Tag Archives: Books

Books 2012

Books,

I read a considerably larger number of books in 2012 than in 2011, largely because I started rereading the Wheel of Time series, which I can read quickly, and which has a very high page count.

My audiobook consumption dropped quite dramatically once I moved out to California. I haven’t found a good way yet to incorporate them into my schedule.

Statistics

  • Total # of books: 33
  • Total length of books: 16,632 pages
  • Total # of audiobooks: 7
  • Total length of audiobooks: 3 days, 7:18:00

Books

# Title Author Pages Start Date End Date
1 Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier Edward L. Glaeser 352 12/22/2011 1/2/2012
2 The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better Tyler Cowen 64 1/2/2012 1/3/2012
3 The Gated City Ryan Avent 90 1/9/2012 1/9/2012
4 Ready Player One Ernest Cline 384 1/5/2012 1/9/2012
5 Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From It Amy Cortese 275 1/16/2012 1/25/2012
6 Reamde Neal Stephenson 1044 1/10/2012 2/4/2012
7 The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time, #1) Robert Jordan 752 2/5/2012 2/14/2012
8 The Great Hunt (Wheel of Time, #2) Robert Jordan 705 2/21/2012 2/22/2012
9 The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy, Energy, and the Environment. Chris Martenson Chris Martenson 336 2/23/2012 3/2/2012
10 Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic John De Graaf, David Wann, Thomas H. Naylor, Thomas H Naylor, David Horsey, Vicki Robin 288 2/5/2012 3/17/2012
11 The Dragon Reborn (Wheel of Time, #3) Robert Jordan 632 3/24/2012 3/26/2012
12 An Unconventional Guide to Investing in Troubled Times Charles Hugh Smith 246 3/27/2012 4/1/2012
13 Terminal World Alastair Reynolds 487 4/1/2012 4/11/2012
14 The Shadow Rising (Wheel of Time, #4) Robert Jordan 1014 4/17/2012 4/28/2012
15 The Fires of Heaven (Wheel of Time, #5) Robert Jordan 926 4/30/2012 5/7/2012
16 Arctic Rising Tobias S. Buckell 304 5/29/2012 5/31/2012
17 Look to Windward (Culture, #7) Iain M. Banks 496 6/5/2012 7/24/2012
18 The Mongoliad, Book One Neal Stephenson, Erik Bear, Greg Bear, Joseph Brassey, E.D. deBirmingham, Cooper Moo, Mark Teppo 432 7/27/2012 8/11/2012
19 Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet Andrew Blum 304 8/15/2012 8/19/2012
20 Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing Neal Stephenson 336 8/20/2012 9/8/2012
21 Lord of Chaos (Wheel of Time, #6) Robert Jordan 1049 9/9/2012 9/21/2012
22 The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption Clay A. Johnson 160 9/24/2012 9/27/2012
23 A Crown of Swords (Wheel of Time, #7) Robert Jordan 902 9/22/2012 9/30/2012
24 Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us Maggie Koerth-baker 290 10/8/2012 10/18/2012
25 The Hydrogen Sonata (Culture, #10) Iain M. Banks 528 10/2/2012 10/28/2012
26 The Taste of Tomorrow: Dispatches from the Future of Food Josh Schonwald 304 10/31/2012 11/4/2012
27 The New Geography of Jobs Enrico Moretti 304 11/4/2012 11/18/2012
28 Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore Robin Sloan 286 11/19/2012 11/19/2012
29 Four Hour Chef Tim Ferriss 672 11/25/2012 11/30/2012
30 The Path of Daggers (Wheel of Time, #8) Robert Jordan 669 12/1/2012 12/9/2012
31 City of Dark Magic Magnus Flyte 464 12/9/2012 12/15/2012
32 Winter’s Heart (Wheel of Time, #9) Robert Jordan 705 12/16/2012 12/23/2012
33 Crossroads of Twilight (Wheel of Time, #10) Robert Jordan 832 12/24/2012 12/28/2012

Audiobooks

# Title Author Length Start Date End Date
1 The Red Pyramid Rick Riordan 14:32:00 01/10/2012 01/20/2012
2 The Throne of Fire Rick Riordan 12:48:00 02/02/2012 04/02/2012
3 Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection A.J. Jacobs 10:10:00 04/10/2012 05/23/2012
4 An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies Tyler Cowen 10:24:00 05/29/2012 05/30/2012
5 The Serpent’s Shadow Rick Riordan 11:23:00 06/04/2012 06/05/2012
6 The Son of Neptune Rick Riordan 13:27:00 06/06/2012 06/13/2012
7 The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (in Real Life) Chris Hardwick 6:14:00 09/21/2012 09/22/2012

Books 2011

Books,

I had a somewhat disappointing year in terms of reading. For whatever reason, I read fewer books and listened to fewer audiobooks in 2011 than in 2010. I hope to change this in 2012. See also my reading from previous years (2008, 2009, 2010).

