Left on the Web

Small book markets can be so much fun

Every few months, there is a small local book market here in Woudenberg. Last saturday, another market was held. As every other time, I was there to have a good look at the books available.
posted on November 26, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books

Scott Adams - The Dilbert Future

For those who like the Dilbert comics, this book will be perfect.
posted on November 22, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books

Dan Brown - Digital Fortress

After reading the Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, I knew Dan Brown was able to write exciting books, thrilling books, books that dragged you into the story and didn't let go. But all that didn't prepare me for Digital Fortress. Wow. Reading books usually takes some time for me, I am not a fast reader, but I finished this one in a few hours, spread out over 3 days. I couldn't stop reading. Of course, the topic of this book is for me even more interesting as the church-bashing of the Da Vinci Code. Technology has my interest, quite a lot of course. So for me stories like this come closer to my own little private world than the happenings inside the Catholic church. There is a good chance that for others, it is exactly opposite. Still, there were also small let-downs. Certain “riddles”, mysteries, that are in this book were too transparent. The identity of the mysterious North Dakota / NDAKOTA for instance. The moment I read it, I knew it. The main characters in the book take more than half of the book to find that out. The pass-key that they need near the end of the book: The main characters take about 6 or 7 pages to figure this out. It took me two. After two pages, the information needed to solve the riddle was already given. But there were also big surprises. The one that I definitely did not expect was even in the epilogue. Truly something I did not expect. The rest of the book is typical Dan Brown. A lot of tension, a lot of happenings. Short chapters. The same writing style as the other books. Again Brown proves to be a great writer. I have not yet read Deception Point, so that will definitely be one to read.
posted on September 21, 2006 - 2 comment(s) - tags: books

Tad Williams – River of Blue Fire

The second volume in a 4-volume book. Not series, just a book. As Tad Williams notes in his “Author's notes”: “... it's not really a series – it's one very, very long novel, which should be under one cover except that 1) it would take so long to write that my family and pets would starve, and 2) they couldn't make covers that size, unless they were adapted from circus tents.” And this simple fact is both the power and weakness of this book. First of all, this book start with a summary of the first volume,a good thing because it's literally been years since I read the first book. The summary quickly refreshed my memory as to what happened in the first volume, and so I was ready to actually start reading this one. Again, it's clear throughout the book that Williams is creating a world here that is unique. With eye for detail, he describes surroundings, feelings and thoughts, characters, happenings. You could nearly say the Tolkien of cyberpunk. Or maybe that would be the best way to compare Williams' work in this book to other works. Tolkien also was able to drag you into his world until you were completely focused on what happened in the story. Your link to the outside world gone. Williams, both for you while reading and for the main characters in the story, severs the link with the outside world. But Williams seems to fall into the same trap Tolkien fell into: It goes on and on and on making some parts very hard to read. Sometimes, you think “yeah yeah, now I know what's happening”. Yet every single thing, every single detail, has a function within the bigger story, and Williams clearly needs that long to get all the details across in the right way. After the first volume, it took me a few years to get to reading volume 2. It was quite an effort to read the full volume 1. Williams has learned, it seems, because after this volume, though I crave to read some other books first, I don't feel I need a few years until the next volume. A few months max. A few months to read some other books. But not as long as before. So, as I started: the length of the book is both it's greatest power, because it enabled Williams to get facts across that he usually wouldn't have the space for in the story, and it's the greatest weakness, because it at some points makes the book very hard to read. Where volume 1 was “very interesting”, volume 2 is already “quite captivating”. I am anticipating more growth for volumes 3 and 4.
posted on September 21, 2006 - 1 comment(s) - tags: books

Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason - The Rule of Four

Compared by many to the Da Vinci Code, expectations for this book were quite high for me, as I really enjoyed reading the Da Vinci Code. But if you start out that way, you may be disappointed. It's not that this book is bad, not at all, it's just quite different from the Da Vinci Code. I do understand the link between both books. Both handle with historical happenings, with mystery, with the main characters puzzling their way toward some ultimate solution. However, where the Da Vinci Code is much more about action, about fast-paced happenings, The Rule of Four takes a different direction. The Rule of Four is more of a brainteaser, with all kinds of puzzles and less action but more psychological impact. The fact that this book is mainly about the obsession of the main characters with an ancient book will definitely be a reason why this book more than the Da Vinci Code was positively welcomed by fanatic book readers. It definitely worked for me

So, to wrap it up: I have mixed feelings about this book. Most feelings are positive, the book is well-written, the story is good, the characters are great. The negative feelings are mainly because of the expectations I had beforehand. So basically, it's my fault to be influenced by what other people say

posted on July 25, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books

Elaine Cunningham - The Dream Spheres

It has been a while since I last read something by Elaine Cunningham. It must have been before I encountered BookCrossing. After that, I started reading more than just fantasy and sci-fi

Elaine Cunningham is definitely one of my favorite fantasy authors, together with Tolkien and R.A. Salvatore. Her books in the Forgotten Realms series are easy to read, have good stories and great characters. In The Dream Spheres we encounter some characters we've seen before. Danilo Thann has featured in a few books already, and so have some of the other characters. Again, this book has an exciting plot, and I seriously until just a few chapters before the end didn't know exactly what was going on. Definitely not as predictable as some books! Yes, it was nice to finally read some fantasy again from the Forgotten Realms series. I should do that more often.
posted on July 16, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books

