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Cover of In Suspect Terrain
  • of course, excellent stuff. I still cannot learn the names of the epochs. But it is that rarest thing, a gripping book about geology.

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    ― Posted on Jul 23, 2008 | Add your feedback

Cover of Panoramic Vision
Cover of Optics Painting & Photography
Cover of The Curve of Binding Energy
  • excellent style, of course a bit obsolete

    This book has been described to me as one of the classics of scientific journalism, and I must agree. It is clearly written, in a nontechnical yet non-fluffy way. Ideas, devices, people come to life on these pages.
    Of course, time has passed: this is a 1973 book, and the references to terroris ... (continue)

    This book has been described to me as one of the classics of scientific journalism, and I must agree. It is clearly written, in a nontechnical yet non-fluffy way. Ideas, devices, people come to life on these pages.
    Of course, time has passed: this is a 1973 book, and the references to terrorism and the fears of the USA are fatally dated. But it does not really matte, the intelligent reader will be able to make his mental adjustments.
    And one does hope that the safeguards of the atomic energy industry have improved vastly during these thirty-five years.

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    ― Posted on Jul 8, 2008 | Add your feedback

Cover of If You Liked School, You'll Love Work
  • irritating dialect

    OK, maybe I should have known what I was getting into. But at the same time, I did not anticipate that about half of the book would be written in a severely irritating Scottish English transcription. Local color (even local colour) is fine, particularly in dialog, but still:

    Does "Ah feel rai ... (continue)

    OK, maybe I should have known what I was getting into. But at the same time, I did not anticipate that about half of the book would be written in a severely irritating Scottish English transcription. Local color (even local colour) is fine, particularly in dialog, but still:

    Does "Ah feel rain droplets hittin my heid n shoodirs, n ah look up" add something, as opposed to "I feel rain droplets hitting my head and shoulders, and I look up"? Letting aside the believability of "droplets" as an element of stream-of-consciousness in this particular character - a particularly disgusting human specimen that does not seem very much inclined to droplets and other subtleties.

    This comment refers to the 180-page novella "Kingdom of Fife" that constitutes about half of the book.

    I don't think I will read more Welsh. It just does not resonate.

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    ― Posted on Jul 5, 2008 | Add your feedback

Cover of Spook Country Export Ed
  • 1 of 1 people find this helpful

    perhaps I preferred the old Gibson

    Seems to me that now that he has abandoned the future and cyberspace, Gibson's old tics and cliches have become a bit irritating. I mean, I am all for mysterious Cuban-American semiautonomous spy organizations, gifted with superhuman cryptography abilities, martial arts skills and even musical talen ... (continue)

    Seems to me that now that he has abandoned the future and cyberspace, Gibson's old tics and cliches have become a bit irritating. I mean, I am all for mysterious Cuban-American semiautonomous spy organizations, gifted with superhuman cryptography abilities, martial arts skills and even musical talents. I really dig that. But it would be easier to digest if set in a complete freaky futuristic allucination, rather than in contemporary slightly boring US.

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    ― Posted on Jul 5, 2008 | Add your feedback

Cover of The Evolution of Useful Things
Cover of Design for the Real World
  • strident in places, facile in others, yet very interesting. I really enjoyed the section on the education of designers, how to go beyond the Bauhaus model.

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    ― Posted on Jul 8, 2008 | Add your feedback

Cover of Town Like Alice
  • a book that used to be very popular

    I read this because I had greatly enjoyed "No Highway" and "On the Beach" by the same author. I have not been disappointed. The book feels incredibly exotic, it reminds us of how different the world was in the post-WWII decade as far as many things go - modes of travelling, affluence, racism, class ... (continue)

    I read this because I had greatly enjoyed "No Highway" and "On the Beach" by the same author. I have not been disappointed. The book feels incredibly exotic, it reminds us of how different the world was in the post-WWII decade as far as many things go - modes of travelling, affluence, racism, class prejudice...

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    ― Posted on May 5, 2008 | Add your feedback

Cover of Maurice
Cover of Arthur and George
Cover of History of Danish Dreams
  • I did not like so much the Smilla book, and I am not liking so much this one. Postmodern attempt at telling a story from many different vintage points, but it seems to me that the dreamy atmosphere is lacking in something. What exactly? Perhaps lightness.

    Reading through this book is, for thi ... (continue)

    I did not like so much the Smilla book, and I am not liking so much this one. Postmodern attempt at telling a story from many different vintage points, but it seems to me that the dreamy atmosphere is lacking in something. What exactly? Perhaps lightness.

    Reading through this book is, for this reader, like plodding through a mudflat.

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    ― Posted on Apr 13, 2008 | Add your feedback

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