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I have just finished building my first rear wheel using The Bicycle Wheel as a guide. This book will teach you the technical aspects of the bicycle wheel in both structural principles and practical methods. After a couple hundred miles on my new wheel, it is still true as an arrow.

This book debunks myths and gives you the confidence to repair, build, and rebuild wheels. I can honestly say that I no longer fear any wheel repairs. It has given me one less thing to worry about during my upcoming cross-country trip.

The only warning I can give is about Jobst Brandt, not his book. If you run across him in the Newsgroup or in person, you will quickly find out that he is a very opinionated person. Most of his opinions are correct, but don’t ever argue with him. Jobst has to be one of the bigger know-it-all jerks I have seen on the Usenet. I guess everyone has their failings, but his book is first rate.

The Bicycle Wheel ISBN: 0960723668 at Amazon

I’m sorry, you can no longer win $15,000 by reading this book. It was the announcement of the solution to the 10 cipher challenges, located in the back of The Code Book, that made me aware of this book. Money aside, if you are interested in learning of the history of codes and ciphers, this book is for you! Did you know that Mary Queens of Scots was killed by Queen Elizabeth, because her code was not strong enough to foil the code breakers of the time. Have you ever heard of the Navajo Code Talkers that offered the US Marines a method of secure ground communications in World War II? (Probably more so after the Windtalkers movie.) Do you know the full story behind the breaking of the German’s Enigma Code in the same war? Do you know that the first computer was build in England, not the US?

I knew most of the above facts before reading this book. However, as with most people’s understanding of history, my ideas were seriously flawed in the details. This book allows you to start out with the world’s earliest codes and learn how to do a little code breaking of your own. If you are at all interested in either the technical or historical history of code breaking, you will enjoy this book. This is the first technical history book that read like a good piece of fiction. When you realize that the action packed stories are historical fact, the book only shines more.

The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography ISBN: 0385495323 at Amazon

I have to admit that I was intrigued when I read the summary of this book. A novel by John Grisham about a third string NFL quarterback, escaping his terrible past to play professional football in Italy. Nothing about lawyers? This sounds interesting, if not just to figure out why John described.

Normally the novel isn’t quite as good, when an author writes completely out of their “comfort zone”. That is definitely the case here. It doesn’t have the same fire as a typical Grisham thriller. That isn’t to say it is a bad book. I enjoyed the read and it was fun to see a different side of this author.
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As soon as I realized that my recumbent would allow me to complete my dream of riding a bicycle across the country, I started research all over the web. While reading through the many trip reports of coast to coast touring cyclists, two things became clear. First, I would be riding the TransAmerica trail created by Adventure Cycling in 1976 (the year of my birth). Second, I should purchase, read, re-read, and take along Donna’s book.
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This is a book I happened on by chance. I picked it out of the new book section of the library by the title and checked it out after reading the inside cover. I’m glad that I did. While I only rate it 4 out of 5, it was an interesting book and worth reading.

The book is centered on telling the story of a Royal Navy officer and his trials to survive against impossible odds. The main story is set during the Second World War on the continent of Antarctica. The British Royal Navy sends a small force to establish a weather station while also carrying out a top-secret mission. A German U-Boat intercepts the periodic weather forecasts and is able to triangulate the stations position. The station is attacked when the protagonist and a junior man are off taking core samples. Upon returning, they find the station totally destroyed and the commander barely clinging onto life. As they race for the northern peninsula, the adventure begins. If they don’t make it in time, the ice will make rescue impossible. And a winter without a proper shelter is impossible to survive in this harsh continent. In the end, only one man survives. He claims to have lost his memory of the events before his rescue and he longs to return. Then we are able to learn why.
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This is the second book by Patrick Robinson I could get my hands on. I really enjoyed reading Kilo Class and I enjoyed this book as well. It is set a couple years into the future, so Patrick gets to play with some technology that isn’t around quite yet.

The novel is an interesting story about a seriously skilled agent from Iraq. He infiltrated Israel’s navy and was trained as a submariner. His employer decides that he is too large of a risk and attempts to eliminate him. After walking across the desert to escape Iraq, he makes a deal with Iran to help commit acts of terrorism using his submarine skills.

A satisfying book to a Clancy fan.

HMS Unseen ISBN: 0099269058 at Amazon

This book was an accident. I needed a new book to read, because I was going to be waiting for something. The cover looked like a decent military technological drama. Since Tom Clancy cannot write books as fast as I can read them, I thought I would give it a try. It was a decent choice.

The premise is that Russia wants to sell Kilo class submarines to China. At $300 million a boat, it is much needed income for Russia. However, if China does get a fleet of Kilos, they can shut the US out of the region with this quite electric/diesel boat and possibly eventually retake Taiwan. The book contains some interesting black ops submarine work, some ground based special ops action and a cool under ice crossing of the north pole that I didn’t know was possible.

I you like Clancy, you will enjoy this book. If you don’t like Clancy, what is wrong with you? (Just Kidding.) It wasn’t a great book, but a good read. Also see H.M.S Unseen by the same author.

Kilo Class ISBN: 0061096857 at Amazon

The Da Vinci Code was the first book of Dan Brown’s I read. It seemed like your only choice was to read the book, due to popularity. I really enjoy Brown’s style of writing, but didn’t like the far stretches required to make The Da Vinci Code a suspenseful novel and much of the false history. I guess it didn’t really bug me when reading the book. The thing that bugged me was people thinking it was the truth after reading a fictional novel. Despite this, when seeing Deception Point for sale at our United Way book sale at work, I decided to give it a try.

Deception Point involves the discovery of an astonishingly rare object buried deep in arctic ice in the far North. NASA, in dire need of a success to halt a funding cut or complete elimination of the organization, are careful to pull in civilian scientists to validate their discovery beyond a shadow of doubt. In addition, NSA analyst Rachel Sexton is brought in as a professional skeptic.
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Recently I’ve started writing again. In the last few years, all my writing was on screenplay style for short films. Some of these we actually shot and produced, most just sit on my computer in final PDF form. Writing in screenplay format is different than novel, novella, or short story forms. Screenplay is all about dialog and character actions. There is no exposition of character thoughts. I think this experience makes you a stronger dialog writer, when you switch to fiction. I decided to read a few books on the subject of writing fiction before starting up again. Seeing good reviews on Stephen King’s On Writing, I decided to read it. I’m glad I did.

The book is broken into a few sections: C.V., Toolbox, On Writing, On Living: A Postscript, and a final edit example. C.V. or Curriculum Vitae is normally a list of job experience and education for use in an interview. At first, this seemed like a strange title for the section. After I finished reading, it was a logical name. The section is split into 38 mini-chapters or “snapshots” of times in history, as Stephen puts it. Descriptions of points in his life, which influenced his focus and style as a writer, help give perspective on all the rest of the book. King is very open with his battles with drugs and alcohol over the years. He laments about those books written while under the influence, with no lasting memory of the creative process.
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I have not found a way to better describe this book than the first sentence inside the dust cover. “It’s as if Dave Barry and Charles Kuralt squeezed together onto a bicycle to pedal across America and around the world, filing outrageous dispatches along the way.”

Indeed, many times while reading I felt as if I was watching the well done Sunday morning stories where the common man or the small town are shown in all of their glory. Those stories that aren’t as touching will give you a great laugh.

As an aspiring bicycle tourist, this book was hard for me to put down. I can give a book no better compliment than to say that it followed me to lunch and dinner every day for a week. The only problem I had was trying to cope with the fact that I would not be able to start any serious bicycle touring until I left on my Trans-Am tour in May of 2002. This book made me want to be out on the road NOW!
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