This year I have been on a bit of a mission. I decided that having being here for 8 years, I would actually use the library. So I have started off by requesting books and reading them. It’s been a while since I have regularly read books and it’s been quite an interesting experience. I’ve remembered that reading tech books is quite a reflective process, away from the computer. It’s a less stressful, although perhaps more time consuming experience than hunting through the web, reading documentation or code until you understand what ever it is you are reading about.

I don’t know how long this trend will continue, but while it is, I thought I would write some short book reviews on the books that I have read; as normal, mostly for my own purposes; like many lecturers I get asked for book recommendations, so recording my impressions seems sensible.