Books I've been reading

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

I'm sorry for blogging less frequently in the past few weeks. One of the things that I have been doing is reading a lot. I'm definitely using my Amazon Prime membership (which gives you "free" 2-day shipping on all your orders for an annual fee). Here are some of the books I've read in the past 30 days:

• The Zen of CSS Design - I'm always looking to improve my web sites. Lot's of inspiration here. I like the principles of using HTML as it was originally intended which is to give context to information while using CSS to control it's appearance.

• Windows Forms Programming in C# - I finished this one a few weeks ago but have used it as a reference as I develop a windows version of my timeline software. Not the perfect book, but it is the most useful of the 6-7 C# books that I bought or borrowed. I'm frustrated by the entry level nature of all the books I've found so far. They all say things like "of course you will want to implement undo / redo functionality in your software" but they do not suggest a way of doing it. It is hello world or design theory books. I've pitched my idea for a book to fill this gap to O'Reilly Media. If I'm lucky, maybe they'll let me write it. One of my life goals is to write one of those books with an animal on the cover. Has the honey-bee been taken yet?

• OpenGL Programming Guide - I've been learning how to do 3D programming for Bee Docs' Callout. This is a good reference, but it didn't really start to sink in until I looked at a lot of existing code on the net. Now that I have seen it in practice, the book is making more sense.

• Mathematics for Computer Graphics Applications - I remember thinking in college Calculus, "Boy, this is more fun than times tables but when am I every going to use this." Well, 10 years later, as I am developing 3D interfaced, I now need to use it! I bought this book to brush up my math skills. I just received it in the mail a few days ago but it looks good on the initial flip through.

• Tiger Development Documentation - I've been getting up to speed on the latest and greatest Mac technologies. You can download these PDF books off of Apple's website and print them out. I read the Quartz, OpenGL, Core Data, and Core Image ones over the past month. These are really well written and frequently updated. Go Apple!

• Harry Potter - I also read the latest Harry Potter book. Ms Rowling is going to have to write a 2,000 page volume to get all the loose ends tied up in the final installment. I think what makes these books great is the solid characters. She really seems to have captured the child / teenage mind in Harry, Ron, et al.

• Stephen King, On Writing - Just finished this audiobook. Interesting to hear writing advice from one of the most popular writers of our time. I'm not a big fan, but am always interested by what Mr King is up to.

• The World is Flat - Also listened to the audiobook for this one. Great conversation starter. Read or listen to the first two chapters if nothing else. Globalization is one of those things that you should have at least a high level awareness of, because it is going to affect all of us in one way or another.

Well, there you have it. Now you know why I haven't had a lot of time to blog.

Labels: amazon prime, book review, C#, steven king, the world is flat, windows