Robin Cook - Outbreak

I can not seem to find out if the movie Outbreak was or was not based on this book. There are too many similarities to say it's coincidence, but there are too many differences to truely be the movie of the book. So maybe they just got inspired. I had little expectations before starting this book. I had heard some positive things about Cook in general, and this book was sent to me as a gift (a RABCK) and recently, I felt like picking it up to read it. A good choice it was. Where it usually takes me 2-4 weeks to finish a book, this book only took me about a week. It is a very exciting book, full of tension. It is written very well and very easy to read. I definitely can recommend this book to anyone who likes thrillers.
posted on July 1, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books

Katie Hafner & John Markoff – Cyber Punk, Outlaws and hackers on the computer frontier

Being the geek that I am, when I discovered this book in a box of books that I got for free from someone who wanted to get rid of them, this book immediately caught my eye. A book, non-fiction, about such legendary hackers as Kevin Mitnick and the first massive virus/worm author Robert Morris, and a hacker that for some reason I didn't know about called Pengo, who ended up living a spy thriller. Split up in three parts, one for each hacker, this book is written in a way that it could be read by anyone from complete geeks to complete newbies to computers. Though slightly outdated (the first edition was published in 1991) the book is still very interesting. Of course, this book could be more seen as historical reference on the topic, and as such will never really be outdated. It is mainly in the references to the number of computers connected to the Internet “nowadays” and the speed of modems “nowadays” that the book may sound slightly outdated. And so Hafner and Markoff have truly delivered a historical reference on a topic which ruled the media for quite a while in it's days. All three hackers are depicted not as hackers with a malicious intent. And if we can trust these stories enough, indeed they do not seem to have had any malicious intent. And that makes all three cases even more interesting. All three, in their own way, were working mainly out of geekery, out of hobby, and/or out of curiosity. So after reading this book, it is hard to blame any of the subjects of the book on what they did. Sure, it was wrong, but their intent was OK. At least that's my feeling, but I somehow relate to them a bit. Funny enough, this book also immediately triggered me to pull out my copy of Uplink, the multi-platform hacker game where you play a hacker who works for money to copy files, destroy data, etc. etc. I can only guess that this game was inspired either by this book, or by the cases described in this book. So yes, definitely a wonderful book, very interesting. Though I suspect the easy to understand language was not necessary since the book will probably mainly attract geek-ish readers, the book is so nice and easy to read that it will appeal to a lot of people. And lastly, another effect of this book is the mentions of other books that I now want to read. The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling for instance. And The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner. I guess I'll have to start looking for copies of those.
posted on June 17, 2006 - 1 comment(s) - tags: books

Bao Ninh – Het verdriet van Vietnam (The Sorrow of War)

The story of a north-Vietnamese soldier in the Vietnam-war. When I got this book, it looked to be very impressive. And at times it was. Unfortunately, this book is not one solid piece. The author jumps from story to story in a very chaotic manner. truly, it looks like the author just follows his every thought, not caring about chronology, or about if other people are able to follow it. As is implied multiple times throughout the book, it indeed looks like the author wrote to write, and didn't write to publish. It was his story, written to relive everything and to be able to cope with his experiences. Whether or not this is a true part, or part of the fiction, I can not say. What I can say is that this makes the book hard to read. There are parts of the book that are brilliant, that truly take you into the world of the Vietnam war, where you feel with the main character as if it were you in his place. But then there are parts of this book that are boring, or make no sense, or because of the chaotic character of the stories just doesn't get full attention. So I'm not sure what to think of this book. Clearly it is not the story of a soldier in the war. It is the story of an ex-solder, after the war, struggling to write down his experiences into his first book. And since that soldier-become-author is clearly a bit chaotic, following his every thought, the book is very hard to read. The quoted comment of a dutch newspaper on the back cover mentions that this is a “war book that will linger in your memory”. I'm afraid I don't agree with this. Some parts will linger in your memory, because of the very detailed way in which some of the fights, some of the drama, some of the feelings have been described. But other parts will soon be forgotten. Should soon be forgotten.
posted on May 31, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books

Patricia Highsmith - The Talented Mr Ripley

Everyone of course knows the movie. Not everyone knows the book. This happens a lot of course. I was in the same situation. I've now read the book. It's nice. It took me quite a while to get into the book. It seems to start very very slow. But once things start happening, the book is very nice. I ended up really enjoying the book. And eventually, you remember your last impression, not your first impression

posted on May 17, 2006 - 1 comment(s) - tags: books

Daniel Quinn – Beyond Civilization

Beyond Civilization is a book that refreshes your world view. But you have to be open to it.
posted on April 24, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books

R.A. Salvatore - The Two Swords

Finally I've been able to read this book, it's been a while since I read anything about Drizzt Do'Urden.
posted on April 2, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books

Books I've read

Let's have a look at the 50 most registered books on BookCrossing, and see which I've read.
posted on March 19, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books

Wim Daniëls - Werk-woorden

A small little booklet about dutch language.
posted on March 13, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books

RABCK.com update

A small update on the rabck.com site that I manage.
posted on March 12, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books

Stupid White Men - Michael Moore

Michael Moore is most know for his movies Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 911 probably, but his books are also quite well-known. And it's not just bush-bashing, both major US parties are critisized.
posted on March 12, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books