Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 11:13
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Of all the Bryson books that I’ve read, this is the one that I found hardest to get into. It was almost like reading two separate books, and unfortunately it was the second half that was the best. Given how dense the book is, that was an awful lot of word to wade through, feeling bored, and wondering whether to just give up gracefully and pick another book.
On the other hand, I will be forever grateful to him for introducing me to the “big things”–a series of giant roadside attractions such as a lobster that dot Australia wherever tourists may be found. (more…)
Friday, 08 February 2008, 11:13
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I thought I’d give a shout out to a blogger whom I really enjoy. One Man’s Travel Blog is, as the name suggests, a travel blog for one Graham Ettridge who, finding himself single again, needed something on which to focus. He uses his blog to motivate himself to go out on walks, and since he’s a pretty good photographer the resulting photo essays are wonderful. (more…)
Thursday, 03 January 2008, 13:13
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I love this book. I love it because sarcastic Bill Bryson, the first book of whose I read almost put me off him forever, genuinely loves the British Isles. And, because I do too, that makes it an instant hit.
And, besides, it has a wet tea bag on the front cover. ;) |
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Monday, 26 November 2007, 15:13
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I picked up this little book through BookCrossing. Inside its 135 pages are around forty mini essays about women and their “guilty pleasures.” A writing group decided to write down their obsessions and this book is the result.
Guilty Pleasures is about doing what one wants, no matter what society thinks of it; about indulgence for its very own sake. Some of the stories might shock you, others might make you wince (the one about marrying for money did that for me). Some resonated; others did not. |
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Thursday, 15 November 2007, 12:13
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It’s the 21st century, and time travel has been invented. Historians are making carefully planned trips to the past–a special inbuild protector will not allow them to do anything that changes the course of history. Kivrin has been studying hard and is now ready to go to the 14th century. When she is sent, though, the technician who sent her collapses…muttering something about “this is not right.” |
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Tuesday, 06 November 2007, 16:13
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This novel is the well-researched but still very fictional story of Mary Boleyn. There’s some debate as to whether she was the famed Anne Boleyn’s younger or elder sister, but in this novel she’s the younger by two years. Her story begins some time after she is a married woman of thirteen or so.
As maid-in-waiting to his wife, Mary catches the eye of King Henry VIII. He becomes captivated with her and the Boleyn/Howard family works to keep her in his eye until eventually she becomes his mistress, sky-rocketing them up in the court pecking order. It doesn’t matter that she’s already married–the contrived affair is more important and Mary’s own personal feelings about the matter are of course considered completely irrelevant. |
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Wednesday, 12 September 2007, 12:13
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Polly Evans is a lunatic–and I approve. She passed her motorcycle test in England and a couple of weeks later was on her way to New Zealand where she rented a Suzuki SV650–hardly a beginner’s bike–and toured the country for several months in search of men.
Luckily, she has a sense of humor.
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Thursday, 30 August 2007, 12:13
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EDITED 30 August to correct “past life” to “near death” experiences. Oops, sorry!
I was attracted to Passage because of its theme: past life near death experiences. I’ve always found these fascinating, a glimpse into a possible alternate universe–whether spiritual or medical has never been conclusively proven.
And that’s the tack that Connie Willis takes in this fat but very readably novel. Two very different people are trying to prove the nature of NDEs once and for all. Dr. Joanna Lander is involved in talking patients who’ve had NDEs, trying to document them to see if anything scientific can be found out. Her arch-nemesis is Mr. Mandrake, a man who’s so set on proving that the NDE is spiritual that he leads the vulnerable patients to tell them what he wants them to say.
Dr. Richard Wright, however, has found a way to create the NDEs using drugs. Joanna eventually signs on as his assistant, and after rejecting at least two thirds of the good doctor’s current volunteers as unsuitable starts “going under” herself. And each time finds herself in the same, somehow familiar location.
