Matthew Lang

Dust rained in the halls of Mechanical; it shivered free from the violence of the digging. Wires overhead swung gently in their harnesses. Pipes rattled. And from the generator room, staccato bangs filled the air, bounced off the walls, and brought to mind a time when unbalanced machines spun dangerously.

‐ Dust by Hugh Howey

I’m loving this series of books.

If you are like most people, you don’t often think about lobsters—unless you’re eating one. However, these interesting and delicious crustaceans are very much worth considering. Their nervous systems are comparatively simple, with large, easily observable neurons, the magic cells of the brain. Because of this, scientists have been able to map the neural circuitry of lobsters very accurately. This has helped us understand the structure and function of the brain and behaviour of more complex animals, including human beings. Lobsters have more in common with you than you might think (particularly when you are feeling crabby—ha ha).

— 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson

First non-fiction book of the year. Just reading a chapter a month.

The children were playing while Holston climbed to his death; he could hear them squealing as only happy children do. While they thundered about frantically above, Holston took his time, each step methodical and ponderous, as he wound his way around and around the spiral staircase, old boots ringing out on metal treads.

— Wool by Hugh Howey

My track record of reading books has been woeful over the last few years. I thought I would try something different this year. I’ll be posting the first paragraph of each book I’m starting, and I’m using Micro.blog’s Epilogue app to track what I’m reading through the year.

I enjoyed the first season of Apple TV’s Silo, and I’ve just started watching the second season. It seemed like a good fit to start reading something I was familiar with.

I’m reading again. And it’s been long overdue. I can’t remember the last time I finished a book that I hadn’t read before. It’s been that long.

There are lots of pitiful excuses I could make for not reading. There are two significant reasons why I stopped reading.

The first reason was that I spent far too much time elsewhere. And that time elsewhere was usually on screens like television, games console, phone. The rotating screen exercise throughout the day was relentless. I traded one screen for the other throughout the day until right up until I went to sleep.

The second reason is not as significant, but it impacted my reading. I had a run of books that I didn’t finish. Most of these books were fiction, and I didn’t finish them because I lost interest in them.

Now, up to this point, I mostly read science fiction and fantasy books. On the odd occasion, I would read something else, but this genre was the one that I enjoyed the most. However, a pattern started to emerge between every handful of books I began to read. I would lose interest in it. After a couple of attempts to finish each book, I gave in. Eventually, I gave up reading altogether.

Thankfully, now things are starting to look up. I’m almost three-quarters of the way through my first book for 2022. I’ve also started another book that I hope to finish by the end of the month.

I do want to read more books this year. I have a stack of physical books on my desk that I need to get through and a reading list written down. I hope that’s all the planning I need for this year to start reading again.

If you are curious about the book I am currently reading. It is Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. The story itself is about preserving the human race following an apocalyptic event on Earth. I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Troy. The most marvellous kingdom in all the world. The Jewel of the Aegean. Glittering Ilium, the city that rose and fell not once but twice. Gatekeeper of traffic in and out of the barbarous east. Kingdom of gold and horses. Fierce nurse of prophets, princes, heroes, warriors and poets. Under the protection of ARES, ARTERMIS, APOLLO and APHRODITE she stood for years as the paragon of all that can be achieved in the arts of war and peace, trade and treaty, love and art, statecraft, piety and civil harmony. When she fell, a hole opened in the human world that may neve be filled, save in memory. Poets must sing the story over and over again, passing it from generation to generation, lest in losing Troy we lost a part of ourselves.

— Troy by Stephen Fry

Last week I finished my first book in a long time. It felt good to get to the last page and actually enjoy the book for a change.

For a long time, I have struggled with books to read. As books have piled up, the want to read them hasn’t been there. And in some cases, when I do read them, I don’t end up enjoying the book and give up on it.

Here are a few more books that I am hoping to read over the next few months:

• Shiang: Empire of Salt by C. F. Iggulden
• The Falcon of Sparta by Conn Iggulden
• The Book of Dust volume I by Phillip Pullman
• Spitfire by John Nichol
• Super Thinking by Gabriel Weinberg and Lauren McCann
• Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

Despite only being a few chapters from the end of Cixin Liu’s The Wandering Earth, I decided to give up on finishing the book. The first few chapters were quite good, but my interest gradually waned through the middle chapters.

