Some weeks ago I bought a book about starting a career in photography. I think that exploring new possible careers that makes you proud and happy is always a good thing. The book is called “Starting your career as a freelance photographer” and I was quite undecided if buying it or not because of the flamboyant title, but the price was good, and so I bought it. There was one detail I did not check with enough attention: the publication date.

My suggestions if you want to buy a similar book:

• Publication date. The book I bought is outdated and manages Digital Photography as something not really present in the market.
• Check the region of interest. A hundred page on US taxation is useless.
• …as always… follow what you like, so try buying the books from the photographer you love, in my case Bryan Peterson, just to name one…
• …avoid flamboyant titles.

BTW, has anyone read anything good on the subject? I am still interested in real-life vision of photography as career…

One thing i cannot stand is greediness. I cannot accept singers or actors who cry because some evil people steal their music or film, setting their families at stake of starvation… or so it seems. I cannot accept it because it is unfair. In a public interview I have read some days ago, George Clooney was telling that he feels himself lucky, and that his colleagues who cry because of their hard life should shut up. He did not use those specific words, but the message was the same [Metro or London Lite..., London].
This morning I was reading some pages of the Metro, when I saw the title: JK ‘nearly in tears’ at Harry Potter case.

Now, keep in mind that the Metro is NOT the Independent or the Guardian, nevertheless I decided to go to page eleven. I was curious.
If you do not know the case, it can be simply told: some Harry Potter fans kept a website (Harry Potter Lexicon) for years, cataloguing every single element born from the ming of JK Rowling. It was something like Wikipedia, but exclusively aimed at the world of Harry Potter. I went once or twice on that site to clarify some doubts. Now the curators of the website has decided to publish the materials he collected in years, and that was the thing that JK Rowling did not like. The Harry Potter author decided to sue Steve Vander (the author of the wannabe Harry Potter Encyclopedia).
We all know that Mrs Rowling is one of the wealthiest person in Great Britain, but this did not stop her from telling some absurd sentences. For how much I love her books, I think she is absolutely wrong in this case (like in others in the past).

“I really don’ want to cry…”
“I am deeply troubled by the portrayal of my efforts to protect and preserve the copyrights I have been granted in the Harry Potter books”
This is too much. This is greedy. This is the disrespect of the fans of her creation.
Poor JK Rowling, not only the copyright will be valid only for 75 years after her death, but now she has to sustain these incredible attacks against her “creature”(!)
Why didn’t she bring the case to the court when the site was visited by millions of users? Do she ignore the fact that internet is another way of shipping media and contents, or do she think that those banners on the site are without meaning?
She blamed the guy to have “decimated my creative work over the last month” because of the lawsuit.
Well done, JK, show the world that you and only you can write about Harry Potter (*). Show the world that nobody is allowed to steal the bread without which you would die of starvation(!)
* = Appy only to printed paper. JK Rowling is well known to ignore internet and the new media (ebooks and online publications)

The book is well written and even if it not able to take your breath away, it is a good book in the end. This is not one of those books you cannot stop reading, and a comparison with “Schindler’s List” is a good one: a good film, that you will not watch twice.

The war without the war, with the death as narrator. Interesting, but not a light reading. A good story, but not enough to keep you awake in the night. Well written, but not breathtaking. I would not suggest it, but to be completely honest it is much better than many many other books I have read lately! Enjoy!

The overview of Beijing and of China is such a background thing that too many information require some previous knowledge, I think. The characters are badly described, with a psychology that is a complete nonsense.

I have to admit that I had to wait some days before writing this review, because I was so revolted by how the book ended that I was ready to write something worst than this (is it possible?). The fact was that 100 pages before the end I hoped for a radical change in the story line, something that would have made sense. The same hope was there 50, 40, 30 pages before the last. Then I lost every single hope and, without them, I was not disappointed by one of the worst book I have ever read!

I was expecting something not good after The time traveler’s wife (strongly recommended), but I was hoping something better than this!

Next, the last book by Michael Crichton, is complete rubbish. IMHO of course!

Yes, this time I did not enjoy the book, I did not appreciate the story (which one) and I personally do not believe he was able to put some light on the issues he wanted to uncover. There are at least twenty different stories that does not go together well, some of those are completely useless in the storyline, other that have been forgotten before the end. Talking apes, talking parrots, human apes have been used too much in the book. All these “genetic… things” has been used SO much that when the third animal came up talking I said: “Oh, come on, stop with these rubbish!“. I do not mind if all these things can happen or not, but in a novel you start having some doubts, thinking that the author has gone too far.

