So I downloaded Accelerando, Charlie Stross’ new novel, which is a collection of the Macx stories from the past few years. I grabbed it in Plucker format, and installed Plucker on my Palm M105 to read it. This is the first e‑book I’ve ever read, and so far it’s going well. The text size is just right, and in two days I’ve read 3% of the book, according to the little info-bar at the top of the “page”.
It seems only appropriate, too, that I should choose this book as my introduction to e‑books. The first chapter, which was once the short story “Lobsters” (which I read a year or so ago, on a plane), is jam-packed with references to the ever-accelerating rate of technological change. I’m enough of a geek to get some of the references, but I’m sure I’m missing others. (In fact, some enterprising geeks have apparently set up a wiki dedicated to Accelerando. I may have to go there later, and see what I missed. (For those that wonder, I think this is a great idea. I love books that are about ideas, and better still if the ideas are a continuous sleet that serves as background for interesting characters doing interesting things. Quite frankly, as long as I can semi-follow it, the weirder the better. One of these days I’ll do a review of John Wright’s Golden Age trilogy.)
Now: I think I have to mow the lawn. Then give my car insurance company their annual slice of my post-tax earnings. Then… maybe some writing, but more likely some more PHP.