So I’ve read a lot over the past several months probably starting somewhere back in October or November. Since then I’ve probably read more books in a few months than I had up to that point. Well that’s not really true, but it feels like it. A non-exhaustive list in no particular order: Harry Potter 1-5, Thich Nhat Hanh, Life of Pi, Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Search (part,) How to Win Friends and Influence People, Mark Twain Short Stories, How to Know God, Gas n’ Snack, and A Man and His Luggage.

I’m currently reading a recomendation/loan from a co-worker: Surviver. And up next is a suggestion from a friend: Rocket Boys which is the book written by Homer Hickman, the one the movie October Sky is based on.

So yeah, this isn’t a very interesting blog entry being just a list, but its intention is to get me started on coming back and writing up my thoughts on the above. Oh and there’s quite a few movies I ought to throw on to this list too, but I’ll save that for another post.

I recently started reading the Harry Potter books, a christmas gift from a couple of years ago, and after finishing the first two I moved on to read a book suggested by a different friend, How to Know God”. I’ve found that book interesting thus far, but the jury is still out on whether or not I like it, hopefully I”ll get around to writing about it here. Getting back to my origial point I decided to pick up something fictional to read along side How to Know god and not wanting to pick up the third Potter book yet, I decided to go back to something I’d heard of a long time ago that got mentioned recently at work.

I’d run across Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom in the past, probably through /. or Creative Commons or somewhere like that, but had never gotten around to reading it. I’d heard lots of good things about it and like the idea/purpose behind the book as well. I’ll save you my overly detailed recounting of the book and my underqualified opinion of it’s author’s statement in licensing it with a Creative Commons license and leave it that it’s an interesting read. Sci-Fi without being too far out there. A very human and compeling story, well worth the price/read.

I’ll call this one a book review even though i haven’t read the book, it’s not out yet, but anyway. Edward Tufte is a
Yale University professor and an authority on graphic display of information. He spoke at a special Tuesday eddition of the Friday Learning Series at Amazon.com today. It was extremely interesting, one of the most interesting talks I’ve ever attended. His work, had I previously heard of it, would of been extremely helpful in my previous job.

He spent most of his time talking about what is required to effectively display information and I have to admit that it was something I’d never put much thought in to. His ideas and principals were very intuitive and put in to practice would, I imagine, pay off immensily. I won’t re-hash them here, as I would totally butcher his points from memory, but I will mention the concept of sparklines. Check out the sample of his upcoming book Beautiful Evidence.

He has strong opinions on Microsoft Power point. He served as a consultant to the boards reviewing the Challenger disaster and offers innsight to why early warnings about the possible problem with the shuttle were partially ignored because of the culture that Power Point created.

He’s a very interesting man and his work should prove interesting to most any one with a general interest in computer and information science.

Collateral was decent, not great, but not bad either. Jamie Foxx was really good in this movie. I didn’t think that at first, but it kinda grew on me. It originally came across as overacting, but after a while i kinda came to see it as the character and his neurotic tendancies. Tom Cruise plays a contract killer, Vincent, hired to kill 5 people connected with the trial against a drug kingpin. Max, Foxx, is a cab driver who gets involved and is forced to drive Vincent around to his jobs. My only complaint with the movie lies with the storyline being a bit cheesy at times, a little too far fetched, not unrealistic, but just not plausable. i managed to ignore all that and it turned out to be a decent show. It’s a dollar movie worthy.

C.S Lewis – 1952

On a recent vacation to visit some friends in Califorina we went camping. While camping at some point during a long late night conversation with a newly made friend she mentioned C.S Lewis and thought I might enjoy his writing style and subject matter. A few days later as I was saying goodbye to her and leaving to head back home she handed me his book Mere Christianity. To sum it up in a phrase: it made me think. If you want me to expound on that a bit more then read on.

A while bcak /. had a psot about how switching the order of letters in common wrods has littel effcet in raeding comprehension.

More recently (like today) there was another somewhat realted post pointing to a paper about how the human mind works with respect to reading. If you find this type of stuff interesting this is a really good read. The mind is an amazing mechinism.