5 Ways to Fix Audible.com in 2012
Even though Audible.com has all the usual marks of a monopoly (sky-high prices, mediocre customer service, little innovation, etc.) I continue to subscribe because I spend a lot of time in my car and it’s the only game in town when it comes to mass market audiobooks. Even the audiobooks sold on iTunes come from [...]
Book Review: Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
A dark, intense character study of a man who offsets many personal acts of valor and selflessness with a few acts of horrifying cruelty. Literal warfare as a metaphor for the main character’s inner turmoil. Big Philosophical Questions about good and evil, the ethics of interfering with less advanced civilizations, finding purpose in a post-scarcity [...]
RIP Michael Crichton
The high spirits I felt at the election of Barack Obama were tempered upon hearing of the death of Michael Crichton, one of my all-time favorite authors. Though Crichton is best known for Jurassic Park and the television show ER, I personally enjoyed Travels, his nonfiction memoirs, more than any of his fiction. What a [...]
Cato's Life of the Mind is the personal site of Jamel Cato, a writer and database developer who can usually be found between the pages of a good book when he's not laughing with his kids. | 