My favorite books


Chad Fowler, Rails Recipes

Dave Thomas, Agile Web Development with Rails (The Facets of Ruby Series)

Dave Thomas, Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition

Tracy Kidder, The Soul Of A New Machine

Tracy Kidder recounts the feverish efforts of a team of Data General researchers to create a new 32 bit superminicomputer. A compelling account of individual sacrifice and human ingenuity. Soul of a New Machine endures as the classic chronicle of the computer age and the masterminds behind its technological advances.

Clifford Stoll, The Cuckoo's Egg

Clifford Stoll was running a central computer at a Berkeley lab, and was asked to trace a 75 cent error in the user accounts. This began a hunt for a hacker who was infiltrating sensitive American networks. This is the story of how Stoll exposed an international spy ring selling secrets to the KGB.

Lawrence Durrell, The Alexandria Quartet: Justine/Balthazar/Mountolive/Clea/Boxed Set

George Eliot, Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)

Soap avant-la-lettre, with interesting characters, a captivating plotline and beatiful language.

Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)