Vagaries
Sep. 1st, 2007
07:11 pm - Isn't it weird ...
... or at least a little surprising that Santa Clara county library owns 380 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?
Thats just the hardcover books, and doesn't include e-books and audiobooks.
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amusedDec. 16th, 2006
02:45 pm - Future Nostalgias
Increasingly of late, and particularly when I drink, I find my thoughts drawn into the past rather than impelled into the future. I recall drinking sherry in California and dreaming of my earlier student days in England, where I ate dalmoth and dreamed of Delhi. What is the purpose, I wonder, of all this restlessness? I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.
-- Vikram Seth, "From Heaven Lake"
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calm12:19 am - Year End Review 1: Books
This year I chomped down forty odd books. Compared to last year, my SFF reading took a significant hit, graphic novels showed some improvement, and non-fiction/popsci had a bull run.
Highlights:
. Best SFF - Pastwatch: The redemption of Christopher Coloumbus, by Orson Scott Card. His short fiction collection, Maps in a Mirror, was nice too (includes my all time fave "Unaccompanied Sonata"). Enchantment was disappointing.
. Best Non-Fiction - Man who loved only numbers by Paul Hoffman. Excellent biography - funny and enjoyable, even though its a bit shallow in mathematical details. Freakonomics was another nice read.
. Covered most of the graphic novels illustrated by Charles Vess.
. More of Sandman. More of Vorkosigon.
. New reading sub-category: Aikido
. New reading sub-category: Star gazing (references)
. Old favourite gone missing: War and Politics (except Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire, but thats kind of semi-fiction)
. Later part of the year has been relatively dry in terms of reading, mostly because of spending too much time outdoors.
So what great reads did you find this year ? What did I miss?
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grumpyOct. 2nd, 2006
11:21 pm - weekend @ SFO
The Taste of Russia turned out to be not so tasty after all. But Nan N Curries more than compensated for the loss. Also did some window shopping around Union Square, and bought absolutely nothing.
In other news, Weather turns gloomier every day. You can almost see the Starks on every roadside, holding their awful Winter Is Coming placards. And looks like that this winter will go on for long too :(
Jul. 17th, 2006
08:54 pm - Weekend read
After a long time, I got to spend a full weekend just reading. OK, not the whole weekend. I spend the whole of sunday trekking up Mt Tamalpais (which was a bad idea in this summer heat). Oh, and the first half of saturday was spent on the training mat. And movies! - Harold and Kumar (finally), and Wag the dog (again). Awesome weekend, eh.
Ok, back to the reading bit. The best read of the weekend was 'The Book of Ballads' by Charles Vess (remember Stardust? ). The book is about great songs and folktales of the Irish, Scottish, and English traditions, re-imagined in the sequential art form. The re-imagining part comes from sff biggies like Neil Gaiman, Jeff Smith, Jane Yolen, Emma Bull, and Charles de Lint. And they all did a great job. Other than the stories, the original lyrics of the ballads and discographies of the classic versions of these songs are also included. (Joan Baez has done more than a couple of these). What more can I say, a thoroughly enjoyable book, it even won Vess an Eisner!
Here the song lyrics of my fav re-imagined story from the book:
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impressedJun. 3rd, 2006
02:19 am - Library loot
Milpitas Library was relieved of following books today:
- South Bay Trails - Outdoor activities around Santa Clara Valley
- Reader Digest's reference book on National Parks
- A Random Walk down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel (Dhar Recommended)
- Grendel by John Gardner (this one for the collection)
- The Integral Trees by Larry Niven
- Elric Saga Part 1 & 2 by Michael Moorcock
- The Man who mistook his wife for a hat by Oliver Sacks
- Zen and the art of Making a Living by Laurence G Boldt (been looking for it since I first read the Zen Soup)
- Get Fuzzy: Blueprint for Disaster by Darry Conley
- Bloom County: Happy Trails by Berke Breathed (Opus the penguin is back)
update: went back again on saturday, and got two more
- Dave Barry is not making this up
- What might have been vol 1(Alternative Empires) & 2 (Alternative Heroes)
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sleepyJun. 2nd, 2006
05:52 pm - week-ender
code review:
me - the magic number there is 4294967291. Thats FFFFFFFB ...
al - Its the larget 32-bit prime number.
me - ah, makes sense.
-.-
And... It's weekend already! yay!
I'm off to Milpitas Library Book Sale.
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restlessJan. 14th, 2006
07:29 pm - gfb breakout session ...
While gfb(3) gets cracked, I did/planned some behind-the-scenes bookgiving.
psr got Couplehood - the pythagonals believe he needs it :)
and Jake got three of Thomas Covenant chronicles books - he is the only one I know who
actually _liked_ thomas covenant.
If they don't want it, these books come back to the giveaway pool.
Back to gfb(3)
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/indescribable.gif){kind=small}
indescribableJan. 13th, 2006
10:34 am - get free books (3)
Quiz 2 books: to Smi(ta). See Quiz 2 end comments.
