Lies My Teacher Told Me

This is a book that comes highly recommended by several people as far as exposing revisionist historical trends. I don't necessarily agree with some of the author's Lincoln-related fawning or Civil War interpretations, but I think we can leave that as it stands.

Neuromancer

This is the cyberpunk book that started it all, or at least that's what people say. It is rather dark and full of cool technology, but as to whether it was the first, I couldn't really say. Nevertheless, it is a good read. If you enjoy cyberpunk at all, take it for a spin.

The Difference Engine

This book is by two authors. Two well known science fiction writers. It was pretty good. The first 2/3rds of the book are fun, but it kind of tapers off on a tangent at the end. Rather good up until that point, though. So if you can put up with weird endings, give it a shot. Otherwise keep your money.

The Color of Magic

This was Terry Pratchett's first Discworld novel. It's rather good. He has quite an enjoyable sense of humor and all the themes of his work tend to translate to the real world if you're paying close enough attention.

Virtual Light

I've tried to start reading this book three times now. I always get interrupted, or forget it when I'm leaving for a flight, etc. What I have read of it is good, so far.

One of the things I like about cyberpunk books is that the characters are never helpless. They can always figure out how to exist no matter what type of situation they're in, as long as they happen to be alive. This is an interesting book about a future world where hackers live as gods (interesting, although not the main thrust of the book) and the mafia can do what it wants to do because the police are in on it all of the time. Prejudice, technology, romance, and a dog eat dog future make this a worthwhile read.

Thud!

Terry Pratchett is a rather well-known author. I've never read any of his stuff. Now I can no longer say that. Thud! is a fun book written with a fair bit of eccentricity with some interesting lessons to be learned, both by the characters (and races) involved, as well as a nice beginning to the many Terry Pratchett books I'll be reading.

With an enjoyable mix of the absurd and the it-could-happen (minus the ogres, I guess), this is definitely a good read, funny and insightful at the same time.

Tyrannosaur Canyon

This book caught my eye in an airport bookstore. It looked just exciting enough to keep me awake, and it was! This book is an amusing mix of geology, the perils of tenure, the CIA, Delta Force, and action/adventure. The premise is fun, and the characters are well done. Recommended for a bit of fun.

Citizen of the Galaxy

This is the first Robert Heinlein book I've read. It comes recommended by an email list I'm a member of. Well, not the book specifically, mostly just the author in general. It's a fun book, set in a future where interstellar travel is commonplace. The character progression is set up quite like it would be in a video game, actually, and this book would make a fun video game. More after I finish it!

This book was quite the planet-hopper. It changes gears a few times, and although the end is satisfying, it's not the most fun or interesting part of the book. All in all, a good book, though.

The Real Lincoln

A book that is sure to be extremely controversial, The Real Lincoln touches on some of the most taboo issues of our time, and re-examines Lincoln as one of the great presidents of the United States, stripping away the mythology that has accumulated over the years.

King of the Vagabonds

This is the second book in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. Except not really. It's the second part of the first book re-released as a Mass Market Paperback. The first full edition is called Quicksilver and the second full edition is called The Confusion. However, The Confusion is also labelled the second book in The Baroque Cycle... It took me and the guy I finally asked in Barnes and Noble a while to figure that out. I think I actually figured it out before he did. Ha HA! Small victories.

Right, the book. It was an exciting read. Half-Cocked Jack definitely stole the show with his insane (sometimes, literally) antics. There's a good deal of historical intrigue with the main characters weaved into it, and I'm not enough of a historian to tell where he got it wrong, although there is a rather comprehensive Dramatis Personae listing at the back, if you're bored enough to read it. I wasn't. It kept me entertained and kept me chuckling. Now that's a good book.

Voice of the Whirlwind

Comes highly recommended by a friend as "the best cyberpunk book evar". It is a really good book. In a future world full of highly dynamic nation-state entities, aliens, human clones, interstellar space travel, and high-tech espionage, the man Steward must find his place in the world, again. This is a really fun journey through an alternate future which I hope never comes to pass, for many reasons. This book is out of print, but I was able to find it used from Powell's, and it appears to be generally available. If you can find a copy or borrow mine, you should give it a whirl.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

This was a quick read. My first Philip K. Dick novel. The basis for Blade Runner, which I've only seen once. I think the book does a better job of making you identify with the characters, incidentally. Recommended (and loaned) to me by Brian the phycist.

I think the best way to describe Dick's style of writing is how the guy who wrote the intro does (paraphrased): "Mr. Dick takes a premise that another author would build a novel around and mentions it in passing..."

Definitely a fun book. Give it a whirl.

Another Roadside Attraction

This is a bizarre book. I'm enjoying it.

It was pretty silly, and I'm not really sure what I took away from it... It's described as "promiscuous hippie chick philosophy" in one of the Amazon reviews, and that's definitely one way to describe it, but it's also quite a bit of bashing the crap out of religion and government authority figures.

I liked the characters, they were all pretty cool, but I found myself caring more about what happened to some of the less main characters than the sort of obnoxiously funny main ones. All in all a fun read.

The Kite Runner

This is a very raw book. Any book played out against a backdrop of war and betrayal will deal with heavy issues, but this book is a really heavy book.

I thought it was really enlightening to hear the voices of different types of people in Afghanistan through this book than we in America usually hear through the mainstream news media, etc. Racism is everywhere, religion twisted to justify the ends and desires of certain people is everywhere, but there are also those people everywhere who challenge these specific types of deliberate ignorance and do their part to make their little corner of the globe a more tolerant and just place.

There are so many stories of horrible betrayal, great courage, and shades of redemption in this book. It is a very touching slice of life in Afghanistan. Recommended for people who like their truth raw and uncut.

The Diamond Age

This book is about nanotechnology, the education of little girls, and subversion (no, not the version control software). It's quite entertaining.

And at the same time, it's a thought-provoking look at the future. As in Snow Crash, the world is divided up in ways that seem rather strange, not in countries, but divided on idealogical and racial boundaries. The characters are very well developed, the story is intriguing, and the details seem well thought out across the board. Definitely recommended for anyone who has a clue what nanotechnology is or likes a good cyberpunk action story.

Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

This book is the memoirs of Dave Eggers. It's about his parents dying and him and his siblings dealing with that. Somehow it manages to keep a mostly lighthearted tone throughout. I'm enjoying this book.

(Afterwards) It's a very real story. Throughout the book, there are these matter-of-fact statements that, I assume, come directly from thoughts or feelings and are very easy to identify with. I think my favorite idea from the book is how he's special and owed and deserves all sorts of things. I think every child feels that way, and it seems healthy to look back and admit that and think about why that was and perhaps still is.

Quicksilver

This book had a pretty slow start, but it's picking up now. It's set in the past, with characters that have the same surnames as the characters from Cryptonomicon. It's a pretty nerdy book, with some of the main characters being Isaac Newton and Leibnitz. Religion, sex, pirates, war, kings looting banks, and an epic sea battle round out this book nicely if you can get past the slooooow beginning.

Hackers and Painters

This is a collection of Paul Grahm's essays, in addition to some other stuff probably not found on his website. It's pretty good so far, I really enjoyed the first chapter which basically answers why Nerds are unpopular. Cool (except not).

