Visit to the Bookstores

Managed to visit both Kinokuniya (at Town Hall) and Borders (at MacQuarie Center) yesterday. (Was at Westfield Burwood's Angus & Robertson last weekend.) Discovered some nice books. Would you believe there's a book called The Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide? RPS stands for Rock Paper Scissors, and the book is published by the World RPS Society. Invaluable for those who plan to take part in the annual RPS International World Championships. You scoff, but I kid you not. There's even an online trainer up on their website. (Currently at version 3.0 - optimized for dual-core CPUs and with new neural net technology.)

Dan Brown is still going strong with his Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Same goes for companion books such as Secrets of the Code and Cracking the Da Vinci Code. I quite liked Da Vinci Code, but I guess the novelty is starting to wear off with Angels and Demons, which I'm currently listening to on my bus/train rides. I get the impression that Dan Brown writes for the layperson, and assumes that the reader knows only the most basic of physics/science/art. I appreciate the etymologies for assassin and Satan, and the detailed descriptions of the Vatican landmarks, but can we just concentrate on the story plot? I do know that Tim Berners-Lee of CERN "invented" the web. I got the joke about the "ionic" column the first time. Unlike Langdon, I've heard of anti-matter and the Grand Unified Theory. I know how a super collider works, and that a line is actually a circle with infinite radius. After this, I think I'll read some other book before moving on to Digital Fortress.

It's good to know that Adrian Mole is still alive and kicking. Last time I read his Secret Diaries, he's only about 14 - always worrying about his zits and Pandora. The latest installation from Sue Townsend is entitled Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction. The blurb says, "He's back. Adrian Mole, now an angst-ridden 38 year-old, is still coping with life in middle-England as a single parent to Glen and William, as well as battling his own particular weapon of mass destruction."

Can't help noticing this character called Count Olaf and the 11-series book written by Lemony Snicket. What with the upcoming motion picture and the special stands and a life-sized cardboard Count Olaf in the bookstore. The book series is called A Series of Unfortunate Events. Quite unfortunate that I have totally no idea what they are about because I don't want to stay too long at the kids section.