books

I have a recently rediscovered passion and interest for History, absorbing many tomes over the past few months, my favourite being brief surmises of 'all of History'. Possibly it's laziness or a fear of delving to deeply into specific areas of History so early into my enthusiasm, or perhaps a desire to get an overall picture of the state of the world before specialising. Whatever the reason Bill Bryson's infamous book that comes highly recommended from many sources is nothing to do with human h...

The prester quest is a story of two men's present day retracing of a journey from Italy to Ethiopia made by a Papal Emissary in 1177. His mission to deliver a letter to a supposedly (and widely believed to be) real King of a fantastical Christian land in the heart of Islamic lands. I read a similar 'retracing the steps' book (Victoria Clarks, The Wayfarers) about a year ago, which was an amazing read, so this book had a lot to live up to. It starts slowly and doesn't really get going until about...

Living within the European focussed world view that many of us have had instilled into us from an early age it is often hard to forget that there are and were highly developed civilisations besides the Europeans, and the Europeans weren't necessarily always the first to achieve or discover things. In 1421 Gavin Menzies sets out a believable hypothesis that the first nation to 'discover' and 'chart' the rest of the world outside of their own locality was the Chinese and not those who we're led to...

Perhaps the closest reference point to Douglas Coupland for those of you unfamiliar with his work is Kurt Vonnegut, a reference point that I'm sure Douglas Coupland hears frequently. If you're unfamiliar with either's work then I guess the best description would be, 'different' or maybe 'hyper real', characters sort of shamble through in a state of confusion that no one else suffers from with odd occurrences happening to them that no one else considers odd. JPod is a book about and aimed at Geek...

This book took me a very long time to read, months in fact, the topic is a weighty one, not hard to understand or absorb, just one that can only be digested in short sittings. It deals with the long running conflict between Rome and Jerusalem, dating back to the latter years of BC and effectively (through recurring anti Semitism) running until now. However this book deals with events primarily up to 4th Century AD and the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, including the fascinating reign...

It's hard to effectively review a guide to cycle paths in South East Queensland when you're stuck in Melbourne with no chance of attempting them anytime soon. The guide produced by Bicycling Australia is exceptionally well produced and thought out with ring bound easy to clean laminated pages for those journeys where your hands spend more time fiddling with oily parts than on the handlebars. There are 47 rides spread across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast to keep you busy for man...

'Slow' is an increasingly popular worldwide movement encouraging us to all, well, slow down. To take time out from our increasingly (and frequently self inflicted) hectic lives to appreciate what is around us, to take time to notice little things that were previously unnoticed, investigate places un-investigated, try new experiences and treat the world in a different, more relaxed and inquisitive manner. Affirm Press's 'Slow Guides' to Melbourne and Sydney are the first (of hopefully many) in a...

The Byzantine Empire was a long forgot segment of Mediterranean History that seems to be undergoing something of a rediscovery recently. I'm unsure why it's history seemed to slip down the back of the rhetorical sofa as it's certainly a most tumultuous and colourful history full of victory, disaster, insane characters, powerful characters and the usual battles, religious turmoil and tales that accompany any medieval history. This is a summarised version of John Julius Norwich's three volume Byza...

I find this small collection of images documenting London's derelict underbelly appealing for two reasons. I know the author from his days as an Indie label 'boss' and the fact that he turned to a successful sideline in snapping pictures of abandoned buildings is fascinating. Secondly a lot of the subjects within the book are familiar to me, sometimes in the same state as within the book and sometimes in their previous non-dilapidated state. My own connections aside this is a great little book...

Whilst I do not believe in God by any means and would certainly describe myself as an Atheist, my biggest issue with 'The God Delusion' is what Richard Dawkins would describe as his 'Devout Atheism'. The fervour and passion he writes with is almost on a par with that of a religion devotees and thus at times is equally as awkward to digest. Perhaps it could also be due to a conditioning of our modern world he describes, in that we feel awkward discussing religious topics in public, in case we off...