This was a good read, but can get a bit preachy in places.

Blood and Gold

The story of the vampire Marius. A good story, but to get the full effect, I would recommend reading some of the other books in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles first. This book has lots of one of my favorite things about Anne Rice's writing, which is historical contrast between different periods of time and places. It's an extremely engaging book, and left me wanting to know more about the characters whose backstories we don't know very much of. To summarize, a must-read for Anne Rice fans, and recommended after reading some other works if you haven't read her other work.

Freakonomics

This was a great book. If the attitude of the authors of this book were more widespread, the human race would make leaps and bounds of progress towards a perfect society. Ok, less fellatio. This book employs very scientific methods, mostly economic, to tackle some very difficult (to quantify) questions. The language is clear, the points are interesting, and it was a quick read. Definitely recommended.

Pride and Prejudice

This book is apparently a classic. Awesome. It's pretty funny so far, but the prose is a bit opaque. I'm slowly absorbing and enjoying it, though.

Pandora

This book should be a nice change after reading The Vampire Armand. Less hot vampire on pre-pubescent action. (Time passes, as I read the book...) And it was. Pandora is (obviously) a woman, so there wasn't any man-boy pedophilia, but there was one gay male character, as there always is in any Anne Rice book. He didn't get to get it on, though. Too bad for him.

This book was an interesting foray into ancient Rome and then Antioch, where Pandora is at first a Roman Senator's daughter and then a fugitive, and also a quick glimpse or two into some more ancient vampire history. After reading this, I'm really looking forward to Blood & Gold, which is Marius' story. Although this book is a decent read by itself, like The Vampire Armand, it's so much better if you've read at least the first couple books in The Vampire Chronicles. This book felt kind of rushed, to be honest, and I was left wanting more detail about, for instance, what happend between her and the "fierce Asian vampire" that she travelled with for a while who, I'm guessing, is the same one that shows up as associated with Pandora in Queen of the Damned. A fun read, not one of her best, but still good.

The Vampire Armand

I'm about to start this book. Here's an excerpt from the bn.com review:

With The Vampire Armand, Rice has now written what may be her most lush and moving novel. By concentrating solely on Armand, the eternal teenager with the wisdom of the ages, she has excavated one of the most fascinating characters in the literature of dark fantasy. Armand first appeared in Interview with the Vampire, as the emotional center of the frenzied Parisian vampires whom Louis encounters on his search for both his supernatural kin and his own lost soul. Armand was even then one of the intriguing ones, a child-man who understood Louis's dilemma but had given himself over to a period of debauchery and sadism. But later, in Rice's Memnoch the Devil, which often read — delightfully so — as Rice's stab at understanding a religious model of the universe, Armand took on a supplicant's role beneath the Vampire Lestat who sought the ultimate knowledge of the Divine.

Now Anne Rice treats us to the life and times of Armand, from his origins onward. The conceit here is the same as in Pandora. David Talbot, the psychic detective member of the Talamasca, wants to write Armand's tale down so others will know his legacy.

As much as I usually like Anne Rice, this book has some creepy gay pedophile vampire shit in it. I finished the book, but the first couple chapters really weirded me out. So much so that I almost stopped reading it. Once the LITTLE BOY wasn't human any more (he gets turned into a vampire, in case you didn't read the title), there is less disturbing crap, and the book actually turns out to be pretty cool. This book is not recommended if you haven't read the other ones in The Vampire Chronicles, and you can probably skip it if you don't feel like subjecting yourself to a little boy getting sucked off by a vampire. So there you have it. I decided to read a book about a lady vampire next, because then even if she has some gay experiences before she turns into a bloodsucker, there will be 4 boobs, and I don't have any of those, so it's less weird. I'm going to go take a shower now.

Fermat's Enigma

Yay math. This is a book about mathematics and one of the hardest mathematical problems to date, Fermat's Last Theorem, and the people who have contributed to its solution. While you don't have to know much math to understand what's going on in this book, it certainly helps. The author explains some of the less complicated concepts inline, and leaves the more involved stuff to appendixes. I enjoyed this book because I am a geek. I also enjoyed it because one of my favorite classes in college was CMSC 150: Discrete Math With Applications. The people described in this book are also interesting, from Pythagoras to Andrew Wiles, the 20th-century mathematical hermit who finally was able to prove the theorem.

As a footnote, one of the more interesting (to me) tidbits in the book was that Aristotle argued against the concept of zero, "the number zero should be outlawed because it disrupted the consistency of the other numbers—dividing any ordinary number by zero led to an incomprehensible result" (infinity). (quote is from the book, not directly from Aristotle)

The Tale of the Body Thief

This book is Anne Rice's 4th installment of The Vampire Chronicles. I read them somewhat out of order, having finished Memnoch the Devil (#5) before this one. One thing that I like about Rice's books is that she makes a valiant effort to make her books work by themselves, without having read any of the others in the series. While you obviously don't the full experience, she does a decent job of this.

Anyway, I enjoyed this book. It's quite a different type of story from the ones before it. The basic premise is that a human is able to switch bodies with a vampire. It's quite an amusing account on the vampire's end, experiencing everything from a human's perspective again.

I feel like I've said what I'm about to say several times, so I might as well get it in writing. I enjoy Anne Rice's writing about vampires for different reasons perhaps than stereotypical vampire fanboys. Her stories span long periods of time and also describe complex interaction between characters with unique perspectives. The stories are engaging too, but I really enjoy the landscape behind the actual story at least as much as, if not more than the story itself.

Summary? Recommended.

Harry Potter (#6) and the Half-Blood Prince

J.K. Rowling's sixth book is finished and published. People everywhere are scrambling for a copy, although Target still had about 20 copies when I checked (I ordered mine online from bn.com).

Just like in the last one, this book is thinly veiled social commentary. I'm still reading, but it's completely obvious that Rowling is going to address "freedom vs. security" in this book. Another thing I'm sort of disappointed about is that she seems to be telegraphing a lot of the plot in advance. Or maybe I'm just really smart and pick up on things that other people don't. I'm enjoying the book so far, even though I'm picking it apart at the same time.

We the People

Thom Hartmann, the acclaimed author of Unequal Protection and The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, tells a compelling story -- of how a government of, by, and for the people has been replaced by corporate domination. Through brilliant analysis and imaginative illustrations, this fully graphic book illuminates the central dynamics of American politics. Some of Hartmann’s op-ed pieces from CommonDreams.org have been turned into a 216-page comic book...for adults and older teenagers. The illustrations really open up the content -- the profound, existing dangers and several critical steps for reversing course. The thrust of the book is towards creating a grassroots progressive movement and transforming the Democratic Party. It lays out why the threats to democracy are so great and the stakes so high, as “America faces its greatest challenge since the Civil War.”

This book has some great points in places. I completely agree with the author's assertion that we need to get rid of corporate personhood, which is really the main thrust of the book. I also agree that winning a state election shouldn't be an all-or-nothing thing, the electoral votes should be divided up according to the vote split. I however vigorously disagree with the idea that healthcare, transportation infrastructure, septic systems and education are part of "the Commons, ... the necessities and commonalities of life".

