Summer 2006 Reading

Here, in order, are the books that I have consumed over the summer. The same list can be found here.

1. Little Schemer
   I finished the Little Lisper a year ago. Little Schemer is a fresh introduction to Scheme with some revision on the end chapters. I much prefer the derivation of the Y-combinator in this book compared to the one from the Little Lisper. The omission of the end-of-chapter exercises from this edition was much missed although the authors did include more examples this time around.
2. The Pentium Chronicles
   This was a very nice book detailing the process that transpires in the making of a processor. The book was a bit technical and I really appreciated that fact that I had taken ECE 411: Computer Organization and Design. This book really shows you how brilliant people can really create wonders.
3. Blink
   Blink tries to provide some arguments as to why intuition works. Through various examples, the author provides compelling reasons (not really evidence) to support that notion. Blink is an easy book to read and is well worth it for all the interesting anecdotes thrown in.
4. 55 Ways to Have Fun with Google
   An interesting book. Mind you, it's not a book on how to search better with Google (there are some of those too in the book). Rather, it showcases all the nifty things that you will never think of doing with Google. Most of the chapters will probably not be useful to anyone, but it is a fun book nonetheless.
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
   This book was all right. However, I found that the kid being portrayed was more of a savant that an autistic kid. Personally, I found that the behaviors ascribed to the kid were stereotypical-- they're what we think a autistic kid should be like. Nothing much to be missed for passing this book.
6. Life of Pi
   I will not recommend this book to anyone. Too long for its own good. Half way through, I was just reading it for the sake of completing it. The ending was nothing spectacular either. Moreover, I find the sentences much too long-winded.

Books that I am in the process of completing:

• Pragmatic Version Control: Using Subversion (2nd Edition)
  I have finished most of it already. Essentially, I have enough knowledge on how to use Subversion. I will probably use this book as a reference in the future.
• Refactoring to Patterns
  An interesting book on how to evolve your design to fit into well-known patterns. I am halfway through the book and there isn't anything much that I have not seen or read about before. However, the detailed steps on refactoring to patterns might come in handy some day.
• The Seasoned Schemer
  This is a great companion to the Little Schemer. It's in this book that letrec, let and call/cc are introduced. I would be more inclined to recommend this book had the authors made use of the normal nomenclature for Scheme and functional languages. Most of the terms are not mentioned making it harder to search for more information on the topic on Google since you do not have the proper term to refer to it.

I think I could have consumed more books had that piqued my interest (I am being very optimistic here) but was not able to do so because it is rather hard to procure the latest books from book stores here. In fact, there has been a dearth of decent book stores and most have been relegated to only selling school textbooks and reference materials. Seems like most Malaysians do not find reading to be a enjoyable hobby.