#1852

I don’t even cook and that sounds like a neat book :slight_smile:

#1853

The link to the review just points to a Drupal install link.

#1854

Sad to say I’ve entirely lost my enthusiasm for reading since lockdown began, but I’m hoping to revive it with the new Ali Smith, the final part of her ‘Seasonal quartet’.

1 Like
#1855

I went into Blackwells bookshop and found “The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage”
wow what a great read!

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To quote Goodreads
" THE THRILLING ADVENTURES OF LOVELACE AND BABBAGE . . . in which Sydney Padua transforms one of the most compelling scientific collaborations into a hilarious series of adventures.

Meet Victorian London’s most dynamic duo: Charles Babbage, the unrealized inventor of the computer, and his accomplice, Ada, Countess of Lovelace, the peculiar protoprogrammer and daughter of Lord Byron. When Lovelace translated a description of Babbage’s plans for an enormous mechanical calculating machine in 1842, she added annotations three times longer than the original work. Her footnotes contained the first appearance of the general computing theory, a hundred years before an actual computer was built. Sadly, Lovelace died of cancer a decade after publishing the paper, and Babbage never built any of his machines.

But do not despair! The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage presents a rollicking alternate reality in which Lovelace and Babbage do build the Difference Engine and then use it to build runaway economic models, battle the scourge of spelling errors, explore the wilder realms of mathematics, and, of course, fight crime—for the sake of both London and science. Complete with extensive footnotes that rival those penned by Lovelace herself, historical curiosities, and never-before-seen diagrams of Babbage’s mechanical, steam-powered computer, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is wonderfully whimsical, utterly unusual, and, above all, entirely irresistible"
It is really bonkers and IK Brunel is the guy who builds the computer, well worth a look IMHO
You even get a some great plans/drawing of the system!
http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/

2 Likes
#1856

Having not fallen for a book in a while, I am falling headfirst into Richard Powers’ The Overstory. It’s mainly a novel about trees, trying to understand trees in tree-time and tree-space. Powers is sometimes a little overwrought, but I don’t care most of the time, it’s just enthusiastic, lovingly written, and something Other.

Also: I miss nature, despite having done a bunch of pleasant enough hikes, and it’s a nice way of touching it again.

10 Likes
#1857

Thanks for pointing it out. Now it seems to be working.

#1858

Legendary comic “Prison Pit” just collected into an omnibus. Very cool.

9 Likes
#1859

I starting rereading the Black Company series, but forgot how vile they are in the first book and kind of didn’t have the stomach to keep plowing through without a break.

So I read this novella, and it was an absolute delight. Clever and funny and beautiful and poignant.

1 Like
#1860

Thanks. This one has been on my list for awhile.

1 Like
#1861

My latest batch:
Topless Cellist by Joan Rothfuss, straightforward bio of Charlotte Moorman’s non-straightforward life. Really interesting and quite a different take on 60/ 70s avant garde New York

The Glamour by Christopher Priest, very Christopher Priest-ish

Xenakis by Nouritza Matossian, nice Xenakis bio by someone who worked with him for 10 years

Also Rendevous with Rama and Lake Success and Consider Phlebas based on recommendations here, all good holiday reads, thank you for the tips.

6 Likes
#1862

I really liked the Matossian Xenakis bio. As someone without the technical background to get much from Formalized Music, I thought it had a great balance between technical detail and clear explanation, and his life was such a rollercoaster there’s plenty to get stuck into.

3 Likes
#1863

Just a note to this thread’s readership that this week’s Disquiet Junto communal music project is based on a quote from Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel A Wizard of Earthsea.

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0451-ursulas-silences/

3 Likes
#1864

Just finished Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami last night. It’s the fourth novel by him that I’ve read and I loved it, the nature imagery in Greece mixed with his typical surrealism really blew me away. I’m obsessed with him right now and I’m currently working my way through his shorter books.

I read the first half of Little Women right before that so I’m finishing it now. At the recommendation of a few people where I work I’m going to give Knausgard’s My Struggle series a shot next.

4 Likes
#1865

I completely agree. This one is also quite good - Conversations with Iannis Xenakis by Bálint András Varga. Because he’s talking, he comes across as very straightforward and personable; he explains his approach in terms of the problems that he’s trying to solve, rather than as some vast incomprehensible mathematical theory. I find interviews can be a revelation - Walter Zimmermann’s Desert Plants is similar. He rings up La Monte Young who just says in a simple way that he won’t talk to him unless Walter can find some money to pay him for his time.
image

9 Likes
#1866

This is next to the biography on the shelves of the library I work in! Definitely will be reading. Interviews can be a great way to cut through. There’s a good book on /by Werner Herzog (“Herzog on Herzog”), which is essentially an autobiography but via interviews, which gives it a very readable, conversational tone.

1 Like
#1867

I also got obsessed with Murakami and read his entire work. My favorite ones are “The Trilogy of the Rat” (Hear the Wind Sing/Pinball, A Wild Sheep Chase, Dance Dance Dance) – and “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”.
If you like this type of surrealism you might also like Paul Auster: A little less surreal (or a little more subtle), but to me the mood is similar: Something’s weird here, but it’s hard to spot what exactly. I have the feeling that it makes you more active when reading and fuels your own creativity.

5 Likes
#1868

where were you able to find desert plants? i can’t find a copy anywhere, even in digital form.

#1869

Or

http://home.snafu.de/walterz/bibliographie.html

5 Likes
#1870

Thanks for the recommendation! Just ordered this :blush:

1 Like
#1871

20 characters of thanks!