http://littletoyrobot.com Better living through toy robotics. Fri, 30 Jun 2006 05:07:08 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en http://littletoyrobot.com/archives/2006/06/30/more-beer-for-the-robots/ Here are some things that are keeping me busy lately: The Green Hour, by The Autumn Defense Begin to Hope, by (the divine) Regina Spektor Jens Lekman Tufte Pivot Tables Google Earth Joe Mauer http://littletoyrobot.com/archives/2006/06/20/cheap-content/ The next Collins Library book is announced: The Lunatic at Large, by J. Storer Clouston. 'The best-bred lunatics in England' live in Clankwood, and Francis Beveridge is its newest resident. Rather than attending the asylum's Saturday dances, though, Beveridge goes on the lam in London. And thus, when a traveling German ... http://littletoyrobot.com/archives/2006/06/12/the-lunatic-at-large/ Looper is a "[q]uasi-daily architectural photoblog generally focused in and around the Loop." The photos are often stunning, but this recent set stands out. This shot follows the Chicago River east into Lake Michigan and it shows the city in a completely different way than I've ever seen it. It ... http://littletoyrobot.com/archives/2006/06/11/chicago-sunset/ Well, I knocked another book off my to-be-read list today: River of Gods, by Ian McDonald. This is highly recommended. It's sci-fi of the first order, a book that balances action, ideas, and character development through 600 wonderful pages. The plot focuses on a few months about forty years from ... http://littletoyrobot.com/archives/2006/06/10/river-of-gods-very-good/ I'm sure this is a big shock, but I went to the Printers Row Book Fair over the weekend. I didn't actually find anything to buy, but I stopped at the library and picked up Ian McDonald's well regarded River of Gods (it's on my constantly changing To-Be-Read page). The ... http://littletoyrobot.com/archives/2006/06/05/books-and-books-and-a-clock-tower/ Via LHB, the New York Times lists books on fantasy baseball ("a game that unites thousands of American men in a time-wasting exercise of epic proportion"--though I know for a fact that women play fantasy baseball too!). I actually read both of these books (The Mind of Bill James by ... http://littletoyrobot.com/archives/2006/06/03/fantasy-baseball-books-and-an-update/ The Mother Tongue (nonfiction), by Bill Bryson The Golden, by Lucius Shepard The Living End, by Stanley Elkin Woken Furies, by Richard K. Morgan The Empire of Ice Cream (collection), by Jeffrey Ford The Bryson book was kind of random, I'll admit. It was entertaining but a little out of date, and the victim of ... http://littletoyrobot.com/archives/2006/06/03/books-read-may-2006/ I am disappointed and a little bit insulted that I didn't make the Lit 50 list of Chicago's "women and men who keep us hooked on books." Who is this "Oprah Winfrey" and why is she on the list? Is she that lady who makes everybody cry? I don't make ... http://littletoyrobot.com/archives/2006/06/01/lit-50s-conspicuous-absence-of-robotic-entries/ There are few words that go together better than "bar" and "books." Thursday night, 6/1, is the Chicago Reader BookSwap at Hideout. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it, but I hope it's a success and it happens again. Especially since I have a bunch of old books laying ... http://littletoyrobot.com/archives/2006/05/31/bookswap-on-thursday/