Hello, Kay;

21 Nov 04 22:38, Kay Shapero wrote to Robert Bull:

 RB>> being the best value over here ATM.  The T3's big feature is its

 KS> Quite useful, and the fact that you can turn the view sideways, so
 KS> that the longer screen gives you a wider page is nice.  Though to be
 KS> honest I mostly use *that* feature when using Excel files (yes, it
 KS> does spreadsheets too).

So that means, that the bigger screen is not a killer feature for reading 
text?  Unless you can change the mode to give you a bigger font, I suppose.

 KS> The recent material I have is mostly books downloaded from Baen books
 KS> free library, or bought from their "webscriptions" service, though

I'd forgotten about that...

 KS> CBIP - SF: THE COBRA TRILOGY by Timothy Zahn - One of the more
 KS> thoughtful treatments of the cyborg soldier idea, complete with a
 KS> healthy regard for the Law of Unintended Consequences.  The first book
 KS> takes one of the original recruits for the Cobra project and follows
 KS> him through his career.  The soldier part is actually fairly short;
 KS> the real meat of the book comes in the "ok, we've created all these
 KS> supersoldiers, the war is over, and we can't reverse the process that
 KS> created them.  Now what?" part.  The book ends with their solution.

Would this have been stimulated by Vietnam?  I heard some of the soldiers - 
maybe special forces, but perhaps others too - were taken off duty and 
flown home within about a day at the end of the war, with no attempt to 
"deprogram" them, and some ended up living in the wilds of Canada for a 
while when they had problems adjusting to everyday life.

 KS> CBIP - otherwise:  WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy
 KS> As the title says.  And, alas, I'm beginning to find that the book
 KS> bids fair to lose my interest a bit over a third of the way through.

I usually find it a problem to read huge slow-paced 19th century novels, 
lacking vast tracks of time free of other calls...  I read ANNA KARENINA 
years ago, and got through that all right, but never tried WAR AND PEACE.  
Besides, I've seen most of it on TV  :-/

Did you read that Bob Shaw novel where a character so identifies with 
Tolstoy that when he goes into the chamber to have his character remodelled 
he carries a copy with him, so he can focus on the name Tolstoy, the name 
he wants to come out with?  And comes out calling himself Warren Peace?

 KS> a big fan of battle descriptions, so I'm reading it a chapter or so at
 KS> a time and then looking at other stuff.  At least this beats the last

When I read the Kalevala I read it three sections or so at a time then went 
onto a novel, so as to avoid getting bored with too much at once.  And, 
when I read Anthony Powell's fascinating series of novels A Dance to the 
Music of Time, I read those interspersed with something else entirely, all 
the way through.

 KS> time I tried to read it, when the book started to fall apart before I
 KS> got THIS far.

Cheaper than having a Palm fall aprt, though...

     Regards,

              Robert.

CBIP:  OMBRIA IN SHADOW  by  Patricia McKillip
     The Prince is dead, his son a small boy.  The country knows the 
     Regency of Domina Pearl will be a terrible one.  But beneath the 
     streets, in shadow time, is a sorceress and her creation, a child 
     formed all of wax, but who is becoming human.  McKillip is -good-at 
     atmosphere.
Just finished:  BAD NEWS  by  Donald E. Westlake
     Only just discovered the "Dortmunder" comic crime capers, of which 
     this is one, and had plenty of laughs  :-)

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