Author: Richard
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Three very short book reviews
Apparently a homage to Howards End, On Beauty is the story of a washed out English professor, his family, his deadly rival and how it all breaks down deliciously. Its sexier than Smith’s other books, but has the usual lyrical writing you want to nick. Recommended.
The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen
The story of each member of the Lambert family, and the story of their family. Hilarious, touching and close to the bone. Recommended.
The Hours – Micheal Cunningham
A short, dense book with three women going about a single day. A kind of companion novel to Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, the stories combine and mirror one another – probably requires a re-read. Recommended.
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Book review – A Fraction Of The Whole – Steve Toltz
If this review was AFOTW, it would be 1500 words long and mention books I’d read as a lad, books my uncle read, and books I might read in the future. At 700 pages, you could say this novel is a ramble, and sustaining the tone and pace over that length is challenging, to say the least, says he who’s never attempted writing a novel. AFOTW has some charming and not so charming characters, and a whole lot of earthy Australian humor and turn of phase, which I enjoyed immensely. Toltz wields a metaphor like a man that really knows his way to the loo in the dark (see what I did there?). Unfortunately, I thought large chunks of the text did nothing to drive the plot along, and having just been burnt by A Man In Full, I like a plot that’s driven along. I greatly admire the ambition and humanity in AFOTW, but would have appreciated a thorough edit.
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April Fool
I’d been waiting for April Fools for a while in my place of work – here’s my AFD effort, a bit OTT, but I enjoyed it.
We release our first Great White to a cabinet
01 April 2010Today we announced the release of our first Great White Shark to one of our cabinets.As part of our CSR commitments, we’re bringing sharks to most towns and cities of over 500 people.“You’ve heard of Ultra Fast Broadband – well this is UFP – Ultra Fast Predators! Ha Ha! Hahahahahaha!” said a spokesman, who didn’t give their name.
The new cabinets feature a layer of salt water with capacity for everything from Great Whites to Makos. Chorus technicians will feed the new cabinet residents a diet of fish while making routine repairs. There is capacity for access seekers to house their own sharks if they wish.
Here’s a sample of the first shark’s Twitter feed:
@bitey – crumbs. Sorry about that lol
about a minute ago@bitey – It’s OK, found something to eat
about five minutes ago@bitey – really hungry.
about two hours ago@bitey – Hungry
about three hours agoThis Great White, nicknamed ‘bitey’ by its trainers, is enjoying the urban environment. His hobbies include flesh eating and swimming.
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Firefighting with James Cameron
“We have a big fire problem here,” he said. He mentioned that he has his own pump house. “We take the pool water, mix it with Class A foam, and pump it out over the whole property. Everybody else just runs for the hills.” He threw his hands up and did a squeaky voice. “ ‘Oh, my God!’ We sit and wait. Put on our yellow coats and our breathing gear and wait. And, you know what? It’s impressive. When these hills light up with a hundred-foot-tall wall of flames coming over the top of the hill there, you feel like it’s Armageddon.”
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Font capture
Fontcapture makes an honest to goodness font out of your handwriting. It’s actually quite a weird feeling to see a whole page of your writing you didn’t write.
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The Jobs home
Gizmodo has a kind of silly article about Steve Jobs’ house.
I prefer to think of it like this, sat on the floor with just a lamp and a kick arse stereo.
