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essentialsaltesThe Empire of Ice Cream collects 14 of Ford's stories, including the Nebula-winning title story. (Hmmm... i was unaware until just now that there is a semi-famous poem The Emperor of Ice Cream from 1922 by Wallace Stevens.) Great stuff in here, although many of the stories just drift along aimlessly, and seldom resolve. Some of the stories are laden with nostalgia of a very specific childhood; while effective, I had a strange feeling of eavesdropping on someone else's nostalgia. I think my favorites were "A Night in the Tropics", the titular story, "A Man of Light", and "The Weight of Words".
How To by Randall Munroe (of xkcd fame) is another tome in the style of his What If, but asking and answering slightly different questions (as the title suggests).
The chapters take on seemingly sensible questions "How to Dig a Hole" "How to Take a Selfie" "How to Be on Time" and then taking the suggestion to various ridiculous (but well researched) extremes. For instance, you can gain an extra nanosecond of time, if you moved a giant ball of lead near all of the atomic clocks that regulate time on earth due to the gravitational effects on local time. Good breezy fun that occasionally stimulates some thoughts you might never have otherwise thunk.
How To by Randall Munroe (of xkcd fame) is another tome in the style of his What If, but asking and answering slightly different questions (as the title suggests).
The chapters take on seemingly sensible questions "How to Dig a Hole" "How to Take a Selfie" "How to Be on Time" and then taking the suggestion to various ridiculous (but well researched) extremes. For instance, you can gain an extra nanosecond of time, if you moved a giant ball of lead near all of the atomic clocks that regulate time on earth due to the gravitational effects on local time. Good breezy fun that occasionally stimulates some thoughts you might never have otherwise thunk.
