R.I.P. Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007

Damn, I just began discovering Kurt Vonnegut, and I learned today that he died yesterday. I'm reading Cat's cradle at the moment and I'm enjoying it very much.

He seemed to be a very interesting character who had an unusual journey in life; prisoner of war during WWII, student, police reporter, teacher, worked for General Electric in public relations, graphic artist, Honorary President of the American Humanist Association and more importantly a very influential writer with a unique voice. Make sure you read the entry Wikipedia has on him.

Blindsight by Peter Watts

Illustration: Thomas Pringle

I've just finished reading the excellent hard SF novel Blindsight by Peter Watts. It's basically a first-contact story between an alien entity and a crew of freaks. The crew is composed by a linguist with multiple personalities, a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultra-sounds, a pacifist warrior whose career-defining moment was an act of treason, a synthesist (an informational topologist with half his mind gone) and a vampire to command them all.

The book has been released under a Creative Commons license and is available to download as a PDF file here. I'm going to buy that book for sure, it's probably the best hard SF novel I have read in a long time.

www.rifters.com

Towel Day for Douglas Adams

Today is Towel Day to honor the memory of the regreted Douglas Adams. Basicaly, you have to carry a towel with you all day to show your support. For more info, please click on the banner.

My 1984 book in Peru

Hahaha ! I've just received an email telling me that the book 1984 by George Orwell I've released in the wild was now in Peru. For those who don't know about BookCrossing, you can compare it to an everchanging virtual worldwide library. You release or catch a book in the wild, then enter a journal about it on the website. After you are done with the book, you release it in the wild again.

You can read the travel log of that book on BookCrossing.com.

Hurray for Amazon.com !

I know, this is a shameless plug, but I love Amazon.com. I received Choke by Chuck Palahniuk and Count Zero by William Gibson today. Both books are second hand books (or second eyes), but Choke looks like it's new (I'm pretty sure nobody read it). What a bargain ! It's pretty hard for me to find good english book around here (I mean used ones). If you want, you can see my bookshelf here. I highly recommend bookcrossing.com, it's a great idea if you want to share your books with the world and follow the trip they take.

Right now I'm doing my laundry at the L'avoir-vu (well, my cloth are there and I'm in my flat). The weird old couple with their "vieux garçon" son are there again. The women never shuts up and both the man and the son seem bored to death. I'm having a glass of Wolf Blass 2002, a Shiraz from Australia, I love that wine.

Tonight I might go to the Salons d'Edgard for supper. The week has been pretty crazy and I need to go out to let some steam out.

The orientation of book covers

I've only noticed that last night while looking at my bookshelf... French and english books have a different way of presenting the cover. It's kinda hard to explain. On the french ones, when the book is on a table (front cover facing up), the slice of the book is written upside down. With the english books, the slice is written the "right" way.

I don't know why it's like that, but I'd like to know. The french and english librarians must have the neck muscles developped in different ways, just by the way they are tilting their heads while looking at a bookshelf...