Scottish Highlands & Islands / Rob Humphreys & Donald Reid

The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands & Islands

category: travel, commentary, authors:

Rob Humphreys, Donald Reid

of the Rough Guide series
original copyright 2006

read in August 2012

Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10, read to pass the time

A thorough and worthy travel guide... but... outdated by the Internet.

It's nice to have some ideas about a place before you visit. To know what to look for... to know what other people found interesting. Whether or not you follow the suggestions depends on your own approach to travel. It's still nice to have the ideas.

Rough Guides give you ideas of history, sights... and food, drink and accommodation. Just like a lot of other travel guide series. Limited by the knowledge, expertise and bias of the authors. With luck the "bias" is consistent, so you can select a guide to suit your own bias. Details may get out-of-date very quickly, especially prices. Still, a good guide book is better than nothing. This Rough Guide is quite good.

Except that the Internet has all this and more... and is constantly being updated. And mobile communication is constantly improving.

I'm browsing a library copy of the Rough Guide. A worthwhile exercise. While we are away, we will use the Internet. And the latest tourist publications from wherever we visit. And our own observations, to spot places that interest us. The relatively heavy and possibly dated guide books will stay at home.

Mind you, one of the Internet sites that we may use -- while travelling -- is www.roughguides.com. The book is okay. The website may be a more current version of the book...

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

PissWeakly: the Index

Who let the blogs out? / Biz Stone

Who let the blogs out?

category: commentary, author:

Biz Stone

original copyright 2004, read in May 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 5 out of 10

What can I say about this book? Nothing much... I only skimmed a few sections.

Not that it was bad (as far as I read). But it was dated. And a bit too gung ho name dropping I-know-all-ish for me. Still, PissWeakly is opinion. There is no promise of fact and no guarantee of relevance. So let's start with what little I can remember:

Read it as a history of blogs up to 2004. Biz Stone is founder and co-founder of various blog sites and systems -- and of Twitter. So he was there and involved. He knows what was happening and he may have written some of the truth. In a very glib fashion.

It's a readable book, especially if you want to learn about the history of blogs and blogging.

One thing that does come through -- in my skimming -- is the commercialisation of the web. There are stories of growing readership, rapid take-up -- and making money. The book is an indication of the direction of mainstream blogging.

"The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives." That's from the Wikipedia article on blogs. That's what I remember, of the first blogs.

I was browsing blogs... many years ago... when I came across a real, online diary. A teenage boy in small-town America was documenting his life, including family and town events. It was fascinating! The blog -- as an online, public diary -- gave a glimpse of a small slice of real life.

What is a blog today? It's a means of making money.

Okay, perhaps there are still people out there who write an online diary. Perhaps I am prejudiced, because I have recently read several articles related to Google ads earning money for blogs. Perhaps there are still people who blog for pleasure.

Google adwords support lead me to a site -- a blog -- which provided top tips for earning money from your blog...

The blog author began his blogging career by providing tips on photography -- but realised that people reading tips on photography would already own a camera. So he started another blog -- reviewing photographic devices. If there is a new camera (for example) about to be released -- he will write a review. Even if he knows nothing, he will write a review. And he will provide a link to Amazon, where readers can pre-order that camera -- and the blog author will get a commission.

There is no special interest in photography, no hope to improve the knowledge of readers, no desire to share information -- just an over-riding urge to make money. No original thought required -- just enough words to wrap around a link to a potential commission.

Did you happen to find this post by a search on "photography"? Or even on "Pentax K100"? Surprise me: follow the link, buy the camera, earn me a commission. Oh yes, I do own a Pentax K100. And, in my opinion -- it's a very good camera. So there.

The PissWeakly Ethos

I write for fun. I write about books that I have read because I wanted to read that book. I hope that someone out there enjoys -- or at least reads -- what I write. It would be nice to make money. But I do not post articles solely to make money. It's all my opinions and I try to keep my opinions honest. If I don't like a book -- I will say so... and still provide a link to Amazon. After all, whether I like it or not, you may still want to buy it.

Enough ranting (I have a separate blog for that).