The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight

While everything appears to be collapsing around us - ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, the end of cheap oil, water shortages, global famine, wars - we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children's children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio's web movie Global Warning, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture's blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem. Thom Hartmann's book, originally published in 1998, has become one of the fundamental handbooks of the environmental activist movement. Now, with updated material and a focus on political activism and its effect on corporate behavior, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight helps us understand - and heal - our relationship to the world, to each other, and to our natural resources.

I've been doing a bit of reading about Peak Oil recently, and this book has a nice summary of that problem, along with several other issues facing the world today. It's quite a depressing book so far, but I've heard that it ends on a high (relatively) note.

I read this from time to time, but mostly it sits in my car. I'll finish it eventually, but I'm going to mark it as read to get it off the front page for now.

Maestro

Maestro is not a biography of Greenspan so much as a history of the economy and markets during the period of his stewardship. The book's tentative working title was Boom, and the book focuses on how Greenspan engineered the great U.S. economic resurgence of the 1990s. In researching his book, Woodward interviewed not only Greenspan but nearly every important member of Washington's economic elite. The testimonies of people like Alice Rivlin, Robert Rubin, and Lawrence Summers lend weight to his analyses. And though Woodward is a journalist, not an economist, he has a strong grasp of economic theory and terminology. This proves both a strength and a weakness, as certain passages are often hard to understand, even for someone who has studied economics. However, for the most part, Woodward is very good at translating economic jargon into clear journalistic prose.

This book was very boring. I think the most important thing I took away from it is that our economic forecasting model in the US is piss-poor and most economists are practicing a type of science that Isaac Asimov called psychohistory, which isn't very comforting, considering that if you go by by Asimov's version at least, the mere fact that I can tell that is a very bad thing. USA! USA! *sigh*

Radioactive Boy Scout

"Growing up in suburban Detroit, David Hahn was fascinated by science, and his basement experiments - building homemade fireworks, brewing moonshine, and concocting his own self-tanning lotion - were more ambitious than those of other boys. While working on his Atomic Energy badge for the Boy Scouts, David's obsessive attention turned to nuclear energy. Throwing caution to the wind, he plunged into a new project: building a nuclear breeder reactor in his backyard garden shed." In The Radioactive Boy Scout, veteran journalist Ken Silverstein re-creates in brilliant detail the months of David's improbable nuclear quest. Posing as a physics professor, David solicited information on reactor design from the U.S. government and from industry experts. (Ironically, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was his number one source of information.) Scavenging antiques stores and junkyards for old-fashioned smoke detectors and gas lanterns - both of which contain small amounts of radioactive material - and following blueprints he found in an outdated physics textbook, David cobbled together a crude device that threw off toxic levels of radiation. His unsanctioned and wholly unsupervised project finally sparked an environmental catastrophe that put his town's forty thousand residents at risk and caused the EPA to shut down his lab and bury it at a radioactive dumpsite in Utah.

The first couple chapters of this book were kind of partisan. I don't remember why, but it was kind of annoying. The author really beats up the kid's parents too. But it was an informative read, about nuclear stuff and radioactive crap and all that, if you're into that sort of thing. Yay nerds!

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"

Richard Feynman was a great scientist, a winner of the Nobel Prize, remembered equally for his laboratory work on liquid helium and his wonderful, unquenchable vitality and sense of humor. His lighthearted approach to life made his lectures a delight and his scientific accomplishments all the more intriguing. Feynman was interested in everything. He painted, traded ideas with Einstein and Bohr, calculated odds with Nick the Greek, accompanied ballet on the bongos. Here is Feynman's astonishing life story -- a combustible mixture of high intelligence, unlimited curiosity, eternal skepticism, and raging chutzpah.

This book was great. I read it in a couple sittings and enjoyed every story. I think my favorite was the story about how he was the only person with the balls to testify about how the local titty bar was a good thing to have in the community. Amusing reading.

Deception Point

This is the most recent Dan Brown book I've read. What I've said about his writing in the past holds true for this book too. While definitely an interesting read, this book used exactly the same plot devices as in his THREE OTHER BOOKS. So be prepared to anticipate every single plot twist in the book.

The subject material is interesting, though, and Mr. Brown would make an excellent screenwriter. He has a talent for creating intriguing atmospheres and characters that you care about, even if only just enough to want to read the next page. If I had to recommend one Dan Brown book right now, it would be Angels & Demons, since everyone's got papacy on the brain, and that book has quite a bit of interesting info about that whole thing.

The One Minute Bureaucrat

My Uncle Jim wrote this book a couple years ago. It's a quick read; I read the whole thing while I was sitting in a Starbucks in Whistler in January 2004. I remember enjoying it, but I don't remember any specifics, so I'm re-reading it right now.

He also self-published another (Bush Almighty! An Extraterrestrial Critique) last year that I just found out about while trying to link to the publisher of the first one without going through Amazon... I ordered my copy by sending a $15 check directly to the publisher. I just had to dig through a crapton of old check copies to get that number. You're welcome.

The snail mail address for the publisher of this book is:

Serendipity
Suite 530
37 Store Street
Bloomsbury
London

The Vampire Chronicles

This book is a collection of the first three books in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles: Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and The Queen of the Damned. Although these books are about vampires, there are a lot of things about them that are completely unrelated to blood-sucking that are good. There are in-depth explanations and explorations of relationships between different types of characters; there are situations where two eras are compared by way of vampire(s) who lived in one or both; there are engaging environments that any Hollywood set designer would love to be able to re-create. The setup for all three books is quite good too, all three of them having been written or dictated by a vampire. I guess what I'm saying is if the vampire theme bothers you but you can get past it, there is some good stuff there.

As far as the movies go, I've only seen Interview with the Vampire once, and I wasn't really paying attention, and I haven't seen any of Queen of the Damned (which I heard was a horrible movie, but I'd like to see it anyway). My favorite thing about the books was the different characters (who were quite well set up) and watching their interactions with each other. If I had to recommend one of the three books, I think it would have to be Interview with the Vampire since the other books make so much more sense once you've read that one. The points that stuck out the most for me about the other two were that The Vampire Lestat is more intellectually interesting and Queen of the Damned is more of an action suspense mystery type thing. Which is probably why it got made into a movie.

More than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide

I <3 the Hitchhiker's Guide books. Before I read this book, though, I'd only read the first in the series. This book is awesome. It has gilded edges and a cloth bookmark like a Bible. It has 6 separate books in it, combined into one volume.

Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters all around! If you don't like these books, you suck and I probably hate you.

The Paradox of American Democracy

This book is boring and obviously partisan. I didn't expect that, to be honest. I thought it would take a step back from the politics to present the paradox that's so important it's part of the title. [Insert rant here, see below] Since it's boring, here comes the spoiler from what I've read so far...

SPOILER WARNING:

The paradox the author is presenting is that political power shifts and is thus more balanced than most people think between Corporations, Special Interests, and Populist Interests.

