Books

From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.

-- Groucho Marx

Recommended Reads

The following selection of books are some of the ones which I have really enjoyed or which have really inspired me in some way.

	One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez, Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., New York, 1998. the Nobel Prize winning work of fiction from a famous Colombian author a great story about the Buendía family and the town of Macondo it's all fiction but there are also threads from real Colombian history I've also read and enjoyed very much his more recent work: Love in the Time of Cholera
	It Must Be Beautiful, Graham Farmelo, ed., Granta Books, London, 2002. a collection of very good essays, each one dealing with one of the "Great Equations of Modern Science" not too much in the way of mathematics but full of interesting historical information and context see how Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Paul Dirac, Erwin Schrödinger, Claude Shannon, Robert Mills, Chen Ning Yang, Frank Drake, and many others developed some of the basic equations that define our current understanding of physics, chemistry, and biology
	Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke, Del Ray, New York, 1953. my first Arthur C. Clarke read and the one which hooked me on his writings for life! this novel is about the next stage of evolution or transformation of the human race and it really stirred my imagination as a little kid some of the themes from this novel would later reappear in another Arthur C. Clarke science fiction classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey
	The Forever War, Joe Haldeman, Del Ray, New York, 1974. this was one of our high school English class reading assignments and it was definitely one of the better ones this science fiction novel follows the military career of William Mandella as he fights in various battles throughout the galaxy over a period of 1,200 years due to the effects of time dilation, whenever he returns to Earth after a battle, he must cope with the loss of friends and family as well as some drastic changes to society one of the few novels that can take the darkness and futility of war and show it through the eyes of individual soldiers there is also some very intelligent humour as well which makes this novel a very enjoyable read note that there are two sequals now, both written by Joe Haldeman, called Forever Peace and Forever Free
	Catch-22, Joseph Heller, Dell Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1955. another classic of wartime fiction an amazing satrical look at World War II, this time from the eyes of several individual bomber pilots the book's title would even go on to become a part of the English language
	The Bears And I, Robert Franklin Leslie, Ballantine, New York, 1968. one of the first books that I can remember reading that dealt with wild animals and the wilderness this book definitely started my lifelong interest in travelling and exploring the great outdoors
	If Only They Could Talk, James Herriot, Pan Books, Ltd., London, 1970. my original set of six James Herriot paperbacks were a present from my mother after she had read an excerpt in Reader's Digest I was hooked by all of the animal stories and the many funny characters from the Yorkshire Dales and managed to read all six books in sequence almost non-stop I was also fortunate enough to visit the town of Thirsk in England many years after first reading these books to see the beauty of the place for myself
	The Mythical Man-Month, Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, 1982. it is true that some things never change ... this book is a series of essays about the development of the IBM System/360 and OS/360 in the 1960s by an insider the essays were the first of its kind to discuss the difficulties of managing large-scale projects, in particular, computer hardware and software systems having now been involved with various large-scale and complex projects, with varying degrees of success, I can now truly appreciate the words of wisdom in this book
	Flying Visits, Clive James, Picador, London, 1985. I was actually introduced to Clive James' humour and wit through his Postcards television series (which I'm impatiently waiting to be released on DVD ...) but this book introduced me to his equally impressive collection of writings one of those writers with the rare ability to impress with his knowledge on a wide variety of subjects without sounding pompous (perhaps because he's an Australian by birth!) his essays will always make you think even if you don't necessarily agree with him

Last Update: October 28, 2012.