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I read this after joining the Verge book club and being impressed with their choices. This fitted right into my schedule, coming in at just over 7 hours long.

I haven't read much science fiction, and no Philip K. Dick at all, so I came into this with the no real expectations.

It was highly entertaining and didn't require as much concentration as denser books, such as Foucault's Pendulum to name but one other book club choice! I was able to listen to this whilst wandering around Glasgow after getting my iPhone handset replaced and waiting for the next train out of Central. In fact, that environment actually enhanced the story as I was listening to it. For me, a bustling city is kinda surreal and the story is the same.

Watching the Verge's podcast about the book, I noted, along with panel member Laura June, that I had not paid any attention to the clothing that was described, which is interesting given that the clothing is so ridiculous!

I kept thinking that I knew what was going to happen, but that's the red herrings and misdirection of the book I suppose.

Was I satisfied with the ending?

I'd have to say that I was. I love open-ended books that make you think and stay with you after you've finished them. I have a strong feeling that I'll read this again sometime.

I rated this book 5 stars simply for the memories it brought back. I went through the same apprentices' college as the authors and did my basic training in the same squadron three years later. Not much, if anything at all, had changed in the three years that separated us. I'd forgotten all about lining up under the glass shelter outside the cookhouse. I guess there were no squadron track suits in 85 though, awful blue nylon jobs that made recruits stand out even more than misshapen berets and white flashes on one epaulette. The authors seemed to cotton on quick to the fact that room inspections were unpassable. Figuring that our early must've made things a bit easier! The most enjoyable thing about the book was hearing some of the jargon again; the bit where the sergeant says he could make more noise banging his bell end on the armoury door had me spraying coffee. Words that seemed absent to me were:

Jiff, i.e. to be ‘volunteered' to do some crappy job for someone with seniority, e.g. I've been jiffed to do a Naafi run
Areas: to be jiffed to go out and pick up litter before or after breakfast, generally fag butts
Utes. I guess these were called eating irons in 85
Jack: to let your mates down or get one over on them, causing them or everyone to be punished, e.g. he's a jack bastard for using any of the sinks marked out of bounds by toilet paper before a room inspection.
From the right, NUMBER! Just after CORRIDOR! is called in recruit troop to make sure everyone is there.

The pace of the book is just right, not dwelling too much on any aspect. It felt quite tightly edited and, thankfully, the profanity was allowed to stay just as it was. Well it wouldn't have been much of an army book without it!

The authors get across the sense of pride and camaraderie that develops in a short space of time and are to be commended for that.

This was a nice interlude between books 5 and 6 of the Dark Tower. I came to it through the Verge bookclub after discovering their discussion of Foucault's Pendulum in a podcast.

I enjoyed the concepts of this novel, but I found the end quite dissatisfying because it didn't tie up the main loose end of the disparate ageing. I can't go into more without spoiling it. The characters were rather thin, but in a sense this added to the idea that the City was the main character and it kept the book short, which appealed to me after the long Dark Tower books. It reminded me a little of another book that I read in book-club mode, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman: thin characters and time distortion. Looking back at my review of that, I gave it two stars. So this fared a little better.

This was a nice interlude between books 5 and 6 of the Dark Tower. I came to it through the Verge bookclub after discovering their discussion of Foucault's Pendulum in a podcast.

I enjoyed the concepts of this novel, but I found the end quite dissatisfying because it didn't tie up the main loose end of the disparate ageing. I can't go into more without spoiling it. The characters were rather thin, but in a sense this added to the idea that the City was the main character and it kept the book short, which appealed to me after the long Dark Tower books. It reminded me a little of another book that I read in book-club mode, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman: thin characters and time distortion. Looking back at my review of that, I gave it two stars. So this fared a little better.

I just read this for the second time, this time the audiobook version. I've revised my rating from four to five stars. When first I read it, I didn't have an autistic son. In fact, even my autistic son's big sister wasn't born. So my frame of reference is somewhat different this time around.

First of all, the audiobook. The narration is absolutely superb. It uses the voice of a child for the narration and there are also other voice actors for mum, dad, Mr and Mrs Shears and Mrs Alexander, and some sound effects and policemen and shopkeepers. All in all, it was perfectly done. The music playing over the ending made it all the more poignant.

Now to the content. So MUCH of Christopher's behaviour is recognisable in my own son, and in my own behaviour to some extent. And I can so relate to the stress that his parents experience. I and my wife have BOTH felt like Christopher's mum at times, when it all just gets too much and you don't know where to turn. It's difficult to put ourselves into our son's head, and this book helps with that. The seemingly nonchalant way in which he describes how he hides himself away in times of stress is really eye opening. Although he never does stab anyone with his pen knife, he probably would if the threat got too much. I mean he hit the policeman, didn't he?

