… in case you already didn’t know:

• Project Gutenberg
• MIT OpenCourseWare
• Wikibooks

Banker asked me whether “you know of any good IT bios, or books related to gaming or animation or coding that are interesting enough to a layperson”.

So, I came up with:

• Hackers and Painters

  • Sampler: Why smart people have bad ideas

• Joel on Software, the book

  • Sampler: Hitting the High Notes

Any other recommendations?

Note to self: I should read all the essays in these books as well.

Both Vignesh and JD have book-tagged me, so I am obliged to present to the world my choice of books… hmm… so here goes…

Total number of books I own : Around 30 techie books and 10 general books. Most of the time, I borrow books from the Eloor Library, so I don’t own as many books as I would’ve liked.

The last book bought? : India 2020 by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. I haven’t gotten down to reading it fully yet, though.

The last book you read? : The Second Coming of Steve Jobs

Books I am currently reading : Armies of Hanuman by Ashok Banker, and Flying Start by Jo Gardiner.

Books that mean a lot to me :

• Ignited Minds by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam — This is one of the most inspiring books I’ve ever read. I can never forget the words

Dream, dream, dream…. Dreams provide thoughts… and thoughts result in action.

and also what it means to be in “mission mode”.

• Secrets of Mind Power — Although it has such a drab title, it is one of the most insightful books I’ve read.. insightful about how we think, that is.

• Ramayana series of books by Ashok Banker — Reading the Ramayana come alive in its full glory is an ecstasy in itself.

• Beginning Perl by Simon Cozens — As far as I’m concerned, this book is the benchmark on how technical books should be written.

• The Fountainhead — Enough said.

• The Sigma Protocol by Robert Ludlum — This novel has got it all. Guaranteed sleepless nights until you finish reading it.

Well, that surely doesn’t look like a typical list that you would have expected…

I’m passing on the book tag to Pradeep, Avinash, Premshree, Ashok Banker, Angel and Viju. Looking forward to seeing their lists

Update: Book-tagging Niara as well.

It has arrived!

Ashok Banker has autographed it and has written a brief message for me

Come to think of it… I might be the first person in India (other than Ashok himself) to have this book, since it is slated to be released on 16th June!

Even if that is not true, I have an autographed copy … 20 years from now, art collectors will try to buy it from me, but I won’t give in.

Now, excuse me, I have some reading to do.

I had been to the library to look for a copy of Lee Iacocca’s autobiography, but all the copies had gone out. Then, I chanced upon this book called The Second coming of Steve Jobs in the same section. Honestly, how could I resist that? The timing couldn’t have been better since I was impressed after watching this year’s SteveNote.

The book was quite a revelation. There have been many “Whoa, really?!” moments when reading that book. Most of all, the book reveals how much of a maniac Steve really is (and I mean that in a nice way).

I remember watching the Toy Story movie a long time ago, but reading the history behind it was incredible. Yes, Pixar company is owned by Steve Jobs (if you didn’t know already).

Some interesting passages:

About Steve’s attitude:

Steve’s executives knew that there were only two ways to deal with him: either submit entirely to his will or have the intelligence and courage to survive his brutal confrontations. “Steve tests you, challengs you, frightens you,” explains Todd Rulon-Miller, who worked closely with Steve for six years. “He uses this as a tactic to get to the truth. Behind the profanity, it’s his way of asking: ‘Do you believe what you’re saying?’ If you wither or blather, you’re lost. I thought those were character-building moments for me.”

Love for his creation:

His perfectionism raged. He was obsessed with minute details that no one else in the computer business was even slightly concerned about. Even the hidden electronic guts of the Next computer - the “motherboard” - had to have a clever, visually appealing design. “Who’s ever going to see the inside?” one of the Next designers asked. “I will,” Steve said.

Double dating with BillG:

Heidi, who was single and had a crush on Steve, realized that she could exploit his fascination with Bill Gates as a way of drawing Steve into accompanying her on social occasions. At the time, Bill was in a long-distance romance with one of Heidi’s closest friends, Ann Winblad, a brilliant self-made software entrepreneur who had sold her startup company for $15 million. When Bill was in town, the foursome - Bill and Ann, Steve and Heidi - would meet in the city and go out for what Ann thought of as “double dates.”

The right people:

Steve was fanatical about hiring the best people. He said that they would interview one hundred people for every one whom they finally chose. And he would fill positions with people who were massively overqualified. The example that everyone talked about was a reputedly brilliant guy named Alex, a young hipster who had made it to the middle ranks at Apple. He had an undergraduate degree from Harvard. He was an art collector. His colleagues found him fascinating. He came to Next. Maybe he would become a marketing executive? A project manager? Steve made him the receptionist. The offer was something of an insult, but he took the job just to get in the door.

