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20060630 Friday June 30, 2006
A man about machines...
I just finished a couple of books that I thought I would share with you. Both books, I Know You Got Soul and Clarkson On Cars are by Jeremy Clarkson. If you don't know Jeremy then you have never seen the TV show Top Gear. If you have never seen Top Gear then you must not like cars, toys or anything mechanical.

Jeremy is hilarious however some of the humor is lost to a non-Brit such as myself. I Know You Got Soul is essentially Jeremy's salute to machines and the related engineering that have seemed to give the inanimate objects a soul. His critical observation in regards to machines having a soul is that they must intrinsically have a flaw, as all humans do. In some ways this book reminded me, not by name only, of Tracy Kidder's The Soul Of A New Machine. If you love mechanical things and think that machines are the purest form of engineering, then you will enjoy this book. Nothing deep, just a good laugh and review of a number of wonderful machines that do indeed have a soul.

Clarkson On Cars is of course focused on cars. There is nothing new in this book. In fact, it is a collection of past columns that Clarkson has written. I you love cars and want a good laugh, this is a great read. You will find yourself smiling a lot and wondering if Clarkson is really that politically incorrect in real life.


posted by djberg Jun 30 2006, 05:44:46 AM CEST Permalink