mobile design and development - brian fling
I am conflicted about Mobile Design and Development. On the one hand it's a very thorough overview of the things you have to keep in mind while developing for mobile web - the sections on testing services and platforms is incredibly detailed and probably quite useful if you actually develop and deploy mobile stuff (in which case: poor you - that sure sounds like a painful process!).
On the other hand, I had hoped for a practical design book, a book of case studies on what to do for the mobile web and how to do it. Examples of "we had problem A, and then we did this:" or "we did Design B first, and then we tested it, and we found out that we should have done something like Design C, and here's why...". Take the reader through a couple of recognizable projects - they don't have to be real-life examples, but I had hoped for more of an information architecture / mobile design book, with clear explanations of the choices made.
I guess I wanted this book, but then written by Christina Wodtke or Luke Wroblewski...
15-02-2010
relentless - dean kootz
I thought (not based on anything but raving prejudice, by the way) that Dean Kootz wrote these hard-ball, Jack Reachery tough guy novels, and sort of avoided him for ages, because I was afraid I wouldn't like his books. I think Stephen King spoke highly of him, though, so I decided to give Relentless a shot.
And it was very good! A Reacher-like story of being on the run, but with a rather wimpish writer guy as the hero. Entertaining, fast-paced, hugely funny in situations where you wouldn't think a writer would be able to come up with hilarious scenes that actually work - excellent. The resolution was pretty dumb, though, but who cares - if you set yourself up in this way it's impossible to resolve the story even semi-plausibly. I forgive him. Since the ride there was great.
Oh man, another writer with a rather large back catalogue discovered...
04-02-2010
odd and the frost giants - neil gaiman
What a delightful little book. I read Odd and the Frost Giants twice today, it was that good. At first I thought oh dear, not another one with Norse gods in it, but this was quiet, and original, and just a lovely, thoughtful, and often quite funny read. The only regret I have is that the Harper edition I got was published on rather low quality paper. Don't do that to instant classics, Harper!
30-01-2010
gone tomorrow - lee child
Gone Tomorrow was the very first book I read entirely in its Kindle incarnation, on my iPod touch. An odd experience - reading the book is actually quite pleasant, good letters, good contrast, easy to get back to where you finished reading the last time. But flipping the pages is harder on my hands than flipping real pages, and you have to do it much more often than in real books, since the screen is actually quite small.
But the most annoying thing is that you have no immediate feedback on how far along in the book you are. There's a circuitous route in which you can see in which "location" you are (there are no page numbers, since the Kindle app allows you to scale the type size, and locations are adjusted accordingly), but that is nowhere near the sensation you get when reading a book cover to cover and feeling the stack of pages under your right thumb diminishing towards the end. And I missed that, it certainly adds to the tension of Reacher books when you feel only ten or twenty pages remaining, and there is still so much left to clear up and fix. Now the ending sort of snuck up on me. Which wasn't as good.
So, the book! It was brilliant! I love most of the Reachers, though he did jump the shark a bit with Nothing to Lose and it's slightly-too-grand finale. But Gone Tomorrow is Reacher in fine, witty, dry form again, sometimes violent and even rather gruesome, but superb tension and a great book to disappear into.
I still do not believe in Lee Child as the author, though - how can a Brit write such a totally American novel? And they haven't been getting more American, as far as I can see, right from the start he made Reacher such a quintessentially US-ian guy.
I have a silly suspicion that the actual author is Stephen King, though that's not very probable, since I think King would not be able to keep up this all-staccato-all-the-time thing of Reacher's diction and story, I think he would be tempted to put in more colourful characters and great weird expressions. And there aren't that many of them in these books. But when I see characters discussing a not very attractive woman as "[she] fell out of an ugly tree and hit every branch"... That's a King expression if ever I read one.
So if there is a "Lee Child is an actor" camp, I am in it.
27-01-2010
subject to change - merholz, wilkens, schauer, verba
I am disappointed in this book. Subject to Change could have been so good, and I had high expectations, since I've always like the Adaptive Path people, and have learned a ton from them in their weblogs and workshops. But the book is too dense, too serious, too much filled with big language, perhaps in a bid to get it taken seriously by the business community, who knows.
It could have used a large dose of Steve Krug's light touch, or Jesse James Garrett's crystal clear explaining, or Christina Wodtke's informal but very useful style. As it is, it made my mind wander all the time while reading a book about a subject I dearly love - I had to strain to finish it. Which is not a good thing.
20-01-2010
barnaby grimes: legion of the dead - paul stewart and chris riddell
Fun children's book that I read today in a little over an hour. With zombies!
I think I would have loved reading Barnaby Grimes: Legion of the Dead (and, presumably, the rest of the Barnaby Grimes series) when I was about ten years old: it's adventurous, weird, Londony, reminiscent of the chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins - yes, I think it's the Poppins-ness/Dickensity of this that I love, plus Barnaby's courage and pluck in the face of scary adversaries.
