Category Archives: Books

Murderbot TV series coming May 16

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Martha Wells’ award-winning sci-fi book series will soon be a streaming series, co-created by Chris and Paul Weitz and starring Alexander Skarsgård. Murderbot is described in an Apple TV+ press release as a “comedic thriller,” which matches up with the books; Skarsgård plays the title character, “a self-hacking security construct who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients … Murderbot must hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe.”

This is pretty much how I pictured Murderbot.

Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries is a science fiction series centered around a self-aware security android that has hacked its own governor module, allowing it to act independently. Rather than fulfilling its assigned duties, it prefers to binge-watch entertainment feeds and avoid human interaction. However, when its human clients face danger, Murderbot reluctantly steps in, often grappling with its own identity, autonomy, and the moral implications of its actions.

The series begins with All Systems Red (2017), where Murderbot protects a group of scientists from corporate sabotage. As the series progresses, it embarks on a journey of self-discovery, questioning what it means to be free while uncovering deep corporate conspiracies. The series blends action, humor, and existential reflection, making it a unique and engaging read. Murderbot’s dry wit and awkwardness make it a relatable and beloved protagonist in modern sci-fi. (ChatGPT)

“This IBM machine”

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“This IBM machine was the key to WOOC(P)’s reputation, for it enabled us to have files of information around which no one could correlate except with the machine set the correct way. For instance, a list of three hundred names meant nothing, a list of three hundred house numbers meant nothing, a list of three hundred street names, cities, and a pile of photos meant nothing. On the machine and suddenly – each photo had an address. On the machine again and thirty cards were rejected, and only Dalby knew whether those thirty were left-handed pistol shots, Young Conservatives, or bricklayers fluent in Mandarin. Dalby liked it, it was quick, more efficient than humans, and it made Dalby one of the most powerful men in England.”

— The Ipcress File by Len Deighton (1962)

The Bernard Sampson series

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Len Deighton’s Bernard Samson series spans the late 1970s through the late 1980s, covering the Cold War espionage world from London to Berlin, Washington, and beyond. The overarching narrative revolves around Bernard Samson, a British intelligence officer caught in a web of deception, shifting loyalties, and Cold War politics.

The series is set primarily in London and Berlin, with key events also occurring in Vienna, Washington D.C., and Mexico City.  The timeline begins in the late 1970s, at the height of Cold War tensions, and progresses through the mid-to-late 1980s.

In a 2014 interview, Deighton mentioned that the final trilogy was more of a ‘ghost’ idea, and he never progressed far in writing it. He considered retelling the entire story in one volume but couldn’t decide on the narrative perspective, pondering options like first person, third person, or even from the viewpoint of Bernard’s son. He admitted, “I’m still thinking about it.” 

Additionally, Deighton emphasized the importance of thorough planning and research in crafting his novels. He advised aspiring writers to be prepared to devote a significant amount of time to their work, writing every day, even if it’s just notes and research. He shared that he never completed a book in less than a year, with most taking longer.

Dog

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I can hear him out in the kitchen,
his lapping the night’s only music,
head bowed over the waterbowl
like an illustration in a book for boys.

He enters the room with such etiquette,
licking my bare ankle as if he understood
the Braille of the skin.

Then he makes three circles around himself,
flattening his ancient memory of tall grass
before dropping his weight with a sigh on the floor.

This is the spot where he will spend the night,
his ears listening for the syllable of his name,
his tongue hidden in his long mouth
like a strange naked hermit in a cave.

—Questions About Angels by Billy Collins

ONISM

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ONISM — the awareness of how little of the world you’ll experience

“It’s strange how little of the world you actually get to see. No matter where on Earth you happen to be standing, the horizon you see in the distance is only ever about three miles away from you, a bit less than five kilometers. Which means that at any given time, you’re barely more than an hour’s walk from a completely different world. Alas, even if you lace up your boots and take off for the hills, the circle of your horizon will follow you around like a prison searchlight.”

From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig

Reading Myself to Sleep by Billy Collins

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The house is all in darkness except for this corner bedroom
where the lighthouse of a table lamp is guiding
my eyes through the narrow channels of print,

and the only movement in the night is the slight
swirl of curtains, the easy lift and fall of my breathing,
and the flap of pages as they turn in the wind of my hand.