If you want to read a book about the origins of the blogging business, read Who let the blogs out? It's not a bad book and it's very easy to read. I just found that I was not particularly interested in the topic.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

The Sleeper Awakes / HG Wells

The Sleeper Awakes

category: science fiction, author:

HG Wells

(introduction by Patrick Parrinder, notes by Andy Sawyer)
published by Penguin, original copyright 1899, read in May 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10

I can't help but compare Wells' The Sleeper Awakes with Heinlein's For Us, the Living. Wells takes a "modern" (1899) man, gets him to the future, throws him into excitement, wonder, action, discovery, conflict, etc, etc -- and allows us to discover Wells' view of where the world could be going. Heinlein takes a "modern" (1939) man, gets him to the future -- then bores us to tears as characters spend many pages stating Heinlein's views of where the world should be going.

Every science fiction aficionado knows that Heinlein was a key influence in science fiction writing. Every person who can read knows that Wells was a great science fiction author. Compare Sleeper to For Us and it's obvious why Wells is more widely known and admired.

So, the book:

Perhaps the majority of Wells' predictions are wrong. Rewrite the book to take advantage of today's science and engineering and many of the predictions stand up quite well. We may not have giant lakes of "Eadhamite" for road-building but we do have giant tanks of equally poisonous materials, stored, distributed and in daily use. We do have rich people using products and services with no regard for the effort and possible danger faced by the people who provide the products and services. Just watch the tv show Dirty Jobs to see what I mean.

One very accurate prediction was, that workers would be de-skilled: "some dexterous machine" would be used to replace the skill and muscle of production workers. If computers had existed in 1899, Wells could also have predicted the replacement of workers' minds.

Then there's the advertising of Wells' future age -- it's everywhere! Early in The Sleeper's sleep, perhaps by 1910, there are giant advertising posters covering the famous white cliffs of Dover. When he awakes, 200 years later, every available surface is used for ads. Picture the nurseries: mechanical wet nurses, just torso, breasts and arms. Plus a flat disc for a face, with the disc covered in advertisements which may appeal to the parents...

The social separation of workers from the idle rich, however, appears to be a poorer prediction. Wells himself, in a preface to a 1921 edition, sees the error of his earlier thoughts... with some interesting comments:

"I was young in those days [1899], I was thirty-two". Young?! By 32, a man of this century should have forged a career, become CEO of a major company, perhaps been bankrupt -- or be considered to be a failing and worthless cog in the machine of success.

Wells then goes on to say, that the total oppression of Workers by Capitalists was not, after all, a realistic threat. In 1899 he thought of "big businessmen" as being "wicked, able men." By 1921 he had met more businessmen and come to realise that they were, "for the most part, rather foolish plungers, fortunate and energetic rather than capable, vulgar rather than wicked, and quite incapable of worldwide constructive plans or generous combined action."

That was observation. Observation which is as true in 2010 as it was then, in 1921. So we are, as Wells realised, safe from the worst oppression that he foresaw while writing The Sleeper Awakes.

The Penguin Edition

The Sleeper Awakes is, I admit, a little hard to read. Its style, and assumptions, are dated. Nevertheless, it is an excellent book. Read it as an okay book for now and as an excellent book for its time. Read it for its insight into the interests and concerns of its famous author.

Do not read this 2005 edition for its chapter by chapter "Notes"!

Penguin have provided biography, introduction, various other items of interest. Okay, not that much interest: I simply skimmed a page here and there. There are also numbers in the main text which point to Notes at the end of the book. For example:

Monkshood and delphiniums are noted... they are flowers. Any dictionary or google could tell you that. Between the two, a character "struck a match in the virile way..." What? The virile way ... of striking a match!? I wonder what that means... The note writer may also have wondered, he gave no explanation.

The Notes are like that: the obvious is explained, the confusing is ignored. Some Notes are, I admit, interesting. Many are simply dictionary definitions. A few are explanations which become clear as you read further in the novel.

The actual book is excellent. The various extra sections are interesting. The Notes really, really need to be rewritten -- to help the modern reader with words and terms which may no longer be current. But please, don't tell me where Boulogne is. And don't distract me with the colour of delphiniums and monkshood.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

State of Fear / Michael Crichton

State of Fear

category: science fiction, author:

Michael Crichton

published by HarperCollins, original copyright 2004, read in April 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10

Is this really -- as I have categorised it -- science fiction? The blurb on the back calls it a "techno-thriller"... According to Macquarie dictionary, a thriller deals with crime (etc) "in an exciting or sensational manner." State of Fear certainly does that. Wikipedia references another website to state that, "A thriller is villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the hero must overcome." With the added criteria that the hero, "must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains."

