Book Reviews
and News for Geeks Like Us
I just picked up three more books to review, which begins a Hugo Award-winner binge. You can look forward to upcoming reviews of Ringworld by Larry Niven, The City & The City by China Miéville, and Among Others by Jo Walton. Incidentally, we created a page with all the Hugo Award winners for Best Novel linking to […]
This past weekend, I was desperately reading books (finishing 5 in total) to bring myself up to my 2012 goal of reading 100 books. I was so determined to reach my goal that I visited a local bookstore and read a children’s book. I’ve been told I read fast like a freak, but this was […]
After reading about World War II cryptanalyst Alan Turing in The Code Book not too long ago, I was a little surprised to see him reappear so soon in a book I’m currently reading. However, Alan Turing makes his appearance again in A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins (review forthcoming). In this novel, […]
Typically self-congratulatory blog posts about all the cool visual things that will make you–the reader–better off accompany website launches such as this one. One of my colleagues may yet write that post. I am not. I am writing a blog post about all the cool stuff that you don’t necessarily see. Or the stuff that […]
Jason and I were trying out a recipe from Cooking for Geeks over the weekend; Eigen Pancakes. “No one’s ever wrong on the Internet, so the average of a whole bunch of right things must be righter, right? The quantities here are based on the average of the eight different pancake recipes from an online […]
After reading How I Killed Pluto (and Why it Had it Coming), I am surprised to hear myself agreeing– Pluto never should have been a planet. I think it is better off as a non-planet.
Mike Brown briefly discovered the 10th planet in the solar system, before Eris, along with Pluto, was demoted to dwarf planet status. His discoveries, exploration of the Kuiper belt, and the controversy surrounding Pluto’s status are explored in his book, “How I Killed Pluto (and Why It Had It Coming).” During the course of the […]
Members of the Geeky Library crew headed to downtown Portland this weekend to participate in the “Run like Hell.” Traditionally a costumed run, the theme this year was super heroes– perfect for our geeky sensibilities. Jason originally wanted to go as the Flash, but was afraid it would be like “an episode of the Big […]
Have you seen the google homepage today? The doodle celebrates the 161st anniversary of the publication of Moby-Dick, Herman Melville’s so-called masterpiece. Oh yeah… I absolutely loathed that book and you probably never see it on the GeekyLibrary shelves. Read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea instead. Edit: There is an archive of this Google […]
I found this on a desk in a library. Classic.
Apparently Winston Churchill was startled by the geeky codebreakers that were vital to the British in World War II. “Winston Churchill was fully aware of the importance of the Bletchley decipherments, and on 6 September 1941 he visited the codebreakers. On meeting some of the cryptanalysts, he was surprised by the bizarre mixture of people […]
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea can now be related to a car commercial.