I'm 200 pages into Bill Bryson's Made in America but it's quite difficult to continue as it isn't what I expected. Much more language focused, and while I like some linguistics from time to time, he has parts of the book which feel like he's summing up all the different permutations of American English. The problem is that I adore his storytelling method (it's what hooked me into A Short History Of Nearly Everything) but there's too much stuff around the great stories. I'm having a hard time battling through the boring parts for the good parts. Recently I finished Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr Feynman which is filled with such lovely stories. I'm also reading James Howard Kunstler's Geography of Nowhere which is more relevant to my field of study. It's basically a rant on the demise of public space and the suburbs of America. Very anecdotal but nice to read. When I feel like reading a short essay I grab Hitchens Arguably. I should be reading more of these three books but my free time is spent more with friends and on the Web that I rarely take the time to sit down and read.
Yes, I'm really liking it! I live in the Netherlands and we have a long and interesting history of urban planning. For instance, there is a legal designation plan for every square foot within the nation borders. Every feature of the land has a plan and is thorougly mapped. My favourite example of this is the Actueel Hoogtebestand Nederland (Recent Height Data Netherlands). The entire country was divided in cells of 1,5ft by 1,5 ft. Using LiDAR lasers, they mapped the height of every cell (8 height points per square meter!). The total dataset contains 135 billion points, effectively mapping the entire country. This is how that looks like in 3d! Because of this dataset, they've been able to find patterns that were hidden before, such as old medieval wall structures buried in a field. I've had the chance to see this data displayed in a large 3D theatre. The level of detail is absolutely breathtaking!
