Category: books

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

A few years ago I wrote a book called Data Munging with Perl. Many reviewers were kind enough to say very nice things about it. One reviewer who was particularly nice was Gregory Wilson who said things like I write Python differently having read this book, and expect that the average Java or C# programmer… Continue reading Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

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Vernon God Little by DB Pierre

Amazon link This is book seven in my attempt to read fifty books in 2005. Another Booker Prize winner and another book I really didn’t enjoy. But whilst I can understand why people like the Rushdie, I can’t see any redeeming qualities in this book at all. The plot is predictable and the characters are… Continue reading Vernon God Little by DB Pierre

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Amazon link This is book six in my attempt to read fifty books in 2005. Rushdie is one of those authors who I really want to like. Many people think he is one of the most important writers of the late 20th century. Like many people, the first of his books that I attempted was… Continue reading Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

The Time-Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Amazon link This is book five in my attempt to read fifty books in 2005. In many ways this is a lot like Slaughterhouse Five. Henry DeTamble is adrift in time in much the same way as Billy Pilgrim but although she starts with a similar premise to Vonnegut, Niffenegger’s novel turns out very differently.… Continue reading The Time-Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Anyone You Want Me To Be by John Douglas and Steven Singular

Amazon link This is book four in my attempt to read fifty books in 2005. Here’s a good rule of thumb for choosing true crime books. Anything that is endorsed on the cover by Patricia Cornwall has a very good chance of being almost unreadable. On the front cover of this book Cornwall is quoted… Continue reading Anyone You Want Me To Be by John Douglas and Steven Singular

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Amazon link This is book three in my attempt to read fifty books in 2005. Now this is more like it. I was getting a bit jaded after the first two books, but this is much more to my taste. Strong hints of transexuality (or is that transexualism) in the first sentence followed by incest… Continue reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Amazon Link This is number two in my attempt to read fifty books this year. It was certainly a very simple read. The prose is very plain. I’m told that this is part of its charm, but I find it hard not to see it as a limitation of the author. It’s not that I… Continue reading The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad

Amazon link Guess what? Life in Afganistan under the Taliban was a bit shit. Particularly if you were a woman. And since the Taliban have gone it’s only got a little bit better. Seierstad spent a few months living with a family in Kabul soon after the Taliban were removed and this is her interpretation… Continue reading The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad