Flow my Tears, the policeman said

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The story opens at the end of another successful TV show hosted by Jason Taverner, an extremely successful singer in a fictional late eighties environment. Published in 1974 this would have been set in the not too distant future, details of which are touched on but not given a great deal of depth. There has been a second American civil war which has led to the emergence of a totalitarian police state. The population is divided into citizens and the non-persons who are driven uyndergound by the Pols (police) and Nats (national guard), everyones movements restricted via frequent check points demanding various papers and identification. Jason Taverner and his current lover are also identified as a six, a possible genetic engineering experiment which has been outlawed with few individuals remaining living in secret.


Into this scenario Jason Taverner the womanising celebrity singer and TV personality is attacked by a former lover with some kind of alien parasite. He repels the attack but not before he is given a potentially fatal wound. He is taken to the hospital where he fades into unconsciousness surrounded by his lover and hospital staff.


He awakens in a cheap hotel, his identity papers missing but a large roll of cash still in his possession. He soon establishes that the world has forgotten who he is, friends, lovers and peers no longer remember him or will help him. Without ID he is unable to travel anywhere without the risk of being sent to a forced labour camp and is forced into trusting starngers and the blackmarket to acquire forged documents.


The story unfolds at a fairly good pace there are some interesting characters introduced along Jason's journey, the escaped mental patient forger, the aged ex lover and in particular the Police General and his sister/lover. The reasons for his non existence slowly unfold and as his existence is intertwined with the Policeman and his sister/lover event lead to the explosive climax. Just a dream? Parallel universe?


I though this was a great read, it had all the classic PKD traits, crazy drugs, dystopian future, mad characters and truly touching pieces of dialogue. My favourite scene was the policeman meeting the stranger at the garage and the outpouring of emotion and grief symbolised by his crude drawing of a heart with an arrow through it. Simply brilliant.





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Good Reads

Mort by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm working my way through the discworld books after years of ignoring them. I have to say that Mort is my favourite so far. Death himself is a smart and funny creation, he takes an apprentice who turns out to be Mort, an awkward gangly lad who is not much good at anything.

I loved this one; the interaction between death and mort is smart, funny and touching. I'd recommend this as a stand alone read if you just want to dip Into pratchett.
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The Amazon Kindle- a practical review

I've had my Kindle now for a couple of weeks and thought I'd write a post about it. There are plenty of reviews of the Kindle out there so I won't go over old ground that is covered elsewhere but hopefully you'll find some of my points useful and finally take the plunge to the e-reader.

The Screen

The screen has to be seen to be believed. The liquid ink technology is up there with LCD for me as an achievement, it looks like ink on paper, if you don't believe how good it is you should go out of the way to a shop that stocks them and have a look. Reading on my Iphone was a bit of a chore and left me with a bit of eye and head ache. None of that with the Kindle, it is literally like reading a book with the added bonus you can change the text size if your eyes don't work as well as they used to.

The Weight

I think it weighs around 240 grammes, exceptionally light and can easily be held with one hand. I bought a cheapo fake leather case off ebay for £6 and it's still really comfortable. Taking a book with me to work is a pain in the arse, especially on the bike so this definitely gets brownie points.

The Price

The price is £111 for the wireless version and £154 for the wireless and 3G version. Admitedly not an impulse purchase for most of us and mine was funded by a month long ebay campaign of selling crap out of the loft. However the entry model is much cheaper than the Nook or the sony ereader, the main competition. There are cheapo ereaders on the market but I've only seen the one and the battery life was something like 12 hours.

Connectivity

I originally was hoping to save enough for the 3G version but in the end never bothered. I have to admit that I'm glad I did, I just don't think the additional outlay for the (free)3G would have been worthwhile for me. The kindle store is easy to navigate and there is an experimental web browser which I doubt anyone would use for an extended period of time. The speed of data transfer is reminiscent of a older internet enabled phone and not a laptop, I found the browser just a little frustrating. The Kindle is for reading books, not surfing. The USB cable is not a standard cable which is a little annoying as it means another cable on the desktop.

Interface and Storage

Accessing books is easy enough and the small keyboard is quite easy to add notes, etc. The turning of the page buttons are mirrored on both sides to make it easy no matter what hand you are holding the Kindle in, a nice touch. The Kindle holds up to 4500 books on the main memory, the books can be organised into collections which is good, I haven't found a way of bulk adding books to collections yet. I have almost a 1000 books on mine and the fact that it doesn't add authors automatically into collections is literally my only complaint so far. It isn't a touch screen like the sony or the nook but this is reflected in the price.