Apple of his eye:

His Pixar shares remained the sole source of Steve’s wealth. By turning down the board’s repeated offers of large blocks of Apple stock, Steve Jobs forfeited a paper profit of upward of $1 billion. He still worked at Apple for $1 a year, saying that he only took that dollar so his family would qualify for the company’s health plan. his old friends said that Steve was intent on making a statement, showing that he was saving Apple because of love, not money.

They’re actually many more passages that I liked, but I think I’ll stop here.

If you’re even remotely interested in Apple/Steve Jobs or simply have an iPod, then this book is definitely worth a read. It’ll make you appreciate your Macs and iPods that much more

I read Michael Crichton’s State of Fear last week. The story starts regarding George Morton, a millionaire philanthropist who supports the National Environmental Resource Fund and other such organizations … then a series of strange events happen with a racy pace. It even includes a trip to Antarctica.

At the end of it, you learn that global warming is a myth. Seriously. Crichton has done lot of research and points to so many real scientific papers, out of which many indicate that nobody really knows whether the current earth’s warming trend is natural or man-made, despite what many environmental organizations or industry organizations want you to believe.

It is best summed up in Appendix 1 “Why Politicized Science Is Dangerous”:

Imagine that there is a new scientific theory that warns of an impending crisis, and points to a way out.

This theory quickly draws support from leading scientists, politicians, and celebrities around the world. Research is funded by distinguished philanthropies, and carried out at prestigious universities. The crisis is reported frequently in the media. The science is taught in college and high school classrooms.

I don’t mean global warming. I’m talking about another theory, which rose to prominence a century ago.

Today, we know that this famous theory that gained so much support was actually pseudoscience. The crisis it claimed was nonexistent. And the actions taken in the name of this theory were morally and criminally wrong. Ultimately, they led to the deaths of millions of people.

The theory was eugenics, and its history is so dreadful - and, to those who were caught up in it, so embarrassing - that it is now rarely discussed. But it is a story that should be well known to every citizen, so that its horrors are not repeated.

Now we are engaged in a great new theory, that once again has drawn the support of politicians, scientists, and celebrities around the world. Once again, the theory is promoted by major foundations. Once again, the research is carried out at prestigious universities. Once again, legislation is passed and social programs are urged in its name. Once again, critics are few and harshly dealt with.

I am not arguing that global warming is the same as eugenics. But the similarities are not superficial. And I do claim that open and frank discussion of the data, and of the issues, is being suppressed.

I give the book a 10/10 rating. Don’t miss it.

I’ll soon be getting an autographed copy of ‘Armies of Hanuman’ from Ashok Banker! Woohoo!

That book isn’t in available in India yet

P.S. I’ll write about the other 81 reasons later…

I had written about the book ‘Prince of Ayodhya’ a few months ago.. it turns out that it is the featured review for the official EpicIndia website

Ashok Banker has already started to write the 9 books in the Mahabharata series and has an exclusive excerpt on his blog. That’s right, he has a blog!

I’m reading the ‘Demons of Chitrakut’ these days. Just can’t put down the book.

“Zero Minus Ten” is a James Bond novel written by Raymond Benson. The novel is a typical James-Bond story and I expected it to be one. Fancy gadgets from Q? Check. Talk to M? Check. Gorgeous women? Check. Trip round the world? Check. And so on, but the novel is interesting. A good book when you’re bored.

One thing that was interesting was the description of the author of the novel:

Raymond Benson is the author of the ‘The James Bond Bedside Companion’, which was shortlisted for an Edgar Allen Poe Award for best biographical/critical work and is considered by 007 fans to be the definitive book in the world of James Bond.

Mr Benson is also the designer and writer of several award-winning interactive software products and spent over a decade in New York directing stage productions and composing music. He has taught film theory classes at the New School for Social Research in New York and interactive screenwriting at Columbia College in Chicago.

‘Zero Minus Ten’, his first novel, was quickly followed by ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’.

What a versatile guy!

Yeah, I’m finally reading Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I’m reading the “Four parts of a trilogy” all-in-one book…. finished part 1 and part 2 (”The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”) and now reading part 3 “Life, the Universe and Everything”.

I wanted to read this book since quite a while because I’ve heard a lot about it and I mean a lot. The other reason is I wanted to know what was the answer to life, the universe and everything. Yes, it’s 42.

The book is quite humorous and I was enjoying the first part. Now, I’m just reading to finish it off. Yeah, there are some funny passages like this one:

The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.

A towel, it says is about the mast massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kafrakoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal; you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit, etc. , etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have ‘lost’. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still know where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

… but still what’s the big deal about this book? My only guess is that I might find out once I finish it or I am just wasting my time. Maybe only Deep Thought can answer that one.