brainstorms

Monday May 23, 2005

now reading...

a list of books (in no particular order) that i have read or been (slowly) reading or skimming in the last number of months. recommendation style is borrowed from my friend peter honeyman.

highly-recommended, recommended, good, ok, dont-waste-your-time, trash.

[carlin]when will jesus bring pork chops
[grayling] the heart of things
[willett] eat, drink and be healthy
[evening] photoshop cs for photographers
[lane] nobody's perfect
[bunge] philosophy in crisis: the need for reconstruction
[goldman & gabriel] innovation happens elsewhere
[jury] about face: reviving the rules of typography
[whyte] crimes against logic, load of blair
[dennett] sweet dreams
[weber] the success of open source
[frankfurt] the importance of what we care about: philosophical essays
[dershowitz] shouting fire
[pratchett] moving pictures
[williams] style: the basics of clarity and grace
[clocksin & mellish] programming in prolog: using the ISO standard
[stone] a field guide to digital color
[pylyshyn] seeing and visualizing: it is not what you think
[marsh] blue note album cover art: the ultimate collection
[bittman] how to cook everything
[dawkins] a devil's chaplain
[evans & gruba] how to write a better thesis
[kingwell] catch and release
[moore] in other words
[pratchett] once more *with footnotes

[notes: i did not have the time to attach barnes&noble links. will do so soon.
grayling book, as with his earlier volumes [along with many other books printed in britain] is in acid paper. i am totally disgusted. i have decided not to waste money on any hardcover printed on acid paper. [some online booksellers now make note of acid paper.]
evening's photoshop book is one of the better books out there, but of course a cs2 edition is coming out soon. i wonder if i should hold off for another couple of months for adobe to release cs3, cs4, cs5, and cs-next... blecch.
note that blink is missing from this list, even though bookstores are nearly giving it away. i have now skimmed it with enough detail to know it is mostly anodyne fluff and i refuse to buy it until it is remaindered. i really worry his next target will be the computing industry, eg. open source...
frankfurt's essays are heavy going and require some exposure to philosophy, but well worth the effort. the one unusual essay about bullshit has been published as a tiny book.]