With my track record of books read this year being very poor, I’ve decided to read a book from an author who’s books I have always thoroughly enjoyed. Raymond E. Feist’s King of Ashes is the first in a series and hopefully, I’ll get to the end of this book and the rest of the series.

Maybe it’s the books that I buy, but I don’t see many books with illustrations in them. In books the illustration is a visual indication of where the story is but in the case of older books, I would say the illustration is much more of a labour of love.

These illustrations for “The Tempest” by Arthur Rackham are a great example of this.

I only know of Arthur Rackham as it was his illustrations that were included in my edition of “A Christmas Carol”. There is something about his illustrations that set them apart from other illustrated books.

I would love to see more illustrated books in stores.

I can think of a few people who would appreciate these little books of bookmarks.

Hat-tip to swissmiss.

I would love to have seen the “Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth” exhibition in New York.

The picture depicting Bilbo’s conversation with Smaug was the first the image I seen of Tolkien’s books as a kid. I might not be able to get to New York for this, but it might be time for a re-read of the The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

via kottke.org

Posting this here in the hopes that Michael Wade sees this and doesn’t need to break his Twitter fast for it.

For the Aubrey Maturin lovers , I do hear whispers indeed that a second voyage is perhaps potentially pre-proposed a possibility . So O’Brian affectionate’s and aficionados , let @20thcenturyfox know of your pleasure .

— Russell Crowe

I would love to see a second Master & Commander film. The first movie is great and the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O’Brian are fantastic reads.

Cal Newport divulges his technique for researching books.

The key to my system is the pencil mark in the page corner. This allows me later to quickly leaf through a book and immediately identify the small but crucial subset of pages that contain passages that relate to whatever project I happen to be working on.

How I Read When Researching a Book by Cal Newport

Such a simple thing to do and yet I wonder why I haven’t read of this before. I often fold down the corner of pages, but simply putting a line in the top of the page I can quickly thumb through a book without having to worry about folded corners of pages unfolding themselves and being missed.

Just as it is important to set aside time to think, it is important to block out time for reading. If you believe that such time will be available later in the day, it is likely that you are mistaken.

— Reading Time by Michael Wade

I’m slowly getting back into a lot of things in the last couple of weeks. Blogging, writing and even reading. Churning through a few books at the moment, but plans are in place to make reading a bigger habit of mine in the future.

I’m not sure if Nicholas Bate is a comic books kind of guy, but I’m sure he’ll make an exception for The Beatles: Yellow Submarine comic when it comes out.

Glad to see Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books are still gaining fans. Annie is the latest convert.

… and other essential reading basics from NB.

at Cultural Offering.

While I am giving something up for Lent, I am also adding something. I am going to add more books. I am going to add longer articles, listen to entire albums. I am going to add more of the long form element back into my life.

— Lent and amusement by Kurt Harden

It’s always good to give something up for Lent, but it’s even better to also add something that makes your day better.

… from my man in British Columbia, Curtis McHale.

Cal Newport’s book Deep Work has been circling the blogs I follow for the past year. I finally took the time to read over the summer. It’s such an enriching book (I’m still reviewing my notes for it) and in an age of social media distraction I would say it is a must read.

Don’t just take my word for it though. Read the words of Julian Summerhayes who has a rightly so put together a worthy post to reflect the content of the book.

… for the recommendation Kurt.

If you’re looking for the newsletter, you can sign up here. Next edition drops on the 19th of February.

Fascinating how many times this classic has been illustrated.

I began my annual tradition of reading A Christmas Carol last night. A chapter a night up to Christmas Eve. I look forward to reading it every year.

Hat tip to Michael Wade.

Nice prompt from NB to start reading again.

Read deep again. Read the original not the news article puffery. Read the classics. Read difficult stuff. Read Chaucer in the original and imagine a world without the sound bite. Spend days in a good library, pulling books from shelves and reading deep, deep, deeper. Read until synapses start to spark each other and you achieve simplicity the far side of complexity.

