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Good Reads for 2008

Feb 4

RyanUncategorized 1 Comment

End of the year reflecting.

In no particular order, here are some of my favorite reads for 2008.

• Anathem, Neal Stephenson.  Holy smokes, this book was deep and awesome.  The foreshadowing in the early part of the book is beautifully subtle, there are chapters that are entirely explanations of geometric proofs and the book had a great ending.  Whacky stuff.
• Life of Pi, Yann Martel.  Now, originally I was staying clearing of this one…mostly because the author might be Dutch.  I started this and bailed about 40 pages in, after forgeting my book at home on a long weekend I stole it back from Kate and really liked it. More or less, who wouldn’t like a survival tale about a kid on a life raft with a tiger.  Sidenote, I actually have a survival plan for the very same organization.
• Crytonomicon, another Neal Stephenson.  Two story lines converge from WWII and present day.  High tech, realistic, great character development.  Best part, a mathematic formula of a character explaining his feelings for a girl.
• Ephesians, Paul.  Being new to reading the bible in any kind of intentional way, this is the first time I read this book.  Great stuff, the part the God put on me “6-7Don’t let yourselves get taken in by religious smooth talk. God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with him. Don’t even hang around people like that.”  Heavy words for a guy who is wired as a sales person.
• Getting Started with Arduino.  A little explanation on this one; Arduino is a programable circuit board I have been playing with.  This great starters guide from the people at Make has gone a long ways in helping get my feet wet (I made a light flash!)
• Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. I was going through these things one every few days when I still had my beloved Kindle.  A few favorites: Mort, Thief of Time, Small Gods.  They are all great reads though.  I think there are about 30 in total, go nuts.
• Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury.  I know a lot of people read this book in High School. I didn’t. Loved it.