Kindle and reading

As I had a 3 month contract in Cambridge, I had little time to post, but lots of time to read. I got a kindle for Christmas, which I will admit to absolutely adoring. I've read quite a lot of the free kindle books and revisited many old favourites. I spent a lovely amount of time reading and re-reading The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe, I also read Machiavelli's The Prince, which was an interesting read. Travelling always makes for lots of reading and over the past 3 months, I have been averaging a book a week and have been really lucky in reading quite a few belters, so I though a post might be in order.

Rodger Penrose - Shadow's of the mind

A very hard read, I found this book exceptionally challenging, but a revelation once I grasped the concepts. The book discusses how we think and the actual process of conciousness and the concept of understanding. It challenges the assumption that the human brain processes information solely in a computational manner - which has an enormous impact on the future of A.I.. I admit to already being sympathetic to the view that true A.I. is a much more complex task than people seem to think and that in fact we are a very long way away from machines that can understand the problems they solve, rather than simply perform pre defined instructions at increasing rapid rates.

This is one of those books that I would love to recommend unreservedly, but there is an awful lot (to my mind...) of maths and logic, that make it a challenging book, whose reward is only worth it if you have a definite interest in the field. If you do, this is the guy to be reading.

Philip K. Dick

I have been a big fan of Philip K. Dick for a long time. His books are often challenging, but never without a definite point to make on either the human condition or the nature of reality. I have never read a book of his that I wouldn't recommend, so I am slowly working my way through his entire works. During the last 3 months I have read Ubik, Do androids dream of electric sheep, The man in the high castle, Flow my tears, said the police man. Do androids dream of electric sheep (the book from which Blade Runner was made) stands out among the books... It differs from the film greatly, the book is a discussion about empathy, in which the androids are simply held up as humans without empathy. I found it fascinating and inspiring of many discussions with friends.

Turgenev - Short Stories

I have always had a very soft spot for Russian literature and music. Crime and Punishment being my favourite book as a teenager. War and Peace also features high on my list of favourite reads. The settings of the stories (particularly His first love) remind me of Dostoevsky's The Fool and the romantic nature and depictions of passion are just what you would expect. Well written and very touching, I was especially moved by Mumu as it involves a dog! A highly recommended read.

H. Ryder Haggard - King Solomon's Mines

These stories come from a time when the British "stiff upper lip" was a thing to be feared. They are proper "Boy's own" type stories of manly men, with adventuring to do and no time for lady folk. Well written and utterly engaging, they reveal both the good and bad sides of a time gone past. It's hard to get behind a hero who is an ivory hunter, but it's written with such an innocent view and such good intentions, that it gradually wears down your reserves.

Robert A. Heinlein - The Man From Mars

Heinlein was a fine author and a great mind. This book is a truly thought provoking look at how alien, aliens would actually be. He overcomes this issue in the story by having a human raised by aliens and then returned to earth. He depicts with a thought provoking ease, how an this alien human might pick up our language with great ease and yet still utter lack the contexts which would give words meaning.

It's quite a long book and for me, the payoff was almost all in the first half, when the alien struggles to understand (or grokk) humanity. In the second half of the book, the alien tries to shine a light on some of the issues of society from this new and innocent perspective. I didn't dislike the second half of the book, it's just that reading a book like this, some 30 years after publication, can make ideas which were shocking and new then, seem tired and overused now. Well worth the read though, especially for the first half.

John Christopher - The Death of Grass

Now here is a book I can safely recommend to all and state that people "should" read this book. It's an "end of society" book, which, even after 70 odd years is still the most elegant expression of how quickly and easily our society could fall. With it's utterly realistic plot line and character, it depicts the change in morality of a group of people travelling across the UK during the collapse of society. I can't recommend this book highly enough - I've already purchased additional copies for friends.

Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Another of the free kindle books and one I'd been meaning to read for a while now. This was a strange read, I immediately admired the quality of the prose and how well written the characters were. I was impressed by the ending and yet, I couldn't wait to finish the book. I think with so many other books to read I was a little impatient with a story that didn't have something to teach me. Perhaps, had I read this book on holiday with nothing else in the wings to read I may have been able to enjoy it more. I genuinely believe this was more my fault than the books.

Hunter S. Thomson - The Rum Diaries

As always with Hunter Thomson, you know that whatever the topic, it will be related with an absolute fairness to all characters. The work will be subject to his astounding attention to detail and an uncanny ability to get directly to the heart of the matter. I absolutely love his style of writing and his descriptions of scenes, such details in the minutia that you could be sat in the bar with him and yet not a single word is wasted. This is a little like the Fear and loathing in las vegas for Rum addicts.