— Read by Nicholas Bate

I have to admit, my reading progress has stalled in the last few months. Haven’t picked up a new book in three months. Time to start reading again.

A Game of Thrones is now available on iBooks. A must buy!

Not the copious tomes I was hoping for but I’ll take it.

This has to be the definitive list of books on running a successful business.

There is room for a few more but starting with the recommendations from Curtis is a great starting point.

If you want to tip the daily balance from shallow work to deep work, my buddy Curtis in British Columbia recommends Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work.

In Deep Work, Cal Newport wants to convince us to step away from the ever-increasing series of distractions — those latest and greatest things that pull away our focus and keep us from doing deep work. Newport doesn’t just stop in telling us that distraction is harming us, but goes on to give us four rules to achieve a state of deep work with more regularity so that we can truly produce work that’s industry leading (without working evenings and weekends).

— Accomplish more of worth and suffer from less distraction: Deep Work by Cal Newport by Curtis McHale

Going by Curtis’ review (and the fact I highly value his recommendations), I’m definitely adding this book to my reading list.

I finally finished William Zinsser’s On Writing Well last night.

I’ve been making slow progress through it due to the fact I read it last thing at night and only managed a few pages at a time.

I’ve been chewing through a number of books on writing ever since I read Stephen King’s book, On Writing. Educating myself on writing is just as important as my continual learning of software development, which is why I spend the time I do reading books like this.

I didn’t take as many notes as I probably should have done, but I’ve queued the book up again on my reading list so that I do take notes on it the second time around. The main reason I enjoyed the book is that it doesn’t focus on non-fiction writing.

I was glad to see there was even a section on writing about science and technology including this gem of advice:

Describing how a process works is valuable for two reasons. It forces you to make sure you know how it works. Then it forces you to take the reader through the same sequence of ideas and deductions that made the process clear to you.

— On Writing Well by William Zinsser

I recommend this book for anyone interested in improving their writing regardless of the form it takes. This book won’t make you a successful published author but it will make look at your writing in a more critical way and that’s not a bad thing if you want to improve.

While reading On Writing Well last night, I was glad to have found the section on technical writing.

Describing how a process works is valuable for two reasons. It forces you to make sure you know how it works. Then it forces you to take the reader through the same sequence of ideas and deductions that made the process clear to you.

— On Writing Well by William Zinsser

Patrick Rhone’s book Enough.

Buy it, read it love it and then read it again. I’ll still be reading this book for many years to come. That’s how great it is.

A little present from Nicholas Bate in the post last week. Just getting round to looking at them now.

Thanks Nicholas!

Amazing that Tolkien’s work is still being found.

There’s reading and there’s reading. Find out the difference.

via Sandbox Rim

Just a question for you all. What’s your criteria for deciding whether to buy a book in dead-tree format or digital format?

Brought to you by Nicholas Bate.

All I can say is thank goodness for books.

Another one for the list.

Thanks for the recommendation Patrick!

I have old favorites I return to again and again. Stories like Watership Down, The Wind and the Willows, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Washington Irving’s Sketch Book are wonderful re-reads. I’ve read many of Jim Harrison’s works over and over; the same with books by William F. Buckley, Jr., Paul Johnson, Charles Murray, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, and H.L. Mencken. I recently added Elmore Leonard to my re-read stable.

— Reading and re-reading by Kurt Harden

I have been re-reading a few books from my programming stack. I haven’t re-read any fiction for a while though. Might be time correct that.

… all the way from sunny Arizona.

Thanks Michael.

I spent my teens and many years after reading through the Discworld books and now I’m passing them onto my oldest to read. It was too soon for such a remarkable author.

via XKCD

It’s been a while since I last posted about the books I have been reading so here’s what I’ve managed to finish in the last couple of months.

Hannibal Series: Enemy of Rome, Fields of Blood & Clouds of War by Ben Kane

I do enjoy books based on this era and while there are many books in this genre, there are only a handful of authors who get it right. Ben Kane is one of them and his series set against the Second Punic War is great to read and grand in scale. Great characters, story and action and a little glimpse into a point in history that some might not know too much about.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Set in the near future when fossil fuels have ran dry and the divide between rich and poor has grown, many people are escaping a harsh world into a virtual universe. If you grew up in the eighties you’ll love this book. The story uses many of the popular videos games, table top games, movies and people who were popular with kids in the eighties. I loved it.

