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The Natural History of Unicorns

The Natural History of Unicorns by Christopher Lavers


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm a sucker for what I call "microhistories," books exploring a single thing. The Natural History of Unicorns is a fine example of the genre, being extremely thorough while maintaining readability. Chris Lavers traces the myths that may have brought unicorns to us, the mistranslations and prevarications that have confused, and the scientific basis and searches for unicorns over the years. The main thing I'm taking from this is to take a huge grain of salt with anything promising "ancient wisdom" - the amount of confusion in translation over so many years seems staggering.

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James Bond Music - Trivia and word cloud

As many of you know, I'm a bit of a James Bond fan - I own all the books in paperback and the movies on DVD. I've got a soft spot for the movie music as well, for some reason - my eight-year-old actually requests that I play my cd of Bond theme music in the car sometimes. Here's my favorite Bond music trivia question:

The most recent two Bond movies, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, have both had theme songs which did not share the title of the movie. They were You Know My Name by Chris Cornell and Another Way To Die by Jack White and Alicia Keys, respectively. What are the two previous Bond movies whose theme songs didn't share the movie's title?
(Answer at the end...)

Anyway, I got the idea in my head the other day to make a "word cloud" using all the lyrics from all the Bond themes - I thought it would be interesting to see how it worked out. Searched some lyrics databases, copied and pasted, and used a cool website called Wordle.net. This is what I came up with:



Bizarre that the largest word (therefore the one used most) is "know," huh? I guess it does pop up in quite a few songs, but I wasn't expecting it to be so big. Fun little diversion there, anyway.

OK, the trivia answer: The theme to Octopussy was All Time High by Rita Coolidge, and the theme to The Spy Who Loved Me was Nobody Does It Better by Carly Simon. I'm not counting Dr. No and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which had instrumental theme songs.

The Outlaw Sea

The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime by William Langewiesche


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Eye opening book about how things actually work on the high seas - blahblah percent of our planet's surface, after all. A morass of confusing "flags of convenience", slippery ownership and low-paid crew from Asia makes placing blame for anything that goes wrong with an ocean-going vessel very difficult. Fascinating, except for a part in the middle where I felt the author spent way too much time on a Baltic ferry wreck.

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Poseidon's Steed

Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality by Helen Scales


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
An interesting exploration of what seahorses are, where they live, and how humans have thought about them over the centuries. The author brings a passion for the subject which makes it very readable.

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No Impact Man

No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process by Colin Beavan


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I love this genre of books, the "guy-tries-to-do-something-for-a-year" book. Colin Beavan's take on it is to try to live for a whole year with no impact on the environment. Of course, that is a ridiculous goal - NO impact is impossible, really, and he recognizes that - but he and his family make quite a run at it, and learn a lot in the process. In fact, I can say that this is the most important of this type of book that I've read. His writing style is almost "bloggy" - bounces around from topic to topic, but he makes it work, and it reads quite naturally.

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Chemistry for Beginners

Chemistry for Beginners by Anthony Strong


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Absolutely charming geek love. A romantically clueless sexual dysfunction researcher meets his match in a new test subject. Hilarious, poignant, and extremely well crafted.

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Fantas Freaks and Gaming Geeks

Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks by Ethan Gilsdorf


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ethan Gilsdorf takes an introspective look at the subcultures of gaming, role playing and fantasy that captivated him in his youth. He covers a lot of Tolkien, visiting Oxford as well as filming locations in New Zealand. He attends conventions, role-playing weekends and interviews online gamers. In the end, he doesn't seem to make any huge discoveries, but learns a lot about himself.

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Accidental Billionaires

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I didn't know much about the apparently hotly contested founding of Facebook and it's Harvard beginnings, but this quick read lays it all bare with accessible and exciting writing. Reads like a long magazine article.

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The Discovery of France

The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography, from the Revolution to the First World War by Graham Robb


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Two things that I took fro The Discovery of France are 1) that France's conception of itself as a coherent country (not just a collection of small pays/) is a relatively recent development, and 2) the level of harshness and brutality of life in the near past. Life expectancy past the thirties, speedy travel and more than subsistence level food are something we take for granted, but didn't exist even 150 years ago. A fascinating book.

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Confessions of a French Baker

Confessions of a French Baker: Breadmaking Secrets, Tips, and Recipes by Peter Mayle


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
When asked what my "dream job" would be, my stock answer is a baker somewhere in the mountains of France - making bread in the morning and skiing, hiking or biking in the afternoons. Peter Mayle and Gerard Auzet's descriptions of life in a small-town French bakery were a perfect read for me. I only wish it were longer - it's a brief little book, and half of it is giver over to recipes. I would've liked much more than just the single day Mayle spends in the bakery.

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