Friday, September 28, 2007

You may have noticed...

...a slight change in format. Back when I was coding this by hand, I used the colored phrases to indicate my rating. On one hand it was a unique way to do that. On the other hand, it often hobbled my writing as I needed to incorporate that magic phrase somewhere in my review. Well, with the tags now available through Blogger, my homegrown tags in the text were a bit superfluous. I considered tossing them out entirely, but nostalgia led me to compromise and now I'll leave my rating as a separate line at the end of the post. I'm sure you're all fascinated. Anyway, back to the reviews....

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Degunking Your Mac

by Joli Ballew

Back in the day, I used to know my Mac pretty well. I could tweak my system just the way I wanted it and could avoid a lot of problems. But over the years I got lazy and let the IT guys start doing all the work. The result is that I don't know the latest OS near as well as I should. I was hoping that this book would give me the information I need to regain some of my expertise and "get under the hood" of Mac OS X. I was disappointed. While this book contained a few tidbits of info, it was mostly a lecture on keeping your files organized. Stuff I would have thought to be common sense. It wasn't even enjoyable to read. There were many times I felt like the message that I was getting was, "Work like me and you'll be happy." It also seemed like she repeated herself a lot. Whether it was to drill some ideas into thick heads or to pad out the book to make it a book rather than a fat pamphlet, I don't know. All in all, I think my time would have been better spent surfing the web and browsing through Mac oriented web sites and message boards. Oh, well, live and learn.
Eh, it's waiting room material.
LibraryThing link

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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Revenge of the Baby-Sat

by Bill Watterson

I think this one's my favorite Calvin and Hobbes collection. In it, Mr. Watterson tries his hand at a couple of more "serious" storylines, namely the "Propeller Beanie" tale and the sequence in which Calvin's home gets burgled. I think he handled both tales well, melding realistic events with Calvin's weird take on reality. And, of course, there's the usual Calvinity afoot, including the origin of G.R.O.S.S. (I would have thought that institution had started earlier in the strip's history. Good thing I'm rereading the collections so I can get things straight, eh?)
I want it on my shelf!
LibraryThing link

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Monday, September 24, 2007

Old Tippecanoe

by Freeman Cleaves

In the past, when I've been seeking out Presidential biographies, I've been looking for the most modern versions I could find. I figure that if you go back to the fifties or earlier, all you'll get is a rah-rah tale of "America right or wrong" hero worship. And if you try for the sixties or seventies, all you'll get is a "let me tell you the truth about this so called hero" tale. Well, when it came to the 9th U.S. President, my choice was Inter-library Loan, or this 1939 volume. (not counting the juvenile biographies, of course.) Old Tippecanoe was not quite the propaganda piece I envisioned, but it certainly was not written for 21st Century sensibilities. William Henry Harrison was a man of the frontier, living most of his life in Indiana and Ohio. As Mr. Cleaves described the events of Harrison's life, he did mention the shortcomings of the European settlers, but never questioned their right to be in territory that belonged to other people.Nor did he hesitate to call the Native Americans "savages" while at the same time reporting how American soldiers were also collecting enemy scalps during the War of 1812. On the other hand, every era has its own bias, and it does me good to read an author that might call our modern beliefs into question. But, cultural biases aside, this wasn't a satisfying book. I would have preferred a volume with more analysis of the motivations and settings of our forebears, rather than one that focused so closely on the details of Harrison's life. It might have made the book more interesting and informative. Of course, one can hardly blame a biographer for focusing on his subject. Ah, well. I suppose if I insist on reading a bio for every president, I'll have to accept a few disappointments. (The books, I mean, not the presidents. The presidents I can always hope to vote out of office.)
'Tis only waiting room material.
LibraryThing link

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Saturday, September 15, 2007