Blood Song: Book 1 of Raven’s Shadow by Anthony Ryan

Fantasy books have been a bit hit and miss with me lately. To be honest I had almost given up on the genre. After a run of non-starters though I finally found something worth reading. Abandoned by his father at a military school, Vaelin Al Sorna has to pass a training programme that will test his limits. Then he must use his skills for the benefit of the Faith. A dark story, but it was really entertaining. Can’t want to move onto the next book.

The Red Line: The Gripping Story of the RAF’s Bloodiest Raid by John Nicol

After reading Anthony Beevor’s book, The Second World War, my interest in the subject has been renewed with some interest. A chance spotting of a Lancaster bomber flying overhead on holiday was the nudge I needed to read this book about the RAF’s raid on Nuremberg in 1944. Amazing stories of the crews who flew on this mission and amazing accounts of those who survived. Highly recommended.

We should re-read some of our favorite books from childhood because adult life also has trolls, knights, and the occasional pirate.

— Random Thoughts by Execupundit

… and more from Michael Wade.

At long last I managed to finish The Second World War which has been holding up my reading list for the last few months. Here’s a few reviews of what I’ve been reading over the last few months.

• The Second World War by Antony Beevor - Without doubt this is the most complete and detailed account of the Second World War that you will find on any bookshelf. The bibliography alone takes up the last quarter of the book with supporting material from other books as well as journals of military personnel and civilians providing eye witness accounts of events. The book covers all the critical events from the leading up to the start of WWII until it’s final days when Japan surrendered to the US. It seems wrong to say that I enjoyed this book given the topic, but I did. It was a learning experience for me. A chance to find out everything I didn’t know about the Second World War. There were parts of the book that I found troubling to read, but the incidents that the book highlighted only re-inforce the human cost of war and why it should be avoided at all costs.
• Inferno by Dan Brown - Dan Brown’s books sometimes receives unfair criticism that they are not of the same calibre as other great fictional books but I’ve never found that. I enjoyed this book. Another outing for the Harvard symbologist. It was a good read and it kept me turning pages right to the end. One concern I have though for these books are their duration. Like the Chase / Wilde series by Andy McDermott, I’m starting to see a repeating pattern in the adventures of Langdon as he hops across the world, interpreting symbols and saving the world. I don’t think there’s much mileage left in these books if Brown decides to write more of them, but I still found this book enjoyable.
• The City by Stella Gemmell - I wanted to love this book so much as I thought that it being from someone who was close to David Gemmell when he was alive, it might have some influences from him. I started the book with enthusiasm but it quickly wained over the course of the first sixty pages. I found it to be slow with no sign of picking up. After sixty pages I eventually gave up and moved on to something else.
• Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck & Cynthia Andres - It’s been on the reading list for a while, but it’s taken me to now to read it thanks to a prompt by another developer on App.net who mentioned he was reading it to get back to the basics of extreme programming again. The ideas and practices that I learned from this book just back up for me how important agile practices are to software development. A must read for any software developer whether they are starting their career or want to re-kindle those basics of good software development practices again.

Just a few books I read towards the end of the 2013. I’ve still got some on my list but a few I’ve started and given up on.

• The Broken Blade by Kelly McCullough - First book in a series about a washed out assassin and his shadowy companion. Very unique for a fantasy book in that it’s more like detective noir. A great read and definitely not like anything I’ve ever read in the fantasy genre.
• War of the Roses - Stormbird by Conn Iggulden - This is the first book by Conn Iggulden in a series that will cover the people and events during the War of the Roses. Mostly factually correct, but again the story is great to read just like Conn’s Emperor and Conqueror series.
• You, Only Better by Nicholas Bate - I’ve read the book a handful of times now, just because it’s easy and quick to read, and each time I take a couple of extra notes from it. If you’re looking for a book to reboot yourself this year, then get this one. No nonsense and easy to digest.
• Crafting Rails 4 Applications by Jose Valim - I was expecting more of a reference book when I first heard of this but I was surprise when I read it to find it was more of a recipe book. Once I started to actually read it though, the recipes are simply there to explain techniques that you can use in your own Rails 4 applications. A must for Rails developers.
• The NOW Year by Mike Vardy - A very short ebook, but a great reminder of tools and techniques you can use to make working with your calendar a lot easier.

