I heard an interview with the author a while back on NPR. The book had some interesting bits in it. The author tried to make it exciting and put too much story into it. I enjoyed the history of the compass and how navigation changed as a result. Also cool was how that navigation was then applied to discovery. I was really impressed that the ancient Chinese who used the compass as a diving tool knew about declination. The compass had to travel to the Mediterranean though to find use for navigation.

The Riddle of the Compass

I also found this way cool chart showing the variation of declination over time (1590-1990).

Bridgit got me this for Christmas and I have been meaning to do a writeup on it for a while. The book is somewhat lacking in some aspects, its not the best writing or anything. It is interesting and full of interesting stuff. Wood is used for so many things. The author covers uses for wood in golf clubs, baseball bats, Steinway pianos, houses, and more. Economic and management were really interesting. I learned all about ship building and that during the Revolutionary War we choked England of good stock for ship masts.

Overall the book was good and interesting to read. I have passed it on to others to read.

A Splintered History of Wood

This was a quick and interesting read. The book started as an article about the tool of the millennium. Al about how and when screws and screwdrivers came about.

It seems like all of a sudden in the past few months I have had way more time to read. The Kid is older now and we are all sleeping more. Plus we moved the TV upstairs so we watch much less TV.

Anna passed this book along to me. It was good, the book kept me going along as they went along the trail.

My father-in-law lent me this book and so far it is right up my alley. It is anthropology based and I am loving it. I haven't really read anything about anthro since college and its nice to get thinking again. With a kid I just get to read it in 5 minute chunks.

We have those piles of books that you read once and then they sit on a shelf. Why not give them to someone who wants to read them! All you book reading people out there should check out http://bookmooch.com/. It's a cool book sharing site. Kinda like an opensource-inter-library-loan. It is all based on a point system and you pay the shipping when you send a book, they pay it when they send it to you. I haven't signed up yet, but I plan on doing it.

This past week/weekend we went to Minneapolis-St.Paul for a wedding reception. For trips we have been getting books on CD from the library. They are great for those long hours in the car. We got a couple and decided on The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. It is a non-fiction book about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED was compiled in a manner that would almost be considered Open Source by todays standards. The book ties in the history of English dictionaries, but focuses on a man who submitted over 10,000 entries and most were included. The kicker is that the submitter lives in an asylum.

It was a very educational and entertaining book. Randomly full definitions are thrown in which makes for a fun listen, but I imagine is something that a reader would just skim over.

Dan and Betsy got me From a Wooden Canoe for my birthday. Its a fantastic book that is a collection of ramblings about canoeing and the outdoors. Each chapter contains information about the author, his love of the outdoors, as well as the subject matter. There is much to be learned in this book there is a chapter on tumplines one on knives, and many others.

A great book to pull down on a rainy day and read a bit of.

So today the new Pride and Prejudice movie comes out. This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

“Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig Jane Austin's body and beat her over the skull with her own shinbone.” -Mark Twain