Part of my story is here:
http://www.hypography.com/Article.cfm/30511
Yeah, I read a lot. In fact, I am a regular book reviewer on National radio in Norway, appearing about twice a month (my favorite was when I appeared live in studio to review the reappearance of Carl Sagan's Cosmos on DVD). Next Thursday I'll be appearing live again, talking about the fashion of cosmology books, as well as presenting a great, new one, by National Geographic, called "Beyond Earth: Measuring the Universe".
I also write about four reviews a month for the Norwegian web site,
http://www.forskning.no/, which is run by the National Science Council. I also write articles about using the web for educators at this site:
http://www.skolenettet.no/. (Here's a
sample - if you could only read Norwegian...
)
I review popular science books written in English because they are usually the most up-to-date, and because they are rarely translated into Norwegian (with the exception of the major names like Hawking) or because the translation appears very late. Most people in Norway can read English nowadays, anyway.
As for my background, I am a Bachelor of Music Performance from Augustana College, Rock Island, IL (class of '92). But I also have a degree in English literature, so I guess I am more qualified when it comes to books than when it comes to design...
The web design part happened as a coincidence - in 1995 a friend startet working as a link reviewer for the National phone company who wanted to build a giant web directory. When they decided to pull the plug after a year or so, two of us founded a company and startet to put together a web publishing soluition so we could continue what we were doing, in a way.
I quit that job in 1999, and had different jobs for a while until I founded a new company, this time with myself as the only employee. I work as a web freelancer, both building web sites and telling people how to plan their own, teach courses, write articlesetc. So I have picked up most of my design skills over the years, although I did take an evening class in typography and layout.
But my main hobby is reading and writing about science. Sadly there is seldom enough time for me to write about anything but books these days, and I write about them in Norwegian, and because of copyright reasons I can't just translate them into English and use them here at Hypgoraphy. My aim is to have more and more time to spend with Hypography so I can write much more than today!
