Sunday, July 27

Sorted Books Project


BLURB:

"The Sorted Books project began in 1993 years ago and is ongoing. The project has taken place in many different places over the years, ranging form private homes to specialized public book collections. The process is the same in every case: culling through a collection of books, pulling particular titles, and eventually grouping the books into clusters so that the titles can be read in sequence, from top to bottom. The final results are shown either as photographs of the book clusters or as the actual stacks themselves, shown on the shelves of the library they were drawn from. Taken as a whole, the clusters from each sorting aim to examine that particular library's focus, idiosyncrasies, and inconsistencies — a cross-section of that library's holdings."

REVIEW:

Admittedly, this has been reviewed quite a bit on other websites - the creative and quirky arranging of books to form a story or message when one reads the book's titles from top to bottom. (My personal favourite is shown above). Nina Katchadourian is the person responsible for starting this ingenuis project, and the combinations are always very clever - you sort of wonder how she comes up with them! The range of photographs of these 'sorted books' is really something you have to see for yourself - click the link at the start of this post.

I discovered I could make my own pile of 'sorted books' by raiding my mum's library and adding one book of my own to the stack, with the following result:

RATING:
Many combinations made me chuckle. Some were just very smartly done. Others, I could hardly read. 4 STARS for the site, but 5 STARS for the idea...guess I should give this one 4.5 STARS.

Saturday, July 19

"The Andromeda Strain" - Michael Crichton


BLURB:
"Five prominent biophysicists have set up the Wildfire Project, to investigate the frightening possibilities of a biological emergency. They send an urgent warning to the President of the United States, that sterilization procedures for returning space probes may not be adequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere.
Two years later, Project Scoop sends seventeen satellites into the fringes of outer space to 'collect organisms and dust for study'. But the real aim of the mission is kept secret - they have been sent to discover new biological weapons of war.
Then in the middle of the night, one of the probe satellites from Project Scoop crashes onto the tiny town of Piedmont, in northeastern Arizona. Soon after, all but two of the inhabitants are found dead from a strange disease that dried the very blood in their veins and caused death in minutes...The Andromeda Strain.
Time is running out for the scientists...they must discover the biological link between the two survivors and trace what is causing the horrifying virus. For they know it is only a matter of time before it will spread through their country, killing millions, and only they have the knowledge to stop it from doing so..."
REVIEW:
I particularly enjoyed Crichton's "Prey" and "Timeline" - I liked how they managed to combine suspense and science (hence the 'techno-thriller' genre) and how they seemed to read like I was watching a movie. So I mooched this one from Book Mooch and ended up reading it in a day.
From my point of view, it seemed quite different from the Crichton books I'd read previously. Whereas the others interspersed passages of science and technology with action-driven scenes, The Andromeda Strain was very heavy on the science, to the point where the entire book seemed like one long explanation.
However, it was saved from sounding like a textbook by the fascinating sense of mystery that ran throughout the novel right up to the final chapters. The reading experience was almost like a book Agatha Christie may have written if she had a PhD in science. From my perspective, it was also saved by focusing on the area of science I'm most interested in and know comparatively the most about - that is, biology (rather than chemistry or physics). To someone utterly uninterested in the world of science, this would undoubtedly be the most boring book in the universe. However for someone who actually wants to pursue science as a career path, and hence actually understood approximately one-tenth of the science jargon mentioned in the book, the story was fascinating and I couldn't wait to get to the end and have the mystery solved.
The ending was classic Crichton, with an actionable ticking-clock climax and the hero racing to save the day, however the solving of the 'mystery' wasn't entirely satisfying. Still, it was a good read and I'm glad I managed to get hold of it.
RATING:
The science was interesting, the mystery was intriguing, but the lack of action was irritating. 3 STARS

Saturday, July 12

Mental Floss T-Shirts




BLURB:
"Mental Floss - feel smart again!"
REVIEW:
An online store full of T-shirts with the best slogans I've ever seen. The problem is, almost all involve geek humour. And I get almost all of them. This is just further confirmation that I am a geek. And I couldn't be more proud!
RATING:
Where else could you find a T shirt with Gregor Mendel's head on it? ("Gregor Mendel: Giving Peas a Chance since 1856!") 5 STARS

Wednesday, July 9

Svalbard - Wikipedia



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard

BLURB:
"Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean north of mainland Europe, about midway between Norway and the North Pole. It consists of a group of islands ranging from 74° to 81° North, and 10° to 35° East. The archipelago is the northernmost part of Norway. Three islands are populated: Spitsbergen, Bear Island and Hopen. The largest settlement is Longyearbyen. The Svalbard Treaty recognises Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard and the 1925 Svalbard Act makes Svalbard a full part of the Norwegian Kingdom."

REVIEW:
I'd never heard of Svalbard until today! While perusing a world map and looking at various little islands and forgotten countries, I found a place called Svalbard, and as I do whenever I want to find out more about something, I hit Wikipedia.
Who knew that Svalbard has a doomsday seed vault bank to store seeds from as many of the world's crop varieties and their botanical wild relatives as possible? Or that it has a unique road sign warning people about polar bears over all of Svalbard? It sounds mighty chilly, too, with an average summer temperature of 5°C and in winter, −12 °C.

I didn't know all of this, and I'm going to blame the stupid curriculum in place for educating Australian students about history and geography. It seems that Australia is (once again) mimicking America in thinking that most of the stuff outside of Australia and it's immediate neighbours doesn't really matter. In grades 9 and 10, we only study Australian history (a lot of which is usless - 'Australian Life between 1900 and 1920'. Try finding books about that, it's almost impossible!) and Australian geography (which isn't really geography as most people know it - we learn about coastal ecosystems and...I can't even remember what else, but certainly not where in the world stuff is.) I feel so ignorant not knowing basic facts that my parents' generation know - I only found out recently who actually won World War 2 (I had a rough idea though) and for a long time I thought Rome was a country. Despite this, I was runner-up dux of my grade in year 10.

