Sun, 16 Jul 2006
The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint
More of an essay than a book, this is the cure for the dreaded PowerPoint presentation disease that infects nearly all corporates and colleges. If you give presentations, you should read it. If you suffer through presentations, you should read it, if only to learn that there is another way.
Glasshouse
Charles Stross has written another fantastic post-Singularity novel in Glasshouse. If you liked Accelerando, you will like Glasshouse. If you did not like Accelerando, well, you may like Glasshouse. In any case, you should read Glasshouse. All hail the panopticon dystopia!
The Fountainhead
If anything, Ayn Rand needs less bits on the Internet written about her, not more. The Internet appears to be the last haven of Objectivists; at least, they are a lot louder here. If you haven’t read The Fountainhead, it’s probably worth reading; all of the roles are caricatures and there is little surprise as to what happens, but Rand isn’t talked about because of her writing style.
Set This House in Order
Set This House in Order is one of the more inventive books I’ve read in a while; a very interesting description of how multiple personality disorder may be like combined with a solid mystery plot. Lots of fun, totally worth reading.
Microserfs
There’s a problem with reading a book that was really hot about 10 years ago; there’s not much to say about it now. I read this when I was in college, and re-read it recently. It resonated more this time around; probably because parts of my life now match parts of the lives of the characters more. I still like it, even though as Hoss says about Coupland: “You’re going along, and everything is fine, and then WHAMMO! Apocalypse!”.
The Prophet
My mom gave me a copy of The Prophet that belonged to my grandmother a while ago. I have absolutely no idea why I wanted to read this book; I am assuming that it was jotted down as being on a list of books that inspired an author that I enjoyed, or someone mentioned to me in passing.
Knowing absolutely nothing about it, I discover that it is a book of poetry. You have to understand something about my relationship to poetry: I can’t stand it. One of my high school English teachers once believed that part of my soul was missing because I didn’t like the poetry we were reading, and the papers I wrote indicated as much. I have never met a poem that I didn’t find plenty of reason to avoid.
So, it says something that I actually read The Prophet; admittedly, most of my motivation was that the book was my grandmother’s, and I wanted to see something that she had read, but I did finish it. Unfortunately, I have no idea what that actually means: I don’t want to read it again. I don’t feel that I got a lot out of it. So it goes.
Grease Monkey
Grease Monkey was a nice change of pace from the graphic novels I’ve been reading lately. The art detail is very good, and the stories are not bad for young adult/coming of age fare. I’d give this to a niece or nephew in a second, and it was a fun read for me.
Practical Cryptography
Bruce Schneier and Niels Ferguson have performed a miracle: they’ve written a book that helps explain cryptography to people who currently use it. It doesn’t assume a cryptography background, and is at about the same level as a good O’Reilly Press book. Given that the issues dealt with in this book are everywhere (cryptographic algorithms are in your DVD player, every Internet service has authentication and data validation issues, etc), I believe that this book is in the same category as Code Complete; if you are involved with software, you probably will be better at your work after reading this book.