Loving tiny little details? Then this book is right for you. George Dyson has collected a really huge pile of data, most of if personal facts of people more or less involved into the construction of first digital computers in the US. So, there is an alamanac of interesting but to some extent pointless trivia. The …
Read MoreNothing less than war is the main topic of the latest Discworld novel I have read. A most delicate issue, moral hazards are anywhere. This is another book of The Watch of Ankh-Mopork. The mob of the city demands war with Klatch (Discworld's Arabia), but three wise men (with mere help from others) fight war and win …
Read MoreAfter having read some serious (nevertheless excellent) books, I return to the serious unseriousness of the Discworld. Happily so. “Hogfather” has it all what should make it one of my favourites in the series: Death (General and of Rats), Susan Sto-Helit, Wizards, Hex. Additionally a brilliant (literally) villain …
Read MoreThe Discworld has returned. Much is said about it, but it does not become boring. And I think it will never get. Again Pratchett centers a story around great philosophical topics of mankind: Religious stories (Golems), Politics (the inner anarchist of the commander of the watch) or minorities (or how would you call …
Read MoreThis book has relationships to two books I have been reading earlier this year: It is the second one authored by Hemingway and the second classical American novel set at a World War stage. And in both cases I felt a lot of similarities. For "The Old Man and the Sea" it seems obvious, but also in Joseph Heller's "Catch …
Read MoreThese guys are crazy. I mean it. When I heard about this book I expected a cruel depiction of what happens in war. Fear, brutality, insanity, butchery. And fear, brutality, insanity, butchery it was. But very different than how I expected it. The book begins in a style that reminded me of M.A.S.H. (the movie and TV …
Read MoreGood fellow Mister Wilde would for sure have been one interesting person to talk to. He really is a master of the play on words, independent of the story line and its depth. This short play was really fun reading, although the plot is not really twisted and somewhat foreseeable. The characters are portrayed in a …
Read MoreThe series must go on, this is Discworld N° 18. For the loyal DW reader this book holds no surprise. Main characters are witches Nanny and Granny, always good for surprises, as we know them. They dive into the world of opera, foreign to them as it is to me, I have to admit. For me this was none of the outstanding …
Read MoreI bought this book with mixed feelings. For me it is evident that financial help to developing countries are a mixed blessing, at least.1 On the other hand I know how easy it is to shift polemics from one side to the other. Like ex-smokers who often fail to yield to reason. Perkins is solemn; that is a style that is …
Read More