[rant]
Also, this book supports not changing Social Security, which pisses me off because it's an attack on work that's attempting to save every single taxpayer money in the long run. If you can't praise the current system, which I don't see how any economically-aware person can, how can you attack changes that attempt to make it more fiscally responsible? Why can't people who don't support the specific type of changes that are being proposed admit what's wrong with the current system? Let's just keep it crappy for another 50 years and everything will be OK!
[/rant]

A Bell for Adano

Reading this book is the first step towards reaching my goal of reading every work of fiction that has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It was also a fun read for me because it has to do with some of my pet interests: Military operations and the concept of human connections subverting command-and-control top-down authority structures.

The premise for this book is that an Italian-American (Major Joppolo) is put in charge of a town in Italy recently occupied by American troops in WWII. Recently freed from Fascist control, the townspeople are slow to accept that the Americans (at least some of them) have Italian best interests at heart. This book was referenced in some other book about Special Forces soldiers I read a while ago: "We need more Major Joppolos".

Memnoch the Devil

Anne Rice books come recommended to me very highly by a friend of mine whose taste in books I largely share. At least he hasn't recommended something that's turned out to be crap, yet.

Although I read this (#5 in the Vampire Chronicles) before any of the other ones in the series, I thought it stood alone very well. This is a book with very deep religious and spiritual themes, so if that's not something that interests you, don't waste your time. This book is not really about vampires. It's about exploring alternate histories based in a religious context.

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD:

If you were raised in a religious family, as I was, it's not hard to spot the key points in the book where breaks are made with basic points of (in my case) Christian creed. I imagine it wouldn't totally jive with other major religions either, but I can't speak as intelligently on that subject. In this book, God is not omniscient, evolution is blended with creation, and hell is a gateway to heaven once certain conditions are met.

The book was a good read, however heretical or blasphemous it may seem to those who understand the ways it differs from orthodox beliefs. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in thinking about such things.

What Went Wrong?

For those of us out there who were disillusioned by the boring, sanitized, and inconclusive versions of history taught in public schools, Bernard Lewis does a great job of approaching this question from all angles including linguistics, psychology, and economics. His analyses are, well, anal. In a good way. Like the several times throughout the text where he points out mistranslations of historical documents that have skewed their meaning in important ways. If you're a history, linguistics, or general Middle East dork, this book is highly recommended. It can get a bit dry in some places if you're not dragged along by interest in the subject matter, but is nonetheless a worthwhile read.

Mastering Regular Expressions

I find regular expressions (regexes) extremely useful. Some people love to bring up the quote "now they have two problems" whenever regexes are brought up. I think that quote is appropriate sometimes, but in many cases, regexes replace much larger sections of code and are much more readable and much less complex than said code.

This book is all about regular expessions, and the details behind the scenes. It has specific examples from several languages including Perl, Java, and .NET IIRC. I've already learned several interesting facts I didn't know before (you don't have to escape metacharacters inside character classes), so the book is already worth it to me.

Prelude to Foundation

Prequels, as they go, are hit or miss. I think a good prequel can make or break an entire franchise, because if it blows, then the whole story is based on something that nobody wants to see, and that undermines its popularity. But, this prequel is cool. If you don't know the much about the Foundation series, the basic premise is that a mathemetician develops a way to statistically model the future based on the actions of large groups of people. So, every couple hundred years, a holographic recording of him shows up in Galactic City Hall, or whatever, and tells everyone exactly what they're doing. So yeah, this book is all about that guy and how he came up with this sort of precise science. Kind of weird, and a good book when judged by itself as well.

Foundation's Edge

Asimov's Foundation series turned out to not be what I expected at all when I first started reading it. They are about humans and human interaction on a very basic level, and I think he does a great job of weaving his different storylines together, bringing the human interaction to the forefront with the futuristic reality his characters live in serving only as a backdrop for his heroes and heroines to meet and fulfill their destinies.

What? Oh, this book. Asimov's choice of characters to highlight in this particular book addresses some important social issues and gets the reader thinking critically about the status quo, once it's clear that this book is not just about spaceships and laser guns. From the Hamish neanderthalesque companion of one of the book's protagonists to the geopolitical structure of planetary systems, Asimov raises and usually tackles quite skillfully questions that most political scientists would despair to answer or even confront in the wild.

Cryptonomicon

This book was the first novel I had read in quite a while, after several much less riveting political, historical, or technical books. I really enjoyed the writing style and the subject matter, which was distinctively geeky (the book includes a cryptography-related perl script) while never straying too far from the main stories to completely disillusion the casual reader expecting a techno-thriller. The characters were also developed quite well, I thought—I actually ended up caring what happened to them. The last action scene was a bit over the top though. Those of you who have read it know what I'm talking about. All in all a great and definitely recommended read.

Of Paradise and Power

I became aware of this book's existence after reading this article, which draped itself lovingly all over Robert Kagan. I can't say that I disagree too much, though.

By applying principles of psychology on the national level, Kagan is able to make generalizations that do not hold up in the specific case, but nonetheless reflect reality. Several of my favorite passages from the book will speak for themselves:

"When Europeans wept and waved American flags after September 11th, it was out of genuine human sympathy. It was an expression of sorrow and affection for Americans. For better or for worse, European displays of solidarity were a product more of fellow feeling than of careful calculations of self-interest. Europeans' heartfelt sympathy, unaccompanied by a sense of shared risk and common responsibility, did not draw Europeans and American together in strategic partnership. On the contrary, as soon as Americans began looking beyond the immediate task of finding and destroying Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda to broader strategic goals in the "war on terrorism," Europeans recoiled."

Thesis exposition from the article linked above:

Which brings us to the thesis of this compact, meticulously argued work: that the "paradise" of peace and prosperity Europe now enjoys is made possible, quite simply, by American power. Provided with "security from outside," Europe requires no power of its own; yet protected "under the umbrella of American power," it's able to delude itself that power is "no longer important" and "that American military power, and the 'strategic culture' that has created and sustained it, is outmoded and dangerous." European leaders, says Kagan, see themselves as inhabiting a post-historical world in which war has been rendered obsolete by the triumph of international "moral consciousness"; yet most of them

do not see or do not wish to see the great paradox: that their passage into post-history has depended on the United States not making the same passage. Because Europe has neither the will nor the ability to guard its own paradise and keep it from being overrun, spiritually and well as physically, by a world that has yet to accept the rule of "moral consciousness," it has become dependent on America's willingness to use its military might to deter or defeat those around the world who still believe in power politics.

Digital Fortress

Techno-thrillers (like Swordfish, for example) tend to be a bit unbelievable, and even just frickin' stupid sometimes, especially on the technical end. Digital Fortress doesn't suffer from this tendency. While the premise might seem ridiculous to experienced cryptographers to begin with, the book is a fun read, the characters are interesting, and the story is addicting. In the end, the story has several (I think) clever and realistic twists to tie things up nicely.

Digital Fortress is the third book I've read by Dan Brown. I read them in reverse chronological order: The DaVinci Code, Angels & Demons, and Digital Fortress. In retrospect, I think I would have appreciated all three books more if I had gone in chronological order. Going backwards, it's just as easy to see his evolution as a writer, but the complexity and scale of the storylines goes down as you get into the earlier books. Still, one of my favorite books (Without Remorse, by Tom Clancy) is under par for the course (author) when it comes to complexity and scale, yet stands up against any of Tom's more epic and ambitious books, in my opinion. Same goes for this book, but fair warning. If you're looking for a globe-trotting adventure like The DaVinci Code, Digital Fortress isn't quite that.