The book has given me encouragement.

Makes me want to read Salem's Lot. Clever on the author's part!

I enjoyed the previous novel in the series more than I did this one, but they both get three stars. This one was entertaining, and good enough to hold my attention enough for me to delete unheard podcasts to make way for it. A good sign. But it feels bloated, with too much padding.

I bought this for my daughter and returned it after having read it because of the corporal punishment in it. I understand that it is historically correct, but I took the decision not to hold onto it as the choices for a replacement were wide and varied. I personally enjoyed the story and thought it a lovely book, but I chose Stig of the Dump in its stead.

Well, finally the story starts to feel mature and akin to other Stephen King books I've read and enjoyed. The whole tale within a tale was gripping and the reader of the audiobook version (Frank Muller) really brought it to life. His Cowardly Lion impression towards the end was terrific!

I give it three stars because, like other Stephen King books I've read, it's enjoyable but forgettable. The exception thus far would be The Stand and It, both of which I've read more than once. Although I'm guessing that, by the time I get to the end of the Dark Tower series, I'll be strongly inclined to read the first one again. I've heard that from a lot of people, and I can see why now. The circular references and fluidity of the timeline add a certain something, so it might very well be worth going back to the beginning once the end is reached.

I've had this on my shelf for ages. I first got it after hearing Merlin interviewing David Allen, and soon gave up because his monotonous voice on the audiobook talking about business douchebaggery bored me to tears. In Back to Work #95 LINK, Merlin persuades Dan to read the book as prep for the next show, so I went back to it and listened to it myself. And yep, once again, monotonous voice talking about business douchebaggery. However I did bear it to the end and I didn't learn ANYTHING that I haven't already learned from hearing Merlin talk about productivity. And when I listen to Merlin talking about it, I get so much out of it it's quite ridiculous. I have implemented a lot of GTD into my workflow without having read the book and it helps me tremendously.

So my recommendation to anyone who is not a business douchebag and is wondering whether to read this book, don't bother. Instead, read Merlin's stuff and listen to his podcasts. If you're the corporate boardroom type, maybe give the book a whirl, but if you're not into filing cabinets, golfing weekends and big cigars, Merlin's the go-to guy for you. Start with the podcast linked above, which has loads of links in the shownotes, including Merlin's article on 43folders.com: Getting started with GTD

A real treat to listen to this again, having now read the full series. I binged through it on a Sunday afternoon with grass cutting and rhododendron hacking.

This was a hell of a slog, and I'm not really sure it was worth it.

I loved this series a lot. I read the first three twice and bought them for a few friends as well. But this one just had me wishing it would end so I could start reading something that I might enjoy. I stopped caring. The only bit that I really enjoyed was in the epilogue, but it was a hard slog to get to that part. I'm not sure I even want to carry on with the story to be quite honest. If I do, it'll be because the Arya thread is interesting, but speed it up for God's sake!

2 stars

This book had me mesmerised from start to finish. Some of the imagery is incredibly moving, particularly the war scenes. This is a fascinating collection of pictures and posters from an important period in European history. Stalin's rise to power was well covered and gave a real insight into his rise and paranoia. Anyone with even a passing interest in this region will find this book fascinating I'm quite sure. As it says in one of the testimonials, buy two—one for yourself and one to give away. I was going to give my copy to a friend when I was done, but I want to keep mine so I'll have to buy another for him.

This book has been pretty massive for me.

I bought OmniFocus over a year ago and struggled with it based on David Sparks' excellent screencasts [Link]. For some reason, it just never integrated its way into my life, other than to give me weekly reminders to put the kids' pocket money into their piggy banks.

I know that I need something in my life to help me deal with my stuff, and I knew that OmniFocus was more than capable of doing that. I just found it so overwhelming!

I listened to the author talking to David Sparks on an episode of Mac Power Users [Episode 78], which is when I learned that he'd written a book about how he used OmniFocus. My interest was piqued once again.

So, I watched DSparks' screencasts again and then bought Kourosh's book. A few of my Twitter contacts had read it and recommended it, so I knew it was worth my while.

Observations
Firstly, I must say that the application is so feature rich and flexible that teaching someone how to use it is no easy task. All one can really do is explain how they use it and hope that that helps.

Kourosh certainly has a system in place for working this app!

His background as a psychiatrist undoubtely gives him knowledge of the human brain that can be applied to OmniFocus. And he does do that, with explanations of procrastination and why we do it, that sort of thing.

Templates
The explanation of template projects was executed flawlessly and highlights the power of OmniFocus in a way that I would never have imagined. So much is covered in that one section of the book: sequential vs parallel projects, putting projects on-hold, grouping tasks, keyboard shortcuts. In short, I found this to be the most valuable section of the book.

