Some great videos on "The Invisible Gorilla" website. I wonder if some people trained for observation, like you know spies and detectives and Zen students ;) would do better on these tests. So far the authors claim to have found no specific traits correlated to change perception ability. But perhaps the three letter agencies just gagged them. :P

I am just finishing reading Max Frai's "Labyrinths of Echo" (Diana has already finished both Labyrinths and Chronicles). IMHO the series is the best fantasy I have read for a long time. Better than Sapkowski who has degenerated into cynical, soap-opera conspiracy theorist by the end of "The Witcher" series.

It's great to have such great SF&F author ( Read more... )

A bit old but still interesting exercise from starlin's blog. (These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of 30 September 2007). I bold'ed what I have read, italicized what I started but have not finished, striked through what I couldn't stand. Added a plus to those read more than once, an asterisk for ( Read more... )

You read "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" and you wonder: how can the first book of a new author be so good? And how can it be so unconventional, going places that other SF&F writers have not gone to? I will admit that I have not read the recent Neal Stephenson's Baroque cycle though, so I cannot compare Strange with it. But other than that, I ( Read more... )

Mark Salzman has lived and taught English in China in 1980s. He is best known for the autobiographical book "Iron and Silk" describing this period of his life. "The Laughing Sutra" is a fiction novel following the adventures of Hsun-ching - a Chinese orphan turned monk turned Red-guard-against-his-will turned vagabond - who travels to United States ( Read more... )

"His Dark Materials" trilogy received praise from a lot of places and garnered quite a few of book awards. Since the movie is coming out sometime this year, I decided to read the books before the movie comes out. My overall impression though was mixed. First part of the first book is just boring. Even though Lyra - the main heroine - manages to ( Read more... )

Minor spoilers ahead ( Read more... )

As my review of the first part indicated, I was not particularly enchanted with the first book about demon Bartimaeus and magician Nathaniel. The other two books are very similar to the first one in quality. Bartimaeus may be amusing, but other characters are rather boring or unbelievable. Adventures are rather uninspiring although ideas for them ( Read more... )

Jonathano Stroudo Bartimaeuso Trilogija, kiek zinau, priskiriama prie knygu paaugliams. Ir nors is pradziu maniau, kad si klasifikacija neteisinga, giliau pagalvojus tai tiksliai apibudina sia knyga. Rasau "knyga", ne "knygas", nes kol kas perskaiciau tik pirmaja dali ( Read more... )

Ilgai ilgai abejojes, nusprendziau perskaityti Piers Anthony pirmaja Xantho ciklo knyga "A Spell for Chameleon". Ispudis labai priestaringas. Is vienos puses, Xantho pasaulis idomus. Jame, skirtingai nuo tradiciniu elfu ir nykstuku, praktiskai viskas magiska: ir medziai, ir zoles, ir vabzdziai, ir gyvunai. Kelione po Xantho dziungles panaseja i ( Read more... )