Anyway, this is a good book, even if you're not a techno-weenie. Danny-boy goes to the trouble to give sufficient explanations of the more obscure topics, so that the less cryptographically-aware among us can still enjoy the story.

Learning Python

Python is "that language with the whitespace rules." In particular, what that means is that code blocks are defined by indentation. Which seems weird and annoying, until you try to read somebody else's program and the meaning just slides quite painlessly right on into your cerebral cortex, almost effortlessly. So yeah. And, to quote Bruce Eckel,

With Python, it has always felt like the designers were saying, "We're trying to make your life easier, and that's it. Making your life easier is the thing that we're not compromising on."

This book was a good intro to the language. I think actually programming in python is a better next step than purchasing Programming Python, though. I started reading that book and it felt really slow, and there was lots (lots) of repetition (repetition). Programming in python is relatively painless, even with only a cursory knowledge of the language, and it's fairly easy to refactor when you find out you're doing something in a stupid way. Pick a pet project, use the Twisted framework (client/server networking) if you can (I like it), and start hacking away!

Drinking, Smoking and Screwing

Such a good book. A celebration of vices (if you choose to label them as such), and the people who enjoy them. My favorite quote from the book:

"What's your name?"
"Laura."
"I'm going to call you Katherine."
"Ok."
[And then the author proceeds to refer to this person as Katherine for the rest of the story, to the point where you forget what the character's real name was.]

The ACME Novelty Datebook

The ACME Novelty Datebook. This is a random fun collection of weird drawings. It's like a diary in pictures. I enjoyed it.

Hire Me, Dumbass!

This book is a gem. It had me laughing out loud almost the whole time I had it open. It's a very simple concept, but executed extremely well.

Quotes from the publisher's description of the book:
Dear Pepsi Human Resource Department,
I love Coke...

Dear Playboy Human Resource Department,
Why do I want to work at Playboy? Two words: naked women...

Dear Solomon Smith Barney's Human Resources Department,
You are no doubt looking for candidates with intelligence, dedication, ambition and drive. That's great, but what about the rest of us...

Dear UPS Human Resources Manager,
You are probably wondering why this letter was sent via Federal Express...

Dear Fruit of the Loom Human Resources Manager,
I go through underwear like crazy. It's gotten so bad I just throw them away after each use. That stated, I would like to be considered for a key marketing position within your organization...

Fahrenheit 451

"Internationally acclaimed with more than five million copies in print, Fahrenheit 451 is Ray Bradbury's classic novel of censorship and defiance, as resonant today as it was when it was first published nearly fifty years ago."

I enjoyed this book. It reminded me of Atlas Shrugged in a couple ways, and of We The Living in other ways. It's about the transformation of a man who sort of fell into his oppressive occupation without thinking about it. In fact, the entire society of his time seems not to think. His transformation begins when his mind is woken up by a chance meeting and he begins to see more clearly what is happening around him.

While this is definitely an inspiring novel about the evils of censorship, the protagonist's philosophy strikes me as rather defeatist for my taste. To paraphrase: "Do no provable 'wrong', stay passively on the sidelines until the dust clears, then re-enter the picture when they know they need you." That philosophy doesn't sufficiently punish willful ignorance in the face of the truth.

Basic Works of Aristotle

Aristotle was some old philosopher. Ayn Rand derives some of her logic from him, so I figured I'd read his work. It's a huge book, but I'll finish it eventually.

Second Foundation

The Mule (guy with mind-control powers) is back, and he's up against the Second Foundation! Looks like an epic battle not seen since Scanners!!!1

I've just noticed that I didn't write any more about this book after I finished it. So I'll try to do that now, several months after I finished the book. It's a good book. The title makes it sound like the entire book is about the Second Foundation, but the book is really about the search for the Second Foundation. The Mule is looking for the Second Foundation so he can destroy it, and some members of the original Foundation are looking for it to save them (the Second Foundation) from the Mule. I can't really say too much more without ruining the plot (or does he just not remember...? mystery and intrigue!), but I liked it enough to read the third part of the trilogy. There you go.

Foundation and Empire

As time passes during the fall of the great Galactic Empire, tales of technology past become miracles performed by magicians. The Foundation is ruled by hereditary kings with near-absolute power. But then the balance is upset by a mutant calling himself the Mule, with mind control powers! He takes lots of stuff over, and starts looking for the Second Foundation (from the first book). This book is about that search. There are lots of neat gadgets and the plot hides universal political and social themes just waiting to be discovered.

Proxies

I borrowed this book and ended up reading it on a transatlantic flight, which rekindled my interest in reading. It's an exciting sci fi adventure about the not too distant future where technology is developed that allows people to remotely control androids. The skills required to do this are hard to master, however, so a special institution is founded where children are trained to use these androids from birth. This book is about the physical and psychological effects of such an extreme form of out of body experiences, and it's a fun and exciting book too.

Without Remorse

This is one of my favorite books. It's a very involved book, although on a much smaller scale than most of Tom Clancy's writing. It follows one man through a period of his life where he saves a hooker with a heart of gold, almost dies, and goes on a secret mission for the army. It's an origin story, if you will, for a character who shows up in some of Clancy's other books, and it works quite well as a standalone work too.

Database Design for Mere Mortals

This book is only ostensibly about database design, at least with respect to the more technical aspects of that process. It is primarily about how to accurately and efficiently provide what an organization needs, especially if they don't really know what they want either. That wasn't really what I was looking for, so I found myself skipping chapters. There is some good content in the book, but there is also a lot of repeated content. I could pick that out even though I only read I'd say 40% of the book while skipping over the less technical fluff.

While not what I was looking for, I can imagine this being useful to a booksmart technical person who has problems dealing with co-workers and end-users. So know what you're buying if you go for this book, which I obviously didn't.

Own Your Own Corporation

The only real way to be financially independent in this day and age is to own a corporation and provide value to the marketplace. This book describes the differences between the different types of corporate entities that can be formed and discusses their advantages for different types of businesses. I found this book really useful and plan to re-read it so I can speak intelligently with my lawyer.

Design Patterns

Design Patterns is by many accounts as close as you can get to Object Oriented Programming's Bible... I'm not an avid user of the languages that these patterns are designed for, so I didn't really "get" the advantages that using these types of patterns give, since I can just take them for granted in most cases. Nonetheless, it was a good read overall.

1000 Years for Revenge

Book looks interesting.
Excerpt from publisher's summary:
This is a story of heroes: Nancy Floyd, who tried to bring down the New York terror cell but paid for her efforts with damage to her career, and Ronnie Bucca, who tried to alert the FBI to the security threat to New York City from al Qaeda but paid for the agency's negligence with his life on 9/11. It is also a story of the power of evil: Lance offers a chilling chronicle of how one man -- the elusive mastermind Yousef -- managed to defeat the entire American security system in what Lance calls "the greatest failure of intelligence since the Trojan Horse."