Perspectives
This section was difficult to take in, particularly the core perspectives section. I don't know if it's just me, but I read the descriptions of setting up the core flagged and core start-date perspectives twice and I'm still not sure that I get it. Giving options is probably useful for a lot of people, but I found it confusing. I'd rather he'd just said ‘here's what I do now' and explained that, rather than going through how he got there. Now I've got two core perspectives, neither of which I really understand, so I will undoubtedly have to read this section again.

That said, I knew as soon as I started reading those parts that I'd need to come back to them. It is my intention to use the app for a month or so, see how I can tweak it when I understand it better and then come back to those sections in the book again.

The tickler and due perspectives in particular are ones I'm having trouble understanding. Where the tickler is concerned, I don't think it was explained very well at all. I think I understand it, I'm just not sure how to set it up.

And the Running Projects was also troublesome. Is it actually called that, or is it called 30k feet? There was some inconsistency in the book and it is that that had me feeling confused.

Pomodoros
This was a fascination section and one which I will need to consider. Of course the danger here is the rabbit holes. Maybe I could devote a 25-minute pomodoro to investigation the rabbit holes and learning bits here and pieces there about how to tweak my project managing!

Conclusion
As a reference book, this will be invaluable to me as I learn the app. It is jam-packed with information and the short-cut keys were repeated over and over, which I found very helpful. The appendices contain yet more useful info, so just when you think you're nearly done, there's more!

But I feel that some things could have been explained a little more clearly, i.e. the instances mentioned above. That is why I gave it 3 stars.

And my final gripe? Please stop writing GTD with the registered trademark symbol. It's extremely distracting. Sure, do it the first time, but after that, we already KNOW.

Grrrrrr.

Now I get Merlin Mann's funny little ‘davidco 2001' thing.

I was alerted to this by Myke Hurley on Twitter, someone I know purely from his tech-related podcasts on the 70 Decibels network. My reading list is ridiculously long, so adding to it is not really something I need to be doing. But somehow, not only did this book get added to my queue, not only did it appear at the top of my queue, but it somehow got read, finished and starred before I knew what had happened.

And d'you know why that was?

Because it's very good, that's why!

Honestly though, I've been slogging through the audiobook of Dance with Dragons for weeks now. My non-audio reading is dedicated right now to getting through Kourosh Dini's OmniFocus book (nearly there) and my coffee table book of Soviet pictures.

A is for Angelica was such a refreshing change, a breath of fresh air.

Firstly, the style. I've heard that this is Iain Broome's first novel. I find that simply remarkable. The storytelling was lean: short sentences, quick dialogue, no bloat. I was going to say that I would guess that the author uses Twitter, but I happen to know that he does. It reads like it was written by a Twitter user, if that makes any sense. No bloat. You get me?

The style and content felt very English and made me think a bit of Nick Hornby or that other guy, Tony Parsons I think it is. That was refreshing. The time of year features well too, almost as a character. The descriptions of the dark and light, times of the day, the snow, the cold.

The characters themselves were enjoyable, particularly the interaction. Some of the stuff that Gordon came away with! He seemed kind of nervous, unconfident, antisocial, fearful of change, all to the extent of being creepy. Kind of like an Internet nerd or, something I have experience of, someone with Asperger's. So, let's just say I could relate.

The awkward beginnings of his relationship with Georgina illustrated his character very well I thought. And his devotion to looking after her in secret showed another aspect of his character. And sneaking into Don's shed to get his hedge cutters back, the midnight tree-cutting, the observing of his street. He really is quite a difficult character to fathom, but strangely likeable for all that.

This book came along at the perfect time for me, so it gets four stars. It's not up there with my unforgettable favourite reads, so for that reason I can't give it five. But I will certainly be looking out for Iain's next novel!

This is the first Siracusa review I've read as I'm a relative newcomer to his podcast and peers. The first thing that strikes me is his style and clarity. Okay, so that's two things. Style, clarity and humour. The three things that strike me are his style, clarity, humour and knowledge of Apple OS history. Okay, four things. You get the picture.

It's so refreshing today to read such a well-punctuated piece of work, let alone well written. As I age, my level of intolerance for bad grammar seems to be lowering. I've just ditched a well-regarded tech blogfor that reason. So John's writing scores highly, very highly in fact. It's almost as enjoyable to read as say Stephen Fry or Douglas Adams.

In terms of content, it's jam packed with goodness. The links provided are extremely useful, particularly for newcomers to his OS X reviews who won't be so readily familiar with the history of the OS. I didn't know about Core Animation, for example. His explanation of display scaling had my eyes glazing over a bit; same with the Objective-C stuff, but that's not because he didn't explain them well enough.

