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Hi All,
I am glad to announce the rollout of a new feature at this blog : Email Subscription !
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A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
After a long time, I managed to spend some quality time on books. I picked this one in Walden, opp.KBR Park. I half expected it to be very much like 'A Brief History of Time', by Stephen Hawkings, which in itself is a fantastic book.
The book opens with a receipe to create an Universe. I thought it would follow the trail of 'Cosmos' by Carl Sagan. But this book did beat my expectations. This is not a science-for-dummies kind of book.
It touches on various aspects of science, Astro-physics, Quantum Physics, Geology, Paleantology, Genetics, Biology, Evolution etc., but doesn't explain any science it. Rather, it goes thru the history of each of these areas and narrates how science developed to its existing state. It starts with the myths before sceience arrived, explains how scientists concluded on theories, where they missed the facts, and how they managed to sort out their differences of opinion etc.
Though some topics last a little longer than interesting, it is a good first time read. And, probably you could go thru the pages at leisure again and again.
Audiobooks
I recently acquired an iPod Nano, a gift from Dad. He bought it in the US during his visit to my sister and his.
I use it primarily for Audiobooks. Some music, mostly the artists that Padmaja (my wife) loves.
Anyway, back to Audiobooks. By the way, how do you spell Audiobooks? One word or two? I always spell it as one word but the spell check complaints about my spelling. Claims to know better :-)
Opps. Back to Audiobooks. I have a sizable collection now, about 10 DVDs worth. My collection can be classified into the following:
- Human read Audiobooks. These are long. An Agatha Christie novel will run into 4 hours of audio in this format. The readers are professionals and do a very good job. They use different intonations and change their pitch while reading. The end product, in most cases, is worth every minute.
- Radio Dramas. Mostly BBC Radio dramas from the 1920s and later. I love these. They are typically short; anything from a single 50 minute production (short stories mostly) to multiple episodes for longer novels. Full sound effects and professional voice artists. The end result is fantastic! You can hear the door creeaakkk open!
- Machine read Audiobooks. I don't like these. Mostly produced with AT&T's Natural Voice engine. Though the technology has matured it still cannot produce the same effect as human read Audiobooks.
Most Audiobooks are available in MP3 format. These have to be converted into AAC format before the iPod will recognize them as Audiobooks (remember last paused position etc). The actual conversion process is straightforward as iTunes handles the details. However there are a couple of manual steps, including configuring iTunes for the conversion. Once the file is converted, one has to edit the ID3 tags to help iPod. I typically use a volume boost, equalizer preset for "Spoken Voice", Audiobook genre and "Part of a Compilation" if the Audiobook is in multiple parts.
I am currently listening to a BBC Radio Dramatization of J. R. R. Tolkien's Hobbit. Next on the list is some P. G. Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Wilbur Smith, Asimov, Clarke etc.
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