Category: books

idea – a Wiki novel

On By Rick McIn books, internet3 Comments

Has this been done?

Has an author posted a novel online. Then encouraged readers to “improve” it as they do a Wikipedia article?

It would be a HIT online.

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Related – Wikipedia kills Encarta — and Microsoft pronounces it dead

microsoft_encarta_dead_small

It could not compete against an open source, free competitor.

Microsoft initiated Encarta by purchasing non-exclusive rights to the Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, incorporating it into its first edition in 1993. …

In the late 1990s, Microsoft bought Collier’s Encyclopedia and New Merit Scholar’s Encyclopedia from Macmillan and incorporated them into Encarta. Thus the current Microsoft Encarta can be considered the successor of the Funk and Wagnalls, Collier, and New Merit Scholar encyclopedias. None of these formerly successful encyclopedias remained in print for long after being merged into Encarta. …

Wikipedia – Encarta

new Robert Sawyer book – Wake

On By Rick McIn books, internet, product endorsements1 Comment

My brother feels his friend Robert J. Sawyer could win another Nebula or Hugo for his latest release, the first in a three part series: Wake, Watch, Wonder.

The WWW trilogy.

This book is accessible even to young readers. The main character is age-15.

But the issues addressed are fascinating: the infrastructure of the World Wide Web, part of the web becoming aware, primates gaining intelligence. Pandemic out of China as well as the battle between bloggers in China and their repressive government.

When I read a book and find myself saying, “Why didn’t I think of this?”, I know it’s a brilliant plot.

… Caitlin Decter is young, pretty, feisty, a genius at math—and blind. Still, she can surf the net with the best of them, following its complex paths clearly in her mind. But Caitlin’s brain long ago co-opted her primary visual cortex to help her navigate online. So when she receives an implant to restore her sight, instead of seeing reality, the landscape of the World Wide Web explodes into her consciousness, spreading out all around her in a riot of colors and shapes. While exploring this amazing realm, she discovers something—some other—lurking in the background. And it’s getting more and more intelligent with each passing day…

Amazon – Wake

wake-cover

Sawyer takes up where Michael Crichton, who died in 2008, left off. Making the cutting edge issues of real science interesting to the general public.

The main difference is that while Crichton’s books always end in catastrophe, Sawyer’s look at both the positive and negative side of new technologies.

This one is highly recommended. As are all of Sawyer’s books.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

On By Rick McIn books, food, product endorsements2 Comments

My favourite Nutrition author — Michael Pollan — has a book I can recommend.

In-Defense-of-food.jpg

Amazon – In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

… Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. By urging us to once again eat food, he challenges the prevailing nutrient-by-nutrient approach — what he calls nutritionism — and proposes an alternative way of eating that is informed by the traditions and ecology of real, well-grown, unprocessed food. Our personal health, he argues, cannot be divorced from the health of the food chains of which we are part.

In Defense of Food shows us how, despite the daunting dietary landscape Americans confront in the modern supermarket, we can escape the Western diet and, by doing so, most of the chronic diseases that diet causes. We can relearn which foods are healthy, develop simple ways to moderate our appetites, and return eating to its proper context — out of the car and back to the table. Michael Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.

Pollan’s last book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, launched a national conversation about the American way of eating; now In Defense of Food shows us how to change it, one meal at a time. …

michaelpollan.com

via my Gymnastics blog

Moon and Lonely Planet – best guidebooks

On By Rick McIn books, product endorsements, travelLeave a comment

On a recent trip Gadling blogger Brenda Yun and friends compared the 4 main travel guidebooks to Cuba:

Lonely Planet Cuba by Brendan Sainsbury
Moon Handbook Cuba by Christopher P. Baker

Frommer’s Guide to Cuba by Susan Boobbyer
The Rough Guide to Cuba by Matthew Norman & Fiona McAuslan

Frommer’s and Rough Guide were worst, as usual.

Moon and LP best. As usual.

9788408069218LP reinvented the travel guidebook genre. Others were forced to copy them. Or lose market share.

Here’s the most common criticism of Lonely Planet. It’s too popular.

