On the Act of Reading
You may have noticed that I've been posting a lot of book reviews
lately. I got a bit bored of the old-style "themed" B-List posts,
and I have been reading a bit more than usual recently. Here are
some book- and reading-related items ...
1. "Six Walks in the Fictional Woods" by Umberto Eco
I'm currently reading a book about the process of reading itself:
<http://www.amazon.com/Six-Walks-Fictional-Woods/dp/0674810511>
This is not really a review, since I'm only halfway through it. While
only 160 pages some bits are quite theoretical - e.g. it starts off
examining the distinction between model author and empirical author.
But it is interesting nonetheless.
2. "The great unread: DBC Pierre, Harry Potter ... oh yes, and David
Blunkett"
<http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2031646,00.html>
"Fifty-five per cent of those polled for the survey, commissioned by
Teletext, said they buy books for decoration, and have no intention
of actually reading them"
"What happened next?"
<http://books.guardian.co.uk/digestedread/story/0,,2031884,00.html>
"John Crace's digested endings of Britain's 10 least-finished books"
"The Digested Read"
<http://books.guardian.co.uk/digestedread/>
More summaries for those who don't have the time to read the whole
book.
3. Tressants - Invisible Cities
<http://www.tressants.com/>
"The interior design of the entire hotel is based on the book,
'Invisible Cities', by Italo Calvino. Each bedroom is representative
of a different city".
Hotel Tressants in Menorca
<http://www.architectureweek.com/2004/0121/design_1-1.html>
An article about the hotel's unique architecture.
4. Harrius Potter??
I was in Dymocks recently and noticed that they had a section on Latin
books (surprise #1). And among the handful of Latin books was a
translation of one of the Harry Potter books (surprise #2). Not having
read any of the books in the series, and not being able to read Latin
anyway, I didn't think much more of it. Later I did some googling and
found that Wikipedia is also available in Latin (surprise #3). Here's
the article on "Harrius Potter":
<http://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrius_Potter>
5. "Hello, tech support? My book isn't working"
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ>
A humorous spoof of modern tech support set in the middle ages. A monk
is having problems reading his new-fangled "book" thingy.
[Norwegian with English subtitles]
If YouTube is blocked, you might be able to at least read about it at:
<http://www.theomandel.com/usability-blog/?p=34>
<http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/17/hello-tech-support-
my-book-isnt-working/>
