61–70 of 222 posts
Prior to that it was House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds. Far-future sci-fi about a group of traders who travel at near-relativistic speeds from planet to planet over billions of years, watching human civilizations rise and fall.
Technical:
Oppenheim et al, Signals and Systems
Abelson and Sussman, SICP
The Fourier Transform and its Applications
Project Management for Construction
Nontechnical:
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Schelling, Strategy of Conflict
The US Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual
Araki Photofile
...
All of them are too interesting.
Arabian Nights, Hussain Haddawy's translation. Hilarious and many life lessons, strongly recommended. http://www.amazon.com/Arabian-Nights-New-Deluxe/dp/039333166...
Healthy at 100, John Robbins. Just started, looks promising. http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-100-Scientifically-Healthiest-...
The Psychology of Self Esteem, Nathaniel Branden. Gosh, Branden's so smart, I just wish he'd use smaller words and sentences so I could get his general ideas faster. http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Self-Esteem-Revolutionary-A...
I just gave up on "Execution" by Larry Bossidy, it seems good but I wasn't connecting with it right now.
I read "Katsuno's Revenge and Other Tales of the Samurai" recently, which was a good, short book. It's like 120 pages, with six stories or so. A few of them were interesting, a few didn't speak to me, but overall worth a read. You'll learn some underpinnings of Japanese culture from it. (Also, it's only $9 on Amazon right now, can just add to cart for next order) - http://www.amazon.com/Katsunos-Revenge-Other-Tales-Samurai/d...
Finished "The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan" recently - very interesting, it's a look at the more political machinations and presents a dirtier, less ethical picture of the great strategists in the Sengoku era. http://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Banner-Classics-Japanese-Liter...
Don't start with it if you're not familiar with the era, though, you'll get the general sense wrong. I'd recommend start with Eiji Yoshikawa if you like Japanese history and want to learn more - of course, start with "Musashi", which is fantastic. If you really like it, "Taiko" is good too.
Musashi (my favorite book, huge for people who have lots of potential and are having a hard time dealing with people close to them because of it) - http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/4770019572/r...
Taiko (start with Musashi, if you like it a lot, pick up Taiko) - http://www.amazon.com/Taiko-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/4770026099/ref...
Also, finished The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing which is the best business book I've read in a long time. Short, simple, to the point. Highly recommended. http://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Marketing-Violate/dp...
The Brothers Karamazov. Awesome, if only for the casually violent Russian realism that I loved in Преступление и Наказание. As far as learning goes, I'm chugging through the FARs and the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. I'm about to solo. As far as computer tech stuff goes, I haven't picked up a book with hype (plus requisite clipart/bad drawings/abuse of color space) on the cover in years. Edit: What's up…
The big problem with Rand is that she's downright nasty to the other side. So people feel attacked and tune themselves out to her good ideas. Rand's anti-politicking, pro-individualism, pro-triumph, pro-innovation, pro-going against the grain, and so on. She rails against the very real, very nasty backroom deals that give privilege and blessing to companies who can work the political system at the expense of companies built by clueless-to-the-law engineers and scientists. She makes a heck of a lot of good points...
...but she's really nasty about it, incredibly unfriendly and unsympathetic to the motives of people who have other politics than hers. It makes it easy for people with other views to tune out everything she wrote, even though there's a lot of value in it.
I also got a book about Ulysses to help me glean as much as possible out of this intellectual and physical monstrosity of a book.
The Hobbit
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter by Thomas Cahill
I track my reading on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/enkrates