Books

'Slow' is an increasingly popular worldwide movement encouraging us to all, well, slow down. To take time out from our increasingly (and frequently self inflicted) hectic lives to appreciate what is around us, to take time to notice little things that were previously unnoticed, investigate places un-investigated, try new experiences and treat the world in a different, more relaxed and inquisitive manner.

The Byzantine Empire was a long forgot segment of Mediterranean History that seems to be undergoing something of a rediscovery recently. I'm unsure why it's history seemed to slip down the back of the rhetorical sofa as it's certainly a most tumultuous and colourful history full of victory, disaster, insane characters, powerful characters and the usual battles, religious turmoil and tales that accompany any medieval history. This is a summarised version of John Julius Norwich's three volume Byzantine history and he does a remarkable job of covering a thousand years of history in a clear, concise and engaging manner, never dull, never losing momentum and with a pace almost worthy of fiction as you look forward to reading further to see what happens next.

I find this small collection of images documenting London's derelict underbelly appealing for two reasons. I know the author from his days as an Indie label 'boss' and the fact that he turned to a successful sideline in snapping pictures of abandoned buildings is fascinating. Secondly a lot of the subjects within the book are familiar to me, sometimes in the same state as within the book and sometimes in their previous non-dilapidated state.

Whilst I do not believe in God by any means and would certainly describe myself as an Atheist, my biggest issue with 'The God Delusion' is what Richard Dawkins would describe as his 'Devout Atheism'. The fervour and passion he writes with is almost on a par with that of a religion devotees and thus at times is equally as awkward to digest. Perhaps it could also be due to a conditioning of our modern world he describes, in that we feel awkward discussing religious topics in public, in case we offend someone around us, even when reading the book I found myself occasionally hiding the title in front of possible 'religious types' in case I offended them. The book is generally easy to read and full of intriguing, interesting and thought provoking topics and nuggets of information only occasionally wandering into intellectual territory that may be lost on some readers.

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Umberto Eco is often a difficult read, he has a tendency to take a really good (semi-fictional) plot and wrap in a lot of intellectual posturing that can become annoying and fundamentally far too distracting to continue reading. I am well aware of his vices and whilst I frequently have no idea what he is talking about I still really enjoying reading his books and would even list him as one of my favourite authors. The Island of the Day before is perhaps one of Umberto Eco's easiest reads with a fairly simple plot by his standards and enough beautifully written descriptions and prose to cope with a relatively small amount of intellectual discussion. The story tells of a young noble in the 17th century who gets abandoned on a mysterious ship in an unknown location and his (and the western world's) coming to grips with discovering new worlds, sciences and cultures whilst attempting to cling on to the familiar, mystical and old world. A wonderful read with a lead character that you will love, despise, support and become frustrated with throughout the book.

I have a recently rediscovered passion and interest for History, absorbing many tomes over the past few months, my favourite being brief surmises of 'all of History'.

The prester quest is a story of two men's present day retracing of a journey from Italy to Ethiopia made by a Papal Emissary in 1177. His mission to deliver a letter to a supposedly (and widely believed to be) real King of a fantastical Christian land in the heart of Islamic lands. I read a similar 'retracing the steps' book (Victoria Clarks, The Wayfarers) about a year ago, which was an amazing read, so this book had a lot to live up to. It starts slowly and doesn't really get going until about a quarter of a way through the book, the author's slightly facetious tone initially rather annoying and patronizing. However once the plot and journey kicks in the book is a gripping read full of interesting facts, observations and experiences from History and their eventful journey across several countries, continents and cultures.

