Finishing a Book

Since we moved, my commute to/from work boiled down to a 25 minute drive (each way) from a solid 90 minute to/from commute that involved walking and public transit (and long ferry ride on Mondays and Fridays) I havent't finished reading a book. That's more than two years!

It wasn't unusual for me to finish multiple books in a week and listen to 10 or more podcast episodes. Like I said, I haven't finished a book in a long time, but also my podcast listening has dramatically dropped off. Not just the number of podcasts I listen to. Worse than that it's a struggle to find time to even listen to a whole episode before the next one is availale.

All of the above taken into account I'm finally about to finish a book: Bill Bryson's "At Home."

Now, I will stop writing this to finish it.

Non-Fiction

Up until recently, my forays into non-fiction were almost entirely restricted to university writing assignments.

Only one example springs to mind. I read a biography of Ludwig II of Bavaria after finishing Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within.

Now it's almost all non-fiction. I just finished up "Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age" and prior to that it was "Big Bang: The Origin Of The Universe." Now, I'm reading "L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City" which has so far been fascinating.

I've probably recounted here or elsewhere my love of the stories of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler and their "hard boiled" detective fiction, the multitude of radio dramas that rolled out from the 1930's and 1940's, and Rockstar's "L.A. Noire" game from 2011. No doubt this has affected my enjoyment of "L.A. Noir" -- specifically, I'm probably enjoying it more than most.

The author, John Buntin, chronicles the parallel rise of gangster Mickey Cohen and (eventual) LA Police Chief, William Parker, but there's so much more going on in the story of life in Los Angeles' earlier years. Through the Great Depression, during the onset of World War II and it's aftermath, Los Angeles, as conjured in my imagination, seems like it was always about 48 hours from outright chaos and societal collapse.

It's hard for me to think that this is no longer the case.

Every time I've been in LA -- mostly for E3 -- it always felt like it was on the verge of unraveling. Maybe it's the fact downtown is devoid of people after normal working hours or the dust; a perfume of asphalt, concrete, and car exhaust; those burrito places that open walk-in churches when the sun goes down. There's just something desperate about the place.

I realize that it's quite possible my brain has just imprinted the "hard boiled" sensibility on the entire place, so maybe that feeling will be inescapable no matter what I do, but "L.A. Noir" isn't helping dissuade my assessment of the place.

Another thing the book does -- at least for me and it's probably inadvertent -- is draw parallels between the way the Los Angeles police operated in terms of wire tapping and the current operation of the US's National Security Agency. As I wrote previously, it's very good read so far!

From Chapter 1: Some Years Earlier

With all the sensibility borne of a alcohol and a short temper, Roy slammed his forehead with a great crunching sound against the mound of muscle.

And it was right at that moment when time stopped for Aloysious. He glanced around the room. The ceiling fans were stopped. Gina hung motionless above a bank of manufactured cloud that didn’t stir. The mound of muscle was frozen in a grimace of pain, his body in the midst of falling down; the phalanx of equally muscled friends with looks of shock and anger stretched on their faces. Aloysious stood up. Everything remained still then a heartbeat later the world started to vibrate and he exploded in a cacophonous wave that suddenly thawed the motion in the room.

It was a violent thaw -- people knocked against each other, every bottle of booze at the bar shattered, and the closest people, mainly the wall of flesh and his friends, had their clothes shredded.

Gina seemed to be the only one unaffected. Hands on her hips, she actually appeared annoyed that someone had exploded at what was to be the climax of her routine.

Aloysious snapped back into existence. Roy didn’t even have to shout a drunken question at Aloysious before they started stumbling toward the exit.

Aloysious didn’t know what it was, but he knew he had to get the hell outside, to the relative safety of the Murder Capital of the World.

“Hey, boy,” Roy rasped. “What’s happening to your skin?”

Nikola Tesla

The second time a game ever got me to go to the library and start reading a book, was Red Alert 2, which featured a defensive structure that zapped incoming opponents with a burst of electricity called a Tesla Tower. (The first was Gabriel Knight II and King Ludwig II of Bavaria.)

I actually meant to pick-up a book about Nikola Tesla ages ago, but when I saw "Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla : Biography of a Genius" on the new arrivals shelf at the library I finally had the topic thrust toward me. I'm interested in the topic and it was free. A perfect storm.

Besides examining Tesla, what I find so fascinating about the book is how well it situates Tesla in the larger world around him and the kind of profound technological changes that were happening at the turn of the last century.

People didn't have electricity, even in the cities and this was a time without radio. Books, newspapers, and magazines were the principle purveyors of information and news. And at that same time in different parts of the world there's the onset of wireless communication, electricity (Tesla's AC current winning out over the DC advocated by people like Thomas Edison), and flight technology. All of this would bring profound social, commercial, and economic changes to the entire planet, but the author, Marc Seifer, argues convincingly, I think, that Tesla -- a single person -- had more impact on those three than anyone else.

I Just Thought it Was Funny

It was the "Touch and Feel!" part that got me chuckling, but the exclamation mark that got me laughing out loud.

Reading

Every time I finish a book lately I realize just how much I miss consuming books like I used to. A book would last me a few days at the most before I was on to the next. And it was a constant stream -- I always had another book on deck so I could just keep reading. That voracious intake has slowed due to any number of things but mostly I get an hour or two in the evening to dedicate to solitary pursuits like reading or gaming. A commute by transit helps a bit because it gives me a little over two hours to concentrate on reading (and ignore the other smelly commuters).

And it was on the bus, that I finished George Mann's Victorian steampunk "The Immorality Engine." Good read, with little in the way of substantial character development but high on the "things exploding messily" scale. I liked it and it goes out of it's way to set things up for the next book. What stays with me are the descriptions of the automatons, the slanted world that rides a boundary of occult, real history, and steampunk clockwork, and the way Mann rolled out the story. Would I recommend it? It's summer reading through and through. That's not a bad thing! I enjoy these kind of pulp stories where things explode messily, usually via some kind of fantastical machine/contraption. For example, there are steam-powered mech-like vehicles included! I think Mann needs to get an illustrator on-board to provide some art for the inside of the book. Or possibly turn the whole thing into a graphic novel.

Next up: Will Ferguson's "Spanish Fly"

Couple of books

I’m finding that with my commute I finally have more time to read and/or play games. But I’m all outta books and I feel substantially up-to-date when it comes to my 3DS games. So, I grabbed a couple of books from the library during my lunch hour.

The first is “Spanish Fly” by Will Ferguson, one of my favourite authors. “Spanish Fly” seems like it will be a prequel of sorts to Ferguson’s first novel “Happiness” (or “Generica” in some markets). It features a young Jack McGreary, who was responsible for the self help book that nearly brought about the end of human civilization in “Happiness” years later. It seems strange to me that no where on the cover or inside flap is there reference to “Happiness.” The idea of fleshing out the backstory of a somewhat minor character of one story, even if he does play a pivotal role, in a standalone novel has a certain appeal to me. While “Happiness” offers a snapshot of the McGreary character and what motivates him to write his self-help book, I always got the feeling there was much more to this crazy dude in the desert.

The next is a basically a guilty pleasure. It’s a steampunk novel by George Mann called “The Immorality Engine” – A Newbury & Hobbes Investigation. I read the first book – Affinity Bridge – a couple years ago and enjoyed it for its pulp sensibility, characters, and altered-history premise, but I kind of forgot about the series. I haven’t read the second book so I hope it doesn’t become an obstacle to enjoying the story.

I saw a copy of the Walking Dead novel “Rise of the Governor” on the new arrivals shelf but three books is probably pushing it.