Delicious entertainment, with deliciously creepy illustrations. I think I will seek out the rest of Stewart & Riddell's work, I like their style.
17-01-2010
alone on a wide, wide sea - michael morpurgo
Touching and delightful children's book about a small boy shipped off to Australia just after WWII. I love the Aussie-isms (even though I know Morpurgo is British), love the feminism and the quiet rage about what the hell people were thinking when they sent off such young children alone, to uncertain, rootless futures with people who might not have their best interests at heart.
The second half of the book is deeply scary as well, with a young girl doing a solo sailing trip from Australia to England. Do not do this, folks. And if you think you absolutely *need* to do it, read this book, since it will probably cure you of the desire.
10-01-2010
armadillo - william boyd
So odd to be reading Armadillo hot on the heels of Ordinary Thunderstorms - they seem like a riff on broadly the same story: corrupt corporate types, lots of London (high and low), identity and how to change or lose it, even the assault with a briefcase... Most odd. But enjoyably so!
Armadillo is a lot funnier than Ordinary Thunderstorms, although it doesn't have a clear Croup/Vandemar. There are a couple of story lines I'm not entirely sure I would have kept in: the LSD subplot and the sleep lab stuff, hmz, not so certain about those. But the Transnistrian family and its assortment of cabbies are lovely, as is the old lady downstairs and the delightfully exciting love interest. Most enjoyable book. Made me want to be back in University, so I could write a good thorough paper about the resemblances between the two stories and how things have changed in London and Boyd's view in those 10 or 11 years.
10-12-2009
under the dome - stephen king
I still can't figure out why it took me so long to discover King's novels - I've read On Writing dozens of times, but I sort of shied away from the rest of his work. Anyway, I'm glad I am over that now, because Under the Dome was fantastic again: huge, and scary, and cruel (god, the man really knows how to pile up them bodies) and wonderful. I'm only about 75% happy about how it finally turns out, how the dome came about and how that is resolved, but really, that's just nitpicking about a riveting, satisfying story with lots of delightful characters.
King says in the afterword that he was aiming for a "pedal to the metal" novel, and this certainly is that. He's also written these 1100 pages in 480 days... Good grief. Hurray for Stephen King!
07-12-2009
ordinary thunderstorms - william boyd
Ordinary Thunderstorms was waiting patiently for me all of November - it was my "Hell yes I completed NaNoWriMo Again!" book, my reward for being good and productive. And what a lovely reward it was.
The book reminded me a lot of my old favourite London Fields, with the extremely creepy villain resembling the delightful Mssrs Croup and Vandemar from Neverwhere: exciting travels through the upper and lower strata of London, good, thrillery plotting, and lots to think about. And really enjoyable writing, too - but that's no surprise from Boyd. I think I enjoyed Restless just a bit better, though: it felt tighter and more believable. This may just be the post-NaNo fatigue talking - perhaps I will have to re-read Ordinary Thunderstorms when better rested.
And also! I think the publishers should reconsider the covers they have put on both the US and the UK edition. The present covers say "this is a serious book", and it is, but it also works very well as a good thriller for on the train or on the beach. This would be so good for the Stieg Larsson crowd, as it is actually much better written and much meatier, but just as thrilling. Maybe a separate edition, like Harry Potter's grown-up covers?
04-12-2009
No NaNo blog this year
I am taking part, and doing quite well, but I won't be telling you about it this year, due to sad circumstances. Sorry.
You can still see my progress at my NaNoWriMo page, and in the top right corner here.
12-11-2009
2802 words - 2802 total
Another year, another NaNo. This year I think I am writing a police procedural. Eeeeps! In Dutch!
First day went really well. Onwards.
01-11-2009
when will there be good news - kate atkinson
Atkinson is a remarkable writer. She pretends she's writing a mystery, but When Will There be Good News is so much more, such an intricately constructed building that threatens to become top-heavy, and then fall over, but it doesn't, and even the ending is really superb. I was afraid she wasn't going to pull it all of, but she did, and she did it magnificently. Really, mysteries-that-are-also-several-other-genres are my favourite sort of book at the moment, and this was one of the very best I read this year.
19-10-2009
stone’s fall - iain pears
Stone's Fall was a really enjoyable holiday read - complicated storyline (I enjoy reverse timelines and trying to keep things straight in my head, yay for writers who give you a headache of the good kind), lovely historical settings, engagingly non-stereotypical heroine, loads of fast-moving pages. A bit weird to be reading about Venice and London and Paris while in Sweden, but hey.
I'm going to try his other books, too - I think I have An Instance of the Fingerpost somewhere, but gave up on it a few hundred pages in, years ago. Time to give the man another try.
18-10-2009
pijn - beau van erven doren
Well. Pijn was much better than I expected. Though I wasn't actually expecting that much, since Beau is a tv host & celebrity - smart enough, I guess, but I wouldn't have had him pegged as an actual writer. But it was amusing, and well-paced, and even rather touching, even if it was a bit over the top at times. Not bad.
17-10-2009
