John’s Blog

This is, I think, the first work of fiction that I’ve read that is firmly rooted in a post-9/11 world. Also the first book that I’ve read by the extremely accomplished Ian McEwan.
As the title suggests, this story all takes place on a single Saturday — it’s told from the point of view of an [...]

Mom & Adam both posted excellent comments on my Libraries as Endangered Species post, and I’ve been thinking about it enough over the past couple of days that instead of putting in my own comment on that thread, I wanted to start a new post.
One of the things that both mentioned is interesting, and [...]

I got a library card for the Sunnyvale Public Library yesterday, after 6 years of living here. Cynically, I got it because I’m in the process of writing up an application to be on the Board of Trustees of the library here, and it seemed like I should probably be a member of the library [...]

This is an important book for folks in the software industry — it’s the first comprehensive, academic account of what’s happened in open source software over the last decade and half (and actually back to the AT&T Unix days). Steven Weber is a political scientist at Cal, and generally takes that type of analysis on [...]

The most current of the series, Book 5 is also the longest & most complex of the Harry Potter books, really emphasizing relationships outside of Hogwarts almost more than inside the school itself. I re-read this book very quickly (maybe 3 or 4 days, which I know is not as fast as some of the [...]

This is a really great article:
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/health/features/11700/index.html
about Target’s efforts to redesign the pill bottle. A great example of using superior design to rework something that people have complained about forever but not done anything about. If we applied better design skills to just a small fraction of the stuff we use every day, our lives would [...]

A fun vacation book to read — wanted to read some of Dick’s work because it’s been so influential on Jonathan Lethem.
You may not know Philip K. Dick by name, but you’ve undoubtedly seen movies based on his work: “Blade Runner,” “Minority Report,” and “Total Recall.”
A really smart sci-fi book published in 1969 — [...]

I’ve mentioned here a few times that Jonathan Lethem is one of my favorite authors (most recently when describing The Disappointment Artist.) As I was looking around for books to take on vacation that were fun to read, I had an urge to read some old, more traditional science fiction, and this qualifies pretty well. [...]

The 4th Harry Potter book is my very favorite in the series so far. It’s the first move into a more adult world, and you get your first glimpses into the world outside London & Hogwarts — you get introduced to the other wizarding schools, learn more about the other groups (like the House Elves [...]

Just popcorn vacation reading. I read Christopher Moore (a Hawaii resident) on trips when I’m just relaxing and not thinking too hard — it’s a sort of “Elmore Leonard meets Stephen King” vibe — sci-fi/horror mixed with madcap comedy. A good book, but not as good as his more recent ones (like The Supidest Angel.

Written in 1959 by a native Nigerian, Things Fall Apart was maybe the first really non-Western novel that I ever read, during my first quarter at Stanford. I was completely blown away by the book then, and wanted to re-read it now to see what I thought (I’ve also been reading some histories of Africa [...]

This is one of the huge mass of books coming out in the for-kids-and-sort-of-like-Harry-Potter genre — I’ve always liked those & had fun reading them, so figured it’d be a fun book for our vacation. This particular book is notable in that it features a heroine instead of a boy, and is a story that [...]

Kathy & I just got back from a great trip to Maui — we spent 6 days on the island, and had a great time. (I’ll post a link to some pictures in a bit.) Among other things, we enjoyed the Road to Hana, seeing the crater of Haleakala, and eating at Mama’s Fish House [...]

The 3rd installment, and the first book that really starts setting up a world of characters and story lines that are outside of Harry’s immediate relationships. This wasn’t my favorite book the first time that I read it, and I sort of thought that most of it was more complicated than it needed to be. [...]

Here’s a good link to a CNN piece on DST:
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/us/0310/daylight.saving/frameset.exclude.html
(it actually works a little bit better if you click to it from the CNN home page, but it’s usable via this link.)

This coming Monday is my annual favorite day of the year. Why? It’s the first work day (for those of us that are actually working) of Daylight Saving Time — and generally the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game as well. Because of the game, I usually leave work on the early side (5:30p or something) [...]

Lately I’ve started listening to Virgin UK radio that broadcasts in London (but I get it over the Internet, of course). I was looking for something new to listen to a few days ago and stumbled over this station — actually ended up listening to the midnight show and really liked the mix of music [...]

Well, the backyard is just about finished — they’re laying sod right now. What a peculiar invention — grass & dirt, all cut up into rectangles & portable. It’s very strange watching them roll it out this morning.
I’ll post pictures this weekend sometime — once they get this stuff done, all they’ll have left [...]