Of course, there's nothing stopping me getting my own education about worldly facts via the Internet. But who could be bothered to do that unless they had a piqued interest in world history and geography? Not me.

I'm not saying every Australian student should learn about Svalbard, though. However it was interesting.

RATING: Wikipedia is, more often than not, biased and inaccurate. But I learnt about Svalbard. 3 STARS

Saturday, July 5

"Ella Minnow Pea" - Mark Dunn


BLURB:
"Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram,* “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl’s fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere."
REVIEW:
I can't quite remember how I stumbled upon this book. I think it may have been a popular one on BookMooch, and I heard about it from there. But it doesn't really matter how I found it - I did, and thanks to a Borders voucher, got 20% off, paying only $10.30 for this book! Bargain!
Thankfully, it was one of my better purchases. However strange this sounds, I don't often go out and buy books if I've never read the book or the author before. I always try and secure 'unknown' books through other means, whether it's the library or BookMooch or borrowing from friends. I hate the moment you realise that you've spent some of your hard-earned money on something you don't like, and that it was a waste (makes me feel cheated somehow). So I'm usually a very careful buyer.
This was a refreshing exception and I enjoyed this novel very much (only problem is it was over too soon!) It was incredibly clever, witty, imaginative and creative, while also telling a story with a decent plot at the same time. It was also quite amusing at times with occasional completely random comments thrown in to the letters between island inhabitants ("I got lime gelatin!"). Upon reading this book I couldn't help but marvel at the author's broad knowledge and mastery of the English language, who almost effortlessly (it seems) continued the tale even after being denied certain letters (it got interesting when 'D' was forbidden...and again when 'U' went).
RATING:
I'm glad I picked this up. It's the most unique book I've read in a long time. 5 STARS

Tuesday, July 1

"The Phantom of the Opera" - Gaston Leroux


BLURB:
"The lights dim at the Paris Opera House. The exquisite Christine Daae enraptures the audience with her mellifluous voice. Immediately, Raoul de Chagny falls deeply in love. But the legend of the disfigured "opera ghost" haunts the performance, and as Raoul begins his pursuit of Christine, he is pulled into the depths of the opera house, and into the depths of human emotions. Soon Raoul discovers that the ghost is real and that he wields a terrifying power over Christine--a power as unimaginable as the ghost's masked face. As Raoul and the ghost vie for Christine's love, a journey begins into the dark recesses of the human heart, where desire, vulnerability, fear, and violence unravel in a tragic confrontation."
REVIEW:
I love the stage show and absolutely adore the 2004 movie, and while I was well aware that the actual novel is NOT the same as the Andrew Lloyd-Webber creations, and that it is an older book written in Gothic style, I was still expecting to be caught up in that rather charming way you often do (or maybe it's just me...there's a weird thought) when reading a book written in an older style. I don't do it often; I'm a girl who likes the gloss of big-budget Hollywood movies, slick and polished studio CDs, and modern books. (With a few exceptions of course, "Jennie" by Paul Gallico is a slightly older book and I love it to bits).
But back on track. I eagerly dove into this story and was swept up in the enchanting tale of the mysterious Opera Ghost. For the first few chapters I happily read the story that inspired the stage and film adaptations I love so much. Yes, it was different, but still quite good and it was interesting spotting all the similarities and differences.
Then, after about the first quarter of the book, the charm started wearing off. Especially the descriptions of Raoul. I'm not a fan of Raoul anyway, in either the stage or movie production, but in the book (even though he's the one the readers are supposed to be backing, not the phantom!) he was even more cowardly, weak and insipid than anywhere else. It seemed on every other page he was bursting into tears and whining about Christine. At one point it became intriguing, as Raoul was mysteriously found one morning almost dead and unconscious in a cemetary, and as he recounted what happened I was expecting him to say something like "I had a brief sense of the opera ghost stealthily creeping up behind me - the next minute, I felt a devastating blow to the back of my head - then blackness." No, it was much less exciting than that. It was "I saw the opera ghost, and he looked so terrifying that I fainted and nearly froze to death." He fainted because the ghost looked scary. Grow some guts, Raoul!
Even besides the frustratingly insipid Raoul, by the time I was halfway through the novel, I was sighing and wishing it was over. I flicked through the second half and noticed nothing much else that might attract my attention. What a pity.
RATING:
This one's going straight back onto the shelf, and I'll stick with my beloved movie and the memory of the time I saw it on stage. Admittedly, a lot of my dislike is probably simply due to my dislike of the genre, and not the book as a whole. But this is my review site, so I can give it whatever rating I want. 1 STAR

Emotional Inanimate Objects - i can has cheezburger

BLURB:
I can has cheezburger.com is an Internet phenomenon. Many people have already heard of 'lolcat' pictures: find a funny picture (usually of a cat but can be anything really) and add a caption spelled in 'lolspeak' (a kind of pidgin English that mocks the poor spelling and grammar of many on the Internet).

REVIEW:
I love lolcats. I love cats and I like laughing, so the two go well together, and sometimes people think of the wittiest captions for pictures, turning them from "Hey, that's cute," into "Hey, that's funny!"
However, while browsing the site renowned for the creation and distribution of lolcat pictures, I discovered that the three pictures that made me laugh the most weren't of cats at all. They were inanimate objects with feelings.

Humorous Pictures
more cat pictures

funny pictures
more cat pictures

Humorous Pictures
more cat pictures

They cracked me up.

RATING:
Hilarious site if you're able to appreciate the humour of lolcats. 5 STARS.