Lisbon, part 6 - Books

Since I've been in Lisbon, I finished one book and I'm on to a second.

The first one is entitled "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole.  It is interesting for a few reasons.  First, it is the first of his only two books ever written, both published posthumously (i.e after he died).  It was his mother that took it to a publisher and insisted they publish it.  After first thinking it was just some proud mother wanting to bring meaning to the life of her deceased son, the publisher read it and was blown away.  As was I, as were many others.  It won the Pulitzer Prize!

It's hard to explain, but the book is a riot!  It starts off a bit slow, basically setting up all the pieces on the board, as it were.  But by the end, you'll just be laughing at the absurdity and the complexity and the pure genius of the writing.  this book is really a hidden gem.  It's a shame the author wrote so very little in his career.

The second book is a storyteller's account of some untold aspects of the history of the personal computer.  The book is entitled:  "What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counter-culture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry", by John Markoff.  It was also hugely surprising, but also I suppose made sense.   It is a pleasant account of the 1950's - 1970's from what was going on in University computer research centres, in what was to become Silicon Valley.  Basically, Hippies had a MASSIVE influence on the world today.  It wasn't some period of time a la "Peace man, oh shit I'm having a flashback" that conservatives would love to paint it out to be.  It was highly intelligent people doing things that highly intelligent people love to do unconstrained:  think, dream, create, contribute to the world.

But it's not too nerdy.  It's a story.  Sure, you have to be moderately interested in some of these topics already, but if you are, a very nice read.  Kept me nicely occupied in my sickbed the last 2 days.