History, 9/10 – Mar/10-Jun/10 A great computer game history book about how the two Johns started a company and developed some of the epics games of my childhood, in particular: Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake. Loved John Carmacks programming dedication and legacy – what a hero!
Sci-fi, 7/10 – Jul/08-Mar/09 This story is set in a Shakespearean-like era with kings and princes and swords and battles – minus the romance. Actually, it’s more like medieval Merlin and the knights of the round table because the civilization is shrouded with myths and has the equivalence of dragons because it is semi-integrated with [...]
Sci-Fi, 8/10 – April 2009 The story follows the revolution of a Lunar penal colony against earth for political freedom. The people of the moon don’t have any conventional weapons but it is “uphill” of earth (in terms of gravity) which means it can throw rocks down apon earth with a near-nuclear impact. The second [...]
Fiction, 6/10 – February 2009 1000 pages set in 12th century Britain based largely around the building of cathedrals – sound interesting? No, but it comes highly recommended (33rd in the BBC’s 2003 big read) and in an effort to broaden my horizons I gave it a go. It is based on real historical events [...]
Sci-fi, 7/10 – January 2009 I suffer from hayfever and it often turns beautiful summer days toxic because of the little flakes of pollen that float through the air like poison. The big theme of this book is nano-technology and I love how the book describes the impact both big and small to humans. The [...]
Web Usability, 9/10 – November 2008 It’s strange how much you can learn when common sense concepts are explicitly pointed out. This book is short and easy to read because it uses very simple language but it taught me (a new web developer) a lot. My favourite points: Steve Krung’s Law of Usability – User’s [...]
Fiction, 3/10 – October 2008 I read this because I had got though all the other books on my holiday. It seemed to be war based so I was hoping for something action packed. Unfortunately, it wasn’t packed with action and wasn’t gripping. The characters didn’t come alive for me and I didn’t find the [...]
Sci-Fi, 7/10 – September 2008 What if you could have Google hardwired into your brain? Then you would be “gridlinked” like Special Agent Ian Cormac has been for thirty years – ten over the max. The book explores what it may be like to be unplugged after being fused with machines for so long. I [...]
Fiction, 6/10 – September 2008 The characters are bold and striking and interesting, especially Sebastian Flyte. I didn’t find the book to have a proper story in terms of a beginning, middle and end but perhaps it’s more accurate to say it has too much story. It covers faith, alcoholism, painting, the decline of English [...]
Programming History, 7/10 – September 2008 This is basically a short diary of the thoughts of Neal Stephenson about Microsoft, Apple, Linux and user interfaces. Tech is a hard subject to write about in an interesting way but Neal can do it well and obviously has a rich history and deep understanding of technology – [...]
Fiction, 2/10 – September 2008 This was a very British book, full of quirks and making fun of all of British society including government, politicians, British love life, TV interview programs and “belief in belief”. I found it boring and unfunny. I didn’t like the diary format or the unbelievable love story but I did [...]
Fiction, 7/10 – July 2008 Global-warming is a conspiracy! If you don’t believe me, read this book – it even has the references to relevant scientific research papers in the biography. It is full of interesting environmental information all bound within a semi-interesting action story – a bit the same way as Dan Brown’s Da [...]
Romantic Si-Fi, 5/10 – July 2008 Quite a ridiculous book, my first (and hopefully last) romantic si-fi. Even if the story wasn’t great I still find futuristic things interesting because they make me dream. For example, her ship, SIMON (Sentient Integrated MObile Nanoessence) is like a futuristic brain embedded Google. This kind of book is [...]
Fiction, 4/10 – June 2008 Perhaps this book was a bit too clever for me? I found following the several different characters hard and always assumed the relationship between them would either be explained or inter whine at the end. I was also aware of some more complex literature techniques being used that I’m sure [...]
Fiction, 8/10 – June 2008 Firstly, I realised with a shock that this book wasn’t going to have a hint of mathematics in it but I got over the disappointment because I liked learning about Zoo keeping and I found a boy wanting to be in 3 religions funny. The extreme situation that the boy [...]
