Books read in 2021 | BMH On Line

Thomas Telford by L. T. C. Rolt
- The acclaimed biography of the father of civil engineering

I spotted this little paperback (224 pages) for sale at a local thrift shop. Prior to moving to Anglesey in north Wales I'd not heard of Thomas Telford, but since the island is linked to the mainland with one of Telford's bridges (the Menai Bridge) it's hard to remain oblivious.

When I read Charles Dicken's Bleak House (a book I thoroughly enjoyed) there was a part where a journey was made from London to Holyhead (by horse drawn coach). Here the past of Dickens was made especially real as I considered the route took them along what is generally known now as the A5, another of Telford's works, now signposted as an Historic Route.

From this book I can learn some more about the man himself and the times he lived in 200 years ago.

Space 2069 by David Whitehouse
- After Apollo: back to the Moon, to Mars, and beyond

This book documents our space-travelling history; our visits to the moon, the probes we've sent there, to Mars, and beyond, along with the steps proposed for getting humans further. Our next stop is Mars, but we may first return to the Moon, then perhaps in Expanse-like fashion out further to the moons of the gas giants, the asteroid belts, or who knows, one day out to another solar system.

Vampires in Their Own Words by Michelle Belanger
- An Anthology of Vampire Voices

Not that I'm into vampires, per se (although I did used to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I've read Bram Stoker's tale), but I came across this book recently in the topic of 'psychic vampires'. It's not that they are psychic (although they can be), but they feed upon the energy, or chi, of others. I've come to learn that we all have this capacity. Some are conscious of this, most aren't. Some do it in a positive way, or follow a moral code, while others don't.

For those interested in the internet of the 90s, there is also some crossover here also as various 'vampire communities' found their way online back then.

Amateur Radio Computing Handbook by Joe Pritchard

I saw a copy of this book for sale on ebay but then I discovered that due to its age it had been made freely available online so I downloaded a copy.

It arks back to the days of the BBC Micro and BASIC programming*. I was intrigued because I had recently looked a little into 'amateur radio', namely tuning into short-wave radio stations. During my teens I dabbled in BASIC programming on ZX Spectrums and I was fascinated by the idea of programming computers to do things, clever things, and to control things - had I discovered this book then there is no knowing where my tinkering would have been lead.

The first half the book provides programs and ideas for calculating various 'complex' things that would be difficult to do with pen and paper and a simple calculator (ie 'aerial design and propagation'). Then there is the ability to use the microcomputer to catalogue stations and other stuff, before getting into the exciting stuff (what I had been hoping for) 'Interfacing the radio to the microcomputer' - using the system to decode (and code and transmit) 'Morse code, RTTY and ASCII signals... SSTV and FAX... [and] Packet radio.' It's a lot of stuff that goes over my head but I actually enjoyed reading my way through this well explained book.

Given that this book was first published over 30 years ago, and based on the home computers of the day (for the few people that had such things), you might consider it to be irrelevant, but amateur radio is still a popular activity and, while I'm not into these things myself, the modern day Raspberry Pi would be an ideal replacement for a lot of what this book covers (I am sure the projects would be transferable)... indeed, as I searched for this book on Amazon, such titles as "The Amateur Radio Bundle: Hamshack Raspberry Pi for Amateur Radio Activities..." and "Raspberry Pi Explained - For Radio Amateurs" came up in the results. Of course, you could go old-school and still use an old Micro computer.

One thing I did consider whilst reading this book, that it doesn't go into, is the prospect of detecting and deciphering alien signals; given how complicated our own signals now are with the digital and the myriad of things that can be converted to such a form, and encrypted in various ways, how on earth would we make sense of a signal from... aliens? [I participated in SETI@home for over 15 years].

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Life After Death by Damien Echols

Damien Echols was one of the so-called West Memphis Three, a group of three teenagers convicted of the 'ritualistic murders' of three boys. This is the personal account of Echol's time spent on Death Row. The thing is, Echols was innocent, but it took eighteen years for him to be released.

It's a horrific tale, but also fascinating.. I'd discovered Echols after landing on some content about 'magick'; it intrigues me that Echols, at the time of his arrest, was painted as someone into such dark stuff that he would carry out satanic murders, yet as he grew and developed in his solitary confinement (because indeed he did) he became more and more engrossed in the world of magick and meditation, and now, years later he talks about and teaches such things.

A Little Something for Us Tempunauts by Philip K. Dick
- from Volume 5 of The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick

It had been a while since I read anything by PKD (the last was Time Out Of Joint in 2018), but I saw mention of this short story on sciencefictionruminations.com so I found this in Vol.5 of The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. I was prompted to read of the Tempunauts (since I particularly enjoy pondering about time travel). I enjoyed Dick's take on "space race propaganda" by using it for the first "flights" into time, and also his incorporation of Cyclothymia (which I had not heard of before). I could see the links between the depressed mind that has a tendency to go round in circles and the Tempunauts plight of continually reliving their hell (similar to that of Tom Cruise in The Edge of Tomorrow) and either, in the case of the Tempunauts, wanting to escape from that loop, or (as the depressed mind can do), keep them in it.

Because some of my reviews on books have increasingly included vast notes and quotations, I would like to point out that I do recognise that these books are protected by the Copyright act. I put my views online to share with other internet browsers in the hope that little snippets of information may be useful and my views interesting. I have always included links to the online retailer Amazon and encourage anyone that finds any title particularly interesting (thanks to what I have to say) to either buy a copy or borrow one from their local library.