Dreaming War

Why do politicians lie so much when truth is the obvious, simple, and acceptable alternative? Because the Bush Administration has deined that it had any oil-driven economic motive going into Iraq, that has become the charge against them. Who cares if we want to make sure that oil can't be used as an economic weapon against us? That sounds pretty reasonable to me. Say what you mean.

Forbidden Truth

I've read several books recently about Saudi Arabia and the history surrounding that region. But last night when I was reading Foundation, there was an analogy that stuck with me and just now seemed to perfectly describe the US-Saudi relationship that has developed:

A horse is enemies with a wolf. The horse cannot kill the wolf. After many weeks of antagonism, the horse seeks outside help. He talks to a man and suggests that they team up against the wolf. So the man asks one thing of the horse: lend me your speed, and I will help you kill the wolf. So the man saddles up the horse and gets his gun and with the man's gun and the horse's speed, they kill the wolf. Then the horse is happy, thanks the man and asks him to get off of his back now. Which of course he doesn't, he just digs in the spurs...
 
horse == United States
wolf == energy crisis
man == Saudi Arabia
gun == Saudi oil
speed == American mass market

Thieves in High Places

Satire is great because it makes people laugh. Most of the time, when people laugh, they're laughing because they're happy. But when reading recent populist satire, the laugh generated is bitter and from disbelief evaporating. Most people aren't crooks. Most people play fair. This book isn't about most people. Jim Hightower's raucus "Don't mess with Texas style" is sure to amuse and inform.

Stupid White Men

The first in two (so far) of Mike Moore's attacks on The Man Who Is Not Necessarily White Or The Police and who likes to oppress anyone who chases their cheddar, so to speak. Woop, woop, that's the sound of the police.

Downsize This!

How did I miss this book? I've read and enjoyed several of Scott Adams' office satires, but this one slipped under my radar until I noticed some of Moore's more recent works about Dubya & the gang. Looks like a hoot!

Dude, Where's My Country?

This is another book on my inflammatory populist reading list. Not much else to say about it. Yet.

Historical Whodunits

Recently, I've been reading a lot about history, and I've read several mysteries about history, but those didn't take place in the past as this one does. The genre is described as inspired by The Name Of The Rose, which is also on my list.

Off With Their Heads

A good conspiracy theory is entirely plausible. But when reasonable doubt turns into a myriad of books about something that is still happening, there's something going on. In the information age, the old quip to the effect of "people will believe a big lie more easily than a small lie" holds its own with large media conglomerates wielding their influence and information distribution channels with impunity. I hate people who don't play fair (especially corporations who file "fuck off" lawsuits), and this book might add a few more people to that list.

Catch-22

Described as "the best American novel to come out of WWII," this book caught my interest a while ago, but I never picked up a copy and started reading. So one day when I see this post again, I will!

Foundation

I've heard the name Isaac Asimov sporadically over my reading career, always as synonymous with "science fiction." Although the link goes to a different edition than I have, I'm sure they haven't screwed it up too bad. Looks like the one I have is an '83 vintage!

So yeah, the Foundation trilogy won the Hugo award for *ahem* Best. Trilogy Ever. It's quite good. Isaac manages to slip a lot of social commentary into a book I always assumed was about light sabers and photon torpedoes. WTG Isaac!

The book is divided into a couple sections, each dealing with a different type of power wielded over the masses. First comes blind academia, then fabricated religion, then greed and trade. It's a very thought-provoking book, as I would expect any book that deals with distribution of and shifts of power as well as consequences of people's actions on such an enormous scale to be.

Bush at War

Dubya as Commander-In-Chief... what was he like? What did he do? I don't really remember what this book is about, but that's why it's in the 'to read' section.

Lies

Al Franken never struck me as much besides a comedian, but apparently he's politically-minded enough to write a book.

The Teeth of the Tiger

Jack Ryan's son is the main character in this modern-day terrorist thriller. I've always enjoyed Tom Clancy's writing because however probable his scenarios are or how chillingly accurate they turn out to be, they're always thought provoking and exciting. I expect much the same from this book.

Jefferson's War

I'm interested in military history, especially American foreign policy and how it has changed over the years, and this book looks like a good place to get insight into how America has responded to terrorism in the past and how that stance has changed over the years, since the Founding Fathers were in control of the government.

This is more of a history book than I expected, but it's also an area of history not a lot of people are familiar with, from what I've seen. It's interesting to look at the methods and motives of the players in this collection of stories about how the young nation America (and the rest of the world) deals with the Barbary States. While the motives on each side differ considerably from today's war on terror(ism?), many of the situations and reactions described provide valuable lessons in international relations.

Gentlemen's Blood

I've got another rather boring book on dueling on my to read list that I pick up every now and then, but this promises to be a rather lighter treatment of the subject.

Corporate Warriors

Just the concept of privatizing America's military seems very irrational to me. The fist of the government should be owned and controlled by the government. What will happen when this is not the case? That's what this book is about. (from Sep. 2003)

(Feb. 2004): After reading the preface to this book, I realize that I misinterpreted what it was about. Or at least miscategorized it as less of an impartial fact-finding mission than it appears to be.

(Mar. 2004): After finishing this book, I've learned a lot about the history of armies with relation to state organizations, the more recent history of the effects of nationalism on military trends and actors, and the rise and current silent ubiquity of the private military firm (PMF). To sum up one of the main points of the book, armies tied directly to the state are extremely rare in recorded history and have only become prevalent relatively recently. As the United States government becomes more and more reliant on PMFs to support its forces (Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.) and carry out foreign policy discreetly with little fear of public backlash (Colombia is the most telling example), the power of the PMFs grows by leaps and bounds, as they quickly become TBTF. This is a must-read for anyone in the army or anyone involved in public service, especially politicians, as it covers many potential problems (and/or benefits) that could arise from the widespread adoption of PMFs as they exist today.

Crisis of Islam

After reading Sleeping With the Devil, this book was a nice intro to the history behind how things are today in Saudi Arabia and the Islamic world in general. It talks a lot about the history of Islam from a political perspective, and particularly Wahhabism, the radical Islamic sect flourishing mainly in Saudi Arabia, but being spread all over the Islamic world sponsored by Saudi oil money.

One of the main points of this book is that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with democracy because Muslims are not tolerant of other religions at all when they come to political power because, like Christians, they are always right. Historically, the Islamic identity has not been defined or restricted specifically by nationality, but rather as a collective of all the countries in which Islam is the dominant political force. Also, Islam in and of itself is more of a plan for running a country than a religion.

I'm definitely going to read this book again, probably along side Sleeping With the Devil.

American Heroes and Hero Worship

Celebrities, public personalities, heroes, whatever you want to call them. Viewing someone as more than a regular person, as a Hero or as someone with a higher understanding has never appealed to me. It seems to leave one open to specific applications of Plato's Truth Virus until the individual is left with no valuable knowledge of his own. I don't really know what this book is about, but its author, Gerald White Johnson -- a respected journalist, seems to me to be in a great position to comment on the phenomenon.

The Mission

What does the military do when they're not fighting? The author of this book suggests that they become "de facto rulers" abroad, something that they are not trained or even authorized to do.

