XWiki - Main - FavoriteBooks

Wiki code for FavoriteBooks

1: <h2><font color="#33BB33">Vernor Vinge's Books</font></h2>\\
2: <P>If you love hard science fiction, I strongly suggest books by <a href="http://www.rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/vinge/">Vernor \\
3: Vinge</a>. I've read all but one of his books and I consider him to \\
4: be a highly talented writer. (He's also a computer science teacher at \\
5: a university in southern California.) One of my favorite books of his is <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671720988/qid=918162988/sr=1-2/002-8242268-2390635">Across \\
6: Realtime</A>. Unfortunately, it's out of print now, but you could check \\
7: it out of the library or get it from one of the old book sellers online \\
8: (like <A HREF="http://www.alibris.com">Alibris</A>). </P>\\
9: <P>I finished Vernor Vinge's newest book (as of 1999) "A Deepness in the \\
10: Sky". Wow! As always, Vernor Vinge has outdone himself. There are so \\
11: many plot twists in this book that I never knew what to expect. At numerous \\
12: places throughout the book my expectations as to the way that certain \\
13: subplots would pan out turned out to be completely wrong. And, of course, \\
14: there were plenty of neat scientific and technological "concepts" that \\
15: are encountered and explored (For instance, we watch an alien race of \\
16: spiders go from the industrial age to the electronic age and explore \\
17: the differences that occur as a result of the spiders' being so physiologically \\
18: different from humans.). It's science fiction at its best! I highly \\
19: recommend it! </P>\\
20: \\
21: \\
22: <P>\\
23: Vernor Vinge's books (all are good, but the 1st three listed here are my favorites):<BR>\\
24: <UL>\\
25: <LI>A Deepness in the Sky (ISBN: 0812536355)\\
26: <LI>A Fire Upon the Deep (ISBN: 0812515285)\\
27: <LI>Across Realtime (ISBN: 1857981472)\\
28: <LI>The Witling\\
29: <LI>True Names and Other Dangers\\
30: <LI>Threats and Other Promises\\
31: <LI>Tatja Grimm's World\\
32: </UL>\\
33: <P>�</P>\\
34: <h2><font color="#33BB33">Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution</font></h2>\\
35: <P>The book is called "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution". \\
36: It's divided into three eras.</P>\\
37: <P>The first (and my personal favorite) describes the lives of the first \\
38: true hackers. These are the people from MIT in its glory days in the \\
39: late 1960s, early 1970s, that defined what it meant to be a hacker. \\
40: These are scraggly haired, unbathed, pale-faced nerds that slept during \\
41: the day and lived next to the computer (the TX-0 then the PDP-1, etc.) \\
42: at night because that was when the computers were available. These are \\
43: the people who picked the locks of school doors just because they were \\
44: locked. (To stop them from breaking into places they didn't belong, \\
45: the administration finally gave them a set of master keys to every door \\
46: in all the school buildings. This took the fun out of it, so they stopped \\
47: doing it.).<BR>\\
48: <BR>\\
49: The second part of the book is about the hardware hackers from the 1970s. \\
50: In particular, it follows the lives of people from the Homebrew computer \\
51: club. The third part is about the game programmers of the early 1980s. \\
52: That's the age of Atari, the Apple II, and a host of other mutually \\
53: incompatible machines. (Incidentally, I got my start on an Apply //e \\
54: when I was about 10.)<BR>\\
55: <BR>\\
56: This book makes me truly nostalgic about the days when computer time \\
57: was more precious than gold. That's not to say that I'd want to have \\
58: computer access restricted like that, but I feel nostalgic about it \\
59: anyway (despite the fact that I wasn't even alive during the period \\
60: described in the first section of the book).<BR>\\
61: <BR>\\
62: It's a truly excellent book and I recommend it to anyone who would enjoy \\
63: knowing more about the mindset of true programmers throughout the ages. \\
64: </P>\\
65: <P>�</P>\\
66: <h2 align=left><font color=#33BB33>The Hobbit</font></h2>\\
67: <center>\\
68: <img width=100 height=118 src="http://g42.org/images/hobbit__rbh02_gandalf.gif" alt="Gandalf the Grey"> \\
69: </center>\\
70: <p> <img align=left width=72 height=102 src="http://g42.org/images/hobbit__rbh_Bilbo.gif" alt="Bilbo Baggins"> \\
71: <img align=right width=100 height=91 src="http://g42.org/images/hobbit__rbh_gollum.gif" alt="Gollum"> \\
72: One of the best books of all time is <i>The Hobbit</i> by J.R.R. Tolkien. \\
73: I was first introduced to this wonderful book when I was a child (That's \\
74: probably one of the reasons why I like it so much. But, unlike music \\
75: that I like only because it was popular when I was going through adolescent \\
76: angst, The Hobbit really is some excellent stuff.). I used to listen \\
77: to the story-book record (a record and book set where you turn the page \\
78: when you hear the chime) all the time. I still have that story-book \\
79: record (actually the original one got scratched, but my dad got me another \\
80: one, so I now have two of them). I also have the 50th year gold-bound \\
81: edition (it was written in 1939) in addition to three other not-so-special \\
82: copies. I also have the audio book and the cartoon movie on VHS. I even \\
83: have a ring that I used to pretend was my Hobbit ring when I was little. \\
84: It didn't have the inscription on it, but I pretended it did.</p>\\
85: <P>� </P>\\
86: <h2 align=left><font color=#33BB33>The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</font></h2>\\
87: <img align=left src="http://g42.org/images/hhgttg_cosmic-cutie.gif" width=100 height=71 alt="The Cosmic Cutie"> \\
88: <img align=right src="http://g42.org/images/hhgttg_babelfish.gif" width=100 height=47 alt="Babelfish (you stick this in your ear)"> \\
89: Another phenomenal series of books is <i>The Hitchhiker's Guide to the \\
90: Galaxy</i> trilogy of five books. Before I read the first book in the \\
91: series I had never laughed out loud while reading a book. There were numerous \\
92: scenes in those books that made me chuckle and I seem to recall that there \\
93: were even one or two scenes where I laughed till I cried. Incidentally, \\
94: this is the series of books from which I got the idea for <a href="me.html#namechange">my \\
95: last name Fortytwo</a>. \\
FavoriteBooks

Top Menu

Wiki code for FavoriteBooks

Search

G42 Nav

My Projects

My Interests

My Stuff

Programming

Quick Links

Navigation

Blog

Main

Photos

Sandbox

Scheduler

Stats