The screensavers are creepy as fuck and I'm not entirely sure whose  whacked out idea they were. The Agatha Christie one particularly creeps me out along with Emily Dickinson. The lack of choice or customisation options are a bit poor but thankfully the clever hacking chaps have made a jailbreak available which allows you to change the fonts and the screensavers.


Jailbreak your Kindle to get rid of creepy dead authors!

Books

Obviously the kindle is no good if you haven't got any books on it and I have found the prices vary widely. I wanted to buy Stewart Lee's new book but the electronic version is only 30 pence cheaper than the print copy so I won't buy it out of principle. There are few overheads with electronic books and I fear that the publisher will stifle the market with the pricing. I don't buy mp3s for the same reason, it's data and should be priced appropriately, I appreciate that its the content that should determine the price but such an insignificant price difference I feel is just taking the piss. Mostly there are reasonably priced ebooks and there are regular great offers, remember though that Amazon isn't the only place to get your books and you should shop around, different formats are not an issue with the right ebook library software (details below).

There are many classics out of copyright that are available for free via the amazon store or the project Gutenburg website. You can also get books from less legitimate sources, these can be useful if you want to get hold of books you already own but are reluctant to buy again digitally. You can also share amongst your friends,  people have always swapped and shared books they have enjoyed and ebooks aren't any different. There is DRM on some of them to prevent this but lets face it, my dog could get round that.

Calibre

The free ebook management software is an essential download to manage your now bursting library. It will convert ropey .doc files or shoddy .pdf's into the .mobi format perfectly. If it doesn't do it first time a quick tweak with the settings will have you up and running in no time. It's been called the Itunes for ebooks but don't let that tag put you off. It works.

But it's not the same as a book, I prefer turning pages.....

No it isn't a book,, its better and here are some reasons why.

-It doesn't weigh over a Kilo - hard back books are a pain in the arse to read, carry and post. These should have been phased out years ago.

-You don't have to track down a copy of something and then either go out to get it or wait weeks for it. You fancy a book and within seconds your reading it.

-You don't find half way through your second hand paperback or library book a previous reader's bogey or bit of dinner. Also you don't have to worry how many previous borrowers of this book have read it on the toilet. (If you have never thought this, now you will)

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The old mans back again

I have just finished Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore, an unexpected xmas present that turned out to be a fantastic gift. The whole pace of the book reads like an eastern European Godfather, the bank robberies, the struggles and betrayals. It is fantastic. The only criticism I can make is that it tends to gloss over the politics of the time. The Marxist revolutionaries are talked about in great detail but the knowledge of the Marxist theories they follow so passionately are left to the reader to either already know or find out. That criticism aside it is well worth a read and has spurred me on for a year of revolutionary reading. I am waiting for Montefiore's first Stalin book Stalin:Court of the red Tsar and I've also ordered John Reeds Ten days that shook the world, a book I have been meaning to read for years. I may even give Trotsky's history of the Russian revolution another go, I tried it a couple of years ago but found it a little heavy going to try and read at work on nights.  I tried to get Deutschers biographies of Trotsky but they are out of print at the moment and I can't afford to pay what some of the second hand dealers want for them. It's back in print later in the year so I'll pick it up then.



Imagine my joy when I saw that a Stalin biopic was on on channel four late one night. I recorded it and finally sat down to watch it the other day. I had to turn it off, the make up artist had obviously just finished a stint on Spitting Image and had really gone to town on Robert Duvall, it was just ridiculous to the point where I couldn't watch it. Robert Duvall's accent was straight out of the Godfather it was just too much to bear. There was also a painful voice over in a dripping Russian accent that I couldn't stand. Never mind I'll just leave that one alone.

Hospital food

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There is only one service in the country that can have you sat there waiting for 2 and a  half hours after your appointment and deem it to be acceptable. I had an appointment today at Wythenshawe Hospital, apparently the consultant hadn't turned up that morning for the clinic and they were running behind a bit (2 1/2 hours). The trouble is, they have you over a barrel, I've waited 6 fucking months for an appointment, I can't walk out now, nobody at the hospital will be bothered. The only person who will be inconvenienced by me throwing my teddies out of the pram and storming out would be me.

So I stayed.

I finished my book

I waited a bit longer.

Finally I was seen for a grand total of 2 and half minutes. They cut me open in around three months. (I won't go into detail because its quite boring rather than private and its only an outpatient op)