There is so much going on in this book that I’m surprised the author was able to hold it all together…but she did. This is a well-written, gripping story with numerous sub-plots and believable characters (some of whom you wish you could shake until they rattle). Pretty much everything in its 700-plus pages has some bearing on at least two other plot elements. Sooner or later, all the different threads come together into a series of those little “aha!” moments. I was very, very surprised at the way the story played out—something that doesn’t happen too often in this climate of boilerplate books. I had a very hard time putting the book down.
I’d never read anything by this author before, but I am truly glad that I fished this one out of the library sale box for reading. Fortunately, I had another Connie Willis book in my pile…and guess what I’m reading now?
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Saturday, 25 August 2007, 12:13
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Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies by Susannah Gardner is a bright yellow, user-friendly guide to using your blog to spread whatever word you want spreding. I picked this one rather than Blogging for Dummies because I figured that I already knew enough about blogging to not need a guide, whereas my marketing skills leave a lot to be desired.
I wasn’t disappointed.
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Published in 2005, this book is already out of date in some ways, but that’s hardly a surprise–the Web moves at the speed of light. The basic principles do remain the same, however, and I gained a great deal of valuable information from this book.
The 360-page volume is divided into six sections. Part one has you looking at other business blogs, how buzz marketing works, and how to develop a business blog. Part two is all about the mechanics of it–finding a host, finding software, and so forth. Part three, very interesting to me, was about the blogosphere–how to fit in, how not to stamp on people’s toes, and general etiquette.
Next comes a section about finding a voice, which is something I’ve struggled with in the past and is an ongoing process. In this section you learn how to promote your blog and deal with legal issues such as copyright. Part five gives tips on how to make your blog shand out in a crowd, how to monetize (which I think is one of the silliest buzzword around, to be frank) and what else you can do besides just plain blog.
My favorite section, though, was the Part of Tens: “Ten dry-spell breaking ideas, ten traits of a good blogger, and ten blogs you should know.” Reading this part would have been worth the price of admission (if I hadn’t borrowed the book from a library.)
Dummies books can be a bit hit and miss, depending on the writer. This author knows her stuff, and presents it in an easy to understand way that for me led to some instant results.
Thursday, 23 August 2007, 13:13
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I got this book with a view to learning about using my blog as a vehicle for selling copies of A Little Twist of Texas. I was also interested in learning about opportunities to blog for hire, and the like–i.e. writing for a living.
This book didn’t quite fit the bill, but it was well worth the read and helped me to focus a little better on what I really needed to be doing, i.e. producing a blog worth reading. ;) What could otherwise have been a very dry topic was made palatable by the author’s informal style and sense of humor. Just like the Blog Wild! book, it starts with an introductory Q&A about blogging, and what it’s all about. Then it moves on to the nitty-gritty of corporate blogging.
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Covered in some depth are how to persuade one’s boss to let you blog, what use a blog can be, and how to make blogging for companies “safer”–i.e. by setting a specific blogging policy. The author makes the point that almost always it’s just a case of having some common sense. It also suggests that a company worried about employees blogging should set a policy with guidelines like, “Do not mention the company by its name.” There are some sample corporate blogging policies in the appendix.
Topics covered include the evolution of corporate blogs, and the mechanics of blogging (how to handle a corporate blog, find the right blogger, etc.) There are suggestions for ways to include the public in one’s blog (the whole point, really), how to gauge a blog’s success, and how to get involved in some of the “sister” technology such as wikis and podcasting.
I learned from this book that Raven’s Roads is not a corporate blog in that sense but more of a showcase for my creative writing efforts. There was a great deal of very useful information and I learned from the author’s words. I would say that it’s worth reading for anyone who is serious about making their website sell a specific product or idea, or anyone who would like to peek at the world of corporate blogging, especially if they want to become the company’s blogger. It is also rather more up to date (2006) than the other books I read, which is always a plus in the blogosphere. ;)
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