I went a little cuckoo over the last year or so and I bought several pallets worth of photography books. DHL had to bust out the flat bed and the forklift. The drivers were drawing straws to avoid my street. One guy actually threw a punch when I answered the door. Luckily I have ninja like reflexes and I simultaneously ducked, signed my name electronically, grabbed the package, and performed a perfect tuck and roll back into my foyer. Don’t mess with the Fullerton.

One of the standout books was this book, The Photographers Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos, by Michael Freeman. I learned a lot about composing my pictures. Freeman writes about how to design your photograph – how to see what your photographing. There’s so much to think about, like framing, color, lines, juxtaposition, and pattern. It can be a bit overwhelming. I knew much of it going in, but it ties the concepts together well and it’s full of really great pictures. Of course reading about taking pictures is no substitute for actually getting out and shooting, but it’s a great addition to anyone’s photography book collection. Even if you already have several eyebrow high stacks of photography books like I do.

I started a new, additional, blog: Mike’s FictionBlog. I’ll talk about books, movies, writing, etc.. If you’re interested in any of these, check it out. Those of you who know me know I read a lot, and this seemed like a very obvious thing to do. Please check it out: http://fictionblog.mikefullerton.com

I may also be dividing my current blog into another blog or two. This is because I think my blog to date has had a bit of an identity crisis. I think I tend to not post to it because I’m not sure what it’s about. What is the point? I don’t mean that in a depressed futile way, but in a literal way. What am I trying to say with it? What is the content supposed to be? Who am I trying to have read it? I think my friends and family read it and that’s about it. I’d like to do more with it.

There are a few categories that I’d like to focus on:

1. Books and reading and other Fiction related topics

2. Photography

3. Technology

4. My life in general

I’m thinking about combining 2 + 3 into another blog. Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do. I see advantages and disadvantages to combining these. But on the other hand, I don’t want too many of these damn things. I’m open to suggestions.

This, of course, implies that I’ll be spending more time blogging. True. Which is something I want to do anyway. This way I’m hoping to cultivate more readers because the readers can choose which blog is interesting, and each blog will be tightly focused. We’ll see. Let me know what you think. Hopefully this isn’t a stupid idea.

Here’s some mini reviews of a few of the books I’ve read over the last couple of months. No spoilers. I’m willing to lend to friends, if anyone is inclined to indulge.

Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson
I really enjoyed this book. Many sci-fi books lack character development. In these other books, the characters are a little flat, and rarely do the change and evolve, and even more rarely do you feel like you know them as people. However, Wilson does a great job in Spin. The plot of the book is also a page turner, the sci-fi ideas interesting, and the conclusion satisfying. Thumbs up for this one. I’ll be seeking out other books by him, as this is the first one I’ve read by him.

No country for old men, Cormac McCarthy
McCarthy is one of my favorite writers. He reminds me of Hemingway in his use of language, which I love. The passages of the character in the desert; the fear of the characters; the dialog. It’s awe inspiring, an emotional rush, a piece of art. McCarthy’s books are violent and he doesn’t compromise. You’ve been warned. Some of the scenes are gruesome and hard to get through. Kinda like life. His work though is unparalleled. I don’t really know of any other contemporary writer writing at his level. I loved his other books, All the Pretty Horses, the Crossing, Cities of the Plain, and Blood Meridian. My only complaint is that the perspective on final showdown between two of the major characters was a little weird and I felt a little ripped off there. I really enjoyed the book though and it’s such a page turner I read it from cover to cover in one sitting. Don’t do THAT too often…

Kentucky Straight, by Chris Offutt
This is a bunch of stories that shocked me. These people might as well be living on another planet from me. That said, they were riveting. Entertaining. Enlightening. A short, but very worthwhile read. This one I might come back to some day.

At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror, by H.P. Lovecraft
I don’t usually read horror. I kind of read this as homework. I didn’t find the story to be very horrifying though. I wasn’t terrified. I was intellectually interested in the discovery the characters made, but not really scared. I guess this book is old school horror. Not really Steven King. More like the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits. Um, the originals.

Century Rain, Alastair Reynolds
Another one of my favorite sci-fi authors. Truly a brilliant author. If you like hard sci-fi and you liked his other books, like Absolution Gap or Revelation space, read this. I didn’t like it as much as his previous works, but anything by Reynolds is head an shoulders above most other contemporary sci-fi. I thought the premise of the book was a little hard to swallow, maybe I’ll get more sucked in with the next book, which I’m sure will come.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter #6), J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter is always a fun read. Although this one seemed to lack a certain something in the middle. Something big happens at the end, which I won’t give away, and that was exciting, but the rest of the story was somewhat of a dud in my opinion. If you’ve read it, and you know what the big happening was, I’ve got to say that I’m not sure I believe it anyway.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
I really enjoyed this book. Heinlein is another author who creates characters and puts them in situations, as apposed to the other way around of most sci-fi authors. I really enjoy getting to know well fleshed out characters. Of the Heinlein books I’ve read recently, I liked this one the best.