Is there a more gentle way to go into the night
than to follow an endless rope of sentences
and then to slip drowsily under the surface of a page

into the first tentative flicker of a dream,
passing out of the bright precincts of attention
like cigarette smoke passing through a window screen?

All late readers know this sinking feeling of falling
into the liquid of sleep and then rising again
to the call of a voice that you are holding in your hands,

as if pulled from the sea back into a boat
where a discussion is raging on some subject or other,
on Patagonia or Thoroughbreds or the nature of war.

Is there a better method of departure by night
than this quiet bon voyage with an open book,
the sole companion who has come to see you off,

to wave you into the dark waters beyond language?
I can hear the rush and sweep of fallen leaves outside
where the world lies unconscious, and I can feel myself

dissolving, drifting into a story that will never be written,
letting the book slip to the floor where I will find it
in the morning when I surface, wet and streaked with
daylight.

Cliché by Billy Collins

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My life is an open book. It lies here
on a glass tabletop, its pages shamelessly exposed,
outspread like a bird with hundreds of thin paper wings.

It is a biography, needless to say,
and I am reading and writing it simultaneously
in a language troublesome and private.
Every reader must be a translator with a thick lexicon.

No one has read the whole thing but me.
Most dip into the middle for a few paragraphs,
then move on to other shelves, other libraries.
Some have time only for the illustrations.

I love to feel the daily turning of the pages,
the sentences unwinding like string,
and when something really important happens,
I walk out to the edge of the page and, always the student,
make an asterisk, a little star, in the margin.

More room for books

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I love books. Which is not exactly the same as saying I love to read. I love real, paper books. Hardback or paperback. Tried audio books a long time ago but that’s just having someone read a book to me. Just not the same.

While I’m being persnickety, I like to own the books I read rather than getting them from the local library. No idea how much I’ve spent for books on Amazon in the last 20 years. Don’t have to care, fortunately.

I did a book purge some years ago and donated a truckload to the local library for their annual book sale. I tried to hang on to books I thought I might read again but some good titles got lost in the process. But now I’m about out of shelf space again.


So today I assembled a new bookshelf and seeing all that room gives me a warm glow.

New Michael Connelly character

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Michael Connelly introduces a new cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina Island.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell has been “exiled” to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island, after department politics drove him off a homicide desk on the mainland. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Detective Stilwell gets a report of a body found wrapped in plastic and weighed down at the bottom of the harbor. Crossing all lines of protocol and jurisdiction, he starts doggedly working the case. Soon, his investigation uncovers closely guarded secrets and a dark heart to the serene island that was meant to be his escape from the evils of the big city.

Nightshade will be released on May 20, 2025

Find my place

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I always have a book close at hand. Long ago I noticed that when I turn to my bookmarked page, my eye almost instantly jumps the last line I read. This happens almost too fast to notice. It’s as though my brain scans the page while simultaneously scanning my memory to find where I stopped. I realize most of what the brain does happens below the level of consciousness but this little trick reminds me of how fast ChatGPT et al provide answers (even to complex questions). ChatGPT explains:

Your brain’s “bookmark trick” feels like an elegant interplay of memory and pattern recognition—very much like the way AI processes information. Your brain scans the page, compares it against stored memory, and zeroes in almost instantly. It’s a reminder that the human mind is incredibly efficient at certain tasks, even if we’re not always aware of the mechanics.

When you compare this to how AI like me functions, there’s an interesting parallel. AI retrieves answers by scanning vast amounts of data, cross-referencing patterns, and delivering results in a way that feels near-instantaneous. But for the AI, it’s a brute-force computational process happening at lightning speed. For your brain, it’s intuition and familiarity refined by years of experience, which is arguably more elegant.

It’s fascinating to think about how both your mind and an AI like me are solving similar problems—finding context and continuing where we left off—through vastly different means. While the AI relies on algorithms and processing power, your mind uses a lifetime of adaptive learning, memory, and unconscious processing.

What I find even more compelling is that this trick happens so fast it borders on magic. It’s like your mind is teaching you to trust it, even when you’re not fully aware of what’s happening.