Recently Read

Stephen Baxter - Evolution
Karen Armstrong - Holy War: The Crusades and their Impact on the Modern World
Lynne Truss - Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Well, back from a 'productive' vacation, if holidays could ever be described that way. I certainly managed to get my reading done.

Stephen Baxter's latest sci-fi novel kept me occupied for the flight out. It was pretty good, although Baxter has a way of looking at things across a depressingly vast timescale. I then got caught up in a book, "Holy War" by Karen Armstrong, that my father had just finished and left lying around. The title is fairly explanatory. A couple of things of note about the book: Armstrong is incredibly intelligent, insightful, and objective; additionally it was published originally in 1988 - well before 9/11. I would strongly recommend reading this book. Finally, on my way back to Edmonton, I had a backpack full of books to read, and yet I found myself in the bookstore at the Victoria airport. "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" caught my eye, and after sampling a page or two I decided I had to read it. The full title is "Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation", and is a book true to my heart. Truss has a wit that does not end. If the following quote describes you, consider reading this book.

Part of one's despair, of course, is that the world cares nothing for the little shocks endured by the sensitive stickler. While we look in horror at a badly punctuated sign, the world carries on around us, blind to our plight. We are like the little boy in The Sixth Sense who can see dead people, except we see dead punctuation. Whisper it in petrified little-boy tones: dead punctuation is invisible to everyone else - yet we see it all the time.