Vulcanears.com is a (not so) new book review site. A while back I was typing up a review of a good book I’d just read and I thought, why not do that for anything good I read and make it available online? Unfortunately that turned out to be a bit more time-consuming than expected, so updates never happened as frequently as I liked.

Recently I decided to port the site over to WordPress; eventually I’ll build a custom theme for it. My reviews have also appeared in such locations as the Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Physics and SIG-ACT Journal.

Of late I’ve been receiving free review copies of new books from O’Reilly; this is true of a number of the science fiction books as well.  I’ve gotten tired of putting a disclaimer on half my reviews, so please assume (although it’s not actually true) that I got a free copy of everything I’m reviewing. Rest assured that this doesn’t affect the content; if the book sucks, I’ll say so! The ratings on this site tend to be fairly high, because I generally don’t bother reading things that don’t interest me, but that’s not always the case; see, for example, my review of iPod: The Missing Manual. Oddly enough, books that I got for free are more likely to get a negative review, since otherwise I wouldn’t bother to finish reading and review a book that I wasn’t enjoying!

Note that dates on reviews prior to 8/10/2010 are not correct; my older designs did not include dates, and I didn’t bother trying to find them when I switched over to WordPress. Dates after 8/10 (as well as the dates on all comments) should be correct.

Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact me with the form below. Note that I don’t accept all reviews; if I’m not interested in the book, I’ll turn you down. Nothing personal!

After being asked: yes, I will consider publishing book reviews written by others; contact me using the form. I reserve the right to decline any review for any reason whatsoever; if it’s accepted, you’ll get a credit and a link to your website.