Happy USA Buy Nothing Day 2011, aka #OCCUPYXMAS. To celebrate, here's a report on a book I'm glad I checked out from the library: Zero Day. Maybe it's not quite accurate to say "I'm glad I checked out". What I really mean is "I'm glad I didn't pay for."
It's a thriller, written by someone who doesn't normally write fiction. The protagonists are a couple of computer security experts: a dashing computer forensicist and a member of CERT. You might think that would be enough to make me enjoy a book, even a thriller. But it wasn't. I guess you might suggest that someone read this book if they wanted to learn a bit computer security but can't seem to stay awake through news articles and blog posts. Uhm, if they're willing to put up with some Islamic terrorists who seem like, uhm, the sorts of characters that real-life Islamic non-terrorists would wince about. And some characters who are about as well fleshed-out as most thriller characters are. On second thought, computer-security-curious folks won't like this book, but boardgamers might; the characters are all cardboard.
Sorry, boardgamers; that was uncalled for. I'll go back to writing up that puzzlehunt report now.
