There are too many, but here’s a small selection of recent discoveries:
On a less-happy note, the second book by Carlos Ruiz Zafon called The Angel’s Game was a major disappointment. It is difficult to believe that the same author wrote The Shadow of the Wind, which was absolutely great.
I have read a couple of excellent books recently: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. These are truly excellent, and are definitely among the favorites.
Philip K. Dick: Ubik
This is an excellent science fiction novel that challenges the notion of reality and perception. I am speechless!
Although it is classified as a science fiction novel, I have a hard time accepting it as such. It is definitely unlike any other science fiction book I have ever read.
Thanks to Knut for recommending this to me 
Orhan Pamuk: My Name is Red
This book is very captivating not only because of the plot, but also because of the way the story is told. It is about the life of a group of miniaturist painters in 16th century Istanbul. The reader is presented with a wide array of themes such as love, jealousy, hatred, confusion, anger - and in the midst of these emotions there is a murder mystery and a love story, there is rebellion and submission, there is group-mentality and individualism, and much more.
What Orhan Pamuk does particularly well is portraying the humanity of his characters. The plot could have just as well taken place in any other city, at any other time; the emotions and the characters are timeless. More importantly, the feelings that his characters experience are very real, making this book a very interesting read.
There are many voices telling the story (a murderer, a coin, a dog), allowing the reader to see through the eyes of many narrators, with many perspectives. Finally, the descriptions are done very vividly, as through a painters eyes.
An excellent novel, and well worth the read.
I haven’t updated this site in ages, and the same applies for my blog(s). Ambissions have been too high, and there seem to be other activities taking up my time, such as life outside the Internet (yes, there is such a concept!), and work. I have been reading lots of interesting books lately, such as Special Topics in Calamity Physics, a couple of books by Nick Hornby, and a really exciting trilogy by the Norwegian author B.Andreas Bull-Hansen. I’ll find time to post entries about these, however for the time being, my digital life is secondary.
Simon Sebag Montefiore: Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
Currently reading the biography of Stalin.
Fun facts about Stalin:
I will post more fun facts later.
John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces
Great, just great! I read it in Norwegian and absolutely have to re-read it in English. Ignatius J. Reilly is incredible. His absolute dislike for the world around him, and his inability to function in society is incredible. There is something fascinating about this man.
He is apparently well-educated and well-read (having spent ca. 8 years at a university), however all the knowledge that he possesses is used toward criticizing everything and everyone that he encounters. He views himself as elevated above all people, and does not hesitate tell them so, using pompous, yet brilliant language.
There is a strange sort of love story that takes place, and it is one that borderlines the subconscious of Ignatius. He feels hate for Myrna, however she is also the one that he has the closest connection to, and the only person in the book towards whom he actually has feelings. They seem to have a lot in common, and in spite of the aversion they show for one another in their letters, they can’t seem to let each other go.
This book is very good, and although I can’t put my finger on what it is that fascinates me about Ignatius, I can definitely say that he is a unique character. I have never encountered such an individual, neither in life, nor in literature. In my opinion, A Confederacy of Dunces would make an excellent movie.
Mark Haddon: A Spot of Bother
What starts off slow and only somewhat interesting, quickly develops into a personal and family drama beyond imagination. The family in this book is portrayed as utterly dysfunctional, and unable to cope with their personal differences, as well as overcome their selfishness and closed-mindedness with regard to each other. However, as the plot develops and dives deeper into the lives of the individuals, we are exposed to their traits that have previously been hidden. Strength, courage, honesty, and love emerge, giving depth and hope to this otherwise very disturbing book.
I admit that at the time of reading it, I was not entirely in the mood for depressing reading, so I nearly put the book down, but I’m very glad I didn’t. Another great novel from Mark Haddon!
I’ve got another blog at my.opera.com, which I also maintain from time to time. It is as though one wasn’t difficult enough. The new feature of this system is that it is integrated with Opera Mini 3.0, which allows for very simple picture blogging; all one has to do is log in from mini, take a picture directly from the browser, and it is automatically uploaded to the blog. cool!
View the blog at olegt
This great view of the sky just before sunset was taken at Frognerseteren in Oslo, Norway.
Amos Oz: A Tale of Love and Darkness
This is a rather epic novel about a young boy’s life in Israel in the 1940s. The author takes us on a vivid and colorful journey through the events of that time in history, describing his own confusion and uncertainty, as well as the views of the adults that surround him. We are presented with an eccentric cast of characters that live their own lives, with their own joys, sorrows and unforeseen turns. The title does the book justice, as it is told as a tale, without any particular climax or a plot curve; Oz keeps our attention by using a very rich and descriptive language.
