Summer reading

Dear Fluff

Having given the matter some considerable thought I must admit I am still flummoxed by the reference to Aethewulf of Essex and can only assume I have upset you in some way for which I apologise.

My comment about the best place for cats is a plastic bag at the bottom of a canal, made a considerable time ago, was only semi serious. My only real experience of felines was my wife’s cat who sadly departed this world a few years ago. He was somewhat below the cactus plant on the intelligence scale but had “lovely markings”.

Regards
Foxtrot

Master Foxtrot,
My good friend, Pangur Bán and I, are perturbed. The source of our perturbation, is:

Pangur and I, are fearful we have deflected you from your other duties and responsibilities and caused you to neglect them, thereby (possibly), incurring the wrath of Madam Foxtrot. So concerned were we (well, more Pangur than I), we decided to take another look at the circumstances giving rise to this vexing situation.

Having re/evaluated/examined the situation, we feel we now have a pretty good approximation of how the land lies. However, one thing we both struggle with, is, why you seem agitated to be regarded as a direct descendant of King Æthelwulf of Wessex?

Trotting Fox… Noble Wolf. Most Englishmen today, would be proud of the association.
Would it have been more to your liking, had we suggested Æthelred the Unready… or… heaven forbid… Æthelbald.

Back to the task in hand… the above being of no consequence now. Pangur Bán, being an adept at, Lateral Thinking & Thinking Outside The Box, has solved the conundrum, concerning your link to the Kingdom of Wessex, to a degree of accuracy (+/- .00001%), of 99.9%.

Solution:

We feel, that the apparent ability of both your good self, and Master/Mistress Briar Kit Esme, to read each other’s minds; to know what the other is, and will be thinking, forms the link between you and Wessex… See Below.

Posts: 129
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 9:04 am
Location: Wessex, England
Platform: Mac

Possibly, BKE sees him/herself as directly descended from King Æthelwulf of Wessex. A truly romantic notion, is it not… evidence surely, of a vivid imagination? Or, more mundanely, claiming residence somewhere within an 11,000 sq. mile slab of south and south west England.

Our apologies for assuming you were of royal lineage, Master Foxtrot.

As for cats/bags/canals. if you knew some of the mankey, mangey, dirty stinking tomcats that call by, chancing their arm (for which they get short shrift from me), there would be nothing semi about your comment on cats.

Take care Sire.
Your Humble Servants
Fluff&Bangur

[size=85]Sent from Bangur’s Astral iPad[/size]

At about 40°C, there is no way I want to read, to play, to even think I’ll move my arm to turn a page or play some notes.
(Actually, I’m slowly - very slowly - reading a book about the Panathenaea, held in Athens in July and August. I can’t believe Western civilization was born in all this heat. I’m sure everything did happen by night, when the weather was a bit more forgiving.)
(Reading - summer is made to stay in the water, quietly reflecting about what you read in the earlier months.)

Paolo

Paolo!! Why the hell are y’ reading about sweaty, gasping Athenians, when the temperature is 40°C.

You should be reading something like this:
cookingequipment.about.com/od/co … ateice.htm

Vic

Vic, that is an area where I favour practice over theory!

Paolo

[quote=“Fluff”
We feel, that the apparent ability of both your good self, and Master/Mistress Briar Kit Esme, to read each other’s minds; to know what the other is, and will be thinking, forms the link between you and Wessex… [/quote]
I would suggest that an actual reading of the book would clarify the comments. The request from me was largely rhetorical, and the response (albeit to a rhetorical question) was very much expected. No Mind-Reading whatsoever.

Well! There y’ go, Foxy mate. Don’t that just go to show, that one man’s rhetorical question, is another man’s ardent request for clarification?
Take care
Vic

Master Paolo, praise be to the saints! For a moment there, I thought Vic-k had sent you a link to some of the debauched or sadomasochistic filth, he’s always mentioning.
Take care
Fluff

Fluff! Nice new glamour shot you had taken there.

Thank you Master Ioa… thank you. You’re very kind. But, to be honest Master Ioa, it’s a bit embarrassing for someone as modest as I am, to be constantly reminded of how cute they look. Do you think I will be able to get used to it? I don’t want to become vain and egotistical.
Take care
Fluff

Fluffy faced purr machine,

You appear to be making an attempt to deny the very essence of your being. A cat that makes effort to avoid vain and egotistic tendencies is what we call … a dog.

Pushing against an open door there.
Er, sorry, I meant peeing against.
I think.

I dislike all titles. Never use them. But put me down as Mistress if you really have to. Though I’d prefer no title at all. Please.

