Categories: "Books" or "Economics" or "Fiction" or "Gardening" or "Languages" or "Politics" or "Religion" or "Science"
10/22/06
Testament : Akedah
DC's Vertigo line is a pretty reliable source of intriguing, dark, mythology-based graphic novels. Douglas Rushkoff and Liam Sharp's Testament is no exception.
The approach is intriguing. The landscape is a 'twenty minutes into the future' type take,… more »
10/17/06
The God Delusion : Richard Dawkins
I think it's a sign of the times that the number of books professing frustration with religion are on the rise.
In Dawkin's case, the times are ripe for a book like this. As an evolutionary theory promoter, he has witnessed galling inroads of attempts… more »
10/03/06
The Trouble With Physics : Lee Smolin
My old high school friend, Menwin, and I chatted about string theory around 1990. He'd done quite a lot of reading on it, and was powerfully intrigued. So was I, but I didn't get a lot of the promise of it. I presumed that the standard model would come… more »
09/30/06
Esperanto Day: December 15
Okay, the warning is perhaps premature, but it could take a while to learn enough Esperanto to go along with the official 'day'.
Having encountered Esperanto a long time ago as one of the more durable 'universal language' attempts around, it was funny… more »
07/11/06
A Passel of Swahili Books
Colloquial Swahili
What this book has going for it are a number of natural conversations, some good attention-gettings ("Hebu!") and the likes of how to invite people and turn down invitations, and some pretty clear grammar sections.
What's… more »
04/21/06
The Truth (With Jokes) : Al Franken
This is a much angrier, more serious book, only lightly seasoned with humour this time around. There's not so much focus on the right-wing hacks this time, though they are still present, but this focuses more on the upper echelons of the US government.… more »
03/29/06
Misquoting Jesus : Bart D. Ehrman
The subtitle on this book: "The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why".
This is an extremely interesting book, all about the changes, intentional or otherwise, that occurred in the New Testament and in the source materials for the New Testament,… more »
03/16/06
Seedy Saturday
The University of Calgary Community Garden is holding a Seedy Saturday this year on March 25 at the Montgomery Community Centre. It seems to be some sort of deal where folks sell and exchange open-pollinated seed, with an eye towards foodstuffs.… more »
02/27/06
Struck By Lightning : Jeffrey S, Rosenthal
This is a very entertaining, easy-to-digest (don't eat it) book all about, as the subtitle of the book says, "The Curious World of Probabilities".
The reading is brisk, and he goes over a number of pretty practical subjects. The Law of Large Numbers… more »
02/22/06
Kiswahili, Msingi Wa Kusema... : Hinnebusch, Mirza & Stein
I'm getting prepared to go to Africa this year. True to my nature, I've got books on Swahili, the major language of East Africa, on my reading list in preparation.
I first ran across the Swahili language in a used book called "Jifunze Kiingereza", or… more »
02/19/06
The Savage Garden : Peter D'Amato
This is a great book for fans of carnivorous plants.
I got my first interest in gardening going to the horticulture department of UBC as a little kid, and the Venus Flytrap was definitely the main thing that got me hooked.
I've tried raising them in… more »
11/21/05
Survival : Julie E Czerneda
I'm a science fiction afficionado of sorts, but I must say, my collection is not that big. Out of the reams of books on shelves, it can take a considerable while to sort out the wheat from the chaff. Also, good fiction keeps me awake until dawn reading… more »
09/25/05
Quantum Reality : Nick Herbert
Full title: Quantum Reality | Beyond the New Physics
This is a pretty appealing book about the mysteries of quantum physics. If you know a little math (no calculus required) and perhaps the way sound waves work, this is a great introduction to what… more »
08/25/05
The Ancestor's Tale : Richard Dawkins
This has got to be one of my favourite books of all time. I've read some of Dawkins' books before, such as The Blind Watchmaker, and always enjoyed them, but this book is utterly, utterly amazing.
Far from being the usual small book trying to prove one… more »
06/06/05
Fragrant Perennial Nursery & Nature's Studio Raku Pottery
We were going back out to D'n'A Gardens for to get Dena some more Martagon Lilies. However, despite our best efforts on the road, we made it in time, technically speaking, before closing time, but at a mere eight minutes before closing - I surmise… more »
