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A slew of Reviews
Mar. 5th, 2016 11:44 amHey,
So I finished up an actual book and a few pseudo-books so let's review:
First up: Inca Civilization in Cuzco by R. Tom Zuidema, translated by Jean-Jacques Decoster. So this this talks about the social organization of the Inca, focusing on the complex system that assigned you to a particular clan-group. It's...very technical and very dry. I'm interested in this topic but I can't imagine it's something most of you would pick up. Frankly, I'm only just keeping up with his discussion but that's because I've read some of his other stuff.
I've got a gripe about this book, well, the eBook in any event. It was a very rushed scan job of the print version of the text. So you'll see things like [page xx] in the middle of text. Some of the numbers didn't scan well so you get i0 or S0 instead of 10 or 50. Most of this I can deal with, but the bad scan also applies to the various diagrams and some of them are very hard to make out.
I get it. It's a specialized text so how many potential buyers are there. Even if the book cost twice what it did that probably wouldn't offset the cost of a decent editing pass, but still. if you're going to be half-ass about it, then maybe charge a half-ass price.
Recently, I backed a kickstarter for Microcosm Publishing. I got a huge raft of box for $50. It was a grab bag but there were a number of titles I thought looked interesting so...I got it. A number of these are short booklet things that make for excellent bathroom reading. I've gone through a couple of them now.
Railroad Semantics 1 and 2 by Aaron Dactyl follows Dactyl as he hops freights and rides the rails around the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. I've got a soft spot for hobo stories so I had high hopes but man...Dactyl really takes the fun out of an illegal and dangerous mode of transportation. He just has this disdain for pretty much everyone he runs into. Sure, he sneers at people trapped in a settled, modern lifestyle, but he's pretty contemptuous of other hobos, bums and drifters like himself. Tell me about the romance and hardships of riding the rails, don't take potshots at everyone you meet. At least you don't grouse about anyone who genuinely helps you along the way, but it doesn't feel like you're far form that.
A much better book in almost every respect is, Unsinkable: How to Build Plywood Pontoons & Longtail Boat Motors Out of Scrap by (I kid you not) Robnoxious. So Rob and his friends get together and decide to build a shanty boat and sail down the Missouri from Kansas City to St. Louis and down the Mississippi until they run out of money/inclination/time.
The book actually delivers on its title and has diagrams for the pontoon base of the boat as well as the longtail motors to propel it. It also includes a number of "We should've done this" notes which I appreciate. The majority of the book are notes from their logbook and various anecdotes as they ride down the river. My only gripe here is that it's all short snatches of little anecdotes that skip along. I get it, this kind of boating is likely to be lazy and "bursty" in terms of activity, but it was all so short. So maybe the real complaint it that I wanted more.
Because despite the name, Robnoxious and company seem must more friendly and engaged than Aaron Dactyl does and they aren't running down anyone, even the one or two people that hassle them a bit. There was a massive flood the year they went down the river so it wasn't the easiest of trips, but there's a general positivity that's fun to read.
I note there are some other books about shanty boating and now I'm keen to check them out.
later
Tom
So I finished up an actual book and a few pseudo-books so let's review:
First up: Inca Civilization in Cuzco by R. Tom Zuidema, translated by Jean-Jacques Decoster. So this this talks about the social organization of the Inca, focusing on the complex system that assigned you to a particular clan-group. It's...very technical and very dry. I'm interested in this topic but I can't imagine it's something most of you would pick up. Frankly, I'm only just keeping up with his discussion but that's because I've read some of his other stuff.
I've got a gripe about this book, well, the eBook in any event. It was a very rushed scan job of the print version of the text. So you'll see things like [page xx] in the middle of text. Some of the numbers didn't scan well so you get i0 or S0 instead of 10 or 50. Most of this I can deal with, but the bad scan also applies to the various diagrams and some of them are very hard to make out.
I get it. It's a specialized text so how many potential buyers are there. Even if the book cost twice what it did that probably wouldn't offset the cost of a decent editing pass, but still. if you're going to be half-ass about it, then maybe charge a half-ass price.
Recently, I backed a kickstarter for Microcosm Publishing. I got a huge raft of box for $50. It was a grab bag but there were a number of titles I thought looked interesting so...I got it. A number of these are short booklet things that make for excellent bathroom reading. I've gone through a couple of them now.
Railroad Semantics 1 and 2 by Aaron Dactyl follows Dactyl as he hops freights and rides the rails around the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. I've got a soft spot for hobo stories so I had high hopes but man...Dactyl really takes the fun out of an illegal and dangerous mode of transportation. He just has this disdain for pretty much everyone he runs into. Sure, he sneers at people trapped in a settled, modern lifestyle, but he's pretty contemptuous of other hobos, bums and drifters like himself. Tell me about the romance and hardships of riding the rails, don't take potshots at everyone you meet. At least you don't grouse about anyone who genuinely helps you along the way, but it doesn't feel like you're far form that.
A much better book in almost every respect is, Unsinkable: How to Build Plywood Pontoons & Longtail Boat Motors Out of Scrap by (I kid you not) Robnoxious. So Rob and his friends get together and decide to build a shanty boat and sail down the Missouri from Kansas City to St. Louis and down the Mississippi until they run out of money/inclination/time.
The book actually delivers on its title and has diagrams for the pontoon base of the boat as well as the longtail motors to propel it. It also includes a number of "We should've done this" notes which I appreciate. The majority of the book are notes from their logbook and various anecdotes as they ride down the river. My only gripe here is that it's all short snatches of little anecdotes that skip along. I get it, this kind of boating is likely to be lazy and "bursty" in terms of activity, but it was all so short. So maybe the real complaint it that I wanted more.
Because despite the name, Robnoxious and company seem must more friendly and engaged than Aaron Dactyl does and they aren't running down anyone, even the one or two people that hassle them a bit. There was a massive flood the year they went down the river so it wasn't the easiest of trips, but there's a general positivity that's fun to read.
I note there are some other books about shanty boating and now I'm keen to check them out.
later
Tom
