Adventures in home working » Books

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Steve Richards — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 19:03:00 +0000

I have read this book of essays a couple of times, the last time as a refresher for a project I am currently working on. I like the book, its approachable and well informed and covers the history and philosopy of Open Source well.

However it does suffer from being a collection of essays, and not a well structured book, and some of the analysis is a little superficial. For a thorough treatment of the subject I recommend

The Success of Open Sourceby Steven Weber

Its worth noting though that you don’t need to buy the book, its available online here.

Life of Pi

Steve Richards — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 18:28:00 +0000

This is one of the books I am reading this month, its on the schedule of my reading group. I am only 1/4 of the way through because I am only reading it whilst the kids are in swimming lessons but its good read and thought provoking too. Its observations about animals in Zoos are quite intriguing and have got me thinking about the similarities with human happiness.

Basically it says that animals in Zoo’s are happy provided they get some key essentials, stability, food, safety and their own territory and routine. Well perhaps that’s true of humans too, when you look at simple human cultures that have the above, they seem fairly happy. When you look at complex cultures dominated by advertising, excessive choice, instability, competition etc then people tend not to be too happy. There’s more to it than that of course, but it gets you thinking.

I don’t want to give too much more away about the story line of the book because it would spoil the fun. However I will say it proviked one of the more lively debates at the reading group!

Year of Wonders

Steve Richards — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 18:45:00 +0000

A book about the plague in England is not the most tempting of subjects. However this book pulls it off. Its loosley based on a true story about a village that isolates itself to protect surrounding villages from an outbreak of the plague. There is plenty of death and misery in the book but a string sence of presence and authenticity combined with a very strong story of personal growth for the main character. I really enjoyed the book, and although it has a quirky ending, if you can forgive it that, then I am sure you will too.

Chocolat

Steve Richards — Thu, 12 Aug 2004 18:14:00 +0000

A fine book, not in my view quite as good as Blackberry Wine, but then I read them in the wrong order. Still a very enjoyable read, very nicely crafted, perhaps a little too short as I would have liked to see the characters developed a little more. They were very interesting characters and I was left wanting to understand them a bit more.

Utopia

Steve Richards — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 18:38:00 +0000

Just started this little book so I am not really sure where its taking me. This version has a lot of preample putting the book in its historical context and talks a lot about the approach taken to the translation, and compares this approach with other translations, ie its a slow start unless you are interested in that sort of thing. I am reading this book because my wife bought it to read and then left it lying on the shelf, something had to be done!

Having now finished it I am left quite unsure about the book. It has some very unusual concepts in it, but overall the way of life it describes would become very constraining for many people, so it is unlikely that it would prosper on a large scale. However for Amish like communities you can see that it would make a viable blueprint for an alternative society.

Coastliners

Steve Richards — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 18:17:12 +0000

Not Joannes best book in my view, but a good read none the less. being a Coastliner myself though I think it appealed to me more than most other reviewers. Like many of Joannes books I tend to feel they are a bit too short given the number of interesting characters she has I would like to get to know them a bit better.

Blackberry Wine

Steve Richards — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 18:09:00 +0000

A really good novel, probably my favourite of all Joannes books. The only things I disliked about it was the insistence on sticking with the “clever idea” she has at the start of the book of describing things from the perspective of one of the ’special’ bottles of wine. Whilst it seems clever at the start I found that the story was so strong without it that in the end it detracted from the main themes of the book.

10 Secrets of Abundant Happiness

Steve Richards — Sat, 12 Jun 2004 18:32:00 +0000

I have just finished reading this book, it’s a cute little book in an easy to read format. I carried a copy in my combat trouser’s pocket while I was reading it and it made it very easy to dip into it whenever I had a spare minute. In fact I enjoyed reading it so much that I made more spare minutes than were strictly necessary!

The book is very simple, and the secrets very obvious and the style a bit contrived. However the value of the book is in the bringing together of all 10 secrets, and the fairly brief but sufficiently detailed coverage of each. Some books on happiness go over the top; this one gets the level of detail just right. I liked this little book so much I am thinking of a getting all 4 of my children a copy each for Christmas. If they read it regularly it may be the best gift they ever receive, despite its limitations.

I am also planning to use it as the basis for a series of blog entries that intend to write on happiness, as I think its a mysterious and intensely interesting subject. I also plan to get a number of simillar trouser pocket sized books to carry around with me!

Five Quarters of the Orange

Steve Richards — Sat, 12 Jun 2004 18:20:00 +0000

Just finished this book. I really enjoyed it, fewer characters and better developed, a bit dark but very well developed and with fewer tricks and magic, just good old story telling.

The Dalai Lama’s book of transformation

Steve Richards — Sat, 12 Jun 2004 18:01:00 +0000

I carry this little book around with me. It fits perfectly in the side pocket of my combats, so I can read it whenever I have a spare moment. I find its great to have something to do when you would ordinarily be waiting around in a queue for example, and the best thing is that when you are waiting around you tend to be fairly receptive to thinking through the ideas and concepts in this powerful little book.

After finishing this book I was pleased to have read it, but left feeling it was a little obsessive in its focus on suffering. I feel that there are plenty of more balenced books on this topic around and would recommend “10 Secrets of Abundant Happiness”, which is a simillar pocket sized format.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Steve Richards — Wed, 12 May 2004 18:28:00 +0000

Just finished my first read of this book, (it really needs reading twice), and found it pretty good. Unfortunately it also left me being very frustrated because the methodology proposed is so well supported by the outlook Add-in, and I have to use Lotus Notes. There is a template for Notes, but so far as I can figure it only seems to be available through coaching sessions.

There are some very good blogs on how to refine the methodolgy:

http://blogs.officezealot.com/marc/archives/000582.html

http://www.shahine.com/omar/PermaLink,guid,a8bb7588-179d-4d6f-aa5e-703ea2275e57.aspx

and of course Dave’s blog

http://david.davidco.com/

One of the key concepts in the book is, “A mind like water”, ie emptying the mind so that it can focus on what needs to be done. The concept is sometimes misunderstood and there is a great post here that explains it very well.

Flow

Steve Richards — Wed, 12 May 2004 17:55:00 +0000

An interesting book that takes 300 plus pages to describe what it probably could do in 20. The basic idea, you are happiest when you are involved or imersed in what you are doing. It then gives loads of examples of how this can happen in sports, music, work etc. Not the most practical book on the subject of happiness and it seems to neglect lots of things in pursuit of the Flow concept. For example it does not talk at all about the effect on happiness of advertising, too much choice, not living in the moment etc.