I decided to lump these together in one post rather than drag them out into seperate posts. I’ll also try and keep the reviews short and light. Watch out for more as I get more books read.

HMS Surprise & The Mauritius Command by Patrick O’Brian

These are books three and four in the Aubrey/Maturin series. I couldn’t possibly summarise the plots of these two books in a few short sentences, but they were both terrific reads. Like the first two books in the series there is great attention to detail in not only the characters and the plot, but also on the naval aspect of the stories. If you like your books short and fast paced these might not be for you, but I do love the way Patrick O’Brian has written these. They do require a fair amount of time to get through, but they’re definitely worth the time.

Don’t be an idiot: Learn how to run a viable freelancing business by Curtis McHale

I am fairly new to freelancing as are many others I would imagine. Most of us might have taken the plunge to freelancing without a thought to planning your finances. I did this a few years ago and the result was a disaster. I was completely burnt out and I didn’t even make that much money from it. Fast forward to now and despite a rocky start, I’m getting there and that’s thanks to this book.

In the book Curtis explains what’s needed to make that initial jump, setting the right payment terms, project goals and reviews and more. This book won’t tell you everything you need to know, I’ve yet to read a book that does, but this is a great starting point for those either looking to freelance or are currently freelancing but want to take it to a more professional level.

I hope that Curtis writes more books on freelancing in the future. He definitely has the right experience to draw from and he’s proof that setting the groundwork can make your freelancing career really prosper.

The Freelancer’s Guide to Long-Term Contracts by Eric Davis

When I decided to freelance at the start of the year, I was unsure about how many clients I should have and how often I should be advertising myself as being available. What I didn’t know was that there are in fact long term opportunities out there for freelancers. It’s sort of the happy balance between working for yourself and full time job security. This was a form of freelancing I hadn’t read about before but was really interested in.

Eric’s book however has been a great guide through the possibilities of long term contracts. Thanks to this book, I now see them as being the premium service in my freelancing career. If you’re looking to start freelancing and want the security of long term contract work then I would recommend that you get this book. It’s a different way of working than short term contracts and thankfully Eric has all the advice you’ll need.

Next on the list are War of the Roses: Stormbird, Frictionless Freelancing, You Only Better and Crafting Rails 4 Applications. I’ll be hoping to report on these at the start of next year.

I can’t wait to get NB’s latest book.

It’s a no brainer really. Books by NB are straight to the point and easy to act upon. I’m looking forward to this one.

Just a few more e-books that I am considering purchasing or they’re not released yet.

• Everyday Rails Testing with RSpec - I’m a big fan of MiniTest but I can’t simply stick to one testing framework when clients come to me with a codebase using RSpec. The two testing frameworks are quite similar in syntax but they do have their differences so it would be good if I was more faimiliar with RSpec.
• Mastering Modern Payments Using Stripe with Rails - I’ve used PayPal in the past for taking payments, but it is footery to work with. I’ve heard nothing but good things about Stripe since they took off in US. Now that they’re in the UK, now would be a good time to learn more about using Stripe with Rails.
• Learn to Run a Viable Business - Last but definitely not least is the book that I will be purchasing as soon as it comes out on the 27th. Curtis McHale, a blog hero of mine and a very knowledgable chap when it comes to freelancing, is putting together a book with advice to help make sure you are in fact running a viable business as a freelancer.

Some additions to my current reading list involve a couple of new e-books that I have purchased recently.

• Brandiing by Adii Pienaar - Bought out of the curiosity of knowing if this book could help me on a couple of side projects but also if there’s was a way of better branding myself.
• The Freelancer’s Guide to Long-Term Contracts by Eric Davis - I’m still light on clients as a freelancer but I am busy. With the clients that I do have, I want to build more of long-term relationship with them rather than just walk on to the next client/project. I hope this book will help with this.

