Category: Books

As I mentioned, I’m in the middle of a project to read the first six of Stephen King’s Dark Tower books in time to be ready when the seventh and final volume is published in mid-September. I’m pleased to report that it’s going well: I finished the fifth volume, Wolves of the Calla, late last night (which provoked some weird and wonderful dreams!), and this evening I picked up a copy of Song of Susannah. At this rate I’ll be done well before September 21st, even allowing for a week in England between now and then. The trip to England – specifically to Oxford – will, of course, include at least one visit to Blackwell’s bookshop in Broad Street, pictured here. I definitely won’t run short of reading material….

A few weeks ago I decided that it was time to start reading Stephen King’s epic series The Dark Tower. I figured that if I timed it just right I’d be ready to start on the final, seventh volume when it’s published on September 18th. So far things are on track: I’m half way through Wizard and Glass, the fourth volume in the series. Volume 5, Wolves of the Calla, is sitting on the table, ready and waiting. And I’m enjoying the whole project immensely.
Oddly, I’ve never been a great reader of Stephen King until this year. I don’t enjoy horror for its own sake, in literature or film. (A couple of days ago I started watching the movie of Dreamcatcher on TV and wound up turning it off and walking away. The image of a guy sitting on a blood-spattered toilet seat trying to stop a monster from getting out just didn’t appeal to me.) Now this may seem odd, since I’m a huge fan of Clive Barker: I think that Imajica is a true masterpiece, even if Barker’s version of Dante’s Inferno includes many fearsome monstrosities. It works because it’s a great story. Whatever the genre, first there has to be a story, and too much horror fiction subordinates narrative to adrenaline. (Frankly, I though that The Silence of the Lambs was unwatchable.)
I came to Stephen King via George R. Stewart. His classic 1949 novel Earth Abides posed some deep questions about the nature of “civilization” through the device of a plague that wipes out most of humanity. After reading it, I was curious how Stephen King had used the same idea in The Stand. Instead of philosophy, I found a fragment of an epic, apocalyptic story. Only a fragment: there were clearly many chapters preceding and following what I was reading (even if it was 1200 pages long). After this, I read The Green Mile, and I was hooked.
So the time is right. I’m usually a fast reader, but I think I can pace myself. By early September I’ll be ready for Song of Susannah, and then The Dark Tower itself.

Vacation reading: Sock, by Penn Jillette. Brilliant. New York, sex, rock’n’roll, murder and philosophy chanelled by a sock monkey. Read it.

I’ve just posted a review on Amazon.com of Autonomic Computing by Richard Murch. Yes, I know it’s an IBM Press publication, so dial up your “self-serving bullshit” filters – but not too high. Overall this is a really useful book. While it’s targeted at CIOs and their staffs (folks who have read, and bought into, the Autonomic Computing Manifesto), it’s not afraid to dive the details and point at source code to back up the architectural diagrams. It discusses what’s going on in the research community and what competitors (including Sun) are up to. And I like the way the author models “customer maturity”; the readiness and ability of customers to take up some of the things described in the book. I disagree with some of his numbers, but without this kind of model the temptation to believe one’s own propaganda is irresistible.
There are a few goofs (mobile agents? please, no), as well as some yawning gaps (systems modelling and policy languages). And while it’s reasonable to skip the IBM-heavy business stuff at the front on a first reading, don’t put the book away without going back to it. In particular, don’t skip chapter 2, on the costs of complexity. As I noted in an earlier blog entry, simplicity and staying on topic is key.
Recommended.

As some of you will know, I’m professionally involved in service oriented architecture, distributed computing, web services, and stuff like that. So you shouldn’t be surprised that I posted a review of Thomas Erl’s Service-Oriented Architecture : A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services over at Amazon.com. Since all reviews become the property of Amazon, I’ll let you go and read it yourself. Or I can tell you that the title of my review was “A thoroughly misleading title; useful for a limited purpose”, and let you draw your own conclusions.

“The crew numbered nearly a hundred and served a dozen or so guests, who had come from Britain via Paris, where they had stayed at the Ritz.” From A Peace To End All Peace by David Fromkin.
Posted in accordance with Dave’s instructions:

1. Grab the nearest book,
2. open it to page 23,
3. find the 5th sentence,
4. post its text along with these instructions,
5. point back to where you got the idea so that we can follow the threads.

Once again I’m in California, this time for a conference of Sun’s software engineering leadership. Despite the constant phone and video conferences, there’s no substitute for getting a bunch of peers together in one place for long enough to meet new people, eavesdrop on interesting conversations, and reinforce long-time relationships. While the trend may be towards highly distributed teams and working from home, management ignores the importance of face-to-face contact and social interactions at their peril….
This evening I went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. I was a bit nervous because of Stephanie Zacharek’s bittersweet review in Salon.com, but I needn’t have worried: I absolutely loved it. This review by Mike McGranaghan captures it perfectly. Highly recommended.
I’ve also been reading Richard Clarke’s Against All Enemies. (There are far too many essential political books coming out these days. Perhaps it’s all a conspiracy by the publishers!) Clarke and his book have occasioned much debate this week, including flaming to the ombudsman of the New York Times by many people (including your’s truly). As I’ve read it, I’ve been struck by four things. First, it’s the first book I’ve read that pulls together the terrorist-related events of the last 15 years into a coherent narrative. Second, an awful lot of stuff went on during the Clinton presidency that was almost ignored because of the scandal-mongering of The Vast Right-wing Conspiracy. Third, Clarke comes across as a professional who is frequently annoyed, frustrated, and dismissive of the political amateurs that he had to put up with. And finally, while I’m sure that the book is occasionally self-serving, I’m equally convinced that it is a fundamentally honest account. Also recommended.

While I was in California over the last weekend, I picked up Robin Cook’s Point of Departure, and read it in a couple of sittings. Rather than providing a detailed review, let me refer you to this review in the Guardian by Malcolm Rifkind, the last Conservative foreign secretary (and therefore a political adversary of Robin Cook).
Despite the obvious Iraq angle, this book is about more than just the rush to war. There are really three aspects to it:

• It provides an invaluable account of the debate within the British government during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
• It gives a detailed view of how “the mother of all Parliaments” actually operates at the beginning of the 21st century, from the point of view of someone who is both a committed Parliamentarian and a passionate voice for modernisation.
• In a lengthy coda, it sets out a strong case for the continuing relevance of a Social Democrat alternative to the prevailing market-centric neo-Liberal orthodoxy.

Salon magazine has just put up an interesting piece by Andrew O’Hehir entitled Lost in the Desert. It’s about Tony Blair and his disastrous decision to support Bush’s war, as portrayed in two new books: “Point of Departure” by Robin Cook, who resigned from Blair’s cabinet over the war, and Philip Stephens’ “Tony Blair: The Making of a World Leader”. The article is fascinating, and Cook’s book looks like essential reading – I’m gong to order a copy from Amazon UK tonight.

I’m off to England later today, and I’ll be gone for a week with only limited Internet access. Hence no blog updates. Instead of packing, I’ve been distracted by several items:

• The Woman Who Wouldn’t Talk by Susan McDougall. Compelling, funny, horrifying, infuriating. (Not with her, with Ken Starr.) I hope that one day a member of Starr’s fascist inquisition gets a fit of conscience and spills the beans on just how corrupt his operation really was….
• Warszawa, the new limited-edition live CD by Porcupine Tree. A thrilling performance for Polish Radio in front of a studio audience. I never thought they could perform Voyage 34 live, but it works so well…..