Books

Real page turner. Stick fairly close to selected episodes of the television series, sometimes to the point that having seen/read one ruins most of the fun one gets from the other. Suffers from the Pratchett curse: funny beginning followed by a less entertaining disentaglement of the story. Still I was mostly entertained by it.

Funny and informative, though I don't agree with everything she writes.

Book about the Italian stereotype. Mildly funny.

Småkul lättläst bok om diverse faktabitar.

A book reflecting on the value of reading. It contains only one fleshed out character, with the rest being about sole deep. The book prizes the value of reading above just about any other – with writing as a possible exception – and much of the book is simply the Queen having a monologue about the subject. All in all it comes of as somewhat pandering to an audience that already obviously reads.

Det är en bok gjord efter en måttligt framgångsrik hemsida. Den är som hemsidan, bara det att man inte kan leta upp guldklimparna själv. Vet ej varför någon tyckte att det skulle bli en bra bok, men det är väl lite lättsam läsning man kan ha framme för eventuella uttråkade gäster.

En intressant historiebok som lyckades hålla min uppmärksamhet.

Interesting sci-fi book about the building of a wonder of the future: the space elevator. Nicely thought out and put together.

Finished Christmas 2013.

I can't claim to have the necessary know-how to understand all that is written in this book yet, but it has given me quite a few pointers that I think will prove useful.

Finished February 2014

The book sits uneasily between the chairs of a comedy, a fan fic, a sci-fi novel, and a who-dun-it. The book started out quite funny, but the ceaseless references to 'Three men in a boat' about midway through brought it down. The irrational time travel was ultimately handwaved by the author, which was sad considering the extend to which she tried to explain it.

Sadly, 'To say nothing of the dog' peaked early and the rest was just the plot running its course.

Finished March 2014

Ciaphas Cain is a bit one dimensional and repetitive, but the book is a real page turner and improves in the latter half. Somewhat predictable: I found myself figuring out plot twists and the like some 50 pages before the book revealed them. Still enjoyable though.

Finished April 2014.

Very predictable all the way through – well I didn't guess the big bad until they mentioned the gray stone but otherwise I had the story pretty much figured out well before it came to pass. Still a page turner and still some entertainment value. Once again it got more exciting towards the end.

Finished April 2014.

I read the Swedish translation "Död man i Deptford".

Farsinerande språkbruk olikt något jag tidigare läst på svenska. Ger även en vad som tycks mig vara en god inblick i reformationens England. Välskriven men bitvis tråkig och jag hade ibland svårt att följa med i replikerna då Burgess ofta utelämnade vem det var som fällde en kommentar. Jag antar att det skulle framgå av situationen och citatets innehåll, men vid längre replikskiften kunde det bli svårt. Gav dock mersmak; jag skulle gärna läsa fler texter som behandlar svenskan på samma sätt som översättaren lyckades med i denna roman.

Avslutad April 2014.

Youthbook that failed to grab me. I'd come across most of the concepts in this sifi book previously in media and I didn't really care about any of the characters. Still it was mildly entertaining and well written, so I found it passable, though I expected better from Gaiman.

Finished Autumn 2014.

Simple and clear. Seems usefull though my own personal lack of experience in the field makes it hard for me to judge.

Finished Autumn 2014.

En intressant och välskriven bok om dagern Kina från ett politiskt perspektiv. Ola dyker ned ett flertal aspekter av det kinesiska samhället och kulturen; han blandar ett övergripande makroperspektiv med personliga berättelser och intervjuer på gräsrotsnivå likt en skicklig journalist – vilket kan vara passande när man är journalist till yrket.

Boken gav mig en bättre förståelse för det moderna Kina.

Avslutad November 2014

Kort och koncists om kulturella skillnader mellan Sverige och Kina. Skulle vara betydligt kortare om inte för alla bilder och stilistiska val. "Exactly what it says on the tin" + stock photographs och anekdoter. Saknar djup.