That’s the problem with e-books. They’re so damn easy to buy!

Just when I thought I had read all the right books for writing, I’m recommended this great list by Steven Pressfield.

Thanks NB.

In the past I’ve tried to read two books every month. One fiction, one non-fiction. In the last couple of years though I have rarely been able to do this. Ultimately, I don’t have that much free time to read, so instead I’m reducing my expectations and setting myself a goal of just one book a month. Here’s my proposed reading list for the next six months:

• Frictionless Freelancing - It’s been a hectic six months and I’m glad I made the jump to freelancing, but there’s still so much more that I need to learn about.
• Pragmatic Thinking and Learning - I’ve had this on my list of books to read for years. Thought it was definitely time to purchase it.
• Crafting Rails 4 Applications - Rails 4 has been released. No time like the present to get myself up to speed.
• The Mauritius Command - I’m currently halfway through book 3 of the Aubrey/Maturin series and I’m really enjoying it. Can’t wait to start this.
• War of the Roses - Stormbird - Conn Igggulden’s Emperor and Conqueror series are some of favourite books of all time. If the quality of them are anything to go by then Stormbird will be another cracking read.
• The Second World War - Ever since I was kid, I have been fascinated by the Second World War. The planes, the tactics and the politics behind the countries involved. I’ve heard so many good reviews of this book I had to add it to my list.

While going through my Dropbox, I came across a number of programming ebooks that I have yet to start reading. Shocking I know. I mean, who buys books and then doesn’t read them?

At the time I thought the book was a necessary purchase but after buying it, I simply forgot that it was there. Over the months it seems I have built up quite a collection of unread programming ebooks.

I never had this problem with a book. You buy it, you read it. You read it because the book takes up physical space in your surroundings and therefore you are continually reminded that the book is there to be read. Most of the time I would place my book beside my bed. It’s the one time of the day where I can get a quiet half hour to read. Every night the book is there as a reminder that the book needs to be read.

Wat about ebooks though? They’re there somewhere in your room, you just have to look for them. And that’s my problem with them. Out of sight, out of mind. There’s no reminder in my space that I have a book to read. I have a Kindle yes, but there is at least eight books on there that I haven’t read, but by looking at my Kindle from across the room, I just can’t know that there is eight books on it that I have yet to read.

So what’s the answer? Being accountable for the books you read and publish your reading list for others to see? Perhaps. Maybe people can give you a poke when you haven’t updated the reading list for a while?

It’s worth a try. I’ll do anything to try and get my money’s worth from my unread programming books.

Last week I mentioned that I was bored with the fantasy genre for reading. It’s not very often I decide to read something out with this genre, but after having put down a number of fantasy books before finishing them over the last few months, I decided that enough was enough.

The first book to read out side this genre was Max Brook’s World War Z. I enjoyed watching the first series of The Walking Dead, but I’ve not been in a hurry to watch any of the series that followed. I did enjoy it, but for me it wasn’t a must watch show. Which was why I was apprehensive about reading World War Z. It’s a genre that I haven’t really wanted to read, but with the movie coming out this year, I decided that I wanted to read the book before watching the film.

I loved it. I really loved it. Telling the story from different eye witness perspectives was a great way to write the book. You get to see so many different reactions to the oncoming threat and how people deal with it. It also shows the ugly side of humanity when it comes to a world disaster. Too many books and films use the idea that humanity would be united in such a scenario, but this book shows a more realistic human responses when faced with such a disaster.

A great read, highly recommended.

I’ve been reading fantasy books for over 20 years now. I was first exposed to the genre through a friend at school who gave me the Dragonlance Chronicles to read. It was hefty book but I was immediately hooked. Since then I’ve read hundreds of books in the genre enjoying each and every one.

Over the years I’ve favoured authors like J. R. R. Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, Raymond E. Feist, David Gemmell, George R. R. Martin, J. K. Rowling and David Eddings. There have been a few authors who I have only read one or two books from, but I tend to favour books from the authors I just mentioned.

