Who is The Learned Turtle?

The Learned Turtle is the evolution of a nickname which I was given over twenty years ago by a work friend, and it has stuck with me ever since. It’s now a pseudonym behind which I indulge my book geekery.

I’m 47 years old, born and bred in New Zealand and I currently call the beautiful little city of Christchurch my home. I’m a professional aircraft maintenance engineer, my wife is a nurse and I have three sons along with a modest obsession with motorcycles.

Whenever I can fit it in around the scramble of everyday life, I love to read books, talk about them and review them. Reading is my favourite escape, a crucial element of my “sanity maintenance” regime and the preferred way to nourish my mind.

My reading varies in flavour but in recent years I’ve found myself enjoying a lot of science fiction. I also like to read historical and military-themed books, both fiction and non-fiction, as well as biographical books about people who interest me. The occasional thriller and action-adventure will find it’s way onto my list as well.

When I review, I rate books by scoring them in three basic categories and the final score is simply the average. The categories are meant to apply to both fiction and non-fiction:

Concept – The idea of the book or story, how well the theme, plot or subject matter captured my attention.
Delivery – Writing style, layout, presentation and how this helped or hindered the reading experience. Even a book that I didn’t really enjoy could still score high here.
Entertainment – Did I get entertained or entranced while reading it? Was I inspired, educated or edified? This is my favourite category.

I haven’t the faintest idea about the technicalities of sentence construction or meter or such things, nor do I particularly care. There are many great reviewers who do understand the subtleties of language and will judge a book accordingly. All I know is what I think is a good story told well, and the whole idea is that hopefully others will find my simple reviews helpful in some way.

In addition to book reviews and things about reading, you may see links to various things which have caught my eye. I sometimes like to delve into the occasional speculative idea or theory.

Thanks for indulging me and if you have any comments or questions please get in touch using the Contact form in the right sidebar. I'd love to hear from you.

See you around:-)

Lester

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