Visual Quickstart Guide to HTML 4

My hot book of the moment is non-fiction... to be precise, a computer manual. Yes, I decided (on Sunday) that I wanted to learn HTML. So I picked up Peachpit Press' Visual Quickstart Guide to HTML 4 for the World Wide Web. Now, this isn't my usual light reading, but I would have done this years ago if I'd realized how much fun a girl can have with just any old text editor and an HTML textbook.

Initially I chose this book out of the mega-millions of choices available for two reasons, one worthy and one not so worthy. The worthy reason is that the textbook for the Adobe Pagemaker course I took at BCIT was another book from the Visual Quickstart Guide series, and I had liked using it to study. The less worthy reason (though still appreciated by me) was that I liked the cover. I think what really sold me on it, standing in the computer books section of Chapters on Sunday night, was the hexadecimal colour chart on the back inside cover. Colour charts always get me!

In any case, I made a good choice. In three short days, I have conquered links and tables and been introduced to frames, and I smugly think of bold and italic as "easy". After turning my light out these last few nights, instead of pondering plot and character development, I've spent my moments of semi-wakefulness contemplating the mysteries of web forms and graphics. This could become addictive... I can see it now... one of these days I'll be back for a book on javascript... they'll find me years later, eyes permanently glazed over from staring at the monitor, subsisting on caffeine and cold pizza and wearing a pocket protector.

But, seriously, for anyone who doesn't yet know HTML and wants to learn, this is a very good book.

One For The Money

I just finished reading the first of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels, One For The Money, which Heather very kindly lent me. I am definitely going to read more of these! I particularly like the fact that she can have a character just oozing sex appeal (Joe Morelli), and yet stay well away from the sort of overly descriptive sticky sex scenes that often plague crime fiction.

Actually, I've done rather a lot of reading in the last couple of days. Another new favourite is Katherine Kurtz. I hadn't read any of her books before, then I picked up St. Patrick's Gargoyle on the way to the airport. I read the entire book on the plane to San Francisco, simply couldn't put it down. The combination of the Irish backdrop and the fact that most of the characters are gargoyles is simply too good to resist. There is a touch of the divine in this one, though, so anyone who's turned off by God stuff might be less entranced than I was. Anyway, now that I've discovered Katherine Kurtz, I've got all the Deryni books to look forward to...

Finally, I also really enjoyed the most recent Amelia Peabody novel, Lord of the Silent, by Elizabeth Peters. Possibly it is not the most recent one, really, as apparently The Golden One is now out. I will have to look for it. I always enjoy these books; Amelia herself is fabulous, marching around ancient Egypt with a parasol and cucumber sandwiches as usual. If you haven't read any yet, don't start with this one. It would give too much away about what happens in earlier books.

I only wish I didn't read so fast, I am always running out of books.