And thank you for making it a book John, so I could get one step closer to reaching my 2012 goodreads goal!

This opened my eyes in a big way and made me realise how closed-minded I actually was. I was one of those who worried about socialisation. For me, that's what school was all about. But for our 5-year old son with AS, school is about something different. He's just not ready for school at all, poor wee lad.

The final chapter with the legal ramifications was very useful, although I'm in Scotland and am aware that the legislation is different here.

The book was well edited (although I could do without the circumflex on role) and well put together. Some of the chapters are more relevant than others, so whatever was useful to me and my family may not be the same as for yours.

The list of resources is excellent and gives one a springboard into what was, for us at least, the unknown.

Recommended.

So we've got an Empire-Strikes-Back-esque ending, but it really doesn't make me want to read the final book at all. In fact, I don't know whether I will or not.

Magical and spellbinding.

I ‘read' the audio book, narrated by Jim Dale, and he brought the book to life. It reminded me a little of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell with the obvious content overlap and style of writing. I got the recommendation from The Incomparable podcast over on 5by5, where the panel unanimously agreed that it was a good read. And they were right.

The information contained in this book is potentially life-changing. I know I will be buying it or recommending it for friends and family. But see if he calls me ‘Buttercup' or refers to my ‘fanny' one moe time? I'll unread the book and give it one star. Honest to God. Does Robb Wolf he think that this kind of ‘friendly' chat will balance the science? Well, for this particular reader, it doesn't. It just annoyed me. Surely an editor would pick up on the fact that this book would be read outside the USA, where fannies are the exclusive domain of the fairer sex.

But I cared enough about the content to try and ignore the annoying sugar coating, and it was worth persevering. I'll probably have to read it again, armed with the general layout of the eating requirements, the science might make more sense second time around.

The information contained in this book is potentially life-changing. I know I will be buying it or recommending it for friends and family. But see if he calls me ‘Buttercup' or refers to my ‘fanny' one moe time? I'll unread the book and give it one star. Honest to God. Does Robb Wolf he think that this kind of ‘friendly' chat will balance the science? Well, for this particular reader, it doesn't. It just annoyed me. Surely an editor would pick up on the fact that this book would be read outside the USA, where fannies are the exclusive domain of the fairer sex.

But I cared enough about the content to try and ignore the annoying sugar coating, and it was worth persevering. I'll probably have to read it again, armed with the general layout of the eating requirements, the science might make more sense second time around.

Awesome, throw-away fiction. Entertaining as anything I've ever read, and completely unlike the movie.

After the first in the series, the story really starts to pick up with this one and become the sort of Stephen King writing that I enjoy so much, particularly in audiobook format. I had to rewind the audiobook of The Gunslinger a few times when my mind had wandered and I'd missed bits. That didn't happen with this one.

I got it from Audible and the narrator was superb.

As a user of Apple products and a follower of their fortunes, this was a must-read for me. I have listened to many pundits discussing the book, and no review was better than that of Ars Technica's John Siracusa on the 5by5 podcast, Hypercritical. He was rather scathing of the book in so much as it was written by the wrong guy. Isaacson is not a tech guy and is writing about something he does not really understand.

That said, I still had to read the book for myself and, although I didn't enjoy it a great deal, it was still worth reading.

Make of that what you will.

A perfect holiday novel. I'm not sure how interesting it would have been if I hadn't grown up in the 80s and been a video arcade junkie. But I did, and I was, so it was jam packed with nostalgia for me.

I found this by accident and wound up reading the whole thing in a couple of days, as did my good lady. We both agree that the philosophy makes a lot of sense and we are going to apply it with our 14-month-old Bassett hound (Clover) and the Akita pup that's waiting for us. It was quite eye-opening to discover how wrong we were going about things with Clover. She has always been difficult to walk, partly because of her wanting to sniff everything. Now I have an idea how to fix that.

I've learned that the first thing to do is to try and get rid of my own negative energy. I know a bit about that from my 12 step programme, but I think Cesar's way will help me to put it into practice in all my affairs. It all makes so much sense.

As I was reading the book, I was thinking that yes, its all very good, but I'll get home from holidays and the dog will still be on the sofa. The one thing this book is not is an instruction manual. As I'm reading another of his books [How to Raise the Perfect Dog: through Puppyhood and Beyond], I'm learning more and more that it's about energy and animals. If I can get myself balanced and keep in mind that dogs are animals, should be at the right place to start.

So, from first day back from holidays, I'm setting the alarm for an hour earlier for walking the dogs. It should be a good time for me to centre myself too.