Mike Little’s Journalized

I finished The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman the other day. What a fantastic book. The story line left me breathless at times. The characters of Lyra and Will develop to an incredible depth. The things they go through had me on the edge of my seat. Some of the other main characters, Mrs Coulter, Lord Asriel, Mary Malone, and so on really contribute to the story. I was pleased to see Iorek Byrnison back and making such a significant contribution.
Whenever I talked to people about these three books as I was still reading the third, I described the second book, The Subtle Knife, as filler (despite my review). Compared to Northern Lights, and The Amber Spyglass, it seemed to be lacking in depth. Having completed the trilogy, I realise that the Subtle Knife laid a lot of groundwork, introducing characters, the knife, and laying the foundations for events on The Amber Spyglass. So although, it is the weakest of the three books, it is essential to the whole story.
All three books: recommended!

Happy Birthday Graham!

Lots of love
Mum, Mike and Jamie
xoxox

slashdot had this article today. Discussing a feature on mindjack by Nicholas Carroll, entitled Spinning the Web - The Realities of Online Reputation Management. It’s a very interesting article discussing the birth of online reputations, from email and Usenet postings, to the birth of online shops and e-commerce. It talks about the essential difference between selling face to face (or over the telephone) and having to get your pitch across in words on the web. Worth a read.
One of the slashdotters, Ryo Chijiiwa, posted a link to his own story, Reputation Economy and the Internet, in which he discusses how reputation acts as a substitute for monetary worth, and also how the system compares to market economies. Again, well worth a read.

I’ve put some test images taken with the new camera up in the gallery.
(click to go see)