Books and me

• Permutation city - Greg Egan
• Fastfood nation - Eric Schlosser
• Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber translated from French.

  I think this is an excellent book. He uses the ants as devices to explore some truly novel biological insights which include:

  time perception varying with temperature, insects can only regulate their internal temp. through behavior. The Temperature is a point in time e.g. 23degC time
  • Pheromonal/molecular Language
  • caste system, and social insect mentality

  I'm not sure how much is based on evidence but I recognized many things I learned in entomology classes. Either way they are not Human characters they are well developed aliens The book allows you to getting into the mind and culture of another species. For example the dependence of pheromones. The use of Pheromones as global nest communication, the ant respond as cell in an endocrine system. Its so rare to see character developed sufficiently non-human to not see ot as just another human drama played out using animals. Both recent movies about ants - bugs life and antz make me cringe with their primate insects

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  reading list

  Spoiled by Nicolas Fox, more disturbing factsfast food nation] with a broader scope/p>

  sex advice for all creation by Olivia Judson

  The face, a natural history by Daniel McNeill

  Faster by James Gleick

  Watership down-Richard Adams

  -unfinished

  Sacrament-Clive Barker - I didn't really enjoy this book

  Axiomatic- Greg Egan - short stories

  Distress- Greg Egan

  Diamond age - Neal Stephenson

  The Dice Man - Luke Rhinehart

  Great Apes - Will Self -didn't finish

  Snowcrash - Neal Stephenson

  The alphabet and the goddess- the conflict between word and image - Leonard Shlain

  Quicksilver - Neal Stephensonc- didn't finish

  They shall know our velocity - fiction -didn't finish

  How the dead live -Will Self - fiction

  The weather makers - Tim Flannery - non fiction

  Norwegian wood - Haruki Murakami -fiction

  Lords of the rim - Sterling Seagrave -non fiction

  One hunderd years of solitude - -non fiction

  Toast

  Ghosts of Gondwana