Friday, July 06, 2007


The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century 'S on-Line Pioneers
by Tom Standage

Search for title: HCL RCL MPL SPPL MnLINK

I just re-read this because my wife (finally!) picked this up and read it. It was a great book to read, both fitting in with the Holmes listening AND as an antidote to the somewhat-of-a-downer Edison book I just read.

The expectation that the telegraph would bring world peace reminded me of this quote from Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communications between different cultures and races, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.

The Sign of the Four

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/21586

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sign_of_the_Four


Slowly working my way again through the Holmes canon, listening to the excellent (and FREE!) British audio editions - you can get them at Gutenberg (above). Incredible stories. Now I've loaded The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to my iPod.