Avslutad December 2014

A somewhat interesting book about human irrationality, as seen from the perspective of an economist. The Upside of Irrationality is personal than The Honest Truth About Dishonesty as it delves further into the accident which left Dan with sever burns on a large part of his body, an event which came to shape his life. The research is varied though kept at a fairly shallow level. The content does not tie in to the title especially strongly; the main ties are based on using knowledge about our irrational nature to circumvent the pitfalls it causes us. All in all it was an interesting read, and hopefully I'll remember some of the lessons it taught me.

Finished December 2014

En serie reportage skrivna av journalisten Lars Berge. De är välskrivna men den röda tråden är inte särskilt stark, vilket gör att det mest känns som att läsa ett gäng längre artiklar i en tidning. Han är tydligt vänster (S) samt tycks ha en släng Stockholmsförakt men överlag så är reportagen intressanta.

Avslutad Februari 2016
(Har jag verkligen inte läst en bok för nöjes skull på ett helt år? Påbörjade denna i början på januari)

A bunch of small opinion pieces on various ethical issues we face in the modern world. Excellent reading during my daily commute since they are bite sized. However, it is the sort of thing I've gotten used to reading online for free, so it wasn't quite what I had hoped for (which would have been a work that had a more thorough and academic approach). Still, I mostly enjoyed this little peek into the mind of Peter Singer.

Finished 1 May 2017

En bilderbok för unga vuxna, med fina teckningar av gudar, gudinnor samt andra varelser från nordisk mytologi. Till dessa bilder tillkommer text som presenterar den avbildade varelsen och kanske slänger in en berättelse eller två om den, i regel i mycket kortfattad version. Språket känns ibland något åldrat, vilket jag mest ser som något positivt, men yngre läsare kanske inte uppskattar. Dock så skulle jag säga att huvudpoängen med denna bok är bilderna, att man eventuellt kan fylla i en lucka eller två vad gäller ens bildning är mest en bonus.

Avslutad Januari 2019

I stort sett stämmer mina åsikter om denna överens med dem jag hade gällande Nordiska Gudar: bilderna är fina och utgör det största värdet med boken; texterna kompletterar dessa och ger en en viss bakgrund, men den är torftig. I slutändan tycker jag fortfarande om dessa böcker.

Avslutad Februari 2019

Läste "Om krigets konst" (1996), inte denna utgåva.

Intressant bok om militär strategi och taktik, blandat med lite mer vardagsnära observationer. En del håller nog än, även om vissa delar nog skulle behöva justeras rätt kraftigt för att fortfarande gälla i modern tid.

Vissa satser tycks självklara, andra tycks motsäga varandra, och vissa metaforer kan vara svåra att följa, då de tycks anspela på den kunskap och världsbild som man hade i Kina på den här tiden. Tolkandet av dessa underlättas ofta av de kommentarer som Jan har lagt in vid många av teserna — ibland egna förtydliganden och exempel, bland andras. Ibland kan dessa kommentarer te sig överflödiga, och vid ett fåtal tillfällen tycktes de motsäga Sun Tzus ord, men i regel var de hjälpsamma.

Jag tror i slutändan att denna bok även idag har en del att ge till en officer, eller annan person i liknande position.

Avslutad 30 Mars 2019

A tour de force by Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby. Terry's story is funny and imaginative borrowing liberally from history but ever with an eye for the absurd. It is more condensed than his purely text based books, but that also helps keep the steam up, something which I know I've found lacking in his books previously.

Paul's images carries the borderline trademark style that I've come to relate with Discworld over the years. The book is beautifully drawn and practically oozes character throughout. I really couldn't imagine anyone doing a better job at bringing Discworld to life in image form.

The talents of Terry and Paul comes together to form glorious whole, and it is a jewel in my Terry Pratchett collection.