Living within the European focussed world view that many of us have had instilled into us from an early age it is often hard to forget that there are and were highly developed civilisations besides the Europeans, and the Europeans weren't necessarily always the first to achieve or discover things. In 1421 Gavin Menzies sets out a believable hypothesis that the first nation to 'discover' and 'chart' the rest of the world outside of their own locality was the Chinese and not those who we're led to believe such as Columbus and Magellan. He also sets out many pieces of evidence to show that China had a tremendous level of contact and influence on many nations around the world including the Aboriginals, Maori, Native Americans, African nations and more. The final strand of his hypothesis goes on to show that the European explorers were actually in possession of Chinese maps before they set out into the 'unknown'. Perhaps the most fascinating elements of the book is realising how advanced the Chinese were, long before the rest of the world, in terms of technology, trade and attitude (there are no cases of Chinese slaughtering native races for no reason) and the shear scale of their operations, showing that the Chinese wielding massive power and potential is nothing new. The fact that China has only recently come out of the self imposed insularity it commenced in 1421 (thus drawing to a close it's exploration and trading empires) makes this a very current and apt book. Gavin Menzies style is extremely enthusiastic, he is clearly passionate about his subject, he repeats himself a lot and his somewhat amateurish writing style sometimes grates, some waffling aside though, this is a truly fascinating read that makes you question a lot of what we believe and hold true in European society.

Perhaps the closest reference point to Douglas Coupland for those of you unfamiliar with his work is Kurt Vonnegut, a reference point that I'm sure Douglas Coupland hears frequently. If you're unfamiliar with either's work then I guess the best description would be, 'different' or maybe 'hyper real', characters sort of shamble through in a state of confusion that no one else suffers from with odd occurrences happening to them that no one else considers odd. JPod is a book about and aimed at Geeks, there are a lot of references in the text to computers, Geek culture and attitudes that may be lost on those unfamiliar with them, whilst this wont detract from the plot, Jokes will certainly be missed. JPod also makes a habit of inserting lots of random pages into the book, some relevant, some a complete waste of tree, for example over 60 pages filled with numbers involved in games that the characters play with each other whilst at work, a nice character building device, but a waste of paper. A funny and easy read (this took me a week and I don't have a lot of time to read in my life) full of accurate and amusing observations, but one that will be lost on many people.

This book took me a very long time to read, months in fact, the topic is a weighty one, not hard to understand or absorb, just one that can only be digested in short sittings. It deals with the long running conflict between Rome and Jerusalem, dating back to the latter years of BC and effectively (through recurring anti Semitism) running until now. However this book deals with events primarily up to 4th Century AD and the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, including the fascinating reign of Constantine who took the Roman Empire from abusing Christians, to spreading their word and simultaneously alienating even more in the Jewish world.A fascinating read, but not for the faint hearted or those expecting to learn more on the subject any time soon.

It's hard to effectively review a guide to cycle paths in South East Queensland when you're stuck in Melbourne with no chance of attempting them anytime soon. The guide produced by Bicycling Australia is exceptionally well produced and thought out with ring bound easy to clean laminated pages for those journeys where your hands spend more time fiddling with oily parts than on the handlebars. There are 47 rides spread across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast to keep you busy for many months to come, all with detailed guides to road surfaces, terrain types, distances and a difficulty rating.

CiviCRM like many open source tools is a blank canvas and a set of paints that different implementers will take in many different ways based on their myriad uses and requirements.

Drupal for Education and elearning by James G Robertson and Bill Fitzgerald

I picked this book up as part of a book bundle somewhere, but escapes me with one right now. It's timing was perfect as research for the development of Chip Shop as it covers the history of video games from 1970 up to the year 2000.

In my continued efforts to read as mazy works of dystopian fiction as possible, next on my list was Battle Royale. On a side note, are there many works of purely utopian fiction? Or would that not sell? Back to the east Asian republic. Set in the non-too-distant future, a large Asian empire now rules over an undefined area, full of social control, aggression and suppression. Once a term a class of school children are chosen to compete in a battle to the death on an abandoned island with no hope of escape and only one survivor. It's never completely clear why this happens and what the government gets out of it, but that doesn't matter too much.

I have been wanting to read this as part of my research into dystopian fiction for my One day the World Ended project and I have mixed opinions on this book.

As part of creating Chip Shop (and future game ideas) I read recommendations on reading about (and playing) various types of games, not just board games.

I loved this book and couldn't stop reading it, which was a pain as I mostly read before going to sleep. The book takes an era by era look at how the video games and movie industries have tried to collaborate together, and largely failed.

It's taken moving to a non-English speaking country to realize how wide spread and common place the English languages is in the World. This has piqued my interest in learning about the origins of our bastard tongue and how it got to this position.