Spaceland

If you ever wondered about the 4th (spacial) dimension, but didn't want to get too technical, SPACELAND by Rudy Rucker might be the book for you. In some ways, it picks up and/or expands on the much earlier book FLATLAND by another author (Abbott), which you might want to read first if the subject interests you (and it is not too technical either). Both books employ fictional stories to illustrate what a world with 4 spacial dimensions would be like.

In any case, SPACELAND is set in Silicon Valley during the dot com boom - remember that? The main character is Joe Cube (great name huh?) an MBA in a high tech company pre-IPO. Other important characters are Jena Cube (nee Bonk) Joe's wife, Spazz (reminded me in some ways of Spike on the BBC series Clatterford, except Spike is way more trustworthy) who works for Joe, Tulip who is Spazz's (sometime) girlfriend and Momo a lady from the fourth dimension. In the background at least, the book pokes fun at the craziness that went on in Silicon Valley at the time portrayed.

The main plot line involves Momo showing up and offering some great technology from her dimension that will revolutionize cell phones here. Suffice it to say that one should "beware of Trojans (in this case in the guise of Kluppers from the 4th dimension) bearing gifts". That is, the stuff seems great, but then we find out that there is a "little" problem that goes along with it.

Important to the story line is that our world of 3 spacial dimensions separates two 4th dimensional worlds that do not seem to be on the best of terms. The Kluppers are from one side and seem to be humanoid in at least a 4 dimensional sense, and the Dronners are from the other - there are several different kinds of strange creatures depicted from the Dronner side including a God like being. Yes, Joe has a religious experience near the end of the book, but it is well done. The author spends a lot of time helping readers "visualize" things that Joe sees in the 4th dimension (and elsewhere) and does a pretty good job with it - there are helpful diagrams as well. By the way, Momo gets a special eye to grow on Joe to help him see in the 4th dimension.

The story moves quickly and there is a lot of action. The world is saved (barely) at the end, and Joe makes a lot of money (less than if Momo's technology would have been "feasible" though). Joe also gets his wife back - why he wanted her back is beyond me.

The book can be a lot of fun if hyperdimensions and all that appeal to you - they do to me. As I mentioned, Abbott's FLATLAND might be a good "prequel" for readers of SPACELAND; I read it, and it is very good. SPACELAND's author also wrote some books more directly about the 4th dimension as well that I hear are good - I even have one on my shelf to read soon (THE FOURTH DIMENSION).

If the 4th dimension appeals, give SPACELAND a try.

Idenics

This is a book by Mike Goldstein with the subtitle "An Alternative to Therapy". The book is about the Idenics procedure for getting rid of unwanted conditions in life. I have had some positive results with it already and have not done all that much yet. It seems to be quick and painless.

Before going much further, let me say that I think you have to get the book directly from Mr. Goldstein on his www.idenics.com website. I am going to email him after I write this and suggest that he get it on amazon at least so that more people can find it.

It is a long story how I found Idenics and this book. Ironically, it was almost exactly 5 years after my California disaster (another long story), and I was looking something up totally unrelated on wikipedia and ran into something about my disaster then ran into Idenics. Well, you know what they say - there are really no coincidences.

Anyway, my advice is check out the Idenics website, get the book and read it. The book is short and easy to understand. There are even things you can easily apply as you read the book and see some results. All you have to do is look - that's basically it.

Very highly recommended!!

Complete and Utter Failure

This book (that the title suggests is on failure) is by Neil Steinberg.

First, I think the title might give readers a slight misconception as to what the book is about. Sure, it talks specifically about failure, but it also talks about other things such as success and many amusing aspects of human nature not necessarily limited to failure.

For the most part, the author writes very well, making for a pleasant read, although he does use some odd words now and then - maybe he was inspired by the spelling bees he spends a lot of time discussing in the book. I had to laugh out loud sometimes, especially when he relates certain personal anecdotes - the first one at the very start of the book involving Captain Kangaroo was especially funny. At other times, I had to admit to myself that I had done something (goofy) like that - see for example his discussion of trying to solve the impossible (or nearly so) type problems.

I thought he went on a little too long about the climbing of Everest, although it was still interesting mostly; the part about the Sherpa possibly setting foot first on the summit was intriguing. The chapter on the spelling bees and Odyssey of the Mind was interesting, but just went on too long; he made the point that these were both weird/surreal activities through some very amusing (at times) anecdotes. Why he didn't discuss the kiddie beauty pageant circuit, I don't know, as this would have fit in well with what he did here and could have added to the humor with proper handling.

As a patent attorney, I did appreciate his discussion of the battle over who invented the telephone and thus deserved the U.S. patent. I can't swear that he got the whole story right as I have never studied it in detail, but I did not notice that he made any glaring errors that so many make when talking about patenting.

There are a variety of other interesting subjects taken up in the book as well.

I recommend the book, though it might be a little hard to find now. It got 4 and not 5 stars from me, because it did get a little tedious in the spelling bee and to a lesser extent the Everest chapters.