Read 9

Not to much to say about a book of facts other than its a great book to dip in and out of this fact book is called the discreetly plumper second book of general ignorance by John Lloyd and John mitchinson its a book that I have on my shelf and I find myself taking it down at odd moments and dipping in and out of it.

Worth room on anyone's book shelve.

Read 8

This book is called map of the nation by Rachel Hewitt and it's the biography of the ordnance survey it's a deep book and I think the reason for this is because it's based on her thesis, I am nevertheless impressed with the sheer amount of work that must have gone into this book and I have to admit that I learned a lot that I never knew before about maps and how they are made and the problems that the early map makers had.

Sadly for me I found some parts heavy going but then that's just me it might be that you have no problem with reading this book. One thing that was a surprise to me was the sheer amout of notes and references in the back of the book it runs to over 100 pages!

Worth the time but a book that for me was a bit tight in places.

Read 7

Yes this is a book I read in the last couple of weeks and I just want to record that fact here. The book is called Brunel the man who built the world it's written by Steven brindle it's a nice easy read that does tell you with out too much depth the life of Brunel and talks about some of his more famous works, well worth a few hours of your time to read it.

I suppose that one day someone will write the biography of Brunel this is not that book but it would be one that you would reference.

Read 6

Another book that I finish just today but that I have been reading for some 4 months is called the a303 highway to the sun by Tom Fort it's a book that should be about the road the A303 but it wanders off the road to talk about transport policy and stuff like that befoe it goes back to talking about the road and the route that it takes.

I did write an earlier blog post about this book when I starting reading it so do look that post up.

Otherwise it's not a bad book to read and I did learn stuff about a road I have driven on many times.

Read 5

Yep still the list of books that I have read in the last few weeks.

This book is a little unusual but it did show me what the world is like of people who are to this day treated badly just because they are differant and it also opened my eyes to just how much the world has changed but not changed in the 100 plus years that this book talks about.

The book is called fanny and Stella by Neil McKenna and it's about the young men who shocked Victorian England. 

Worth a read although parts of it are for me a bit of a hard read but you may find it an easier read than me.

Read 4

Yes yet another book read in the last couple of weeks, did I mention that I have gone through a reading boom of some kind in that last few weeks?

It makes a change from the weeks where I have not managed to read any books or even wanted to read any books.

I perfur the reading phase much better.

So this is the next book I read it's called the secret life of Bletchley park and it's by Sinclair McKay and it a book about the men and women who worked there during WW2 it does open your eyes to just what sort of lives they had to lead during the war and also I think some of the effort that went into the code breaking, it's also sad to note that some of the efforts that these people made went unnoticed then and still I think today.

The most amazing thing to me is that a lot of people worked there and until the late seventies it was a secure as to just how we broke the codes and also just how much we broke, but the book is about some of the people who worked there and how it effected them the effects are wide ranging with some never getting over it.

Book is worth a read just to see the human side of code breaking.

Read 3

Yet another book that I have managed to read in the last few weeks that I want to note here. This book is still in hardback there is as I write this no paperback version of this book out there.

The book is called what if? And it's by Randall Monroe it's a great read and also a fun read it's all about serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions and boy are some of the questions asked good or what.

How about this for a question?

Is it possible to build a jet pack using downward firing machine guns?

Or how about this one?

When if ever will Facebook contain more profiles of dead people than of living ones?

Good questions and there are loads more like that in the book, so for me it was an interesting read.

Read 2

This is book that I have recently it's called on the map and it's by Simon Garfield it's all about why the world looks they way it does basically it's about maps. Sadly for me this read like a series of notes collected over time that just happen to have something to do with maps and was then sort of lumped together.

It's not a bad book, it's well written and the topics chosen are all of interest but for me it comes across as disjointed, maybe I was looking for something else from this book but it's a good read and worth your time as you are bound to learn something and that's always good.

It's not a book I personally would read again but then that's just me.

Read 1

This is a book that I have read veni vidi vici by Peter Jones very interesting book on the Romans it turns out their world was just as complicated as ours is but there view of the world and their place in it was and is very differant to ours.