Exjackly

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a novel by Phillip K. Dick. It also happens to be the story behind one of my favorite movies of all time: Bladerunner.

I actually saw the movie (several times) before reading the book, which is very unusual for me. At first, it was because I did not know that Bladerunner was based on a book. Later, it was because I did not want to be disappointed – either in the book or that the movie wasn’t as good as the book.

It was an unnecessary worry. There are differences, as there always are. Yet both are high quality, entertaining and worth the time.

The storyline focuses on a future earth that is contaminated. Science has continued to make progress – even to the point of being able to make short-lived humans called Replicants who live and help out off-world. This progression of science did not lead to a utopian existence. Deckard is a detective whose job is to find replicants who have come to earth and deal with them.

Throughout the book several themes are developed, all of which center around the questions of: What makes somebody human? and What does being human mean?

Bottom line, if you enjoy science fiction with depth, read and watch.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Philip K. Dick. Easton Press 2008, Leather Bound, 244 pages, $165.00

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Andy Hopkins (Editor). Oxford University Press 2007, Paperback, 128 pages, $7.74

Blade Runner – The Final Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Warner Home Video 2007, DVD, $6.57

Blade Runner (Five-Disc Complete Collector’s Edition) [Blu-ray]

Warner Brothers 2007, Blu-ray, $26.98

As indicated back in April 2009, I was contemplating making a change in the direction of this blog.

Like many – perhaps most – it was after writing for a little while that I began to question why I was trying to build a blog and what the goal for it is. All of the usual suspects came to mind: to contribute, to have my own say, to earn money, and even to encourage myself to learn more about different topics.

Unfortunately, none of these really struck a chord. The effort did not match up with the rewards, and even what I was contributing did not feel like it was going to have enough of an impact.

So exjackly.com stagnated. There was enough time invested to make it worth leaving it up, but no internal incentive to add more to it.

Until Now.

Lately, the number of books that I have read has increased.  I attribute most of it to the amount of travel that I do, and how much time it gives me to just sit back and power through more and more books.  It has been a nice perk.

Another contributing factor has been getting an Amazon Kindle.  The Kindle has allowed me to carry more books with me at a time, while being just as easy to read as a regular book (and much easier long term than trying to read e-books on a computer or phone).

Book Reviews

Since I have always loved to read, have read a lot of books, and am reading as many as I can now, I want to give back.  Specifically, the thought is to review the books I am reading (and as many of the ones that I have read in the past as I can recall).  By reviewing these books, hopefully I can help people find new books and authors.

Full Disclosure: At the end of these reviews there will be links to Amazon for these books.  Partially, this is to offer people an easy way to find these books for themselves.  The other part is in the hope to offset the cost of maintaining this web site.  While I hope this becomes self-sustaining, it is the secondary goal.  I would rather hear other people’s opinions in the comments – especially if they enjoy a book I recommend.

Sorry for the lack of new posts in some time.  Learning how to develop a new custom theme and deciding just what I really want to use this blog for.