Friday, June 03, 2005

Book reading quiz

I've been tagged by Daveberta to complete the following short quiz about my reading habits. It is interesting the way these things spread across the web. At the end I'll leave you with special instructions on how you can participate.

# of Books that I own

Last count about 1000. This summer is the great clear out project. Except the ones I really like.

Last book I bought (not including text books):


The Sweet Hereafter by Russel Banks. I have not seen the movie so don't tell me how it ends. So far it seems like a pretty sad story.

Last books I read:

Fifth Business - Robertson Davies

This is the first of a trilogy that I read a long time ago but have no recollection of ever reading.

MySQL and Perl for the Web

Geek Alert. A well written introduction to using the Perl programming languange with the MySQL database server. Lots of good examples and easy to read. They make is seem soooo easy.

Five Books that mean a lot to me.

1. John Stuart Mill - On Liberty

One of the books that the conservative cultural censors don't want you to read because it talks about freedom and tolerance and other non-conservative values.

2. Martin Fowler - Patterns Of Enterprise Application Architecture

I've read a number of Fowler's books. He has a rare gift of being able to write clearly about technology. This book has a lot of practical knowledge about how complicated applications are put together.

3. Gang of Four - Design Patterns

The book started out as a post-graduate study of how applications are written, but ended up becoming a de facto standard on software design patterns.

4. T.S. Eliot - Collected Poems 1909-1962

My favourite poet. Favourite poem: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, and The Waste Land.

5. M. Scott Peck - The Road Less Travelled.

This book helped me understand why all of you are so screwed up and why I am just fine.

---
Ok, now your instructions.

1. If you own a blog and have not yet done this survey, consider yourself tagged. Go do it now. I said NOW.
2. If you own a blog and have not yet done this survey, but have to go pick up your wife, go pick up your wife first, then do the survey.
3. If you do not have your own blog, or you have already done the survey, ignore these instructions.
4. If you do not have your own blog, hav not done the survey, but have to pick up your wife, then go pick up your wife. Thats all you have to do.
5. If you don't have a wife and don't have your own blog, don't do anything.
6. If your wife is picking you up, and you have your own blog, wait for your wife first and then update your blog.
7. If your wife is NOT picking you up and you don't have your own blog, then just wait for some more instructions.

Lets see...have I missed any scenarios? Please let me know if I have.



Update: June 10, 2005
I told you Martin Fowler was a good author. Now I'm getting search engine hits on that name. I apologize to anyone looking for real or useful information. Please recommend this post

No comments: