Books and a Machine

After Christmas I ordered a few books from Barnes and Noble. I had a few gift cards on my desk and I was waiting for their Barnes and Noble Classics buy 2 get the 3rd free sale. This is my haul of books.


In case you cannot read all the titles, they are The Complete Sherlock Holmes in two volumes, The Conscience of a Conservative, Frankenstein, Machine of Death, Nicomachean Ethics, This Side of Paradise, and Enchiridion. I am also excited by this picture because my desk is clear for the first time in a long time.

Of the 8 books I bought, their average length is 336 pages and average time since publication is 595 years. To say that another way, the average book was published in 1416.

My only problem now is reading them. They have to contend with dozens of other books in my house as well as any of three library systems I have easy access to. However, I have read one of these books already.

Machine of Death
This book first came up when it was read by Amanda's still unnamed book club. The book is a collection of short stories built around a common idea. There is a machine that can determine a person's cause of death by analyzing a blood sample. The machine is always right, even when people try to outsmart it. However, some of the predictions are vague or open to interpretation. For example, "old age" could mean dying when you are old of natural causes or being killed by an old person.

All of the stories are by different people and have different takes on the machine. Each story also has an illustration to go with it. The book was originally born out of an idea from an online comic and has contributions from many online people. It is even available to download for free at machineofdeath.net.

I enjoyed it and would highly recommend you check it out.