their own ends.

Malcolm Fox, in what will be his last case as an internal affairs cop, is tasked with finding out the truth. …

SAINTS

Amazon

Good. But not as good. More complicated than the plot deserved.

book review – Daemon

On By Rick McIn books, internet, product endorsements1 Comment

I’ve decided to read this book again, something I do not often do.

It’s stayed with me, frequently coming to mind. We need this kind of technology in the future in conjunction with hardware like Google Glass.

___ original post Aug 2010:

A daemon (pronounced /ˈdeɪmən/ or /ˈdiːmən/) is a computer program that runs in the background, rather than under the direct control of a user.

Daemon (2006), the book, by Daniel Suarez, has a cult following amongst geeks. It was recommended by Leo.

Matthew Sobol was a legendary computer game designer–the architect behind half a dozen popular online games. His premature death from brain cancer depressed both gamers and his company’s stock price. But Sobol’s fans weren’t the only ones to note his passing. He left behind something that was scanning Internet obituaries, too–something that put in motion a whole series of programs upon his death. Programs that moved money. Programs that recruited people. Programs that killed.

Confronted with a killer from beyond the grave, Detective Peter Sebeck comes face-to-face with the full implications of our increasingly complex and interconnected world–one where the dead can read headlines, steal identities, and carry out far-reaching plans without fear of retribution. Sebeck must find a way to stop Sobol’s web of programs–his Daemon–before it achieves its ultimate purpose. And to do so, he must uncover what that purpose is . . .

Amazon

Loved it.

I guess I’m a geek. It’s dense, complicated and has a plot line that kept me guessing from cover to cover.

Masons love Hornblower

On By Rick McIn books, moviesLeave a comment

Hornblower is the umbrella title of a series of British television films based on three of C. S. Forester’s 10 novels about the fictional character Horatio Hornblower, a Royal Navy officer during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.

The series ran from 1998 to 2003, with Ioan Gruffudd in the title role.  …

We watched the 1st of the movies – The Even Chance (US title: The Duel).

Horatio is only 17yrs-old. The year is 1793.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Rebus – Standing in Another Man’s Grave

On By Rick McIn books1 Comment

Exit Music was the 17th and last crime novel in the bestselling Inspector Rebus series, written by Ian Rankin. It was published on 6 September 2007.

I was sad to see him retire. 😦

Happily, Rebus returned 2012 in Standing in Another Man’s Grave:

Having been retired from the police for five years, Rebus continues to investigate as part of the cold cases unit. The mother of a missing girl enlists his help in finding out what happened to her daughter, leading Rebus to uncover the truth about a series of seemingly unconnected disappearances stretching back to the millennium …

Standing
Amazon

I’m next on to #19 – Saints of the Shadow Bible 2014.

I mostly READ audio books these days. My average cost, taking advantage of specials as they come along, is about $11 / book from Audible.com.

I’ve yet to get Kindled.

Calgary’s new $245m library

On By Rick McIn books, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Calgary must have the crappiest library in Canada for a city this size.

By crappy, I mean there are hardly any functioning toilets left in the old building. 😦

But the new library, hopefully opening 2018, does look sweet. It will include a public train line for access.

centrallibrary

related – Free library cards a ‘key tactic’ of Calgary Public Library rebranding set for 2015

Eliminating card fees will have a relatively minor impact on the library’s roughly $54-million annual operating budget. Membership brought in $1.4 million — slightly less than Calgary branches raised in fines.