What I read
What I Read
With this overview I keep track of some of the books that I've read.
I don't usually include the books and articles for that I read for my job, nor do I include the science fiction books that I like to pick up. No overview of my reading habits would be complete without mentioning The Economist -- I love that magazine.
Books below are in order of date read; this overview starts with October 2002.
The Catcher in the Rye
Submitted by admin on Sat, 09/19/2009 - 10:02pm
Terribly depressing. Nicely done how it transfers you into the depressing life of an adolescent, the author writes well, but depressing nevertheless.
Book details:
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.
I read this book in English.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Submitted by Guus on Sat, 09/12/2009 - 2:59pm
Another classic. Very Southern; nice to read a book from a child’s perspective of live, with mysterious things being scary etc.
Book details:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. ISBN: 978-0-446-31078-9.
I read this book in English.
Brave New World
Submitted by Guus on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 11:55am
A beautiful science fiction book, well written, original and with an interesting angle. Such a relief after reading Slaughterhouse-Five. Enjoyed it.
The copy of the book I read had a quote by the predecessor of our local newspaper, which used to be the Raleigh News & Observer.
Book details:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
I read this book in English.
Slaughterhouse-Five
Submitted by admin on Mon, 09/07/2009 - 1:58pm
I was quite disappointed with this book. It was on my list of ‘famous books I never had time for in high school’ so I figured it would be interesting, in one way or another, but it really wasn’t.
This book must have been become famous for its political impact — not for its literary impact. It was boring. Luckily it’s very small so I finished it in a few hours.
Book details:
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. ISBN: 0440180295.
I read this book in English.
De Asielzoeker
Submitted by Guus on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 2:54pm
De Asielzoeker is a beautiful but depressing book about a man's journey through life, and the role that his dying wife has played in it.
The book won the Dutch AKO literatuurprijs in 2004 and it's easy to see why -- it's beautifully written with characters that are well thought out and executed.
The downside was the depressing story line -- it's just so sad and depressing! The main character feels that life consists of illusions and self deception, and his way of approaching life is therefore very cold and, again, depressing.
A beautiful read, over all. This book was a present by Jessica.
Book details:
De Asielzoeker by Arnon Grunbreg. ISBN: 90 388 2706 7.
I read this book in Dutch.
Der Proceß
Submitted by Guus on Tue, 09/01/2009 - 1:56am
One of my favorite authors who write in German is Franz Kafka. so I read what is his most characteristic book: Der Proceß. Reading in German is a lot slower than reading in English so it kept me busy during my travels to the Netherlands and Germany a few weeks ago.
It’s a beautiful, disturbing book about a trial. It makes you realize that bureaucracy could always be worse — it could be like Kafka’s.
It was a beautiful book to read, and I was very interested to see how it would end. The strange order of the chapters in the end threw me off — I never read reviews of books before I read them so I didn’t know that the book was left not quite finished by the author, even though the final chapter was written.
I’ve read Das Schloss in the past and just recently I read Die Verwandlung. The next Kafka on my list is Amerika, or perhaps I’ll read some of his short stories first.
Book details:
Der Proceß by Franz Kafka.
I read this book in German.
Enterprise Integration Patterns
Submitted by Guus on Thu, 08/27/2009 - 9:43pm
Enterprise Integration Patterns is part of the same series as Patterns of Enterprise Architecture, a book I didn’t care much for 6 years ago because it was stating the obvious too often. The EIP book is from 2004 and is somewhat better, although at times it suffers from the same weakness.
I used it to look up good definitions of components I wanted to use in our product. The definitions of Message Bus and Message Router were particularly helpful. Not immediately helpful in deciding about implementation elements, but good for documenting and communication the design we had in mind.
At the other hand, the descriptions are superficial, and don’t offer much insight. This is the same beef I had with “Enterprise Application Patterns” — the content is too obvious.
Book details:
Enterprise Integration Patterns by Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf. ISBN: 0321200683.
I read this book in English for work.
The Grapes of Wrath
Submitted by Guus on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 3:02am
Sasha recommended Steinbeck to me and we had this book in our collection. What a great read! The language is so beautiful. I loved the short chapter on how the turtle walks through the field and crosses the highway.
The Joad family takes highway 64 in the book, starting from Salisaw to Gore. I looked it up on Google maps, and parallel to that old 64 is now… I-40, the highway I take to work everyday and which goes from North Carolina to California.
The speed on the highway seemed to be fairly similar to what it is today with a maximum speed of 65 miles per hour. Of course, the ‘jalopies’ did not make that speed.
Very cool that there is even a reference to the city we live in, or to be more specific to the tobacco that was produced here. Tom at one point says: “I wish I had some Durham”.
Book details:
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
I read this book in English.
Catch-22
Submitted by Guus on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 12:35am
This was an assault of funny craziness and bureaucratic madness.
Catch-22 was an funny book; I especially enjoyed the dialogues. A beautiful example:
Book details:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. ISBN: 0671502336.
I read this book in English.
The Brothers Karamazov
Submitted by Guus on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 1:02am
I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time. In 1998, when I just moved to Amsterdam to go to college my roommates talked often about Dostoevsky. Recently I reviewed a couple of ‘top 100 novel’ lists, and it invariably scores very high.
I’ll keep the review short — this is an absolutely brilliant novel. There is nothing I can add in this review that hasn’t been said many times before by much better reviewers.
What struck me were the huge differences between how the rich lived and how the poor lived; it may give some insight into why the Revolution happened in Russia years later.
Book details:
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
I read this book in English.