I read this book in Norwegian and absolutely loved it. It is a brilliant translation, and the language flows so well, that it is worth reading just to experience the author’s eloquence. This book definitely deserves to be read several times, and the next time I’ll probably read it in English. This book is beautifully written and I highly recommend it.
Norwegian translation: En fortelling om kjærlighet og mørke
Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything Is Illuminated
This is such an excellent read, I don’t even know where to start. Read this book!
It’s very well written and the pages just fly by. What I particularly like about Safran Foer is his ability to take up very serious issues, while maintaining an air of humour throughout the book. The story is partly told in creative Ukranian-English, with dialogues that are absolutely unique, and a story that is both deep and thought-provoking.
Highly recommended.
Yann Martel: Life of Pi
A truly unforgettable book. To begin with I thought it to be an excellent story that I did not want to end; one of those books you never want to part with. This is mainly because the adventure factor of Pi’s ordeal is very enticing. However, as the plot develops, I realized that Martel offers so much more. This book is, in a certain respect, about a spiritual journey and explores issues such as the truth of religion and truth as a concept.
This is an very interesting book that left me in a melancholy, pensive state of mind for a long time.
Last.fm is a very cool site that makes a graphical profile of your taste in music.
“Last.fm is the flagship product from the team that designed the Audioscrobbler system, a music engine based on a massive collection of Music Profiles. Each music profile belongs to one person, and describes their taste in music. Last.fm uses these music profiles to make personalized recommendations, match you up with people who like similar music, and generate custom radio stations for each person.”
The plug-in works behind the scenes so that you not aware that you are building a profile, but yet, every time you play a song, it gets logged on your personal page, and eventually a profile gets built. Very cool!
Also, it’s a good way to discover new music. Clicking on a song gives the overall statistics for it and the top fans. If you go to their page, it’s possible to see their profile and check out what bands they listen to.
Check out my Last.fm profile.
In my current research I am focusing on the relationship between competitive strategy and knowledge management strategy, and at this point I am collecting data from management consulting firms. The research proposal follows the argument that in order to manage knowledge effectively, the competitive strategy must drive the knowledge management strategy, i.e. that there needs to be a relationship between the two. By conducting this study, my colleague Frida Eklöf and I are aiming to determine the types of knowledge management strategies that are related to particular competitive strategies.
I’m now running the latest Wordpress software and the blog has a new look. I’m currently working on modifying the code to get everything to look the way I want.
It’s official: pidgeons are faster than ADSL!! A group of users in Israel tested their Wi-Fly network, i.e. pidgeon-powered wireless internet, and found it to be faster than the ADSL infrastructure. Go pidgeons!
Pidgeon-Empowered wireless internet
One of potentially many entries in this brand new category. Today, I shall rant about the movie business in Norway, particularly the premiere of the long-awaited Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Why is it that the US gets the movie on April 29th, i.e. in just a few days from now, while we have to wait until July 29th? What is the sadistic logic behind this? Some movies have worldwide premieres, like Star Wars, Matrix, Lord of the Rings… I’m sure there are others, but the point is, why is it that some movies are considered “worthy” by the forces that be, while others get stuck on the way over the Atlantic?
Does this kind of situation not encourage people to obtain illegal copies of movies? History has shown that screeners leak out, movies get filmed with home cameras and are distributed on the net, etc etc. One can argue that the US market is larger and more capable of handling movie premieres all the time and that Norway just cant handle it, but why is it Iceland gets to see the Guide one week after it premieres in the US?! Here’s the interesting thing:
Population of Iceland: just under 300,000
Population of Norway: about 4.5 million
Population and market size can’t possibly matter!
I am really looking forward to this movie, I am not happy about this whole situation and I’m trying not to panic.
A great collection of quotes/slogans/I don’t know what to call them!
Particularly relevant for my current resarch activities at The Norwegian School of Management:
Other good ones:
And finally, for anyone who has spent countless hours debugging code:
Thanks to Julia for the link!
A bunch of MIT students got together and wrote a program that generates computer science papers, complete with graphs, figures and references. Having generated a paper, they submitted it to a conference taking place in July in Florida and got accepted!
Their website features the generator, so that you can make your own random CS papers, and their correspondence with the organizers of the conference.
Great fun!
SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator
They even made BBC News.
Thanks to Ottar for sending me this!