So I dropped off my girls at John Hay elementary school on the top of Queen Anne hill this morning, tuned in my favorite radio show and drove through the light rain to my office in Ballard. Steve Scher was talking about robots, a topic close to my heart after years of covering the tech scene in Japan. And the fellow explaining to Steve how Japan relates to its robots was informative and funny, making jokes about Will Smith and I Robot while also explaining why Takadanobaba Station plays the Astroboy theme song when trains pull in.

Well it turns out that one of my favorite contributors from my J@pan Inc days was the man on the radio. Tim Hornyak has a new book and it sounds great: Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots from Kodansha International.

Tim wrote some humorous and informative pieces for me during my tenure at J@pan Inc. He interviewed gadget guru Kenji Kawakami of chindogu fame a couple of times and did a cover story on the bizarre Doctor Nakamats. Can't wait to read his book — he's got that Bill Bryson touch of lacing his writing with interesting facts and anecdotes. So, Tim, if you're reading, congrats!