what Dave thinks about movies, books and everything
{4.5/5} “Actually the plan’s really very simple. We’re going to fly 35 000 men 300 miles and drop them behind enemy lines. It’ll be the largest airborne operation ever mounted. Quite frankly, this kind of thing’s never been attempted before.” It’s 1944. The Allies have cancelled a bunch of their recent plans for one reason […]
{4.5/5} “Many of the qualities that allow us to do so many things so well contain flip sides that predispose us to error. We happen to be very good, for instance, at quickly sizing up a situation. Within a tenth of a second or so after looking at a scene, we are usually able to […]
{5/5} “I’m going to help you rediscover your manhood. Do you have any idea where you lost it? … We’re going to find it. We are. I promise you. And I promise you this too, Cal. When we’re done, this wife of yours, she’s going to rue the day she decided to give up on […]
{5/5} “A lot of times you don’t know how it ends. When your units get to a scene you sign off and they take over. But you don’t know. Did they make an arrest, shoot the bad guy, did the PR live, did she die?” Jordan is a 911 operator. She’s good at her job […]
{4.5/5} “Even the least technically minded people in our society now have at least a hazy idea of what operating systems do; what is more, they have strong opinions about their relative merits. It is commonly understood, even by technically unsophisticated computer users, that if you have a piece of software that works on your […]
{4.5/5} “I’m not been paid to be your friend, I’m being paid to protect you. So no more questions, that’s it. Period… And no crying.” Creasey has been having a tough time lately — for one thing, he has a drinking problem — so he goes to visit his old friend Rayburn in Mexico. Rayburn gets […]
{4.5/5} “It’s like seeing someone for the first time, like you could be passing on the street, and you look at each other for a few seconds, and there’s this kind of a recognition like you both know something. The next moment the person’s gone, and it’s too late to do anything about it. And […]
{4.5/5} “I need your help. I can’t tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we’re gonna hurt some people.” A bank is robbed in Boston. The robbers know what they’re doing, so things go smoothly. They take one hostage, in case they run into the police on the […]
2013 was a great year of reading for me, and in particular a great year of discovering new authors. The winner of my author discovery of the year is Iain M. Banks. I read three of his books, including the brilliant The Player of Games. Runner ups are Sarah Zettel for A Sorceror’s Treason, Michael Swanwick […]
{4/5} “How many times have I told you that the jungle is no place to act like a wild animal?” Horton is an elephant — he lives in the jungle, is kind to everyone, likes to take baths, and has an excellent memory. One day he finds a speck and is surprised to discover that […]