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A Reader's reviews
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-10-02 03:47:06 for Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (Discworld).
(Language: English)
 
Strange alteration to the title. "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies" are one definite part of this story, and a large part (nearly all, in fact) of the life of Agnes's remaining 21st century descendent; but others who have to get on completely without them include: a demon and an angel who've been on Earth since the garden of Eden (you should see the demon's London flat, and the angel's rare editions bookshop); the Four Motorcyclists of the Apocalypse; the satanic nuns of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl, to whom 2 newborn boys looked so much alike, even if one was the antichrist; a tiny but loyal outpost of the 14th century Witchfinder Army; Tibetan lamas, US secret service agents, a cruise liner, a nuclear electric plant, and a US military base in England. Oh, and the "Them"; but then the Them don't really need anything or anybody, at least until supper time.Great writing, subtle insights, truly hilarious. 
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-10-02 03:20:57 for Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant.
(Language: English)
Warming, uplifting and instructive. Daniel Tammet is a fascinating person, with a gift for writing. The "Blue Day" of the title doesn't mean gloomy or imply a grim childhood: in Daniel's perception, Wednesdays are coloured blue. And that's just the start of a huge pattern of colours, textures, transparency, and other qualities that his mind perceives as part of every number (and lots of words). That the publisher says "Autistic" in the title is unfortunately misleading. Daniel states early in the book that he has Asperger's syndrome, and while it's a range on the same general spectrum of symptoms as autism is, it's a lot higher-functioning, with generally a lot less limitation in the person's communication with the human community and outside world. Daniel still has some of that limitation, of course, but he helps us to see some of it from his perspective, just as he shows us how he can see numbers -- well enough to draw or model his view of them -- and similarly how he can see the patterns in languages well enough to have learned 10 of them. He describes the challenge he accepted of learning Icelandic in under 2 weeks, the latest of his languages at the time of this book. And the sequence of digits in pi, not typically a matter of general excitement, becomes very dramatic as Daniel tells how he memorised the "landscape" of the first several thousand of them to set a modern British record for reciting it aloud. An inspiring story and I will certainly be reading it again.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-30 06:44:03 for The Lord of the Rings.
(Language: English)
Lord of the Rings: Incredible. Read it at least 10 times, lost count after that. And every time I get something new. I think my fascination with languages started here.
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