I admit it, I’m addicted…(to books that is)
I am addicted to books. I can freely admit it. My friends are dumbfounded, my kids look at me funny, my wife mearly tolerates it. It’s a disease. The only saving grace is that after years of collecting I am getting pickier about the books I get, if only because I am running out of possible bookshelf space. I try to take a book or magazine everywhere I go, just in case I have a spare minute to catch up on a chapter or article.
I recently moved and in doing so I had to pack up all my books. Wow, there were a lot of boxes, currently well over 900 titles. Most of them have to do with Software engineering, programming, computer science, and business/leadership.
Some books I read just because the authors wrote them. Gerald Weinberg, Steve McConnell, Jeffrey Richter, Charles Petzold , Grady Booch, Bjarne Stroustrup, Johanna Rothman, Alfred Aho, and Cem Kaner are just a few of the many. Gerald Weinberg could write a book on dog washing and I would rush out an buy it. I know there would be wisdom inside on making great software.
I recently overheard someone ask a person knowledgable in a subject “Can you recommend any books on <insert technical subject>?” The person responded by saying, “No, I don’t really read books”. Wow, I thought. Please don’t tell me that Steve Jobs is right??? (http://digg.com/gadgets/People_don_t_read_books_says_Steve_Jobs). I have heard of strange people out there that don’t read books, but I always thought it was so beneficial to gain knowledge from those that have been there. Yes, there are lots of lousy books. But if you do a little homework, you can find the good ones.
During interviews, I’ll ask applicants how they learn. They inverably say “I look around on the internet”. Everyone says that. Lots of folks do get great information on the net. But I tend to think that is just the pat answer. I have found the wisdom to noise ratio on the internet to be extremly noise heavy. Sure, there are lots of gold nuggets of information. But you have to slog though a lot of black sand find them. I’ll also ask programmer and tester interviewees what books they have read in the last year. They usually mumble some fiction book. I just don’t get it…
So, what am I currently reading?
Working with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System, Hundhausen
Lessons Learned in Software Testing, Kaner et al
The Ruby Way, Fulton
Mastering Regular Expressions, Friedl
Whats next in the queue?
High Performance Web Sites: Essential Knowledge for Front-End Engineers , Souders
Essential ASP.NET 2.0, Onion
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Bossidy et al
Programming Language Pragmatics, Scott
What are you reading?
Scott
Uncategorized
I don’t buy as much but I read a lot at Borders and my company provides free subscription to Safary Books Online
I am currently reading:
Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager (Paperback)
by Michael Lopp
Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions (Paperback)
by Tim Ash
Head First Design Patterns (a Java book, yes. but it is really good and they have a unique style for a programming book)
XUnit Test Patterns: Refactoring Test Code, Meszaros
The Best of Software Writing I , Spolsky
Here is a sample article from the book: http://www.neopoleon.com/home/blogs/neo/archive/2003/09/29/5458.aspx
JavaScript Unleashed, Wyke & Gilliam
Building Technical User Communities.
On the pile:
Application = Code Markup, Petzold
AJAX: The Definitive Guide
My wife is also a booky. Between the two of us we don’t have a wall big enough hold all of our books, well over 1000 books.
I hear you brothers. I have been collecting technical books for 30 years. Two walls full of those. About 400 Technical books. As for the Fiction I have almost 5000 volumes of those. Ran out of wall space in the house and the garage last year.
One of the reasons i picked up my kindle was to reduce the amount of paper I was throwing away. I went to getting a online subscription of the Wall Street Journal. Downloads everyday and no paper to throw away. I also have started picking up the classics off project gutenburg, new ebooks from baen and fictionwise. Up to 400 or so books on the kindle.
I am currently reading some fiction,
• Fatal Revenant by Stephen Donaldson
• Myth-Gotten Gains (Myth Adventures) by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye
I have started buying my technical books as pdf’s so I am reading
• Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008
• Client-Side Reporting with Visual Studio in C#
• Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform, Fourth Edition
I also switched to getting my Music (over 10,000 tracks) as MP3 downloads from amazon and My dvd’s through Amazon Unbox to save space.
The only disadvantage I see so far to going digital on this stuff is I am using over 100GB for Music, 450GB for ~700 movies and TV shows and ~5GB for electronic books. I am trying to find out if I can put a 8GB Sd card my kindle now and I think I will try to pickup a MS Home Server from HP to supplement my 1TB World books.
Scott
You said you don’t get it. Well i don’t get it either. Most of my reading is for pleasure if i need to read for work i will read for work. But when i just want to decompress and have some me time i read fiction.
I don’t get reading tech books just to read them, unless I plan on using what I have read I would forget it fast. But you give me a good fantasy book watch out i can eat them like drinking water.
But then every one has something they really like to do. You like to read tech stuff lots of other people like to read for the joy of it. Meh to each his own reading and topic styles.
Scott, thanks for the marketing tip. I’ve dropped everything and started the book on dog washing. I’ve got to do a great deal of research, because our three German Shepherds won’t tolerate being washed, though they like to roll in mud.
In the meantime, watch for my forthcoming book, “Perfect Software: and other illusions about testing.” (Dorset House says it should be ready before July.) It does have some tips that might be useful when washing your dog, especially if your dog is full of little bugs.
Mr. Weinberg:
Thanks for the comment. I look forward to the book about software testing as well as dog washing. Best of luck to you.
Scott
Have you checked out PaperBackSwap.com?
If not, you should check it out. It is a free swap site where you can swap your gently used books for other books.
http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php?n=7&r_by=ladycari