Reading List

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31
Jul 09

ebook readers

A couple of months ago, while tidying up my bookshelf, the sight of yellow and spotty pages on some of my precious books really caused me some distress :-( . Well, I suppose this an unavoidable consequence of living inSingapore’s humid weather?

With the release of ebook readers such as Amazon’s Kindle 2 (all thanks to the e-Ink technology), my desire in getting a dedicated ebook reader is “re-kindled”, so to speak :wink: . In fact, I am already familiar with a few candidates on the market:

  1. Amazon’s Kindle. Cons: does not support many formats natively. Can’t expand memory by adding external memory card. The EVDO mobile wireless is useless outside of US.
  2. Sony ebook reader PRS-505. Cons: kind of expensive and apparently slow to turn.
  3. Hanlin V3. Cons: poor software as far as I can tell, but best supported by the open-source OpenInkPot which I intend to use) and one of the most rebranded product in this space.
  4. Irex. Cons: pricey European product and, according to some reviews, slow response time.

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7
Jan 09

Two conditions

Don’t know about you, but this did draw a chuckle or two from me. Have a nice week after the new year break!

“There are really only two conditions of the human mind: Very, very happy. Or, about to become very, very happy. Which are you today?”

Mike Dooley
American Author and Inspirational Speaker

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23
Dec 08

Outliers

Currently about 1/3 of the way through Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers – The story of success”. For those who may be unfamiliar with this name, he is also the author of the highly successful “Tipping Point” and “Blink”, both dealing with insights into the causes for success.

Up to this point, the central thesis of the book seems to be that while some people are undoubtedly born with some innate talent

  1. the “innate”-ness or being “gifted” is more often too over-hyped;
  2. the home and social environments play a large role – in fact, his data seems to show that it can make or break a genius!

As it turns out, I started reading the book – bought at the airport bookshop – after listening on discussions between my sister and my parents regarding parenting. Surprisingly, this book is rapidly becoming a fairly good book for parenting, provided you are willing to unleash the true potential of your kids!

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14
Aug 08

Sci-fi novel recommendations

Spotted this list of 32 highly recommended sci-fi novels over at How to split an atom in my Google reader yesterday.

Surprisingly, I have read quite a few of those on the list:

  • Foundation, by Isaac Asimov. (and the rest of the Foundation series)
  • Time machine, by H. G. Wells.
  • Animal farm, by George Orwell.
  • War of the worlds, by H. G. Wells.
  • I robot, by Isaac Asimov.
  • Ring world, by Larry Niven.
  • Dune, by Frank Herbert. (and all 3 books from the originally intended trilogy)
  • The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, by Douglas Adams (all except for the final book in the expanded trilogy)
  • 1984, by George Orwell.
  • Ender’s game, by Orson Scott Card. (and the rest of the Ender, Shadow series)

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2
Oct 06

GTD

It seems that with each passing day, there are more and more things to do/learn but we still have just the same (or seemingly less) number of hours available. I have recently “discovered” – not that this is a very new book by the way – David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (GTD), so hopefully I can pick up some useful and practical habits to more efficiently manage my time. Here is a very succinct introduction at 43 folders with many useful links for those interested.

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