I enjoyed this book. It is a bit harsh on civilian officials with regard to military policy, and I think that is much deserved. The military's job is to fix problems. They have a "can do" attitude and approach problems very pragmatically. Politicians, on the other hand, try to make themselves look good. Full stop.

The range of stories portrayed is quite engaging as well. The author follows several different people through their daily routines, from regional CinCs with their private jets and armies of aides to an Albanian translator returning to her ethnic home, dodging mortars and enduring racism while trying to help the soldiers around her understand the culture of the region.

I found this book to be an interesting glimpse into the future for a country that is still young. America is struggling with political correctness, frivolous lawsuits and racial discrimination (to name a few) at the moment, and it doesn't take much extrapolation to imagine what the future holds. Albanians and Serbs have an extremely deep-seated hatred for one another, based on events in the past that were perpetuated by both sides. There is no right answer to how to stop the cycle, but I think a little understanding and truth from both sides of any conflict can go a long way to stopping cycles of hatred and violence before they start.

Dueling

Dueling is, historically, a very simple way to settle an argument. The one who doesn't die is obviously right. This book is about dueling in Germany, and why the custom survived longer there than anywhere else. It's really dry historical reading, and the author is a bit sesquipedalian, using a foot-and-a-half-er for its own sake, but some of the history is interesting. I've read some of this book, and pick it up every now and then, when I'm in an odd mood.

Silmarillion

Tolkein created a complete new world in his literature. A fantasy world of good and evil, easily distinguishable, which looks more and more appealing these days when it's harder and harder to tell them apart. The Silmarillion is part of the backstory for Tolkein's more famous trilogy, and it's interesting reading. I've read part of this, and I pick it up again from time to time. It's a bit allegorical, not surprisingly, as it is a tale of the beginning of the world coming from a Catholic.

The Bloody Flag

I'm even more interested to read this book now that I've read We The Living by Ayn Rand, because it sounds like this book is studying the possibility that what happened after Red October might happen again after the fall of Communism, albeit on a smaller scale: that the greedy and hypocritical old leaders, or similarly motivated people might be able to take the reins of a country struggling to rebuild itself.

Balkan Ghosts

This book delves very deeply into the psychological and socioeconomical factors and influences surrounding events in the Balkans. It covers a lot of the history of the area, which is essential to understanding a lot of the unrest in the area. There is an amazing amount of ethnic hatred and just plain racism in that area of the world. A lot of it stems from the fact that every country claims all the land it held at the peak of its power as rightfully its own, which creates many conflicting claims. Overall a very enlightening book, it describes the great importance of the Balkans and their influence on the headlines of today. From Balkan nations aiding and receiving aid from extremist Middle Eastern regimes to Greece as the West's gateway to the East, there are many important and thought-provoking points brought up in this book.

Angels & Demons

Dan Brown became one of my new favorite authors with The DaVinci Code, and he continues that trend with Angels & Demons. His style is a refreshingly realistic fiction based on historical fact coming to life in the present. The Illuminati, the Vatican, particle physics, ambigrams... Even though this book takes place over a relatively short period of time and the action gets quite intense, this is a fun read.

The generalities of the plot and the author's tricks are quite the same as in The DaVinci Code, though. There are implied villians and last-minute surprise 180-degree turns. Dan Brown definitely knows what he likes, in that he uses the same literary devices in this book as in the Code, but I think he pulls it off.

Dynamic HTML

There's so much in this book. It's the most comprehensive front-end web developer's reference I've found. From HTML to CSS to JavaScript and DOM, it's got everything you could possibly need to look up while designing a website.

We the Living

Life in the USSR sucked, as Ayn Rand describes in this book, which she describes as "as near to an autobiography as I will ever write." Revolution, power, exploitation, all bring out the most basic values that every human being holds dear. This book tells the story of several Russian young people in the wake of the Red October revolution. The conflict in this book is between two different ideals which are very simply represented by the two words "I" and "We." The beliefs of those who believe in "We" are practiced publicly but not privately, leading to exploitable hypocricy by those who would wield power for themselves. At one point in the book, the heroine promises her uncle that she will get out and tell the world what is really happening in Russia. This book is Ayn Rand fulfilling that promise.

A Man, A Can, A Grill

Almost all of the recipes in this book look really good, and they are relatively simple, although not as simple as the description might lead you to believe. There are definitely a lot of ingredients listed that a normal person would not have in their kitchen.

The Name of the Rose

Recommended as a more confusing work by an author who looked interesting to me. I've seen this movie and am now more interested in reading this. Up the list you go!

Eight

A worldwide puzzle chase recommended to people who enjoyed The DaVinci Code, except the people are looking for the pieces of a chess set that can control the ENTIRE WORLD.

Foucalt's Pendulum

Publishers Weekly says:
If a copy (often unread) of The Name of the Rose on the coffee table was a badge of intellectual superiority in 1983, Eco's second novel--also an intellectual blockbuster--should prove more accessible. This complex psychological thriller chronicles the development of a literary joke that plunges its perpetrators into deadly peril. The narrator, Casaubon, an expert on the medieval Knights Templars, and two editors working in a branch of a vanity press publishing house in Milan, are told about a purported coded message revealing a secret plan set in motion by the Knights Templars centuries ago when the society was forced underground. As a lark, the three decide to invent a history of the occult tying a variety of phenomena to the mysterious machinations of the Order. Feeding their inspirations into a computer, they become obsessed with their story, dreaming up links between the Templars and just about every occult manifestation throughout history, and predicting that culmination of the Templars' scheme to take over the world is close at hand. The plan becomes real to them--and eventually to the mysterious They, who want the information the trio has ``discovered.'' Dense, packed with meaning, often startlingly provocative, the novel is a mixture of metaphysical meditation, detective story, computer handbook, introduction to physics and philosophy, historical survey, mathematical puzzle, compendium of religious and cultural mythology, guide to the Torah (Hebrew, rather than Latin contributes to the puzzle here, but is restricted mainly to chapter headings), reference manual to the occult, the hermetic mysteries, the Rosicrucians, the Jesuits, the Freemasons-- ad infinitum . The narrative eventually becomes heavy with the accumulated weight of data and supposition, and overwrought with implication, and its climax may leave readers underwhelmed. Until that point, however, this is an intriguing cerebral exercise in which Eco slyly suggests that intellectual arrogance can come to no good end.

Abuse Your Illusions

A conspiracy theorist's look at many events of the past century. I don't remember why this caught my attention, but it looks like a fun read. Ah yes, the Disinformation people, authors of the book that calls you stupid: "Everything You Know Is Wrong".

Jeet Kune Do

Jeet Kune Do is the martial art invented by Bruce Lee, made up of moves taken from other martial arts and stripped down, improved, and perfected. This book is Bruce's discussion and description of his invention.

Tao of Gung Fu

I'd like to learn a martial art at some point, preferably sooner rather than later, and I think reading some of Bruce Lee's writings is probably a good starting point. This book is a bit of a history of the Chinese art of gung fu, a bit of a basic instruction manual. While it's definitely not a standalone reference, or enough to make you into a martial arts expert, it's a great introductory source of information about all sorts of different kinds of martial arts.

