Sunday, May 31, 2009

Daily Thoughts 5/31/2009

Argosy All-Story Weekly cover A. Merrit, The Metal Monster (1920) A. Merritt wrote a number of classic fantasy novels, The Moon Pool, The Ship of Ishtar, and The Metal Monster pictured here.


I finished reading Robots Have No Tails by Henry Kuttner. Itis a collection of five short stories with two introductory essays, one by C.L. Moore, and one by F. Paul Wilson. The stories are about Galloway Gallagher, a drunken scientist and inventor. They are "gadget stories", or stories based around creating a new device. In each story, the scientist gets in trouble with the law and some shady business and has to figure out how a device he invented while drunk works so he can solve his problem. The stories are melodramatic and funny. If you want some light humorous reading these stories are entertaining. The cover art of the book very much reflects the content of the stories. Unfortunately, this book is not listed on Amazon. This is a link to the book, http://paizo.com/store/fiction/planetStories/v5748btpy83xa

I spent a little time reading at the laundromat while my clothes were in the washer first, then the dryer. I am currently reading The Toyota Way 14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer by Jeffrey K. Liker. The book seems quite biased in favor of the Toyota Production System. The author has taught many different companies about the methods of lean production and continuous improvement as practiced by Toyota. What I found interesting was that Sakichi Toyoda who was one of Japan's most prominent inventors was very influenced by Samuel Smiles 1859 book, Self- Help. This is a link to the project Gutenberg e-text. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/selfh10h.htm . I am finding The Toyota Way quite interesting. The beginning is as much a book about industrial history as it is about management.

Web Bits

A link to an article about Book Expo America's Day of Dialog between librarians and publishers. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6661514.html

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