Now I’m off to get ready to dine with an engaging French man who I met at a festival an hour ago. Can a Mistress ever say ‘non’?

Depends how long you want to remain a Mistress.
Would Kit… be youtube.com/watch?v=rErrOegU9iY

"Au revoir, mon ami,
Vic-k, Baron d’ Stockport

Back to summer reading.

I do NOT recommend the Atmel ATMega or ATXMega data sheets. There is no plot, context is missing, and quite frankly, the number of factual errors is astounding. That and the prose assumes a certain knowledge that, once internalized, renders the bearer nearly unfit for civil society.

Master Numpty, what is wrong with them?
Looks like pure ScFi & Phantasy to me.

Fluff

I will bear that in mind, Jaysen. Thank you for the warning!

Progress on my summer reading… The first two books on my list were a hit. I enjoyed The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, although I’m very cross with my son for recommending The Name of the Wind when he knew fine well that despite its immense length it is only part one of an as-yet incomplete trilogy, so I feel like I’ve been left dangling. But I’m struggling to get into the Iain M Banks choice, and keep getting sidetracked into other unscheduled books, even though I’m finding the main body of Use of Weapons to be more engaging than the prologue.

Doctor Glas, however, has been an absolute gem. I read it in a single sitting (it’s not long) and couldn’t put it down. The translation I downloaded is by David Barrett, and it is zippy, engaging and modern in feel, although I can’t comment on how it compares to the original since I don’t read Swedish. The story itself feels a bit like a cross between Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Gogol’s Diary of a Madman. A great read, and I’m not going to say any more about it in case I spoil it for anyone who is tempted to read it themselves. I loved it, and will be seeking out more Söderberg in translation.

I’m also reading Marc Levy’s Et Si C’Était Vrai in an ambitious execise in practising French – so far I’ve learned (and subsequently forgotten again) a lot of medical terminology that I hadn’t come across before. And I’ve joined an in-the-flesh book group for the first time in years, as a result of which I have to read Robert Galbraith’s The Cuckoo’s Calling over the next couple of weeks, which may prove interesting. I wish I didn’t know the real identity of the author, though, as I fear that knowledge may taint my impression of the book. Similar external stimulus has added Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles to the digital stack on my Kindle, but I’ve read very mixed reviews and I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to it.

If I still have time in the remaining two weeks of summer, I see that a new Arnaldur Indriðason Icelandic crime novel has magically appeared on my Kindle overnight, which means that I must have pre-ordered it, although I don’t remember doing so. And I am planning to re-read Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson, because it cropped up in conversation recently and I discovered that I couldn’t remember it. Two memory lapses in one paragraph. Must be old age.

Feline furry face,

It is not “scfy & phantasy”. It is, point of fact, just sc. As in science. Now I read some other science from other producers recently, most notably NEC, Intel, and Motorola, and I can tell you that, while drier than over cooked tuna seasoned by sunlight in a desert for 2 months, they are a much more pleasant read.

That said, the atmega328p that has become required reading for my summer is fairly complex. The plot that I am struggling to wrap my mind around seems to be only one of many. I fear that I may need to untangle several plot threads and then reread the work slowly to truly comprehend the deeper meaning of the prose.

That or I shall soon be joining Mr. K in his protest.

Most welcome. I could provide a long list of titles to avoid. A long list. I can provide you a clue to let you know when it is time to “drop it and run”. If the word “datasheet” appears in the title you have wandered into a part of the universe best left to people that are already crazy. Otherwise you will soon be among the ranks of the crazed.

Hrmm. My summer reading and my winter reading look remarkably the same. So does my fall and spring reading, for that matter. As such, I don’t really have a list of summer reading books, so much as an impossibly long series of books I shall never reach the end of, much like top of the wrong escalator.

I’ve finally succumbed to the time-eating black hole of the series A Song of Ice and Fire, so I sympathize with your unfinished series despair, Siren. One book down, four (for now) to go.

Then there’s Abaddon’s Gate, which turns out to actually have a literal (in the original sense of the word) gate at its center. Very much appreciating the efforts of it’s authors.

Concurrent with Abaddon’s Gate, I’m about to finish Ready Player One, which I’m enjoying for the usual nostalgia it engenders in nerds of a certain age. It reads like a (somewhat) more mature version of Snow Crash.

Of the even 50 in my (I actually plan) to-read list, I haven’t decided on my next selection. Maybe the latest Clockwork Century installation, The Inexplicables, since I’ve already got it on my shelf. But that probably doesn’t count, seeing as I may not finish it before the end of Summer; I tend to take sips from a number of fountains unless a book really sucks me in.