Random Ruminations: Books

Lord of Light

Posted Mon Aug 22, 2011 in Books

Lord of Light One of my goals for this year (2011) is to read more than I did lasts year. However, I have only been partly successful in that. When my world fell apart the beginning of April, much of what I planned for this year fell aside as I dealt with Wife’s cancer.

Certainly she had plenty to deal with, being the one sick. But something I know about myself is that I find it hard to watch those I care about suffer. Suffering is something my Wife understands. After months of feeling poorly and not knowing why, she was finally able to name the beast. A doctor finally acknowledged her illness and a treatment plan was developed and executed. That process ends the end of September, followed by another round of waiting.

In the meantime, I watch as they poison Wife intentionally, to kill the cells that would kill her if left unchecked. It’s not an easy thing to go through or to watch. So, we each suffer in our own way — Wife physically; me emotionally. Enough of that, though. There be monsters there.

I began reading again a month or two ago. I decided I wanted to spend some time with words. I gave up World of Warcraft months ago and need something to spend some of that time on. My dog requires some time and attention (a very good thing) and my mind needs some stimulation other than playing around on the ‘net.

Each week a Barnes & Noble e-newsletter arrives. In each one there is an interview with a person-of-note who lists a few books they consider influential. One of them mentioned Roger Zelazny, a blast from the past. In particular, the book was Lord of Light. That was a title I don’t think I’ve read.

I found a copy at the Douglas County Library, checked it out, and got started. It’s based on a Hindu mythos, which is not familiar to me. The first part of the book was a challenge to slog through, but I maintained my stamina and about a third of the way through the story things began to make sense. There are a couple of flashbacks that lost me for a bit, but I figured out what was going on and it was a clever technique to brings parts of the story together.

I finished the book yesterday and am glad I read it. It’s some of science fiction’s best from one of the elder gods of the genre’s writers. Zelazny had wit and skill with words. I’m glad I stuck through the tough parts and read the book. I could stand to read more of his work, and I just might.

I need to read more to replenish my own well of words. I am writing a lot these days, but the words are going into my journals and not here. It seems like the right thing to do for the moment.

But, I want to put some words here. So, I might have to discipline myself to write something substantive at least once each week. I know I can tell lots of dog stories, because my dog is a very funny girl. She’s sleeping by my feet as I write and will soon pester me to go to bed.

Maybe there are some other words rattling around in my head as well. We’ll see…

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Kindle 3 Ereader

Posted Sat Jan 15, 2011 in Books

Last week I bought a Kindle 3 (WiFi) ereader. SiL’s brother brought his to Lubbock over the holiday and I had a chance to play with it. What started me was the screen contrast. The most recent e-ink displays are eye-popping for text. (Low-density graphics look decent too.)

I know I jumped through many hoops rationalizing my purchase of a nook a year or so ago. After my experience with the poor contrast of the Sony ereader (because of the touch screen), I bought a nook because of the much-better display. I avoided the Kindle because it was (essentially) tied to the Amazon store. I like the idea of open source standards, like epub (even if it doesn’t completely support what I want to accomplish).

All that is fine. But things change (life is a dynamic thing). I find myself buying materials from Amazon more frequently than I expected. The development of Calibre means that conversion between Kindle (essentially mobi) and nook (epub) formats is not difficult (providing you remove the DRM from purchased and downloaded files). The Kindle is lighter and has a better screen. My iPad will display anything, although the iPad is not a preferred reading platform (at least not for long periods of time).

So I find myself using the Kindle much more than that nook. There are a few books that I have not been able to remove the DRM. I haven’t tried that hard, but using the drag-and-drop tool I downloaded isn’t work. The DRM appears to be removed, but the file won’t reconstitute after removing that DRM. It’s not that big of a deal, at least not to me. The files are available on the Barnes iPad software and that’s good enough.

I’m committed to using a ereader whenever possible. The only books I want to buy and store are those that are professional references. They won’t be available for awhile — not until the technical details are worked out for displaying mathematics on ereaders without resorting to graphics kludges. That might mean a combination of epub and MathML (epub is basic HTML), or it might mean new software for the devices that supports some form of XML. There might be another approach (short of PDF — <blech>), but so far I haven’t seen any reports describing that.

Most of the things I’m reading are now on my Kindle. I’m working my way through Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matt Crawford and it’s a recommended read if you’re interested in work/education philosophy. Crawford is an interesting man and I appreciate the way his mind works. He writes pretty well for a motorcycle mechanic. <grinning>

The Kindle will go with me when I head for DC for the annual Transportation Research Board conference. I’ll have some downtime to read (and write) in between sessions and committee meetings. The iPad will also go (along with an external keyboard), but no computer. The nook will also stay home.

Now I think I’ll go get dressed and take Wife to breakfast. I think this is the first weekend we didn’t have something to do in awhile.

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Johnny Bunko

Posted Mon May 31, 2010 in Books

I made a trip to the Carson City Library on Saturday. One of the books I was looking for was The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, by Daniel Pink. It was a book recommended by a couple of sources I regularly read, David Allen and Lifehackers.

It’s a manga. That’s right — it’s a comic book written in Japanese style. I really like it because it is fun and it’s on the mark. The subtitle is The last career guide you’ll ever need. I believe that could be true, at least for me.

There are six principles to learn from the book:

There is no plan.
Think strengths, not weaknesses.
It’s not about you.
Persistence beats talent.
Make excellent mistakes.
Leave an imprint.

To find the meaning of the six principles, you’ll have to read the book. Go buy a copy, or borrow one from the library. You can read it in a half-hour, then re-read it. It’s fun and it’s good.

