33 1/3 books

The 33 1/3 series are smallish little books written about one album. Thats right, one book about one album. What a concept! The list of titles is pretty diverse The one I bought was for The Stone Roses, one of my desert island albums. I haven't finished it yet but so far so good. I am waiting for the one about My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. With the "iPod age of music upon us, these little books kind of remind us of a time when a collection of songs by one artist, listened to pretty much at the same time, had an effect on us.

The Places In Between

Read this in almost one sitting,after a glowing review in last weeks Globe. A great travelogue of one of the most daunting places on Earth. He walked in regions no one, not even Afghans travel. After reading this book which recounts his travels 2 months after the fall of the Taliban, you understand how complex the situation is over there. The more I learn, the more I realize how doomed the "mission" is over there. You can read the first few hundreds words here.

Watching the World Change

I saw the author interviewed on Charlie Rose, and immediately wanted to read this. Not a picture book but more a study of the images of the event. It covers all types of photography before during and after the attack, and that imagery shapes who we are, more now than ever. It's been 5 years, but in those 5 years, digital photography has already change so much.

Though many aspects of this book were fascinating, the last chapter was probably the most disheartening. It told the entire story behind the most famous picture from 9/11, the "Imo Jima" shot of the three firemen raising a flag. The way that one image changed every one's lives for better and for worse, stands as a cautionary end to a great book

Cover Browser

Just the covers of many comics, very cool to waste some time....

J G Ballard review in the Globe & Mail:Mall of menace

The Globe's review of J G Ballard's Kingdom Come. I would recomend this one, very well done, less gimmicky that the last one.