Quiz 3 Giveaway books: See Quiz 3 question.
Quiz 3: What books am I giving out today?
Hint 1: three books
Hint 2: All sff
Hint 3: All authored/edited by different female writers
Look at my librarything catalog for help.
will drop more clues as we get along.
Rules: ref. get free books (1)
That's it. Get going then.
calmJan. 11th, 2006
01:24 pm - get free books (2)
Quiz 1 books: Goes to momma nagul, for sheer persistence.
Quiz 2 giveaway books:
84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
The Ground Beneath Her Feet - Salman Rushdie
Famous books both, no explanation required.
Quiz 2: Gollum, Gollum!
Whats have I gots in my pocketses?
Rules: ref. get free books (1)
There you goes, you nasty little hobbitses ...
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blahJan. 8th, 2006
10:59 am - get free books (1)
I have run out of shelf space for my new books and am in no mood to pack them
off in cardboard boxes. Over the next few weeks, I am going to give away some
of my books to caring book-lovers. The books are going to go out as prizes
to the series of quizzes that are going to be posted here. And I get to be
the judge :)
Here we go then ...
Quiz 1: Bridge of Death
. What... is your name?
. What... is your quest?
. What... peculiar geographic feature does Uzbekistan has and which is
the only other country with that feature?
Go on. Off you go!
Quiz 1 Giveaway books:
The books going out today are two volumes containing
all four parts of 'The Book of the New Sun' series by Gene Wolfe.
The Book of the New Sun Vol 1: Shadow and Claw
The Book of the New Sun Vol 2: Sword and Citadel
From the back cover:
"... is an extraordinary epic, set a million years in the future, on an Earth
transformed in mysterious and wondrous ways.
Severian is a torturer, exiled from his guild after falling in love with
one of his victims, and now journeying to the distant city of Thrax, armed
with his ancient executioner's sword, Terminus Est..."
Winner of the World Fantasy, Nebula, and British Fantasy awards. One of the
most acclaimed science fantasy ever.
( Rules )
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peacefulDec. 30th, 2005
10:00 am - Ted Chiang
Ted Chiang is one of the most unusual SFF writers. He recently entered
into my fav authors chartlist and raced up to the top three in no time.
And to think that he has never written a proper full-length novel. He
deals only in
short stories and that too very few of them. But whenever he writes
one, it inadvertently ends up winning or being nominated for multiple
SFF awards. From 1990 to 2003, he has written about 8 short stories and
won 1 Hugo, 3 Nebulas, 1 Sturgeon, 2 Locus awards, 2 Seiun awards, 1
Sidewise, Campbell new writer award, 1 Asimov's reader poll and 3
Hayakawa awards. All of these for 8 short stories in more than a decade
- he ubdoubtly has the best batting average in SFF.
You can enjoy few of his stories online too. And I would highly
recommend that you do. Here are some of his stories that can be found
online. Most of his stories are available in a collection called Stories of Your Life and Others :
1. Hell is the Absence of God:
This one deals with a world where gods and rules of heaven and hell
carry explicit manifestations. In Ted's own words - It is very much an attempt to examine the idea of faith,
specifically by imagining a situation in which faith is no longer a part of
religion. In our world, religion relies on faith because definitive proof is
lacking. This lack of proof allows some people to reject one religion and choose
another based on which makes them feel better, e.g. "I don't like the judgemental
god of Religion A, so I'm going to worship the kind and gentle god of Religion
B." We have that option because neither deity is unambiguously present, but
if a particular god were here right now, we'd have to deal with him whether
we liked him or not; faith would have nothing to do with it. I thought that
would be an interesting scenario to explore.
2. Seventy - Two Letters: This one is an award winning Fantasy - SF blender where true name thaumaturgy is a real world
science with commercial implications and applications. It
explores a world where science and faith are closely aligned
and investigating the natural world is seen as a way of celebrating
God's creation - like the days of old.
3. Divison by Zero : Division by Zero is a Mathematical fiction. A Mathematician proves that mathematics itself is inconsistent. "Now
consider [Euler's formula]. It's definitely surprising; you could work with
the numbers e, Pi and i for years, each in a dozen different
contexts, without realizing they intersected in this particular way. Yet
once you've seen the derivation, you feel that this equation really is
inevitable, that this is the only way things could be. It's a feeling of
awe, as if you've come into contact with the absolute truth. A proof that
mathematics is inconsistent, and that all its wondrous beauty was just an
illusion, would, it seemed to me, be one of the worst things you could ever
learn."
4. Understand
: Rather than having a life that seems meaningless most of the time,
what if we could see meaning in everything. A story of memory
augmentation at a different plane of cognition. There are some things
that man was not meant to know.
That's about half of his published work!
If you can get hold of them, do try the other two brilliant stories by
Ted - 'Tower of Babylon' (what happens if Tower of Babel is
successfully completed) and 'Stories of your life' (A linguist's
attempt at learning an alien language and writing system.)
