William Gibson's Neuromancer

Gibson's Neuromancer is his first book ever, and the second book of his that I have read. I previously read Idoru (out of order). Neuromancer is good - far from as excellent as Idoru; you can really tell he is an amateur writer. The narrative is choppy and often confusing and the dialogue feels false in various places. However, the ideas are still really interesting and at times purely brilliant. The book is famous as a seminal sci-fi work rather than on its own merits, so I would still suggest reading it, especially since it lays out some of the characters for the later works (e.g., Case, Molly). I'm looking forward to reading Count Zero.

Gibson's 3 Trilogies:

The Sprawl Trilogy:

• Neuromancer
• Count Zero
• Mona Lisa Overdrive

The Bridge Trilogy:

• Virtual Light
• Idoru
• All Tomorrow's Parties

The Bigend Books:

• Pattern Recognition
• Spook Country
• Zero History

Zen in the Martial Arts

A souvenir from Portland!

The book is a series of short vignettes that reflect lessons the author has learned in his martial arts training over the years. With each story, he then demonstrates how he applied the principle to his actual life.

If you're at all interested in zen, you would find this an interesting read. If you're also looking into martial arts, you will love the book. I recommend it highly.