In the last year though I’ve become less and less patient with the books I have been reading. I’ve abandoned four books in the last year because they didn’t hold my attention. Books that I am reading are becoming predictable or simply just don’t grab me when I am reading them. Now I’m finding it especially difficult to find a new book to read from the fantasy genre because I don’t want the next book turning out to be another turkey.

I haven’t been reading books from the fantasy genre exclusively, I have been reading other books in the last few years including the Master and Commander series, Conn Iggulden’s Emperor and Conqueror series and a few other military history based works of fiction.

I’d even consider the zombie genre if it means I’ll find more books to enjoy. Perhaps it’s time for a switch.

Bought myself a couple of books this morning for some light reading. Not the digital kind mind, actual hold in your hand, dead tree books. It’s been ages since I done this. For the last couple of years I’ve bought all my books on my Kindle, but my reading has decreased in the last few months as a result of this.

I put it down to technology wear. I just can’t face burying my head in another screen again when it comes to reading at night. Amazon tout the Kindle as a close experience to reading an actual book, but you can never replicate the feeling of reading a book with anything other than an actual book.

I’m not going to completely stop using my Kindle. It’s still great for my programming books for quickly looking up something and I’ve got a ton of books on my Kindle that I read again quite often. There’s lots of other reasons why I’m buying books again but the main reason is just to spark my love of reading again.

The last couple of months have been a bit hectic in our house with an unscheduled job hunt for myself and the holidays were just coming up. With everything that was going on during this time, I stopped reading for a while. What’s surprising about this is that I’m a pretty consistent reader, maybe making my way through a couple of books a month.

Things are settled down now so I’ve started getting back on track with my reading again. I picked up where I left off with Post Captain, and I’m digesting a couple of freelancing books this month. I’m sticking with one fiction book and one or two non-fiction books every month.

In the future I’m hoping to publish my progress through the books throughout the year, so watch out for posts on the blog and possibly reviews as well.

Great to see one of Arthur Rackham’s illustrations in my Google Reader this morning. This is from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I’ve been reading this book every Christmas for years and this year I decided to start reading it to my six year old son. He’s loving that the story has ghosts and spirits.

via Madame Scherzo

Good to see independent bookshops fighting back but I suspect that this will only be a short lived response. It will be interesting to see if people vote with their money though.

• Post Captain by Patrick O’Brian - I’m continuing the series with the second book after thoroughly enjoying the first book, Master and Commander. Also I’m becoming well versed in 19th century naval terms. What more reason do you need to start reading these books!
• Heroku Hackers Guide by Randall Degges - First of two technical books this month. At only 60 pages, I’ve already digested this in a single sitting, but each week I’m going to review how I use Heroku for my web applications and learn how to make better use of the platform. This week it’s logging.
• Sublime Productivity by Josh Earl - Second of the technical books this month. Again this book is light enough to be read in a single sitting, but I’m going to try and learn a new shortcut key every day to make it easier to work with Sublime Text 2.

I know the Kindle Paperwhite isn’t out in the UK yet, but I’m reading the reviews to see what others think. After Scott Hanselman’s review I thought it wasn’t for me, but John’s review is a bit more favourable of the new Kindle.

I gushed over the new Kindle Paperwhite when it was released a few weeks ago, however after reading Scott Hanselman’s review of it, I’m glad I’ve not been able to buy one yet.

It’s fine. OK, it’s “fine.” But let’s be serious for a second. Every technology site is gushing about this device. They’re saying this is the e-reader to end all e-readers. It’s glorious, it’s perfect. Friends, it’s not. And this is from a Kindle Fan.

— Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3G WiFi Review by Scott Hanselman

Read the rest of Scott’s review if you’re considering the Paperwhite. Scott goes into more details than many of the so-called technology sites.I can see me holding on to my Kindle Keyboard for as long as it’s serving up my books. I too like the physical buttons for page turning and the keyboard does come in handy for taking notes on books (which I do a lot of). I don’t know how I would get on with a button-less Kindle.

Nicholas Bate’s Instant MBA is now free on Amazon.

Read it.

The complete story of cycling legend Eddy Merckx. Who can say no to that?

An impressive collection of books by Cultural Offering. Makes me wish I had a larger house for a collection of my own books. Unfortunately our pokey little house in the UK will only allow me to have a small collection of books next to my new office at home. Still, a small collection of my favourite books is better than none at all.

