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Brief book reviews
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - Amazon
 Got lent this by a guy at work, ta Mark, who enthused about it no end one day. Now I don't know what made me borrow it as I've got a shed load of book on the shelves behind me to read and as a rule most fiction is not something I enjoy.
This book was a very entertaining read though. Based on an alterative Earth where time travel has changed (and still is changing lots of things). Never has a book about an other book, a dodo and bunch of Librarians with guns set in Swindon been so much fun. Yeah the plot has some gaping holes but ignore those and enjoy the humour in the writing and the images of an alterative existence they conjure up.
Think Terry Pratchett writing a Douglas Adams holistic detective novel. Joyously there is another one written as well so I'll be hunting that down unless I can borrow that to. ;)
21 Dog Years - Doing Time At Amazon.com by Mike Daisy - Amazon.
Three years working at Amazon.com took Mike Daisy to parts of his personality he didn't like and back again. He recounts the way things ticked in the everyday life of working at Amazon. Interestingly not in a high management direction way (those books are a dime a dozen written by CEO who think them green lighting someone elses work means they can take the credit).
Reading this book brought back memories of my years working for a big american outfit.. Managment in denial, staff being promised fortunes in options that never appear, and all the usual stuff. Not the most earthshattering stuff and it did get stuck in a rut a few times on subjects that could have done with a shorter visit. However I liked the honesty of Mike's writing, that and the real life nature of the book leads to a quick fun read. Possibly one to borrow rather than buy though.
Fury by Salman Rushdie - Amazon.
 I've not read a lot of Rushdie's work which is strange as Grimus is one of my all time favourites, a stretching and yet always enthralling read. Mind you I first read Grimus a long long time ago. Since then I think I have ended up put off from Rushdie's more expansive eastern epics because of the furore over "that" book.
With Fury though he's dealing with the classic tale of an Englishman in New York in what seemed to be a more traditional novel. Except Milak Solanka's not English and indeed not in New York cause he wants to be he just has to be somewhere other than where he was. This feeling of deposition, from his old life, is portrayed so well that at times I found myself popping out of the book and feeling sorry for Rushdie never mind Solanka. New York is coloured well yet never takes over the page largely thanks to the story, as always in Rushdie's work, seeming truly larger than any character, location, or sentiment at all times. Hum maybe it's time I did try some of his Indian works.
 The Maths Gene (Why everyone has it, but most people don't use it)
by Keith Devlin. - Amazon.
New born babies doing sums, the whole human race coming from seven African decedents, why leopards are spotted but Tigers are striped. I really didn't expect as wider ranging and enjoyable read as I got when I picked this book up while waiting for a flight.
The book still covers lots of maths but mainly ideas behind maths rather than the number crunching itself. So if numbers give you trouble you can still enjoy the book. Now if you do enjoy the book you'll no doubt need a pen and paper to hand as you read this book so you can test his ideas and the ones that will pop into your head as you think... that can't be right... (he normally is by the way).
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