Stranger in a strange land, by Robert Heinlein (Unabridged)
Maybe because it was unabridged, I found myself wallowing a bit with this one. It’s the classic though (can you grok it my water brother?). Pretty much you can’t go wrong here, though I might suggest getting the original version. Not sure about that though.

Orphans of the Sky, Robert Heinlein
This was pretty much a quick goofy read. It was quite dated. It was fun though, the idea of a huge ship lost somewhere in space where the people have forgotten and now don’t believe they are on a ship. Excellent premise. It’s just a little dated though. Like I said.

Dan Simmons is a pretty smart fellow. Read the interview and you’ll see what I mean. It’s right here. Click it. Click it now!

Holy mother of god, I just finished Olympos by Dan Simmons and all that’s left is crater where my pathetic brain used to be. Regardless of whether I liked this book or not, it certainly got my attention. I experienced a range of emotions reading this. At times I simply didn’t understand it. And this made me feel pretty dumb. At times it just pissed me off. It’s packed to the brim with the literary (Iliad, Homer, etc) references, the Greeks Gods, quoted poetry, and pontificating. I think it was a bit over the top and pompous at times. At the same time I experienced a certain awe, as if I standing at the foot of unclimbable and achingly beautiful mountain. Dan Simmons is off the scale of creativity and brilliance and at times I really struggled to understand what was happening. There were perhaps too many characters, Achilles, Helen of Troy, Hockenbaree, the Moreveks, the post humans, the folks at Ardis. Holy crap.

While I may complain about these things I also have this feeling that perhaps I’m too much of a barbarian too truly have appreciated it. Perhaps it warrants a reread. One thing I will say is that I should have reread Ilium before tackling this enourmous dictionary sized tome. Usually I’m okay with a year or so between reading the next volumn in a series, Harry Potter, for example, but at times I really had to strain to remember specifically what happened in Illium. Aaarg! Too much information! Too much information! If you read Olympos, read Ilium first. Like back to back first.

Anyway, it’s a hell of a read no matter which way you look at it. If you’re up for a challenge, read it.

I’m currently reading Century Rain, by Allastair Reynolds. So far it’s okay. Not as good as his other books, like Revelation Space or Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days. I’m almost done with this book, but so far it seems like he just phoned this one in. Maybe the ending will redeem this one. I’ll let you know.

So I’ve been using All Consuming for a while to track which books I read and to put little info on the current book I’m reading on my webpage. I’ve had mixed feelings about this service for a while, mainly because I find the UI to be very confusing, and now since All Consuming was consumed by 43things I’m even more confused. I pretty much give 43things the finger. I think this website was designed by mischievous monkeys.

Maybe it’s time to do something different to track my book reading. Besides I’m so far behind chronicling reading in my blog that it’s made all the neighborhood children cry. After all this is one of the concrete reasons I started blogging in the first place. I wanted to keep a journal of the stuff I’ve read.

Maybe I’ll try just writing blog posts about what I’m reading instead. Simple is good.

Being a wannabe writer, I really enjoyed this. We definitely need better writing. The blog post is worth the read as is, I’m sure, the book, Introduction to Best Software Writing I, by Joel Spolsky.

If you read the list of authors, you’ll see Rick Schaut. Rick is a MacBU veteran. I met him a couple of times when I was a dev lead over in the MacBU. Nice job Rick. Writing well, is like hard and stuff.

[Update]

Here’s Rick on the article for the book.

Here’s the article on Word 6.

I just finished The Dark Tower by Stephen King. This was volume seven and is the conclusion of the Gunslinger series (which King started writing in 1970). This is quite an investment to read, most of the books are giant unabridged dictionary sized. The print is fairly large though so mayhap it’s not really as long as it looks. This one took me a while to read – about two weeks. I usually average about one book per week. Anyway, I’m still thinking about the conclusion. Parts of the last book were very sad. The only other book that has come close on the sadness scale was For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway). I actually had to stop reading The Dark Tower and pull my self together before continuing. It’s funny how you get to know characters and care what happens to them. Especially after living with them through their adventures for thousands and thousands of pages. They almost seem like real people. Anyway, pontificating any more about it seems lame, so I’ll stop. Let me just say that it’s worth it. Clearly, this is the pinnacle of King’s work, and I thank him for it. Thankye sai King.

Long days and pleasant nights.

Scott Knaster has published a new book Hacking your ipod and iTunes. Congratulations Scott! The book even has its own website!

Scott and I worked together back in the good old days in the MacBu. I’m glad to see him doing well and publishing. That pretty much kicks ass.