I will have to adopt an approach like Joshua Beck at Becoming Minimalist if I am to reduce my reading backlog. Not to mention keeping up to date with exciting new books like those in the Tournament of Books.
Read One Book Per Week
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Category Archives: Books
Drowning in books to read
I love books, i enjoy being given them at this time of the year and I enjoy buying them at any time. Unfortunately I sometimes fall behind with reading them.
The to read pile has grown to the point where I decided I needed to create a list to keep track of them – Omnifocus to the rescue. Listing them like this should discourage me from acquiring any more until I have reduced this backlog.
The Tufte and Alexander books were acquired as sets and are works I have been keen to have in my library for years. Christopher Alexanders’ A Pattern Language is one of my favourite books. I’ll take my time with these and expect to revisit them often.
Dark Mountain and eaarth share themes of coming to terms with a changed world and looking to the future.
The Adventures of Jack De Crow will appeal to anyone who has sailed dinghy’s especially Mirror’s. We built on of these in our garage during the 70′s.
And a smattering of IT books the most interesting of which is hopefully the Design of Design by Fred Brooks of Mythical Man Month fame. Still a relevant book although not everyone thinks so.
Now all I need to do is polish up my speed reading skills…and then there are the numerous magazines…
A Book Apart
Just bought this bundle from A Book Apart, excellent value – especially as eBooks.
I already had the CSS3 book by Dan Cederholm and its a good little book. Its the little part that I particularly like, these days I find I do not have the time to work through large technical books and much prefer condensed focused works like the ones published by A Book Apart. Another thing they have right is providing multiple formats so I can read this on my Kindle and the Macbook Air, the prags led the way on this and another favourite publisher.
Douglas Rushkoff – Change Agent
I have been reading two books by Douglas Rushkoff. “Program or Be Programmed” and “Life Inc”. These books have well reasoned arguments that encourage a subversive approach to two pervasive elements of modern life
- The rise of technocratic class that you should join before they take control of to many aspects of your life
- A fundamental challenge to our modern economic model and the way that plays out in our jobs and life choices
This is fascinating stuff and fits into a rare category of books that change the way you view the world around you.
There are many videos linked from his website and they are great viewing as he is a gifted orator and spruiker for change.
Rushkoff.com: ” DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF
Great Bookshops of the world
Fascinating photos of bookshops from around in the world in the this article in Salon.
Via Twitter from Mark Bertstein who has been to 3 of them. I’m pretty sure I have been to the final one in San Francisco, may visit the London shop this year.
Things that matter
Seth Godin has published a free ebook, “Things that matter”. It contains over 70 short essays from todays leading thinkers. Definitely worth a read. I found resonances in many of the entries however the following extract from Howard Mann caught my attention as its a phenonmena I see growing daily.
We walk the streets with our heads down staring into 3-inch screens while the world whisks by doing the same. And yet we’re convinced we are more connected to each other than ever before. Multi-tasking has become a badge of honor. I want to know why.
Howard Mann in Things That Matter
New books to look out for
Interesting collection of books from Seth Godin, the marketing wizard.
http://www.squidoo.com/Novemberreading
Nice to see Pamela Slim’s book in the shops, I am looking forward to giving it a read after enjoying her blog for some time.
Alan Watts
Reading Alan Watts in my teens I experienced my first taste of eastern thinking which has led to a life long interest. In his essays on Zen and the Tao I could feel deep truths were lurking just beyond the words. A particular favourite is Cloud-hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal
This collection of essays and transcribed lectures was compiled in 1973 shortly before his death. Watts was an enigmatic character who during this latter period of his life lived on a houseboat moored near San Francisco. He was a hedonist who loved life and indulged in it, causing many to dismiss him as something of a charlatan. For myself and many others however his writings opened the door to eastern thinking. He attempts to convey something to the reader that points to reality and to evoke flashes of insight. I came across an animated cartoon with an excerpt from a talk of his today via a post at Post at Goodlife Zen, definitely worth checking out.
Notebooks & Manifestos
I have love notebooks, especially interesting quirky ones that help me feel creative.
My latest notebook is the Makers Notebook from Make magazine. Its modelled after a lab book with graph paper pages. Solidly bound and with loads and useful (and just plain weird) data in the back pages. Included in the book are two manifestos, The Makers Bill of Rights and a Crafters Manifesto. Here is an extract
People get satisfaction for being able to create/craft things because they can see themselves in the objects they make. This is not possible in purchased products.
The things that people have made themselves have magic powers. They have hidden meanings that other people can’t see.
The things people make they usually want to keep and update. Crafting is not against consumption. It is against throwing things away.
People seek recognition for the things they have made. Primarily it comes from their friends and family. This manifests as an economy of gifts.
One of my other favourite notebooks are Moleskins – these are fantastic and come in many great formats. Lots of magnificently illustrated moleskins can be found at moleskinerie and at their Flikr pool (here). This photo is taken from the Logan Wines Cellar Door in Mudgee.
Visit to Hepburn Springs
We’re just back from a few days at Hepburn Springs in the Victorian Spa country. Its a beautiful area, quite cold at this time of year but still a rewarding place to stay and unwind.
We wanted to stay in Australia’s only Ryokan (a traditional Japanese Inn) – Shizuka. It was extremely peaceful and served beautiful Japanese food, although the futon was starting to feel a bit hard towards the end of our stay!.
Hepburn Springs has a lively cafe, the Red Star, an eclectic general store and an excellent gallery, the Chameleon. I was particularly taken by some subversive prints by Nick Mau and Carole Porter, eg one work sent up the absurdity of carbon offsets for such crazy things as tourist flights to the moon, in the colour palette of soviet era propaganda.
We also ate at a funky restaurant called Cliffy’s that was into slow food, most of the nights offering being variants of mediterranean slow cooked meat and veg combinations. Apparently the menu varies according to what the farmer brings in which is just how we like it. Very nice, especially washed down with the local organic pinot noir from the Captains Creek winery.
In nearby Trentham is the delicious Red Beard bakery which we visited a few times for their beautiful sourdough bread cooked in one of the few Scotch ovens remaining in Australia.