Completely useless book, not worth the £3.99 paid!

I know Frank lost his lunch in order to read it, but this time I cannot support his enthusiasm for a book! The last book by the same author was not satisfactory either (you can read my review here) and with this one the quality has dropped so much that I will think twice before buying another new book by Crichton!

PS: I have just started The Time Traveler’s Wife, and it seems much more interesting than this one!

Richard Dawkins writes that the species are competing in what Darwin called “the struggle for existence“, where the individuals seems best regarded as pawns in the game. So the species with a large number of individuals ready to self-sacrifice themselves for the good of the specie itself are the less likely to go extinct. This is the theory of the “group selection“, quite different from the “individual selection“. If in a group where the people are ready to sacrifice themselves there is one selfish rebel, prepared to exploit the altruism of the others, then he is likely than the other to survive and, in the game of reproduction, to have children. In the long run, however, the more the selfish individuals there will be, the less the group will be altruistic, lowering the possibility of survival of the specie itself.

Maybe it has been the sleeplessness, but I have found this idea quite interesting.

A selfish individual is therefore highly likely to succeed when he is in an altruist group. But he must remember that to maintain his status he should not allow the other selfish individuals to became the majority of the group, or he will lose all his benefits. This sounds quite interesting while thinking to a villain for a book: too many times they are so unrealistically evil, selfish and idiot that they destroy everything they have.

Douglas Adam’s book is an Absurd Science Fiction, where the robot is depressed, the President of the Galaxy is a scapegoat and the Bureaucracy is so similar to the Italian one that it is hardly believable. Nevertheless Douglas Adam started writing this book after a travel in Italy…

If you wanna read something funny, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the book for you. And remember: take your towel with you and…

DON’T PANIC

Now the time has come for Hollywood to take care of this books, even if I do not think that they will produce the entire trilogy. It is mostly because I fear that the subjects of the third book are not suitable for a film.

Take a look at the trailer: I think that the chosen actors are Perfect for the roles!!!

Please note that I will write some “light” spoiler, so if you will proceed in the reading, be warned!

Ok, if you are here I expect you to have already finished reading the book. I will NOT give you specific spoilers, if you expect to read a summary of the book, wikipedia has the perfect one!

Someone asked me if the Deathly Hallows was better than the other. I don’t know. I definitely Loved it, but a part of me hated it. Everybody knows that some characters have died in the book, and those deaths have been a great significance. The character whom I loved more in the entire saga died… this IS sad! I cannot tell if this was the best book of the saga, because it is SO different from the others that it is hard to make a comparison! I’ve Loved it, but I don’t know which one is the “best”.

This book has a significant difference between all the others: Hogwarts. Yes, in the end you see it, but it is not the same. I think that the idea of linking something as well known as the school to something external to our perception as magic was one of the things that made these books a milestone. Sometimes, during the wandering of Harry, Hermione and Ron, the lack of the usual, well known school was so strong that a fast pacing book like the Deathly Hallows seemed slow.  It has been, on the contrary, a book with a complete different pitch, very fast.

Hollywood has taught us that the death of important characters takes ages: J K Rowling, in this book, remembers us that this is not true. Everyone of those who died were there one moment, and then they were gone the moment after. Zap, and he/she is gone, like this, snap!

What is remaining after the Deathly Hallows? Well, for now the sadness of being unable to read another book, right here, right now. Lately I have been unable to find some good book, apart from those I already loved, and this makes the thing more sad, if possible.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the most awaited book in the history: millions of copies have already been sold in pre order and people are queuing from yesterday in front of Waterstones in Piccadilly Circus.

But is it ready or is it already been sold? Well, the news over the net are quite clear, and you don’t need to be a hacker to find and download the ebook: the american version has already been leaked! Personally I don’t think this will ruin the number of book that will be sold, on the contrary I think that this is creating more and more attention on the event.

I will wait for the real book, this night in Charing Cross Road, but not because I am against the eBook, on the contrary I think they will be the future, but because of some factors. First of all the book that has leaked is not told to be the correct one, and I don’t want to ruin the end of a saga risking to read spoilers and nothing more; then I think that a series like Harry Potter is great, and the author deserve what she is getting, so buying the book, in this case is fair. No, I don’t think that 17£ (25€, 34$) is a fair price for a book, and I will not support Bloomsbury in any other way.

On another side I have to admit that I was interested by the eBook, but after having known that the thieves (Bloomsbury) ask 75£ for it, I think that I won’t buy it. In a few weeks someone will sell it used at half the price, and then, in a month or so, the same will be sold for a quarter of the price, and then the price would be fair.

…great day today…