So why does this book exist? Surely there’s no doubt who invented the computer, right? I mean it was Babbage. Well, technically he invented the difference engine, which was a forerunner of the computer I suppose. Hmm. Then was it Turing? Although his work was entirely theoretical. Moore? No, that was microprocessors. Ah wait, I […]
It Can’t Happen Here – Sinclair Lewis
If you’ve never heard of Sinclair Lewis, perhaps you should. He was, in 1930, the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. But that’s not why I picked this up – it was a brief Guardian mention about how this, and other dystopian novels such as Brave New World and 1984 were experiencing […]
The Battle Of Hastings: 1066 by M K Lawson
There are two or three things I thought I knew about the battle of Hastings. Bear with me, because this is half remembered from primary school… First off, a bunch of French blokes all called Norman – except for their leader, who’s called William – sailed over from France to claim the throne of England. […]
Knut Hamsun – Victoria
I won’t pretend I’m as good a writer as Knut Hamsun. I won’t even pretend I’m even one tenth as good: the man won a Nobel Prize for literature. But I’d like to leave that aside, and concentrate on the actual book itself. Victoria – published in 1898 – is quite a short book. The […]
Steve Taylor – Making Time
I wanted to enjoy this book. I mean, I really did – the premise is really good: Why time seems to pass at different speeds and how to control it That’s the tag line on the cover. And it does sound interesting – a quick stroll through the psychological processes that make time seem to […]
Robin Neillands – The Great War Generals On The Western Front 1914-1918
Of course, we’ve all seen Blackadder Goes Forth. The Allied generals used to just throw men at things, not care how many casualties there were, and kept on doing that until… somehow, the Allies won the war. Neillands’ main topic – in fact the whole reason for this book – is to answer the question: […]
Jack House – Murder Not Proven?
Having rattled through this in just over – ooh, 31 years – I thought I’d just quickly write about it. The reason it took me 31 years to read is simple. In 1984 the BBC adapted it into a series. I watched, absolutely fascinated (coming from a family of fans of Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell, […]
Ernest Hemingway – For Whom The Bell Tolls
I hadn’t read this one when I picked it up in Cash Converters (yes, they sell books as well). It’s hard to find English books in Lisbon, so the two choices in the shop were Dan Brown’s Deception Point and this. Deception Point I read in three days and you can pretty much imagine that […]