Lazy Sunday Service

Off the London later this week to give a keynote talk at an Information Visualization conference. I'm not sure they're going to get what they think they're getting, which is probably Atlas of Cyberspace kind of stuff. Although I do use info visualisation quite a bit in my work, my theoretical interest is concerned with the philosophy of cartography, not on the technical aspects of producing visualizations. I suspect that most information visualization researchers couldn't give a monkeys about the wider philosophy of science, instead trying to create more effective means of revealing and communicating information. Of course, the two are not unrelated, but its rare enough that they're worked through in relation to each other. Should be interesting to see what they make of what I've got to say. Not a lot probably.

Most posts this week:
Half yearly report
Housing vacancy 1991-2011 in the Upper Shannon Renewal Scheme
Letter A
Review of 1974 by David Peace
Nice things in the post

Nice things in the post

The postman bought a nice offering this week - Louie Knight's latest case in Malcolm Pryce's The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still.

From the backcover:

It is May in Aberystwyth, and the mayoral election campaign - culminating in the traditional boxing match between candidates - is underway. Sospan the ice-cream seller waits in his hut for souls brave enough to try his latest mind-expanding new flavour, and Louie Knight, Aberystwyth's only Private Detective, receives a visit from a mysterious stranger called Raspiwtin asking him to track down a dead man. Twenty-five years ago Iestyn Probert was hanged for his part in the notorious raid on the Coliseum cinema, but shortly afterwards he was seen, apparently alive and well, boarding a bus to Aberaeron. Did he miraculously evade the hangman's noose? Or could there really be substance to the rumours that he was resuscitated by aliens? Now, as strange lights are spotted in the sky above Aberystwyth and a farmer claims to have had a close encounter with a lustful extraterrestrial, Iestyn Probert has been sighted once again. But what does Raspiwtin want with him? And why does Louie's investigation arouse unwelcome interest from a shadowy government body and a dark-suited man in a black 1947 Buick?

Sounds like a cracker.

Review of 1974 by David Peace (Serpent’s Tail, 1999)

Eddie Dunford has moved back to north to the Leeds of his youth, working as the north of England correspondent for the Post. On the morning of his father’s funeral he is attending the press conference concerning the disappearance of a local school girl, Clare Kemplay. For Dunford this is an opportunity to establish himself at the paper and come out from under the shadow of Jack Whitehead, the paper’s award winning crime writer. His growing obsession, however, soon moves him from an interested observer into an active participant, a pawn in a much larger game of local business interests, politics and police corruption. The more he seeks out the truth, the further he descends into underworld, and others start to pay for the consequences of his actions.

Maxine from Petrona describes reading 1974 as like reading a scream. I know exactly where she’s coming from. Peace’s narrative is intense, visceral, gritty, dark, unrelenting and unsettling. It is very tightly written and through the flair and style of the prose, the contextual framing, and the palpable sense of realism, it produces a powerful affective response from the first page. If anyone is looking for the ultimate noir, then 1974 must be near the top of the pile. The story is a long way from horror, and none of the scenes are particularly horrific, but I nevertheless found it a difficult read at times, simultaneously feeling senses of compulsion and revulsion. It’s one of those strange books or movies that draws you in at the same time as pushing you away. I read it in several sittings and found it emotionally draining. The end unravels a little, becoming a bit disjointed (much like the main character). Nevertheless 1974 is a brilliant piece of writing, but it’s not for the faint hearted.

Letter A

Rather than writing reviews I've been busy writing dictionary entries. I now have my assigned entries for the letter A drafted for the forthcoming Oxford Dictionary of Human Geography. Been an interesting exercise so far. The entries are pretty disparate. I wrote an entry today on 'affect' immediately followed by one on 'agent-based models', which is about as far apart in human geography conceptually and methodologically as one can get. 25 letters and 670 odd entries to go. The plan is to draft 200 over the summer.

Half yearly report

So far I've read and reviewed 52 books this year. Six were classed as 5 star reviews and seven as 4.5 stars. I'd recommend all of them. As for my book of the year so far, I'm mulling that over. Probably Field Grey shades it. The Deputy and Caught Stealing would make great movies, The Rage good TV. Secret Dead Men is the most thought provoking in a head wrecking kind of way. Ghost Mountain Boys, the only non-fiction on this list, makes you wonder about the follies of people and the strength of human spirit.

The Rage by Gene Kerrigan
The Deputy by Victor Gischler
Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston
Ghost Mountain Boys by James Campbell
Secret Dead Men by Duane Swierczynski
Field Grey by Philip Kerr

Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen
The Brush Off by Shane Maloney
The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
The Main by Trevanian
A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn
Devil Red by Joe Lansdale
A Stone of the Heart by John Brady

Lazy Sunday Service

The first results of Census 2011 were released in Ireland this week. It showed that about 100,000 additional people were living in Ireland than was expected. In fact the population grew by 341,421 between 2006 and 2011 (8.1%). This was most due to strong natural increase with a high rate of births (the highest in Europe) and a low death rate, with emigration not occurring to the same extent as people thought (in fact, 118K more people move to the country than left). Since 1991 the population has grown by more than a million people to 4.5m, a whopping 29.9% increase. The figure though that I had been waiting for somewhat nervously was the housing vacancy rate. Based on our research the media had reported back in January 2010 that the vacancy rate for the country was 300,000. A number that became synonymous with the property crash. We were roundly criticised by the construction and property sector for that assessment and have spend much of the last 18 months debating with them the level of vacant stock. The Census reported that there were 294,202 vacant units that were habitable. Thankfully for us, but not for the country, we were just about right. Phew! The map above is vacancy by ED, with blue areas having over 20% vacancy.

My posts this week:
Review of White Death by Tobias Jones
Reading a scream
Old book, new format
Review From Aberystwyth With Love by Malcolm Pryce
2011 Census housing vacancy data
Geographic variation in housing vacancy 2011
June reviews

June reviews

A pretty mixed month of reading. I'm surprised I posted nine reviews as it didn't seem like a nine book month. Three books stood out - Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Rage by Gene Kerrigan and The Deputy by Victor Gischler. The one that was a head clear for me was The Deputy, a fine slice of country noir; short but sweet.

From Aberystwyth With Love by Malcolm Pryce ****
White Death by Tobias Jones ***.5
The Fatal Touch by Conor Fitzgerald ***.5
Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly **.5
The Rage by Gene Kerrigan *****
The Deputy by Victor Gischler *****
The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan ****
Plugged by Eoin Colfer ****
Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen ****.5