Update: Missed another on-line story, one published in Nature - July 2005. Its called
What's expected of us
Dec. 27th, 2005
02:13 pm - Shutdown!
Xmas came and went. And so we are in the last week of the year, which means that we have the regular annual shutdown. neat.
Last year I was slightly unhappy about missing the Pythagonal Goa trip during the shutdown but this time around I aint going anywhere. The first one and a half vacation days have been spent well:
. Many Meetings
- The unoffice kinds. Lots of friends been dropping in and dropping by and running into on the roads and on trains.
. x-boxing
- the usual point-shoot-run routine
. reading:
- Lawrence Watt-Evans' The Misenchanted Sword. A good read.
- Michio Kaku's Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension. Wanted to pick it up from a long time. Finally did.
- and since morning, Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae. Having recently read Frank Miller's 300 makes this one much more interesting.
. TeeVies and Movies:
- My Neighbour Totoro by Miyazaki. cute.
- Charade.
- Everybody Loves Raymond - first season
. Hacking:
- Boching: A complete working program that does nothing and does it while jumping around four different stacks. (Yes, I have a use for it)
- More Xen play
What have you guys been upto?
You in office??
cheerfulJul. 20th, 2005
12:44 am - LJ Celeb Blogs
After ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
bramcohen, its George R R Martin who now opens shop at LJ. Check out grrm
I hope some more of my fav writers get on LJ and I would not have
to keep polling their sites for updates.
The Not A Blog is also mentioned on GRRM's site, so its real enough.
Jul. 17th, 2005
07:43 am - Half way through ...
.. The Half-Blood Prince.
Till now its holding up much better than the previous two HP books.
Got it yesterday but had lotsa stuff to do over weekend. Still hoping to finish it tonight!
and I thought the weekend is going to be boring after I missed the weekend trip to Coorg ( or wherever the gang
is now). It has been so much fun.
OK ... back to The Book!
Jun. 17th, 2005
02:29 pm - Bookie Books
Its not often that I get tagged. This time ajaygupta got me and so here we go ...
Total Books I own: ~400 (tech + non-tech)
Last book I bought: Lets see ... The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two A - The Greatest
Science Fiction Novellas of All Time. Got a hardcover from Book worms for about 150/- A good buy that.
Last Book I Read: About to finish Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Before that, it was A Storm of Swords by GRR Martin and a few Pooh books and Tao of Pooh in between.
Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me: Hmm ... not in any particular order:
1. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry: This is the stuff depressions are made of.
2. SFWA Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol 1: These twenty odd short SF stories capture all aspects of SF writings. A must for every escapist/sci-fi reader.
3. Calvin and Hobbes Collection: Life without Calvin and Hobbes would be like an office day without net access :-)
4. Collected Works - M C Escher: Inspirational. Not much to read here but you can gape at it for hours.
5. The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt & Jeff Cox: Some people think of it as pop but I do happen to like it.
Tagging People:
I am pretty sure of these guys not going through it ... anyway here goes - jakespeak, indradhanu, Dhar, lyss, mrscake
Jun. 7th, 2005
10:43 am - Horror of Horrors
Looks like I have lost my copy of Good Omens. I went through all the five boxes and both cabinets and it is nowhere to be found :(
I remember lending it to vrigo but also vaguely recollect his returning me a bunch of books day before I left the place.
Any clues people ?
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depressedMay. 25th, 2005
04:33 pm - My Top 5 SFF short stories
Not in Any Order ....
"The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin
"Unaccompanied Sonata" by Orson Scott Card
"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
"The Martian Way" by Isaac Asimov
"Flatland" by Edwin Abbott Abbott
May. 19th, 2005
08:33 am - Valar Morghulis ...
Finished all three "A Song of Ice and Fire" Books!
The first books builds up the story really well, the second one is kind of lost
in building characters, but does manage to create some excitement towards the
later part. The first half of the third book is stuffed with pointless sex of
all varieties. The second half again picks up the pace and thrill, and builds up
well for the next edition. Overall the 2000+ pages are worth the time.
The fourth edition - A Feast of Crows - is due in July.
In the meantime I have waded through 100 odd pages of Dan Simmons' Hugo Winning
'Hyperion'. Nothing Hugoish till now, but the writing style is very impressive.
Meanwhile the to-be-read pile is about to hit the ceiling.
Valar Dohaeris
pleasedMay. 13th, 2005
10:41 pm - Old News but ...
... the 05 Nebula winners.
Novel:
Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold
(Eos, Oct 2003)
Novella:
"The Green Leopard Plague," by Walter Jon Williams
(Asimov's, Oct/Nov 2003)
Novelette:
"Basement Magic," by Ellen Klages
(F&SF, May 2003)
Short Story:
"Coming to Terms," by Eileen Gunn
(Stable Strategies and Others, Sep 2004)
Screenplay:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson
Based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien
(New Line Cinema, Dec 2003)
Bujold continues to be the Tendulkar of Hugo/Nebula World.
In other news, I picked up yet another SFWA book from bookworm this friday
-- Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol 2b, The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of all time.
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