I love to read, but never have enough time to read everything I want to read. I assume other folks have the same problem.
While I can't give you any additional time, I can at least review and recommend books I've read that are worth spending your time on. This isn't a comprehensive list of books I've read -- just the books I have found particularly worthwhile. I'll add more as time allows.
Fiction
A Prayer for Owen Meanyby John Irving -- Almost every book by John Irving is worth reading. (I've had trouble making it through A Son of the Circus and finally gave it up.) Prayer, however, is his best work to date in my opinion.
The first time I read Owen Meany, I couldn't put it down. Irving weaves a tale that is sometimes tragic, and sometimes hilarious -- but always compelling. I need to re-read this one soon, and will blog about it more in the next year or so.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -- I should hope you've read this one already. Not only should this book be required reading, a copy should be issued to every child at birth.
Twain's gift for language, alone, is a good enough reason to spend time with this novel. But the story and themes in Huckleberry Finn are what really make this required reading.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxyseries by Douglas Adams -- No matter how many times I read this, I always come away with something new. I suppose some of this is a "reader-response" issue; Every time I re-read the series, I have new experiences to bring to the table and therefore focus on different aspects of the series and pick up on different themes I may not have noticed the first time around. But it's more than just a funny bit of Sci-Fi -- it pokes (hard) at a lot of the imperfections of mankind and makes you think about how narrow-minded people tend to be, and also inspires us to be more than residents of a "mostly harmless" planet in an unfashionable backwater of the galaxy.
I suspect most, if not all, readers of this blog will have already been exposed to H2G2. If not, run, do not walk, to your local book store and pick up a copy of the collected works. It's OK to skip Mostly Harmless and The Salmon of Doubt, but the other four in the "trilogy" are a must.
Post Office by Charles Bukowski -- Bukowski's semi-autobiographical missive on working in the Post Office is raw and simple. It focuses on the life of a blue collar worker with a menial job and little to look forward to.
Non-Fiction
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin -- I find Godin to be simultaneously brilliant and frustrating. Brilliant because he tosses off inspiring and insightful advice about leadership. Frustrating because it provides little practical advice for people who aren't fortunate enough to work in the kinds of organizations he envisions.
If everyone heeded Godin's advice, the world would be a better place for it. Failing that, some who take his advice will succeed and others will find themselves flailing in a workplace that isn't friendly to unconventional thinking.
Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21730 Pages by Ammon Shea -- File this under "books I wish I had thought of / written." If you don't think you'll ever find time to read the entire OED, then you should check out Shea's treatise on reading the OED from front to back.
It's nice to know I'm not the only person who finds dictionaries fascinating.
Technology
Learning the bash Shell by Cameron Newham -- My favorite book on bash. I don't find as much time to beat on bash scripts these days, which is a shame, but this is the first book I turn to when I recommend a book on bash.
Front End Drupal by Emma Jane Hogbin -- A great book on leveraging Drupal for mere mortals.
Head First Networking by Al Anderson and Ryan Benedetti -- I love the "Head First" books. Head First Networking is a good starter for anyone who needs to learn networking fundamentals but doesn't have a penchant for pain.
Learn to Program by Chris Pine -- Nice book on programming for beginners. Focuses on Ruby, but the concepts should carry over to other languages.
Reference
The Oxford English Dictionary --while not a book that most people will sit and read, it is the single best reference work on the English language ever compiled. Pick a word, any word, and you'll find a full history of that word and detailed meaning. I have the single-volume compact version of the OED that requires a magnifying glass to read, and I could spend hours skimming through it and soaking up every detail.
Books you should read
I love to read, but never have enough time to read everything I want to read. I assume other folks have the same problem.
While I can't give you any additional time, I can at least review and recommend books I've read that are worth spending your time on. This isn't a comprehensive list of books I've read -- just the books I have found particularly worthwhile. I'll add more as time allows.
Fiction
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving -- Almost every book by John Irving is worth reading. (I've had trouble making it through A Son of the Circus and finally gave it up.) Prayer, however, is his best work to date in my opinion.
The first time I read Owen Meany, I couldn't put it down. Irving weaves a tale that is sometimes tragic, and sometimes hilarious -- but always compelling. I need to re-read this one soon, and will blog about it more in the next year or so.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -- I should hope you've read this one already. Not only should this book be required reading, a copy should be issued to every child at birth.
Twain's gift for language, alone, is a good enough reason to spend time with this novel. But the story and themes in Huckleberry Finn are what really make this required reading.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams -- No matter how many times I read this, I always come away with something new. I suppose some of this is a "reader-response" issue; Every time I re-read the series, I have new experiences to bring to the table and therefore focus on different aspects of the series and pick up on different themes I may not have noticed the first time around. But it's more than just a funny bit of Sci-Fi -- it pokes (hard) at a lot of the imperfections of mankind and makes you think about how narrow-minded people tend to be, and also inspires us to be more than residents of a "mostly harmless" planet in an unfashionable backwater of the galaxy.
I suspect most, if not all, readers of this blog will have already been exposed to H2G2. If not, run, do not walk, to your local book store and pick up a copy of the collected works. It's OK to skip Mostly Harmless and The Salmon of Doubt, but the other four in the "trilogy" are a must.
Post Office by Charles Bukowski -- Bukowski's semi-autobiographical missive on working in the Post Office is raw and simple. It focuses on the life of a blue collar worker with a menial job and little to look forward to.
Non-Fiction
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin -- I find Godin to be simultaneously brilliant and frustrating. Brilliant because he tosses off inspiring and insightful advice about leadership. Frustrating because it provides little practical advice for people who aren't fortunate enough to work in the kinds of organizations he envisions.
If everyone heeded Godin's advice, the world would be a better place for it. Failing that, some who take his advice will succeed and others will find themselves flailing in a workplace that isn't friendly to unconventional thinking.
Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21730 Pages by Ammon Shea -- File this under "books I wish I had thought of / written." If you don't think you'll ever find time to read the entire OED, then you should check out Shea's treatise on reading the OED from front to back.
It's nice to know I'm not the only person who finds dictionaries fascinating.
Technology
Learning the bash Shell by Cameron Newham -- My favorite book on bash. I don't find as much time to beat on bash scripts these days, which is a shame, but this is the first book I turn to when I recommend a book on bash.
Front End Drupal by Emma Jane Hogbin -- A great book on leveraging Drupal for mere mortals.
Head First Networking by Al Anderson and Ryan Benedetti -- I love the "Head First" books. Head First Networking is a good starter for anyone who needs to learn networking fundamentals but doesn't have a penchant for pain.
Learn to Program by Chris Pine -- Nice book on programming for beginners. Focuses on Ruby, but the concepts should carry over to other languages.
Reference
The Oxford English Dictionary -- while not a book that most people will sit and read, it is the single best reference work on the English language ever compiled. Pick a word, any word, and you'll find a full history of that word and detailed meaning. I have the single-volume compact version of the OED that requires a magnifying glass to read, and I could spend hours skimming through it and soaking up every detail.