Category: Intriguing

Things that go bump in the night

Ghost Hunter's Guide to Los Angeles (Ghost Hunters Guides) [rating:4/5]

For some strange reason, I’ve had a sudden interest in local ghost stories. Why? I really haven’t a clue. I suppose it could be because the topic is rather entertaining (even though I really don’t believe in ghosts – at least I haven’t met any yet <smile>). I recently read another book which I found in the bargain bin at the bookstore. That book, “The World’s Most Haunted Places: From The Secret Files of […]” was poorly written and did little but put me to sleep. While Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Los Angeles follows the same format (just a few pages on each alleged “haunting”), the author’s prose is far better and the stories remain interesting (albeit, unconvincing).

It is apparent the Jeff Dwyer must have done a far amount of research before writing this book and his tales are a good read. Even so, the book lacks any “hard evidence” that the spooks he reports on exist – most are simply good stories that outline the history of the “haunted” places he writes about. Having lived in the Los Angeles area essentially all of my life, I am familiar with a large number of the places he writes about and was surprised to find that Dwyer reports on many of the lesser known landmarks, in addition to the “standard” ones (i.e., the Queen Mary, Disneyland, and many of the large cemeteries).

While I remain a skeptic (and nothing in this book convinced me otherwise), the book was both interesting and enjoyable. I would certainly recommend it to those who are interested in Los Angeles historical landmarks as many are covered in this book. Of course, it also adds a bit of character to the history of those places.

Great phone with a few problems

Samsung i760 Black Phone (Verizon Wireless) [rating:4/5]

Overall, this is a fantastic phone, I’ve had mine now for about a week. My previous phone was a Samsung a990 which was terrific (a five-star phone all the way). As my two year period was up, I was able to update and wanted to get a phone that would sync with Outlook; something that the i760 does very well. The only complaint I had when I bought this phone was that the camera only has 1.3 megapixels. Surely, Samsung should have done better than that! Just the same, I needed to sync my calendar so I decided to try this one.

The first thing I noticed after using it, was that the battery does not hold a charge well. In fact, my phone came with both an “extended battery” and a regular one. Needless to say, I have difficulty going through an entire day without having to either recharge it or use the spare battery. Unlike my old a990, which always made it through the day, I find the new phone’s inability to retain a charge a bit annoying (sure, it also has a lot of great features which are, of course, power hungry).

Another problem I’ve been having is that the voice recognition feature is very quirky – with my a990, I rarely had problems, with the i760, it’s been a daily battle.

While I consider myself to be geek, I’m still learning how to use Windows Mobile 6, as well as how to use the various features of the phone. Unfortunately, it does not come with a printed manual (something that I find VERY annoying), although there is one on a CD that comes with the phone.

Overall, I still think it’s a great little phone and I enjoy the ability to send text message “howlers” to my son when I find out he hasn’t completed his homework. 🙂 The handwriting recognition feature is also the best I’ve used so far – it’s speedy and even recognizes my cursive! Now that says something.

Children of HĂşrin, The

Tje Children of HĂşrin[rating:4/5]

I was first exposed to Tolkien a few gabazillion years ago, in fifth grade, when my teacher decided to read “The Hobbit” to our class – a work which we quickly devoured with gusto. That, of course, lead her to read the Lord of the Rings (many of us purchased our own copies) which, in turn, lead to the life-long admiration and fascination with anything Tolkien. Nearly four decades later (ugh!), The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit remain my uncontested favorite books of all time – I’ve read them at least ten times (and each time still find something new in them).

Even so, I’ve found some of Tolkien’s other books to be quite academic (with regard to both language and construction) and, to be quite honest, rather dry. That does not; however, make me disdain them; rather, they are simply less enjoyable to read. Many of these have been compiled, posthumously, from the author’s obviously extensive notes and drafts that he compiled during his lifetime and, when reassembled into a narrative form remain rather pedantic; “The Children of Húrin” is yet another example.

While the story is a tragic one – in fact, it may be may be one of Tolkien’s darkest tales, it also shows the genius of the author as he created his epic tales of Middle Earth. The problem with that; however, is that like so many of his other stories (e.g., The Silmarillion), this tome is filled with an extraordinary number of genealogies compounded by the fact that many of the characters (especially the main ones) are continually changing their names – not dissimilar to that which occurs in the Bible. At times, so much effort must be made to identify the key figures, that reading becomes a real chore.

In many ways, reading this book seems somewhat analogous to examining the rough drafts of an exhaustive composition by a masterful composer; the working versions of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (not my personal favorite) actually sounds laughable prior to the final polished opus. Audiences were not meant to savor anything but the composer’s finished work: the same seems to apply to many of Tolkien’s pre-Hobbit Middle Earth stories.

All in all, I would have to recommend this book to serious Tolkien fans, but only after they have developed a mature grasp of his true masterpiece – Lord of the Rings.

Kites

Kites[rating:4/5]

This book is, without question, an exemplary work on the fascinating topic of kites. This work explores their history in detail and should certainly be in the library of anyone who is interested in the subject.Sadly, there are some problems with this book that are certainly unrelated to its content but, due to their ability to interfere with reading it, must be mentioned here. Never, and I mean this literally, have I ever read a book which was published using such incredibly small type and my vision certainly isn’t that bad. The type used is so small that it’s almost impossible to read much without getting distracted. Furthermore, the type used for captions to the many great photographs and drawings is even smaller. Then, to compound matters, the ink used for text reflects light in such a way that one can only read the book when positioned properly. According to the cover pages, the book was printed in China and, I don’t know if they used poor printing techniques or where just trying to save money but this book is, without question, the most poorly published I’ve ever come across. About my only criticism regarding the content of this book is that it could use a quick edit as there are few items that get annoying very quickly; in particular, the author’s (or editor’s) decision to use the metric system (nothing wrong with that, per se) but that those measurements are consistently then provided using the imperial system with that number being preceded with the word “say.” For example, the kite measured one meter (say 1.09 yards), etc. The strange use of the word “say” (which often appears several times on a page) gets to be really irritating.

Granted, this review is rather different but the poor publishing and editing decisions greatly interfere with what would otherwise be an incredible book.

Secret Supper: A Novel

The Secret Supper: A Novel[rating:4/5]

I found this book to be a rather intriguing read. While it seems that reviewers on Amazon either love it or hate it, I suspect that this may be due to several factors:

1. It’s not the easiest book to follow due to the large number of characters and their “foreign” (mostly Italian) names. I found myself having to read and reread much of the material just to keep take of the characters.

2. The book was originally written in Spanish. My gut feeling is that the person(s) who translated this novel into English may not have done justice to the book.

3. The topic of the book; itself, requires a certain amount of background knowledge prior to reading it. If this is the case, some may have found it to be dry and boring.

Personally, I found the book quite interesting – especially once I got into the story.