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Reading List — March 2010

Posted Tue Mar 9, 2010 in Books

I’m working my way through a few books this month. One of the things I decided to do differently this year is to develop a directed reading list. One of my heroes is Tim Schmidt. He got me started thinking about the books I read (or am not reading) because of a list he posted on his website.

I finished Dale Carnegie’s How to win friends and influence people a few weeks ago. I finished Jim Rohn’s 7 strategies for wealth & happiness a couple of weeks ago (and am still working on my notes for that book). I’m currently reading Napolean Hill’s Think and grow rich and should finish that next week.

I started building a list this morning during my early thinking time. I’ve been cleaning out my virtual closet (as well as my physical closet), filing, organizing, and thinking. A few other books came across my (virtual) desk because of my reading of Lifehacker and the GTD mailing list.

I think I’ll add David Allen’s Making it all work as my next read (after Hill’s book). In the meantime, I’ll continue formalizing my reading list. I might even have a few thoughts to share on what I learn.

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Home from Monterey

Posted Sun Feb 28, 2010 in Bloggish

I should have written last night, but did not. Well, at least I didn’t write here — I posted a note on Facebook that we were home. But it didn’t go much beyond that… well, the writing didn’t.

After the long trip home and the awfully-long week, I had little energy to burn. So, I grabbed my (dead-tree) book and sat in the living room with Wife and finished the book.

I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was reading some Stephen Hunter. He’s a retired Washington Post writer who took up fiction a couple of decades ago. He’s also knowledgeable of firearms, so one of his claims to fame is that the use of firearms (and their effects) are “accurately” depicted in his stories. I believe this assertion to be true. That is, I find nothing in his accounts that is counter to my understanding of the physics of firearms. I have this “thing” about physics.

I finished Dirty White Boys last night. Although Bob Lee Swagger (the sniper) is not featured in the story, there is a mention of his father in the book that provides a connection later used by Hunter (if what I read online is correct) in developing the Swagger character. So, I decided to read this book before the next in the Swagger saga.

This is the first “crime story” book I can recall reading. It’s not really my cup of tea, although I can say that I’m satisfied-enough that I read it… and I can say the story was sufficiently compelling to keep me engaged. I can say I will not run out and start buying crime-story fiction. It was OK, but not what I’ll routinely read. The story line was interesting and the characters were multi-dimensional so the craft was workmanlike. Hunter is a good writer.

That said, I wasn’t fully-engaged. Maybe I’m just old, or maybe I’m no longer going to be satisfied with much fiction, but I kept analyzing the plot line, seeing directions it could go and wondering which direction the author would take the story. There were a few twists and turns along the way and that was fun. But, in the end the hero wins and the villain doesn’t and that’s pretty much the formula, right?

Book finished, I took my evening medications and hit the rack. After the day’s drive, I was tired and ready to sleep in my own bed. I need to clean up a few more images from the trip and put together a trip report. It was an “interesting” trip, I can say that.

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Dale Carnegie HTWFAIP

Posted Mon Feb 8, 2010 in Books

I recently finished Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. The book was written nearly a century ago and went through any number of editions. It is an excellent book and one I wish I read many years ago. What can I say besides I’m a late-bloomer.

The book is a combination of many stories (anecdotes) that illustrate Carnegie’s theses. He did an excellent job of enumerating those principles and then providing a heuristic argument for how they work when dealing with people.

My expectation is that they will not work all the time. But, I think what they will do is set up the situation to be cordial and professional and provide the framework for reaching a conclusion where every participate takes away something they want or need. The side benefit is that they will all leave as pleased with the outcome as they can be.

I prepared a summary of the 31 principles. I printed a couple of copies and posted one in the back of my reporter’s notepad (Moleskine squared small size) and another on the back inside cover of my journal (Moleskine plain regular size). A copy of the PDF is posted (carnegie-win-friends.pdf) on my website for download. Use the summary if it helps you.

But, you will need the book to understand how the principles work. Get yourself a copy and read it. It’s good.

Maybe I’ll make an image of the back of my reporter’s notebook and post it for this entry before the entry posts.

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Fence-Sitting

Posted Mon Oct 20, 2008 in Hardware

I’ve been waffling about e-readers for a couple of months now. I already wrote a bit about this here and here. Beyond those entries (and one is just a link), I have been thinking about this quite a lot. So, excuse me while I ruminate a bit here in this bit of web-space.

Rob Beschizza has a comparison of the Sony and Kindle. He had some of his initial facts wrong, but commenters fixed that problem for him.

There is a website of interest: www.mobileread.com/forums/. There’s a lot of interesting discussion there. I like the discussion of the textbook torrent that was recently shut down (here). It’s well worth the read because textbooks remain an issue and I’m concerned about intellectual property (having some of that material of my own).

The Sony eBook Store offers some insight into what is available for that device. I really think the Sony looks better. I handled a PRS-505 a few weeks ago and it was impressive. However, it doesn’t have the access to materials that the Kindle has through Amazon. That is the rub.

O’Reilly offers a lot of material in PDF form. However, their Safari service is not Kindle capable. Nonetheless, if you search through Tim O’Reilly’s articles for “Kindle” you find the device is on their radar screen. An e-reader for me must have access to O’Reilly books if it’s to be useful, because I want my O’Reilly library on the device.

I really, really want the ability to carry several books with me all the time. An e-reader is the way to do that (and save my back). However, like the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD warz, the e-reader warz do not seem to have straightened out. Maybe I need to be patient, but I don’t want to collect a lot of new paper books, unless I have a specific need for hard copy.

OK, more random walking. There is a comparison of second generation e-readers assembled by folks at MobileRead, here. There are more devices out there than I thought. I need to do more research.

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