Category Archives: book
Potter Mania
I have a copy coming from Amazon. I reserved a copy from my local Borders. I’ve heard $20 million in security to prevent leaks. [I may already know what happens in spite of this.] I’ve seen it all over news in all media formats. I went to Borders this morning a half hour after they opened to wait in line so that I could get a bracelet that would allow me to wait in another line tonight at midnight to pick up my copy. The line was around the corner, up the stairs, and down for 1/4 of the length of the mall, which rivals the line for Halo 2 back in November 2004.
I’m… amazed and in love with this.
And to that I give major kudos to Rowling. Sure there’s been this mania for movies, concerts, videos, and games. But a book?
This has got to be the biggest book launch of all time. Books have had been around for the last four thousand years – when was the last time that there’s been a buzz like this for a release? This is an amazing feat. Never mind the fact that she has gotten kids to want to read but she’s got kids, their parents, and random adults wait in lines for hours to read her work… it’s an awesome thing.
Very well done, indeed!
Memoirs of an Italian Geek: Digital Edition
Looks like Amazon has started to offer my book in a digital format, in addition to the existing paperback and hardcover versions.
I’m just so confused by this.
Update: Amazon’s error! They accidentally posted this to a whole bunch of different authors… looks like I don’t have a digital version after all (iUniverse still quotes $99 to add the option and I’m still reluctant).
Continue reading Memoirs of an Italian Geek: Digital Edition
Penultimate Potter: Book Six of Seven
Yes, that is a copy of the latest Potter book in my backpack. What’s more is I bought it from a QFC at 12:01, as they had it on sale. And yes, there was a line there too: people waited in line for a book – the fact that it was in a food store (not to mention the Borders and Barnes & Noble around town) is almost as shocking.
Sadly the penultimate volume will be finished by Sunday, so I guess it’s already time to start the clock for the next one.
—
Update @ 9:24pm: OK, so it didn’t make it to Sunday. Yeah, I’m done with it. Yeah, I had as much chance of putting it down as I did The Firm when I first read that. And yeah, I’m annoyed as hell that I’ll have to wait for the final book.
Frankly? I didn’t think Rowling has as much bollocks [balls for the non-English] as she’s shown through the plot of this one. I’m pretty damned impressed.
Left Behind: Glorious Appearing
Been a long while since I’ve posted about a particular book, but this one seems worth posting about. I’ve been reading the Left Behind series for a long, long while. I discovered the book series some time in late 1999 and at that moment, there were four books available, and the plan was that there would be twelve books to complete the entire season. I was in a bookstore (go figure) and they had all four paperbacks in the same area, so I picked up book one (Left Behind) and was hooked relatively quickly… I know what you’re thinking: a Geek reading about the religious scripted end of the world?
Continue reading Left Behind: Glorious Appearing
Like What You’ve Been Reading Here?
If you’ve like what you’ve read here – and you like to read books as well as blogs – I recommend that you check out my book. Wait, what book? It’s been out for a little while and I’ve been plugging it here and there over the months but I’ve held off truly promoting if for some personal reasons. Those reasons are now taken care of, so I’m content to plug away.
<shameless plug>
Check out Memoirs of an Italian Geek, by R. L. Santi at iUniverse, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon – you can find out more about the history of the book at http://www.rlsanti.com/
</shameless plug>
And thanks for reading the site!
Makofsky: Pocket PC Network Programming
I’ve been meaning to mention this addition to my bookshelf but I hadn’t gotten around to posting it here – been spending more time working on SharpMT than I have adding new Rants I guess… I have been reading a few different tech books lately to keep my skills up for interviews, though and this has been one of them. A one line review for Pocket PC Network Programming is simple: go buy it.
Continue reading Makofsky: Pocket PC Network Programming
Santi: Memoirs of an Italian Geek
A new Geek book has been released: Memoirs of an Italian Geek by R. L. Santi. I’m told it will show up on Amazon and Barnes and Noble but right now it’s available here in paperback thanks to iUniverse. Call me biased but I thought it might interest a number of the readers here – the majority of you are just as much a Geek as I am.
Update: Memoirs of an Italian Geek
Just a quick update. The review came back from the publisher and they suggested some updates and some changes. Consequently, there was another round of proofreading and editing done and the now final final final manuscript has been shuttled off to the publisher. More importantly, there’s a new website with that will handle the updates for this book – you’ll find it at http://www.rlsanti.com/.
Memoirs of an Italian Geek
The manuscript for this has been done for a while now, but as with programming, there’s always more work to do once the work is done. What I mean is that when you code an application, that’s only the beginning of the final project. After you hit compile for the last time, you then have application level testing (stress and “error” testing) as well as the help system, FAQ files, the web site updates, and lastly the installation. When I started writing this book/anthology, I thought writing the manuscript would be the hardest part… oi, what a typo in logic that was!
Continue reading Memoirs of an Italian Geek
Geisha, a Life
It’s sort of funny to me that I go through four or five books at a time before I realize that I haven’t mentioned a new book on the site in a while. Same for the music section. What happens is that I end up with a quiet morning on the train and as I’m about to open a book it pops into my head that I need to update the site. I then spend a while trying to remember what I was reading last; in this case it was called Fraud but I can’t tell you who wrote it. It wasn’t one of my “regular” authors, so I don’t really remember. Decent book though. Given that I can’t remember what I last read, let me tell you about what I’m currently reading: Geisha, a Life by Mineko Iwasaki.
Continue reading Geisha, a Life
Coupland: All Families are Psychotic
I discovered Douglas Coupland through one of his books, and a Geek book at that. I don’t remember if I found it on my own or if it was one of the books that someone told me about, like Sarem, or something Steve would have recommended because it was about working at Microsoft. The book, Microserfs, was a great read – so much so that I started to look at some of Coupland’s other books, most recently All Families are Psychotic.
Continue reading Coupland: All Families are Psychotic
Kick Me
So why read this book? Simply put, it’s pretty freakin’ funny. It’s a collection of short “stories” from Feig’s adolescence – I’m saying “stories” since some of the episodes last only a couple of pages, but it’s definitely a collection of stories in the single volume. Now, I’m not a regular reader of anthologies – I’m more of a novels guy – but this book is well worth the read. I’m not sure if it’s because we shared some similar experiences while growing up or just more of the humor that each of the stories has, but I found myself holding back laughter during my commute, which is an unprecedented thing.
Continue reading Kick Me
A Clockwork Orange
“So, what’s it going to be then, eh?” I figure about half of the movies made have a book that the movie is based upon. It’s been said by some, that Hollywood tolerates authors because they are scared to death of a blank sheet of paper – shows you how much faith people have in actors’ abilities – otherwise, they would have been muscled out of the industry years ago. To me, neither a book nor film is usually better than the other – just different. I find that which ever one I find first, I end up liking better; I loved The Firm in book form, and thought the movie ok (what with Maverick as the starring role – bluh) but they two were different things to me with a common title. The other day, I discovered A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, on the list of “banned books” at Barnes and Nobles and no, I’ve yet to see the movie.
Continue reading A Clockwork Orange
Sarum – The Novel of England
This was a novel that was suggested to me by a co-worker that knows I’ve read books from all over the spectrum of topics and countries… It’s a national bestseller, but I can’t tell you if that’s from the US or the UK because the book is very English. Sarum – The Novel of England, written by Edward Rutherfurd, is a rather large paperback and one that is mostly made up by a group of short stories with some common ties between them. It is, loosely put, the story of England, with a number of side plots.
Continue reading Sarum – The Novel of England