January 16, 2007

The Walking Boy

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While browsing through the stacks at Greenwoods which is one of the local Edmonton independent book stores I came across this book. The author's name jumped out at me - Hey I know her! I met Lydia Kwa through my Mom in Kingston - it is so exciting seeing her novels on the shelf.

Posted by songdawg at 5:46 PM | Books

November 29, 2004

Best books

My top 5 favourite books at the moment are:

Lilith's Brood by Octavia Butler

Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear

The Fresco by Sheri S. Tepper

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson

Flaming Iguanas: An Illustrated Motorcycle-Girl Road Novel Thing by Erika Lopez

Posted by songdawg at 6:26 PM | Books

January 21, 2004

The Beekeeper's Apprentice

I found another great book: The Beekeeper's Apprentice. I had planned on falling asleep early so that I could get a good night's sleep but that was sabotaged by this awesome book. It's written from the perspective of Mary Russell, a 15-year old orphaned heiress who meets Sherlock Holmes. They become inseparable, she becomes his apprentice and later partner in solving mysteries. I had trouble putting it down and now this morning feel quite groggy.

Tonight is rehearsal for the St Nicholas Mandolin Ensemble and then practice with Wildwood Flower. I had a bass lesson with Travis Short last night trying to improve my playing technique - I have been so lazy and I have been able to get by with playing bluegrass. But it looks like with some work I can get on the right track. I currently have an elastic joining the ring and index finger on my left hand - to train them to stick close and work together. Looks like some kind of Star Trek gesture.

Q. Why aren't there any banjos on Star Trek?

A. It's the future.

Posted by songdawg at 7:30 AM | Comments (1) | Books

January 15, 2004

Top 10 Favourite Books

I love reading and thought I would share my top 10 favourite books. All of them are books with great ideas and most of them I have read at least a dozen times. This could have easily been a top 100 list but I thought I would be nice and keep it to a readable length. Feel free to post a comment on what you're reading right now or what your favourite books are - I am curious and always on the lookout for new stuff to read.

Posted by songdawg at 7:35 AM | Books

January 14, 2004

Some good SF

So this is what kept me up last night - a new good book. I picked up Humans by Robert Sawyer and started to read. The next time I looked up it was 1:00 am.

I read Hominids over the Holidays which is the first in the series and loved it. Part of the novel is set at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory which is quite close to where I grew up in Northern Ontario. There are a lot of Canadianisms and references which is fun to read. And it's a great Science Fiction premise - imagine that there is a parallel Earth where Neanderthals survived to the present day and we did not. They have evolved as we have (well not quite which is very interesting) and a Neanderthal physicist opens a bridge between the two. It's a good book - can't wait to see what happens next.

Here's a link to a list of Canadian Science Fiction

Posted by songdawg at 7:46 AM | Comments (4) | Books

September 11, 2003

Magic Touch Lamp

Every night I read for about half an hour. I have done this since I can remember. I used to light a candle, which is the perfect amount of light - bright enough to read but mellow enough to relax. But I have been hearing about how candles contain lots of chemicals which are not that great for you when they burn into the air. And the yummy bee wax ones are too expensive to use every day. Since the renos I have been using an old lamp we had kicking around that is very bright. It's so bright that I have been having trouble falling asleep (something I rarely have trouble with). I guess I need the dim light as a queue that it's time to drift off to NeverNeverLand.

So yesterday I went out and bought a lamp at London Drugs, it was pretty inexpensive and is perfect. It's blue (like the paint in the bedroom), has the perfect amount of mellow brightness I was looking for, and it's a magic touch lamp so I just have to tap the base to turn it on and switch between the different light intensities (night light, mellow, bright and brightest). Perfect. Now I just need to find a bedside table and I will be allset. The IKEA bar stool that I am using now is the perfect height but there's not enough space on it to hold everything (book, glasses, water, lamp, alarm clock).

Still no word from Futureshop about my laptop.

Posted by songdawg at 7:21 AM | Books