Today, I saw a post from Jennifer that led to her list of favorite (and not so favorite) books.  This sort of boggled my mind, since I wanted to post about two books that I have: one I just finished reading, and one I’m reading now:

Practices of an Agile Developer (Venkat Subramaniam & Andy Hunt, ISBN 097451408X):
I just finished reading this; its probably the best book on agile development that I’ve ever read.  The book is very practical, and not geared to a particular flavor of agile development, like the XP books are.  I’d put this on my “must read” list for any developer.

Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C# (Robert C. Martin & Micah Martin, ISBN 0131857258):
This is an interesting book, because its a re-do of a book that “Uncle Bob” wrote a while back focused on Java.  This book makes his points (all language agnostic) more accessible to C# programmers.  There’s an excellent chapter on an example of agile development around scoring bowling.  I saw Bob do this live, and it was remarkable.

I’m thinking of putting up a list like Jennifer’s, but at this point, that seems a daunting task:  I read a lot of books!

9/13/2006 8:53:35 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general | books

I’m trying very hard to forget. However, I received a huge shock today: ATL Internals, 2nd edition, is available for pre-order! I’d figured with all of the .NET hype at Microsoft, the book was dead. Apparently, not. For those still doing COM development, the book covers ATL 8 (which I assume is the VS 2005 version).

According to Barnes & Noble, publish date is July 2006, but you can pre-order now. And, for those of you who don’t mind the way they treat their customers, you can pre-order from Amazon too.

Hey, anybody remember when Amazon got sued because there was already an Amazon Bookstore in Minneapolis (for 30 years prior!) that was being confused with the internet store? Ah the good old days…

5/9/2006 9:11:33 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [1]  books | development

Here’s my latest “What I’m Reading” entry: I just finished Magic Street by Orson Scott Card. It isn’t very long, but it’s quite interesting: fantasy with an African-American twist. Haven’t you wondered why all those fantasy heros were white guys? Well, this story shows what happens when its the African-American that have the fairy trouble.

It’s quite good, if a bit short. Other than the before mentioned African-American twist, it’s a pretty pedestrian story, but what a twist! I wouldn’t mind seeing this one on Sci-Fi or as a movie (are you listening, Hollywood?).

9/19/2005 3:28:00 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general | books

A couple of weeks ago, when I had dinner with Kurt and his wife, Patricia, we got talking about books. It turns out that Patricia is a fan of science fiction. Who’d have thought! I’m always surprised by just who reads sci fi and fantasy among bibliophiles.

Anyway, this reminded me that one of the things I wanted to do in this here blog was share the books I’m reading. So, here’s the first installment.

I’m currently reading Shadowfall, by James Clemens. This is the first book by Clemens that I’ve read. Apparently, he has a few other books under his belt. It’s the start of a Fantasy series. I haven’t finished it yet (I’m at the climax), but so far, its been a good read. It has a unique take on gods and god-magic. I always enjoy a twist in that area. The story concerns a fallen “Shadowknight” who witnesses the assassination of a god and is promptly blamed for the crime. The ensuing plot twists are fairly predictable, but still, that whole god-magic thing has me hooked. Get this: the gods’ power is tied to their bodily secretions! In fact, there’s a whole economy built around these secretions.

So, for those who enjoy a good book about god wars and divine magic, I’d recommend this book.

9/8/2005 7:17:39 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  books | general