experimenting with the Macintosh edition of ModemNews, and beginning in September we will be bringing you both a DOS and MAC OS version. Some articles will be shared as will the BBS listings, and you will see MAC news and DOS news in BOTH issues (we refuse to get into that old 'mine is better than yours' fight around here).
Our summer will not be spent lazily by the poolside, we will be working the summer away trying to bring you a better product without the pressure of deadlines hanging over our unprotected heads. So while you all are out on the lake or at Uncle Dave's for the Saturday night BBQ, we will be slaving away in front of our computers, for you, our readers, old and new.
But this does not mean that we want you to just waste your summer away playing, so we've prepared a short book list to keep you occupied while you sit in that easy chair before the air conditioner. I trust you will approve of the following.
"The Mysteries of Pittsburgh"
by Michael Chabon
Harper & Row Publishers
Michael Chabon is one of those writers that comes along once in a very long while. A generation from now students in schools may very well be reading his short stories in their text books. He is to literature today a shining example of the modern American fiction writer.
Excellent at setting the picture before you and walking you through the scene, you can touch, smell and hear what the author does. You won't find the archaic language we were all brought up on as "great" literature, but rather a thoughtful and provoking excursion into the wants and mores of late 20th century America, our America, written in the language that you and I speak.
Clean cut stories with writing that is a pleasure to read and characters that are both convincing and familiar. Mr. Chabon writes from his own personal life as well as from the life imagined. Reading "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" and his latest book "A Model World" will give you a peek into modern literature, the authors mind, and why, contrary to popular belief, books are here to stay.
(Extra credit if you can tell us what the Cloud Factory is.)
"Weaveworld"
by Clive Barker
Poseiden Press Publisher
Clive Barker is going to take you on an often terrifying journey into a world where anything can, and often does happen. His journey into the fantastic is both believable and completely unexpected. Follow our lead character Cal Mooney into a world of warped time, faeries and sprites, monsters too horrible to describe, unbounded joy and abject dispair, all set in the here and now. At any moment...
"Weaveworld" will be fascinating reading.
"Robot Visions"
by Isaac Asimov
Penguin Books Publisher
Need we say more? Okay, just a bit.
Here in one volume is a collection of Isaac Asimov's most famous (and some not so famous) robot stories. In this series he takes you on a journey of science fiction literary history. Did you know that he was the one to coin the term "robotics"? "Robot Visions" is an easy two or three afternoon read. Toss it into the picnic basket on your way to the beach. When you are done, replace the word HUMAN with the word ROBOT in his "Three Laws of Robotics" and we'll all have a better world in which to live.
"A Genius by Moonlight"
by W.J.M. Brady
Published by Pocket Books
"An invitation, in the form of fiction, to consider nine devious questions along with one of TV's original Mental Midgets" is what's on the title page. W.J.M. Brady's short novel is a delight to read. He winds his characters and this story into an ever deepening web of intrigue and suspense, all with a 'tounge in cheek' flare made more so by hiw witty sense of humor.
"A Genius by Moonlight" is not a great book, but it would make a great Michael J. Fox movie one day. If you ever have the need to fill an afternoon, hop down to your local bookstore and ask for this one.
Oh yes, and anything by J.R.R. Tolkien.
So, there you have it. Four books for the summer that should keep you pretty entertained. If you only read one of them we would suggest the Chabon books, "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" or "A Model World". We promise you will not be dissapointed.
Have a safe and happy summer. See you on September 1st!
The Staff
COMMENTS FROM OUR READERS
From:
D. Porter Provincial Constable
Ontario Provincial Police
BRANTFORD, Ont.
TEST YOURSELF FOR IMPAIRMENT
Alcohol effects the motorist's ability to drive.
The law considers it an offence to have more than .080
percent alcohol in the blood.
1) Count the drinks one drink equals 1 1/2 ounces of spirit
or 3 ounces of wine or a 12 ounce bottle of beer].
2) Refer to the blood-alcohol chart below. Under the number of
drinks and opposite your body weight, find the % of blood-
alcohol listed.
3) Subtract from this number the % of alcohol burned up by
your body during the time elapsed since your first drink.
