What am I reading?

I figured I would keep track of some of the things I am reading. I like any good programming book. As for recreational reading, I like science fiction and satire (Arthur C. Clarke, Vonnegut, H.G. Wells), but I will read pretty much anything that I can get my hands on.

Technical Reading

  • The Mythical Man Month This comes with high reviews from many programming reading lists that I have seen. Almost every list of developer reading seems to have this near the top.
  • JavaScript: The Good Parts I usually prefer to read language agnostic books, because many times those that are about a particular language end up being technical guides or explanations of specific tricks. This allows them to avoid talking about development in general, which is a topic I am more interested in. I can always use the Internet to find specifics when I get into a particular problem. Although this book had its share of Javascript tricks, it did a good job of explaining the good, bad, and ugly parts of the language. It emphasizes being self controlled and only using the good portions (and offers a tool to do so – JSLint.

Recreational Reading

  • Sirens Of Titan This may be the fastest I have read a Vonnegut novel. Not that it is his shortest, in fact at 319 pages it is actually longer than others.
  • Gob Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
  • Cat’s Cradle
  • Candide: Or Optimism I really appreciate this book – not just because of the blasphemy, hostility, and pessimism – because it was fun to read. It reads like a really messed up children’s book, where it is hard to keep track of all the tragedies that happen to the characters in each chapter. I also liked the desciptive chapter titles, like How Candide Was Brought Up in a Magnificent Castle and How He Was Driven Thence, and What Happened to Our Two Travelers with Two Girls, Two Monkeys, and the Savages, Called Oreillons. One part that is kind of representative of the writing style is a scene where Candide refuses to get off of a ship in England. On land, there was an admiral who just fought a battle with the French stood blindfolded across from four soldiers who each “shot three bullets into his skull, with all the composure imaginable”.
    “And pray why do you put your admiral to death?” “Because he did not put a sufficient number of his fellow creatures to death. You must know, he had an engagement with a French admiral, and it has been proved against him that he was not near enough to his antagonist.” “But,” replied Candide, “the French admiral must have been as far from him.” “There is no doubt of that; but in this country it is found requisite, now and then, to put an admiral to death, in order to encourage the others to fight.”
  • Player Piano I just finished reading Mother Night, a couple weeks before that was Timequake, right before that was Cat’s Cradle, and before that one was Slaughterhouse Five. I even have a couple more to read once I finish this one. I’m on pace to read all of his novels by the end of the year. This one is a kind of sci-fi dystopian story where machines automate almost all labor. It is Vonnegut’s first novel.
  • Mother Night I wrote a review of this book in a different post.
  • Slaughterhouse-Five