Yes, it's exciting. Yes, it's sensational. But there is no "hero"; the story revolves around a "protagonist", who barely knows what's going on and, mostly, just follows instructions from stronger characters. Speaking of whom... the villains are powerful and well equipped -- but the good guys are even more so! The good guys are able to call on money, technology and knowledge which, frankly, makes the villains look like second-rate wimps.

Loosely speaking, this book could be a "thriller". I prefer to label it as "action".

Then there's science fiction: "which draws imaginatively on scientific knowledge and speculation in its plot, setting, theme, etc" (Macquarie). With, as Wikipedia adds, "a considerable degree of suspension of disbelief", where the reader reads for enjoyment and does not question the science. (Although in "hard" science fiction the science should, at least, be plausible if viewed at some not-too-distant period into the future.)

State of Fear is definitely science fiction. The science is central to the plot and is backed by references to what I guess are actual, scientific papers. Though Crichton admits that some of the action -- guiding a storm, for example -- is still just a theory. So, yes, science fiction.

What the book really is, though, is a rant against environmental activists who exaggerate environmental threats. Exaggeration which includes the use of limited "evidence" to support their scare tactics.

Which is interesting, really. Since Crichton does exactly the same.

Science fiction...

Crichton presents, in this book, lots of references to "prove" his case. He makes no pretense at showing the range of arguments, for and against. "Here is," he says, "One paper which supports my view. Therefore... my view is right." Rubbish!

He also has some appalling lapses in logic:

In Appendix 1, Why Politicized Science is Dangerous -- the author's own argument, not just a part of a fictional novel -- Crichton discusses the way in which scientists follow politics. The scientists, apparently, follow political thought, even though no external pressure has been applied.

Crichton quotes from research which states that scientists in pre-World War 2 Germany had "adjusted their research interests" to suit Nazi policies, even though "no external pressure can be documented." Having stated that scientists voluntarily followed Nazi policies, Crichton then adds, "And those few who did not adjust disappeared."

"Disappeared"!? Why did they "disappear"?! Could it be, perhaps, that their non-compliance was noted -- and these scientists were forced to disappear? Were they, in fact, killed?

You are a scientist. A fellow scientist disagrees with Nazi policies. That fellow scientist "disappears" -- presumed dead. And Crichton does not see this as evidence of "external pressure" on scientists...

Crichton takes a point of view. States evidence that directly contradicts that point of view. And does not even recognise it.

Yes, State of Fear is a rant in science fiction format.

Unfortunately, the book is also half filled with various characters spouting Crichton's one-eyed views. Shades of Robert Heinlein!

... action packed adventure

Still, like Heinlein, Crichton can write an entertaining, action-packed, science fiction novel. The characters fly around the world, defeating villainous plots, getting in various degrees of danger, flying in the face of logic...

The protagonist deliberately leaves his bugged mobile phone in the villain's office. Later, he checks his messages. Later still, he switches his mobile back on, to catch up on what's been happening. All without ever getting his phone back from the villain's office!

The good guys finally manage to identify the location for the final confrontation. They make a last-minute dash to save the world (or California, at least). They battle cannibal rebels -- to demonstrate that the concept of "the noble savage" is entirely false. Having arrived on the spot with only two hours to spare -- they meet up with another good guy who had been there for more than a week! Why didn't he phone?!

Oh yes... Then, having battled the cannibals, wiped out the bad guys, destroyed all means of transport... the good guys apparently just walk back past the cannibals. There are three people carrying two others who are near-death, a journey which was apparently near-impossible, in full health, on the way out. A journey which is now so simple that it is not even worth a paragraph.

Switch off your logical faculties. Sit back, read, enjoy...

If only it were set off the Earth, I would have added the category, "space opera".

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Afterthought

This book is a lot of fun. Totally ridiculous action, but a lot of fun. Its problem is with the author's tone: a strong attack on "accepted" views of environmental threat. Crichton treats his own barely supported views as gospel. Widely accepted, opposing views are -- in his opinion -- unbelievably stupid and naive.

