Burning Chrome – William Gibson
Cyberpunk – Bruce Bethke
Finding a Fit: Options for Flexible Working
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – JK Rowling
The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
Napalm and Silly Putty – George Carlin (Audiobook Version)
A Brief History of Time – Stephen Hawking (Audiobook Version)
Hegemony or Survival : America’s Quest for Global Dominance – Noam Chomsky
Fatherhood: The Truth by Marcus Berkmann
History of Ancient Egypt (48 lectures) – Dr Bob Brier (It’s taped lectures but I’m claiming it as an audiobook)
The Last Templar – Raymond Khoury
With the Jocks – Peter White
Tripods, The White Mountains – John Christopher
Tripods, The city of Gold and Lead – John Christopher
Tripods, The Pool of Fire – John Christopher
Starship Troopers – Robert A.Heinlein
The Crow Road – Ian Banks
The Wasp Factor – Ian Banks
Strip Jack – Ian Rankin
The Black Book – Ian Rankin
Mortal Causes – Ian Rankin
Operation Barras – William Fowler
Magic Inc – Robert A. Heinlein

the rest when I remember them

Tags: America, Bob Brier, Bruce Bethke, Crow Road, Dan Brown, George Carlin, Ian Banks, Ian Rankin, Jack - Ian Rankin, John Christopher, Magic Inc, Marcus Berkmann, Noam Chomsky, Peter White, Raymond Khoury, Robert A.Heinlein, Stephen Hawking, White Mountains, William Fowler, William Gibson

About the only thing this book had going for it was the topic seeing as I’ve been reading about the grail mysteries since I was about 10. Dan Brown has always struck me as the kind of writer that writes books that if you read one you’ve read them all. This has been confirmed by many folk I know that have read his other work. Again this was one that I didnt want to read but felt I had to so that I didnt feel like a git for constantly complaining about the thing without even reading it

The book itself is OK, nothing special. In fact if you were to combine The Assassini and The Rule Of Four you would have a far better book than The Da Vinci Code. The twists you could see coming a mile off and the actual code breaking wasnt that hard and unless you knew nothing of the grail stories you’d be hard pressed to say it was very in depth or taxing.

Tags: Dan Brown

Been reading a lot of strange books at the moment. Well when I say strange I mean books that folk might not normally pick up. As always I refuse to read Dan Brown (even though I almost caved this morning when I needed something to read on the bus to work) bt the subject matter has always interested me. I like my conspiracy theories about the church so I do.

Anyway I had been given a loan of a book called “The Rule of Four” which is supposedly just like The Da Vinci Code but better. Its about a young guy at university in America who gets caught up in one of his friends thesis’ because its based on his dead fathers work on an old manuscript called Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. It wasn’t based ona huge conspiracy but was written as a sort of “who done it” with the solving of the puzzle used to actually tell the story. Very well done and I think I liked it because of the whole problem solving thing that was such a big deal in the story.

At the back of the book were several other books that were being marketted to the same audiance. One of those was The Assassini. This tweaked my interest because of my love for christian history and all the fuck-ups that have went on inside the church over the centuries. to say I was disappointed would be an understatement. Yes the twists were good and it was very well put together but it was nothing that it made itself out to be. I’ve seen myself come up with better stories about the church for roleplays that this one. To many characters sticking their oar in and to many dead bodies to really remember the actual characters and the lack of any real intrigue and insider dealings that the book promised really let it down.

Now I’m stuck for something to read and neither Vonnie or myself have anything in our vast bookshelves that tickle my fancy.

Tags: America, Dan Brown