<a href=https://www.slowguides.com.au>www.slowguides.com.au</a> 'Slow' is an increasingly popular worldwide movement encouraging us to all, well, slow down. To take time out from our increasingly (and frequently self inflicted) hectic lives to appreciate what is around us, to take time to notice little things that were previously unnoticed, investigate places un-investigated, try new experiences and treat the world in a different, more relaxed and inquisitive manner. Affirm Press's 'Slow Guide...

Umberto Eco is often a difficult read, he has a tendency to take a really good (semi-fictional) plot and wrap in a lot of intellectual posturing that can become annoying and fundamentally far too distracting to continue reading. I am well aware of his vices and whilst I frequently have no idea what he is talking about I still really enjoying reading his books and would even list him as one of my favourite authors. The Island of the Day before is perhaps one of Umberto Eco's easiest reads with a...

CiviCRM like many open source tools is a blank canvas and a set of paints that different implementers will take in many different ways based on their myriad uses and requirements. This is why the cookbook concept always works so well, most implementers, developers and users will carry around their own sets of recipes, tips and tricks to accomplish particular results that may or may not be anything like someone else's. Tony Horrocks has done a great job bringing together many of these into one...

**Drupal for Education and elearning by James G Robertson and Bill Fitzgerald** One of the commonalities with packt's Drupal titles is that whilst covering a variety of themes, they often include a lot of basic material that is included in all titles. This makes the titles great for those looking to cover a particular theme or topic from start to finish, but for those looking for more depth (or reviewing titles) you will spend some time reading through familiar territory such as installing, modules...

I picked this book up as part of a book bundle somewhere, but escapes me with one right now. It's timing was perfect as research for the development of Chip Shop as it covers the history of video games from 1970 up to the year 2000. The writing quality is average, which is typical of this style of book written by an (obvious) enthusiast. Each year gets its own chapter and occasionally reads like a collection of essays as topics are sometimes repeated in different chapters. In terms of content,...

In my continued efforts to read as mazy works of dystopian fiction as possible, next on my list was Battle Royale. On a side note, are there many works of purely utopian fiction? Or would that not sell? Back to the east Asian republic. Set in the non-too-distant future, a large Asian empire now rules over an undefined area, full of social control, aggression and suppression. Once a term a class of school children are chosen to compete in a battle to the death on an abandoned island with no hope...

I have been wanting to read this as part of my research into dystopian fiction for my One day the World Ended project and I have mixed opinions on this book. I loved the concept and it's scarily close. Whilst reading some of the book I was in NYC and it seemed even closer to reality. However, the pacing of the book was odd, it had a lot of padding and then the 'dramatic conclusion' is about twenty pages. Some of the writing is a bit trashy to, comparisons to Brave New World are not deserved. I...

As part of creating Chip Shop (and future game ideas) I read recommendations on reading about (and playing) various types of games, not just board games. I'll admit that I have generally sucked at modern computer games, but I am still amazed by the storytelling, ideas and visuals in them. This book was an amazing journey for me, an excuse and way of exploring games that I will likely never be able to play or will be too incompetent to enjoy. It covers classics to modern games, obscure to massi...

First, let's get the disclaimers out of the way. I helped [Kickstart](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2146199819/commodore-amiga-a-visual-commpendium) this book, but that wouldn't necessarily make my review biased... I loved the Amiga when I was a child anyway, but this was also a perfect research volume for Chip Shop. I have the PDF digital version, but even so, the full page, full colour screen grabs are beautiful and even if you don't read the text it's an enjoyable read. If you do take the time to read the game, studio and personality descriptions you will uncover great...

I loved this book and couldn't stop reading it, which was a pain as I mostly read before going to sleep. The book takes an era by era look at how the video games and movie industries have tried to collaborate together, and largely failed. The first few chapters were great research for my Chip Shop board game, covering such infamous tie-ins as ET, Indiana Jones, Tron, and a few you might have forgotten about. It was amazing how recent actual successful movie and game tie-ins were, with Tomb Raid...

It's taken moving to a non-English speaking country to realize how wide spread and common place the English languages is in the World. This has piqued my interest in learning about the origins of our bastard tongue and how it got to this position. The book was first written in the 1980s and was most recently revised in 2002, which makes it sometimes sound out of date in style. I would also say that since then English has become even more dominant, and some cultures less resistant to it. The fi...