Conclusion

Based on Christopher P. Baker’s wealth of experience in Cuba, Moon is a sure thing. Sainsbury’s Lonely Planet Cuba is also a rich and trusty companion. …

I think it’s worth mentioning that too many people carry the Lonely Planet guidebook around — not just in Cuba but around the world. In Cuba, it’s the only one I saw in at least five different languages (the content is the same). While useful, Lonely Planet is suffering from a unfortunate hipster effect: the same restaurants, hotels, and sights are becoming overrun by “budget backpackers,” and travelers are relying too heavily on LP-specific travel tips and suggestions. …

Travel guidebooks: Choosing the one that’s just right

Get the basics from Lonely Planet. Look for alternative ideas in Moon.

dreaming of a desert hike …

On By Rick McIn books, hiking1 Comment

It’s bloody SNOWING in Calgary.

I need 5-6 days in an arid, quiet, bleakly beautiful wilderness.

death-valley
Photo © 1998-2008 Abe Kleinfeld
www.abekleinfeld.com

… I’m ripping library books on MP3 right now, getting ready for future hiking adventures.

Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook

On By Rick McIn books, humour, product endorsements1 Comment

Corporate Business Communication gurus like Ron Shewchuk learn secrets of their industry from authorities like

… world-class consultant Dogbert, it focuses on critical management responsibilities like keeping up with fads, implementing pointless reorganizations and demanding status reports. “Leadership isn’t something you’re born with,” it declares. “It’s something you learn by reading Dogbert books.”

dogbert

Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook – Amazon

Here’s what the 1997 textbook had to say about corporate newsletters:

dogbert-on-newsletters

Lost on Planet China

On By Rick McIn books, product endorsements, travel1 Comment

Of all the places I’ve traveled, the least rewarding was China.

It’s a disaster for the laowai (foreigner), especially a bumbler like author J. Maarten Troost.

… ill-equipped with a sliver of Mandarin, questing to discover the “essential Chineseness” of an ancient and often mystifying land. What he finds is a country with its feet suctioned in the clay of traditional culture and a head straining into the polluted stratosphere of unencumbered capitalism, where cyclopean portraits of Chairman Mao (largely perceived as mostly good, except for that nasty bit toward the end) spoon comfortably with Hong Kong’s embrace of rat-race modernity. From Beijing and its blitzes of flying phlegm–and girls who lend new meaning to “Chinese take-out”–to the legendary valley of Shangri-La (as officially designated by the Party), Troost learns that his very survival may hinge on his underdeveloped haggling skills and a willingness to deploy Rollerball-grade elbows over a seat on a train. Featuring visits to Mao’s George Hamiltonian corpse and a rural market offering Siberian Tiger paw, cobra hearts, and scorpion kebabs (in the food section), Lost on Planet China is a funny and engrossing trip across a nation that increasingly demands the world’s attention. — review by Jon Foro

China changes so quickly that this book published July 2008 is already nearly hopelessly out of date.

If you foolishly ponder a trip to China in future, this is a must read.

book-cover

Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid – Amazon

A Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin

On By Rick McIn books, product endorsements2 Comments

A Game of Thrones is the first book in the sprawling A Song of Ice and Fire series, seven planned novels.

George R.R. Martin (GRRM) looks exactly as you would picture him.

grrm

Book 1 is smart, complex, vivid. And realistic. It reads like a real historical account.

I recommend it to any fan of this genre.

As usual, I listened to the audio version read by Roy Dotrice. He is fantastic at distinguishing between the many hundreds of characters.

At over 33hrs for the unabridged version, it’s EPIC.

(I may need to listen to it again on a LONG hike before deciding whether to move on to Book 2, A Clash of Kings.)

… Martin’s Seven Kingdoms resemble England during the Wars of the Roses, with the Stark and Lannister families standing in for the Yorks and Lancasters. The story of these two families and their struggle to control the Iron Throne dominates the foreground; in the background is a huge, ancient wall marking the northern border, beyond which barbarians, ice vampires, and direwolves menace the south as years-long winter advances. Abroad, a dragon princess lives among horse nomads and dreams of fiery reconquest.

There is much bloodshed, cruelty, and death, but A Game of Thrones is nevertheless compelling; it garnered a Nebula nomination and won the 1996 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. …

game-of-thrones1

Wikipedia – A Game of Thrones

It was announced January, 2007 that HBO Productions has purchased the broadcast rights for the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series, with the author also serving as co-executive producer on the project. The plan calls for each book from the series to be filmed over an entire season’s worth of episodes.