Recently I've been messing around with a way to easily read books from Project Gutenberg. JuicyBooks is the work-in-progress.

It's in alpha at the moment, so your comments and suggestions are welcome! If you have comments or suggestions, please send them to juicydata at gmail dot com.

Current features include:

• More than 200 works of classic literature and science-fiction,
• Bookmarks - set bookmarks while you read, for easy reference,
• Notes - take notes as you read.

To start with, I've collected most books on the Harvard Classics reading list, and all from the PG sci-fi collection.

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Haruki Murakami's lyrical style doesn't disappoint, I felt this was in some ways similar to Wind-Up Bird Chronicles (although alot lighter on the bookshelf). The ideas of finding ones' place within oneself, honest introspection and the passing of time, flow through the pages beautifully. The main characters are very human, very, um, everbody's normal until you get to know them. They're all well written, solid characters.

It's just a really beautiful book. (I am a Murakami fan though..).

Synopsis

Hajime meets the love of his life when he's twelve. They move apart, go to different schools and lose touch. After taking on a family and building a career, Hajime meets Shimamoto again. He finds his feelings are still strong, and faces a dilemma...

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Edgar Allan Poe

I always thought of Edgar Allan Poe as a dark, brooding, possibly misanthropic type, interested in science, the macabre and delighting in his audience's shock and awe.

Should I have been expecting that he was also a trickster? Perhaps yes. He is after all an all-time great story-teller, so drawing people into his confidence, into his perception of relity, was kind of his thing. And he had to eat.

I have a tendancy to think of all historical figures as stand-up citizens, all acting sensibly, reasonably and with honor and fidelity. Naive?

I was reading a collection of flight-themed short stories today, and came across 'The Balloon Hoax'. Poe submitted this to the Sun newspaper, claiming it was non-fiction. The Sun published it in good faith, and had to retract it a few days later.