Logan’s Run Review

Logan’s Run, Nolan and Johnson. Yes. I was given this book some months ago, and finally resolved to read it. I was surprised that it wasn’t awful, though I shouldn’t have been surprised that it is superior to the movie, in at least some respects. Most notably, Logan is a more active protagonist than the movie makes him.
The history and structure of the future society are naturally more fleshed out, but there are some disappointing inconsistencies regarding what colors happen at what ages, and it’s not entirely clear that the plot holds together.  Still, what it lacks in sense, it nearly makes up in brevity.

Collected Roger Zelazny Vol. 4 Review

Last Exit to Babylon: Volume 4: The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, ed. Grubbs, Kovacs, Crimmins. Yes. I continue to enjoy this collection, and express my enduring gratitude to the NESFA team for putting it together. This volume contains the middle chunk of the Dilvish tales, and the three stories that constitute My Name Is Legion, which together give you your recommended weekly allowance of straight-ahead sf adventure. This volume also brought a couple things to mind about which I’ll go into in slightly more detail:
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Ultimate Fitness Review

Ultimate Fitness: The Quest for Truth about Exercise and Health, Kolata. Non-fiction. Kolata recounts several personal experiences in a multi-decade journey of discovery that leads her to the conclusion that we don’t know a whole lot about what kinds of exercise are good. (Disclaimer: my book club source indicated that I could extract everything I needed from chapters four and ten, so when chapter two ground to a halt for me, I took the out, though I did also read the epilogue) The bottom line seems to be that doing any exercise for a half hour (cumulative) a day several times a week generates the largest payoff (i.e., the difference between not exercising at all and moderate exercise is greater than the difference between moderate exercise and more (dare I say) extreme measures). As the child of a long-time runner, I am not at all surprised by her observation (though I don’t believe she puts it in quite these terms) that those who exercise heavily and frequently are addicted to the physiological response. I also found echoes of Michael Pollan: Pollan says to avoid any food whose labels include health claims; Kolata tells us that the only thing that matters for weight loss is calories in vs calories out, and anyone who says differently is selling something (though this doesn’t prevent her from being a devoted Spinning® enthusiast).
Several myths are punctured in the course of the book (even in the course of the few chapters I read), but I’d hate to think anybody will be too surprised to find that the benefits of exercise programs are supported by shaky or absent research, or that becoming a certified instructor takes nothing but money.
Finally, there’s a thing that irritated me, but I’ll spare the casual reader by putting it on the other side of a jump.
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Miracle Review

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, Willis. Yes. This was a book club recommendation, though I don’t need much encouragement to read Connie Willis. I enjoyed the collection more than I would have expected given that I’m not much of a fan of novelty (especially holiday) literature, but somewhat less than I would have expected given that I’m a substantial fan of Connie Willis. Some of the stories were also included in Winds of Marble Arch, but that did not significantly impair my enjoyment.

My Ulterior Motives

In reading through book reviews for work, I’m looking for books that will appeal to the kids who aren’t avid readers, especially for booktalking season. I just read a review for one that sounds pretty good for that. The drawback? Has the same title as one I booktalked last spring. Boo.

Finally upgraded

I’d been looking at the “you need to upgrade your WordPress software” warning for a few weeks, wondering whether the fixed vulnerabilities existed in 2.7.x, when this broke (Scoble was on 2.7 and got hit, so the vulnerability goes back at least that far), and I finally bit the bullet. It’s harder than it ought to be because my hosting provider doesn’t let me allocate as much memory as the automatic WP upgrade needs, but aside from the natural pain of “I’ve never done this before, and I really don’t want to break my blog”-inspired double-checking of everything, it wasn’t so bad. So if you’re running your own WordPress blog, please upgrade to 2.8.4 now.