After seeing this posted on various blogs I’m subscribed to, I decided to list my five favourite books of all time.

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - I’ve been reading this book every Christmas for the last 25 years. A classic piece of writing that restores my faith in humanity every time.
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson - The first adventure book I ever read and is responsible for my love of fantasy and adventure books.
• Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien - Fantasy is my preferred genre for reading most of the time, and this trumps everything I have ever read in the genre so far. The amount of detail and work that went into the book is just astounding.
• Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read - I never heard about the story of the crashed Uruguayan plane in the Andes until I was about 12. The story itself is a harrowing account of how far humans can be pushed to survive.
• A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin - Forget the HBO TV series that made this mainstream. The books in this series, still unfinished, are such a refreshing change from the usual books in the fantasy genre.So there you have it. I’ve nothing as deep as War and Peace here.

I tend to stick to the fantasy genre for most of my books, but I have been branching out into some more historical areas in recent years. Conn Igguldenn’s Conqueror and Emperor series are both highly recommended and at the moment I have started reading through the Aubrey-Marturin series by Patrick O’Brien as recommended by Michael Wade.Instead of nominating 5 others to participate, I’m just going to leave an open invitation to you all to join in. Come on, get those 5 favourite books of yours listed.

… the Aubrey-Maturin series as recommended by
Michael Wade. I loved the movie, so reading the series of books is really a no-brainer.

More much needed career advice recommended by Nicholas Bate.

While browsing through the books at my local Waterstones store, I became aware of how easy it was to pick up books, rifle through them and decide whether to add them to my reading list or not. It’s something I do every month. Flick through a few books at the bookstore, take notes of their titles and then purchase them on Amazon for my Kindle. I’ve never just bought a book on Amazon though.While the purchase of books on Amazon is simple enough, the actual browsing of books isn’t the same as your average book store. At the book store I find that it’s quicker to pick up a book, flick through it, read the synopsis and then decide whether you like it or not.

On Amazon it’s fairly easy to decide on whether a book interests you or not as all the information is there on the book’s product page. Finding that book on Amazon however isn’t as easy as the bookstore method. You can’t glance or scan the books on the Amazon website.

Finding a specific genre or category is easy enough but then you’re met with a massive volume of books displayed in a white spaced grid with tiny images of the books cover.I’d much rather be able to scan the book spines in a horizontal page ordered by author. Just like the bookshelf at the bookstore. They have images of the book cover on the Amazon website, but why not the spine?

They’ve probably already done tonnes of research on this with teams of designers and marketing folks and disagree with my view. For me however, the browsing of books on Amazon just doesn’t compare to the experience of visiting a bookstore.​

Do What You Want is a quick, satisfying read.

It is about how to arm yourself and show value in a commoditized world.

Pick it up.

You won’t be disappointed.

— Never be a commodity by Cultural Offering

Kurt Harden wraps up Nicholas Bate’s book nicely.

Nice idea, but I would happily pay three times as much for a proper coffee table book.

via Under Consideration

Adding Patrick’s new book this to the list of book purchases for next month.

Patrick Rhone’s book, Keeping It Straight, is an essay based book that contains all the necessary little insights into life that you need to keep yourself heading in the right direction. Split up into three sections entitled, “You”, “Me”, and “Everything Else”, this book contains small essays that tell real life stories and the ideas and observations that Patrick has learned from them.Rather than getting bogged down in using the right tool or application for the job, Patrick focuses on the actual processes that have worked for him over the years and how you can also use them.

I know Patrick from his writing on his own website and his curated blogs such as Minimal Mac and The Random Post. I have followed his writing for a few years now and everytime I read one of articles, you learn something else that you can apply to your own life and make it better.I don’t want to call this a self-help book. Instead you should think of Patrick’s book as a guide to getting yourself back on track and working on the things that matter to you and making time to enjoy your life and family. Some might see it as a bit “touchy feely”, but the best insights and lessons in life are learned from the real world life experiences of others. It’s great that Patrick has compiled this collection of experiences together for the rest of the world to enjoy.