Weirdos from Another Planet

by Bill Watterson

Compared to its predecessors, this fourth Calvin and Hobbes collection is rather pedestrian. It's filled with all sorts of Calvin and Hobbes gags and stories, but none really jump out as my favorites. However, pedestrian Calvin and Hobbes is still great stuff, so I'm keeping this on my shelf.
LibraryThing link

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Friday, September 14, 2007

The Two Towers

by J.R.R. Tolkien

When I started this, the second book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I expected the story to lag, as so often happens in the middle of trilogies. (I had read it before, back when I was young and couldn't appreciate quality when I read it. I had forgotten most of the book.) The tale contained the further adventures of the Fellowship of the Ring--the comrades of Frodo Baggins who are helping him in his mission. In this book the Fellowship has had to split up and each group faces their own adventures. The story is a bit darker than the first volume--the threats a bit more harrowing. But that just gives the heroes more chance to shine and makes for a better tale. Rather than lagging, the story increased my interest and made me eager to dive into the next part. So now I have to put this back on my shelf and go grab The Return of the King.
LibraryThing link

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Sunday, September 09, 2007

The Complete Peanuts: 1963 to 1964

by Charles Schulz

My wife is a long time fan of Peanuts and has been faithfully collecting The Complete Peanuts reprints as finances allow. But there is a limit to her loyalty. She thinks that Mr. Schulz jumped the shark around 1970 or so and will stop collecting as soon as they get to those strips. Me, I'm ready to stop now. Don't get me wrong--this book still is quite entertaining, worth checking out and all. It's just nothing spectacular that I need to read again. The years 1963 and 1964 saw a lot of typical Peanuts gags--from Snoopy's amazing dog house to Charlie Brown's baseball woes. There were some story lines that extended over a few strips, but none really grabbed my attention.
LibraryThing link

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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Unshelved

by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum

Unshelved is the first Unshelved collection. (duh!) I would like to put Unshelved on my shelf because it's the first of the series and I already said I wanted to put the next three volumes on my shelf. Unshelved begins with a request from Mr. Barnes and Mr. Ambaum to "be gentle". Apparently they think that the initial strips weren't all that good. In my opinion, it's really not that bad. The early strips weren't as good as their later efforts, but I'd still put a copy on my shelf on its own merits. sigh. I can't wait until Christmas....
LibraryThing link

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Monday, September 03, 2007

Yukon Ho!

by Bill Watterson

I really am reading things other than comic strip collections. In fact, right now I'm working on an epic fantasy tale, a presidential biography and biblical commentary. It's just that all those take a long time to finish and comics can be read oh, so quickly. Anyway, this third Calvin and Hobbes collection sees some longer storylines, including an expedition towards the Yukon and a visit from Calvin's Uncle Max. (I kinda wish ol' Max had made a return to the strip, but I guess Mr. Watterson had milked all of the guest jokes out of that concept.) Plus there's the usual antics of the the surrealistic six-year-old and his imaginary (or is he?) tiger friend. One of those books where I've had to tape the cover together so I could keep it on my shelf.
LibraryThing link

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Sunday, September 02, 2007

Library Mascot Cage Match

by Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum

Okay! I finished all of the Unshelved collections we have in the house. This one is number three in the adventures of Dewey and the other librarians at the Mallville Public Library. It offers the same kind of gags and stories that you'd read in the other collections. This one does feature a "graphic novelette", Empire County Strikes Back. But as a special feature goes, I wasn't too impressed. There were some chuckles, but the ending was a tad too preachy. Still, I'd love to have a copy of it on my shelf.
LibraryThing link

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Saturday, September 01, 2007

What Would Dewey Do?

by Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum

The family has complicated my free time, borrowing all sorts of books from the library that I want to read as well. My wife brought home the latest volume of The Complete Peanuts, while my daughter reserved all five collections of Unshelved. This is the second collection, covering such important issues as a haiku-only poetry slam, a dilemma over the confidentiality of patron library records and the uses of surplus bean bag chairs. No home should be without such literature! I'll have to get a copy for my own shelf.
LibraryThing link

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