It is difficult to read this book without feeling either stupid or insulted.

Yet some of Crichton's espoused opinions are -- possibly -- sound. Why does he do his best to set the reader offside?

Let me suggest...

Why insult the reader? Why write a book with such a simplistic plot? Why throw in supposed solutions in just a few pages in the last chapter? Rather than being totally negative -- why not take a more positive view?

Crichton claims (in the last paragraph) that he knows all the answers to environmental problems. He took the easy approach and simply attacked every other idea. He could have set himself a real challenge -- and written a more readable book -- with a positive approach to his ideas of solutions...

In the final chapter, Crichton sets the protagonist and his partner a challenge, to run an effective environmental support group. Now that sounds like the basis for a good book: Set up the group, tackle a major environmental issue, face challenges -- and overcome them!

I compared Crichton to Heinlein. Crichton states his views, insults the reader and throws in a lot of unbelievable action. Heinlein states his views -- and has his characters implement them. If Crichton had done that he could have made his points -- very strongly -- and written a more enjoyable book.

For Us, the Living / Robert A. Heinlein

For Us, the Living

(category: science fiction)
by

Robert A. Heinlein

published by Scribner in 2004, but written in 1939
Nick read a library book, in April 2010

Nick's rating: 6 out of 10

Nick's opinion:

This book is of historical interest for fans of Heinlein... A treatise on how society should be and an early taste of Heinlein's preachy style. In 1939 the book was unpublishable; that obstacle has been overcome because Heinlein is now dead and famous.

Okay, I admit it: I skipped over great chunks of the book. I read some large chunks of ground-rules for a Heinlein utopia, then jumped a long way forward. Here's how it seems to go:

Modern (1939) hero leaps forward 150 years, to a perfect world. Various characters spend a lot of time explaining how their utopia works. Hero gets over his atavistic impulses, gets the girl, gets the other girl. Then -- in this perfect world -- the hero perfects rocket power and flies off to the moon.

What?!

Yes... In this perfect utopia of 2086, it is the hero from the USA of 1939 who has the nous and ability to perfect futuristic rocket technology. Heinlein describes utopia with one fault: the people are so boring and bland that they seem unable to develop their own technology..

So what is the message? Utopia is great but people of today's dystopia are so much more capable? Interesting, really: as the US heads towards WW II, Heinlein is scathing of its economy, its politics, its prudery, its crime. But he still sees the 1939 american male as being the be-all and end-all of heroic and successful endeavour.

An interesting book... mainly for its insight into the author.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes & documents, email nick leth at gmail dot com.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Other Stories / Washington Irving

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Other Stories

(category: collection)
by

Washington Irving

published by Dover Publications in 2008
(stories were written between 1820 and 1824)
Nick read a library book, in March 2010

Nick's rating: 7 out of 10

Nick's opinion:

When I spotted this book in the library I thought, it's about time to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The name and basic concept were familiar -- from the Disney cartoon. I had never seen more than excerpts from the cartoon but neither had I read anything of the original story. I prefer to read; here was my chance to catch up with a classic.

Sleepy Hollow is quite fun: a view into life in a particular part of early America, characters exaggerated but with some sympathy, humour that may have faded with age. Several of the other stories are written in a similar style (though mostly with less humour). Slow reading due to the somewhat convoluted writing style of the time. A nice appreciation of the beauties of Nature.

Some of the stories are, in fact, essays: descriptions and opinions rather than plot and character. The Mutability of Literature, written in 1820, is fascinating -- for its relevance to today.

In Mutability, Irving has a conversation with an old book. They discuss the way in which books -- ideas and literature -- fade with time, as people stop reading those older books. Why do these old books get forgotten? Because they are replaced -- in the reader's attention -- by new books. Irving points out that this process has sped up since the invention of the fast-printing, movable type, printing press. And what is happening today? Instant "publishing" via the Internet, causing yesterday's ideas to be overwritten, faster than ever. An interesting insight into today, from almost 200 years ago!

I enjoyed each story but could only read them slowly. The wordy style combined with the difference from my usual fare, slowed me down. There are still five stories unread but I have reached the limit of allowed library borrowing. It's disappointing -- I really would like to find out what is in the final stories -- but this good book will now return back to the library.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes & documents, email nick leth at gmail dot com.