The Great Book of Amber

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1. drostieMar 2012
   I remember cheating on Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. If you've never read the book, it's spent in double and triple flashbacks: "To understand where I am now, I must tell you about that night in the observatory. // There I was, cowering in a telescope, and I thought back on all that had come before, especially the job as an editor that I used to have. // While I worked as a publisher I remembered how I first met Jacopo Belbo...". I suppose we would describe it as a stack data structure, you keep pushing a new "present" onto the end of the existing one.

   So here's how I cheated. At one point the main character suddenly takes a trip off to Brazil, and I thought, "man, this is getting ridiculous. I bet if I just skip ahead to whenever he comes back from Brazil, I won't have missed much." It turns out that while I had missed some important things, like a new girlfriend who becomes a major player in the story, I saw enough of them afterwards to conjecture about what had happened in Brazil.

   What's more interesting to me is the set of books that I keep returning to. I have probably read Zelazny's Great Book of Amber (which is itself 10 novels) five or six times in my life, maybe more. It just captures me and takes me on a ride, each time.

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2. messelSep 2010
   A mostly current reading list: (inspired by Josh Fraser's post http://www.onlineaspect.com/2010/07/23/my-3-rules-about-reading/#idc-container)

   I've been giving away books for years, awesome habit! I finally got rid of all my old gaming books (hundreds) and their in the trunk of my car now ready to be dropped off at a nearby gaming store. Almost every technical book, algorithmic book, or fun book that comes my way gets stashed on my kindle ebook account, a pdf on dropbox, or now iOS apps.

   Favorite trends/futurist tech book: Kevin Kelly's New Rules for the New Economy, preorded his next book created from the Technium, What Technology Wants

   All time favorite fantasy book: The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazney (I read the series separately then got this awesome compilation of both series).

   The books I'm actively reading or have read recently. My backlog is growing much faster than I can read them (some of the books on my list): Design Patterns in Ruby

   CouchDB the definitive guide

   Javascript the good parts

   Seth Godin's work, idea Virus, everyone is an expert, Tribes, Zen Unicorn,

   Four Steps to Epiphany

   The Search

   Don't Make me Think

   Fun stuff that I read and affected who I am over the past few years: Awakening The Buddha Within

   The Art of happiness

   Peace in Every Step

   How to Get Rich

   Other fun fiction books: Pandora's star and the sequel

   Ender's Game + 1 sequel

   The Dark tower series (didn't finish)

   The Wheel of Time (didn't finish, stopped book before last)

   Stuff I haven't read yet but purchased/downloaded (in the queue): Viral Loop

   Getting Real

   The innovators dilemma

   The Age of Spiritual machines

   Cognitive surplus

   I live in the future, here's how it works

   BhagavadGita

   The Rails Way (great reference), Why's Poignant Guide, The book of ruby

   Beginning Scala, Scala By Example

   Byte of Python, Think Python, Dive into Python, Learn Python the Hardway (can you tell I'd love a chance to learn more about python programming)

   older stuff ( I blame wikipedia for getting me going on these):

   Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

   The Critique of Practical Reason

   Politics: a treatise on government

   An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the wealth of nations

   How to make friends and influence people

   The only book I've released/written (based on my first few months blogging last year) 3 Steps to Satisfaction http://www.victusspiritus.com/2009/05/29/my-first-ebook/

   Hopefully soon to be released, a future fantasy rpg I coauthored primarily with one friend with input from another. My coauthor is finishing the final editing while I work in a shrinking industry (systems engineer), push forward with a startup (go web apps!) and look for potential positions at active startups (love meeting people that dream big). Children of the Ark http://www.victusgames.com/Welcome_to_Victus_Games.html

   Presentations: My slideshare favorites: http://www.slideshare.net/Victusfate/favorites

   Startup Metrics for Pirates (nice Dave Mcclure!)

   Dean Keynote Ladis (Google Designs, Lessons and Advice

   building large distributed systems)

   The Interoperable Web

   Digital Intuition: Applying Common Sense Using

   Dimensionality Reduction (Classification, Suggestion algs, Hunch!)

   Design with Intent (more slides than cards)

   Learn to Use semantic technologies using open source tools

   Skill vs Luck in Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital: Evidence from Serial Entrepreneurs

   ubuntu pocket guide

   If anyone needs a copy of a pdf of one of the above presentations, let me know

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3. kizz246Dec 2016
   Most Highly Recommended:

   Cosmos - !!!

   The Measure of Reality - How quantification has completely changed the face of society. Very interesting stuff. This has probably been my favourite read this year.

   Nightfall - Interesting ideas of the role of religion in society and mass hysteria

   Speaker for the Dead - Really fascinating book. I love sci-fi where there is an alien species that humans have trouble understanding for whatever reason

   Books I unrecommend:

   Heretics of Dune - Ugh. Tedious. I actually couldn't finish it. Didn't start Chapterhouse either.

   Information Doesn't Want to be Free - Pretty basic. How many footnotes do you really need before you just include them in the text?

   Was on maternity leave this year so there are quite a few. Those marked * are also recommended.

   Guns Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond *

   The Vital Question - Nick Lane *

   The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath *

   Convergent Series - Larry Niven *

   Cosmos - Carl Sagan *

   World of Ptaavs - Larry Niven

   The Integral Trees - Larry Niven

   The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

   The Girl with Seven Names - Hyeongseo Lee *

   Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values - Robert M Pirsig *

   The Thrilling Adventures Of Lovelace And Babbage (Comic) - Sydney Padua

   The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 - Roger Zelazny

   The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250 - 1600 - Alfred W. Crosby *

   Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C Clark *

   The Time Dweller - Michael Moorcock

   Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne

   Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card *

   Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card *

   Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible - Tim Gunn *

   The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimon *

   The Hugo Winners vol. 3 - Various

   Between Planets - Robert A. Heinlen

   The Martian - Andy Weir *

   Perelandra - C S Lewis

   Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert (Unfinished, couldn't do it.)

   Nightfall - Isaac Asimov *

   Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov *

   Foundation and Earth - Isaac Asimov *

   Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlen *

   Information Doesn't Want to be Free - Corey Doctorow

   Currently Reading

   Engines of Creation: The Coming Era Of Nanotechnology - K. Eric Drexler *

   Planets for Sale - A.E. van Vogt

   For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway

   Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald

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