Finished 3 April 2019

Sometimes educational, sometimes funny, but I don't think it gained much from using an extremely limited vocabulary—aside from some gags. It was the biggest problem I had with the book, and it made it difficult to learn new things and concepts. I found that without the proper names, I had nothing to anchor the concept to in my memory, hampering actual learning.

On the other hand, it was occasionally fun to see how he chose to name and explain concepts I already was familiar with; sometimes it led to comedy, and sometimes it gave me a new perspective on things. There were also some pretty clear visual explanations that did help when the words failed.

On the whole, not a great book, but it did what it set out to do.

Finished 16 April 2019

Olalla is a Gothic horror novella by the acclaimed author Robert Louis Stevenson (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Treasure Island). This novella may be intended to be horror, but it's not particularly scary. It is very much of its time, and the ideas that the story is built around are no longer widely accepted.

Central to the story are ideas of civilisation vs barbarism, and and evolutionary ideas about races and evolution. The protagonist is depicted as the ideal British gentleman, a representative of the civilised world. This is juxtapositioned against the degenerate nature of the rural Spanish nobility that houses him.

The language is flowery and (as can be expected) rather dated. Ultimately, I found that the story didn't have much by means of horror. What was, was brief and quickly over with. The characters didn't feel like real people, but rather as one dimensional, prejudiced, stereotypes of people. I didn't really get emotionally attached to anyone; thus, all in all, I wouldn't say I found the novella to be particularly good.

The ideas of race and degeneracy leaves rather a bad taste in ones mouth when thinking about what was to come. That being said, I do find it interesting to get a glimpse of the worldviews and ideas that people in different times and places held, and in this light I did get some enjoyment from the novella.


Finished 30 April 2019

The summer birds is the first book in the Aviary Hall series of books about the Makepeace sisters, Charlotte and Emma.

The language feels a bit old fashioned, though perhaps it wasn't for its time. That said, I liked it. When I first started reading the book, I thought she overdid it with the adverbs; as I began reading the book anew after a break, I didn't really feel the same way. Farmer also had an ability to write so sensually, that I almost felt as though I were there myself. I would say that this is what I liked the most about this book.

The story has a bit of a Peter Pan vibe. Not very inventive, perhaps, but it kept me entertained.

The characters where often presented with their traits, something which I know is frowned upon among authors (show, don't tell), but that may be excused in a children's book. The traits were at least accurate, and the children felt real: acting as one could imagine a child would act, reasoning as a child would reason.

Overall. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the book, and would heartily recommend it to young children and adults who never quite grew up.


Finished 1 June 2019

A retelling of many of the Norse myths. I had come across all of them already from other sources, and these seemed not to stray particularly far from their original form.

It was fun to read Neil Gaiman's take on the stories, but it didn't really add much. The writing was competent, but felt a bit uninspired.

Overall, the greatest take away this book gave me was the very concept of retelling stories using ones own voice, something I can definitely see the value in.

(As an aside, I've noticed that Neil likes the phrase '[several] expressions chased each other across [name]'s face').

Finished early July 2019

An art book showcasing the concept art of Yoshitaka Amano for the first three of the Final Fantasy games, between 1987 and 1990.

The quality of the images and—I believe—paper are good, showing off the the art well. There's hardly any text, except for the occasional character name, which makes for a very clean look with a high focus on the art; although I wouldn't have minded if Yoshitaka had shared the odd thought or memory pertaining to some of them every once in a while.

Most of the illustration in this book is pure ink work, which he is quite skilled at. As the book proceeds he start to work more with colour, and his use of colour is very vibrant and aestetically pleasing.

I have a fondness for the art of Yoshitaka Amano, which I find distinct, dynamic and imaginative. I have to some extent grown up with his art by playing the games in my childhood and youth, which no doubt is partly responsible for my fondness for his oevre.

I find his work inspiring, and will no doubt try to draw some of his drawings and dabble with using his style as best as I can. This is no doubt a book I will come back to every once in a while.

Finished 16 August 2019