American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Before my trip to the US for the Launch conference, I was about half way through American Gods. A few evenings alone at 54 Mint, my new favorite restaurant in San Francisco, and I finished it off.

This was definitely the way to read this book. Sitting in a darkened bar with several glasses of wine and a bowl of Cacilucco alla Livornese. A dark, complex plot, revealing gods of the old world withering in the new. The story revolves around a likeable protagonist that frequently takes an unexpected path. Loved it.

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Rework

I have heard a few interviews with David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried so some of the stuff in Rework was familiar to me and much of it fits my worldview as a programmer.

Concise, unconventional and useful.

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Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer

Particularly poignant given recent events, this book describes the beginnings of the long and tragic history of political violence in the United States. It is easy to see how misguided and irrational ideology can so easily lead to the death of innocents.

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Mapping of the Surgeon's Mate Complete

The events of The Surgeons Mate, rescue by HMS Shannon, a long chase in The Packet Diligence and the final voyage of the HMS Ariel, is complete.

Over a year and a half ago, having taken an unprecedented eight months to map The Fortune of War, I had anticipated:

I hope my distracting forays into other projects will be less frequent for the next one.

Instead, I have managed to distract myself with more and more projects and found myself with less time to work on mapping the cannon than I would like. Despite the distractions, The Patrick O'Brian Mapping Project remains a priority and in the last few months I have managed to build some features that I am very happy with:

• POB Quotes - A free iPhone application to view a selection of quotes and maps from the project.
• Google Maps Version Three - In May, Google announced that the new version of the Google Maps API would replace version two as the production API. Ever since then I have been meaning to upgrade the rather archaic implementation of the project. I managed to do most of this at the recent Google DevFest in Sydney. As of today, that new version is live on the site and you will notice a new look and feel for the maps. I would love to hear your feedback on the new and (hopefully) improved Patrick O'Brian Mapping Project.
• New backend architecture - Part of the work to move over to version three of the maps API involved changing the way the data is stored in the project. You will now find that links to individual map notes (from the title of the map popups) will be more reliable.

Once again I will optimistically declare that the next book will surely be quicker than the last. Time and Tide etc...

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Ringworld - Larry Niven

I loved this book. The characters, the consistent framework, the majestic premise of the ringworld itself. The scientific underpinning of the book didn't overwhelm my feeble understanding of astrophysics and (with the following exception) kept me firmly immersed in the Ringworld universe.

I get that the genetic luck stuff was a fundamental part of the plot, but I just couldn't suspend disbelief enough to buy it. I can buy FTL drives, transmutation and Scrith, but I just couldn't buy the Luck of Teela Brown. According to Larry Niven:

Stories about infinitely lucky people tend to be dull.

Yep. I agree.

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