Who Moved My Soap?

Prison soap jokes are funny because it's not me getting ass spelunked. This is a comedy piece about how CEOs who get caught can survive in prison. I don't remember where I heard about this book, but it stuck in my mind, for obvious tragic humor reasons.

Absolutely American

After hearing about this book on NPR, I decided I would remember to eventually read it. The author talked about how his father always steered him away from the army, and also about his initial antipathy towards his assignment. But after being given unrestricted access to West Point students and learning much about what goes on in their classrooms, he declares the army to be "absolutely american."

Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel

Weaseling on many levels and in many different ways is the topic of this book, from singing weasels who thwart enjoyment of favorite songs by singing along to malevolent manager weasels who shuffle their least competent employees around to "help" with other tasks, thus leaving the best resources for themselves. There is also a helpful discussion about an audio visual gesture to indicate that somebody is being a weasel, in much the same fashion as the "thumb-and-index-finger" loser gesture. Enjoyable reading.

Games, Diversions & Perl Culture

Although it's self-described as "useless" from a technical standpoint (which I don't entirely agree with), it's also described as entertaining, and the best of the Best of the Perl Journal series at "captur[ing] the spirit of Perl."

Junk English

Clever titles are even better if they work on more than one level. I've read some of this, but it could use an "executive summary," cause it's pretty dry reading. Even though I can be a dick when it comes to pointing out useless and/or annoying speech patterns in others, I couldn't bring myself to finish this. There appears to be an updated version out now. Maybe I'll check it out.

The Dilbert Future

I like Scott Adams' writing style. It's a very encouraging, self-deprecating style that makes me wonder why exactly I'm not writing books. He makes intelligent arguments for things that are decidedly not intelligent. He plays devil's advocate for the express purpose of pissing people off. Pissed off people pay attention to you and might buy your books! More than anything, I respect the fact that he will admit when he doesn't know about something instead of trying to act like he does. Now, of course, playing devil's advocate to piss people off is still possible when you don't know about something, and that's always funny.

Avoiding Prison & Other Noble Vacation Goals

This looks like a fun book about a journalist who ends up in some pretty wacky countries and situations. Hopefully it's not a "chick flick" of a book.

The Dilbert Principle

Dilbert on management strategy. This Principle is strongly satirical and mentally deadly to those without a stomach for direct speech. Adams' writing style is very enjoyable, addictively honest, and fun to read. It's amazing how much common sense can be ignored by people who are supposedly smarter than Joe Worker.

To Begin The World Anew

Political science and history can be heavy and/or boring topics. The wide influence of currently accepted political thought and also the requirement of political scientists to clearly state their ideas with the possibility of being called wrong has scared many people away from challenging the status quo. Not so with this book. The author is not afraid to state his interpretation of the intentions of America's founding fathers, and is qualified to do so. The book is not meant to be a critique of today's political climate with regard to the founders' intentions. However, the contrast is more glaring when the criticism, or even the implication of a contrast is omitted. This is not a book about politicians. This is a book about ordinary people attempting to legitimize a revolution, to establish the credibility and feasibility of a country, and devising ways to force government to be "by the people," not just "of the people."

Talk of the Devil

Fallen and disgraced dictators are the focus of this book. This is another book I read to inform myself about recent military history. I heard about the book from an interview on NPR with the author, Ricardo Orizio. It presents information in a very interesting way, first describing the author's trips to the places where he would eventually meet the former leaders, and then the disposition and mannerisms of the interviewee along with their responses to his questions, contrasted with historical facts so as to preserve both points of view intact.

The Da Vinci Code

Mystery, adventure, brain teasers, riddles, and a history lesson. As if that weren't enough, the motives and practices of the Catholic church and one of its more extreme branches, the Opus Dei, come under scrutiny. The Da Vinci Code makes clever use of little-known facts and historical happenings and weaves them all together into a global conspiracy that is frighteningly believable. The characters are realistic, the plot very addictive, and the author pulls no punches when describing each and every character's true motives.

Checked and Balanced

Does the party system circumvent the checks and balances written into the Constitution? Do voters trust political parties? What do the current political trends indicate? All of these questions and more are brought up in this book about the political phenomenon of "ticket splitting," or voting for a Presidential candidate from one party and a House or Senate representative from the opposing party. That this practice is common enough to have a book written about it says a lot about trust of the parties by itself, IMHO.

Harry Potter (5) and the Order of the Phoenix

Corruption and ineptitude in the government is one of the main themes in this book, along with the power of the media to influence the masses. J.K. Rowling disguises a harsh education about the real world as a children's book quite well. Many new characters are introduced, we learn more about familiar ones, and main characters shine in their own peculiar ways. She's had a lot of time to work on this one, and it's got a lot of pages, but they turn easily as her dry humor lightens even the heaviest of topics.

Reefer Madness

Reefer Madness really makes you think. And not just about marijuana. That the black market has grown even as much as the most modest estimates assume is staggering. Black markets emerge on such a large scale when the laws or taxes they avoid are disregarded or considered unnecessary on a similar scale. "Let the punishment fit the crime." I agree wholeheartedly. Something is definitely wrong when someone can serve more time in prison for selling weed than for killing another human being. The two other topics covered, black market labor and pornography, are also very interesting.

Sleeping with the Devil

International terrorism, economies addicted to oil, and violently fanatical religious fundamentalism. Former CIA operative Richard Baer shows us his interpretation of the incestuous political and economic relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia. He describes how the Saudi royal family grooms and babysits our politicians, how they siphon off enormous sums of money from arms deals that are kept off the books, and how they support islamic jihad against the West because if they did not, it would be directed at them full-force. This book is a must-read for anyone considering an SUV purchase, or any entrepreneur considering delving into the largely untapped wealth of alternative energy sources.

Shadow Warriors

Military history and the different forces, political and otherwise, at work in the military are very interesting to me. This book by Tom Clancy and retired General Carl Stiner is a crash course in the history of many overseas military conflicts, and the different ways they are handled and possibly resolved. Much of the book is about the development of the US military's special forces - units like the Green Berets, the Army Rangers, the Navy SEALs, etc. Clancy and Stiner trace the need for and use of these units over many decades, establishing sometimes disturbing patterns in miltary thought.

Fast Food Nation

I, unfortunately, am a typical ignorant American. I eat too much fast food without knowing exactly how bad it is. Reading this book was the beginning of my efforts to educate myself about what I should and shouldn't eat. It provides a walkthrough of the entire fast food industry (including those that support it or depend on it), from the franchisor level all the way down to the slaughterhouse employee up to their ankles in blood.

There are too many interesting points discussed to list here, but two topics I found highly enlightening were the sections about farmers and how they and their farming businesses are affected by the fast food industry and the sections about government regulation of low-income, high-turnover employment and food production.

Atlas Shrugged

An old, tattered copy of Atlas Shrugged found its way into my hands earlier this year. I had read bits and pieces of the book before, but never cover to cover. I had a sneaking suspicion that the part I had read was the very end of the book, but didn't want to confirm that suspicion by definitely spoiling the end. (It turned out I had read a sort of depressing and frustrating part that was near the end of the book, after which it got better.)