I also started keeping track of my reading using goodreads, which is a bit easier than doing it myself with Google Docs.

Statistics

  • Total # of books: 16
  • Total length of books: 6977 pages
  • Total # of audiobooks: 9
  • Total length of audiobooks: 4 days, 7:31:03

Books

I reread the books highlighted in yellow.

# Title Author Pages Start Date End Date
1 Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food Station Jeff Potter 398 12/23 01/04
2 The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization’s Northern Future Laurence C. Smith 336 01/06 01/08
3 Forty Thousand in Gehenna C.J. Cherryh 444 01/09 01/29
4 The Price of Everything: Solving the Mystery of Why
We Pay What We Do		 Eduardo Porter 304 01/30 03/05
5 Makers Cory Doctorow 416 03/12 03/28
6 The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives Leonard Mlodinow 256 04/17 05/18
7 Suburban Transformations Paul Lukez 192 03/10 05/21
8 Dragonlance Chronicles Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman 1030 05/19 06/18
9 Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next John D. Kasarda and Greg Lindsay 480 06/22 07/03
10 Surface Detail Iain M. Banks 627 07/05 07/18
11 Rule 34 Charles Stross 358 07/21 08/01
12 Master of Shadows: The Secret Diplomatic Career of
the Painter Peter Paul Rubens		 Mark Lamster 336 08/03 09/01
13 Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar
Cybercrime Underground		 Kevin Poulsen 288 09/06 09/15
14 The Magician King Lev Grossman 400 09/18 09/23
15 The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood James Gleick 527 09/26 11/23
16 Revelation Space Alastair Reynolds 585 11/29 12/22

Audiobooks

# Title Author Length Start Date End Date
1 At Home: A Short History of Private Life Bill Bryson 15:57:39 01/10 02/10
2 Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It Gary Taubes 7:57:55 02/14 03/02
3 The Battle of the Labyrinth Rick Riordan 10:33:29 03/18 05/05
4 The Last Olympian Rick Riordan 11:02:17 05/16 05/17
5 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 11:11:32 05/19 05/21
6 Catching Fire Suzanne Collins 11:38:34 08/27 08/30
7 The Money Culture Michael Lewis 6:53:13 08/30 09/02
8 Mockingjay Suzanne Collins 11:40:47 09/02 09/03
9 The Lost Hero Rick Riordan 16:35:37 11/28 12/03

Books 2009

Books,

As I promised last year, I kept careful records of every book I read in 2009. In addition to recording the titles and authors, I’ve noted the length of each book and when I read it. Below are some statistics I’ve calculated from this data.

Reading Statistics

  • Total pages read: 18031
  • Avg. pages per month: 1502.58
  • Avg. pages per week: 346.75
  • Avg. pages per day: 49.40
  • Longest book: A Pattern Language, 1166 pages
  • Shortest book: Brunelleschi’s Dome, 165 pages
  • Longest time to read a book: A Pattern Language, 48 days
  • Shortest time to read a book: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, 1 days

In addition to the average number of pages, I also computed the distribution of the number of pages read each month. For this I assume that I read at a constant (i.e. the same number of pages per day). This is clearly not true, but it still shows the basic trends.

Finally, I’ve plotted a histogram of the lengths of the books I read. As one would expect, the largest buckets are between 200 and 400 pages.

Here is the complete list of books I read in 2009. The rows highlighted in yellow are books I reread this year, and those highlighted in green are books I listened to in audiobook form. In the later case I used Amazon for the number of pages. Of course, the number of pages is approximate, and I make no claims to consistency about things like handling front and end matter or different editions.

# Title Author Pages Start Date End Date
1 The Book of Air and Shadows Michael Gruber 496 01/04 01/07
2* Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson 918 01/08 02/15
3 Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies June Casagrande 199 01/13 01/23
4 Freakonomics Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 336 02/13 02/15
5 Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature Douglas Farr 300 02/17 03/07
6* The Diamond Age Neal Stephenson 455 03/07 03/22
7 Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life Neil Strauss 418 03/29 04/03
8 The Big U Neal Stephenson 308 04/09 04/25
9* Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions Dan Ariely 304 04/18 04/20
10* A Pattern Language Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King, Shlomo Angel 1166 04/27 06/13
11 Zodiac Neal Stephenson 316 05/12 05/19
12 Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart Ian Ayres 320 05/14 05/19
13* Gig: Americans Talk about their Jobs John Bowe, Marisa Bowe, Sabin Streeter, eds. 670 05/19 05/24
14 Excession Iain M. Banks 451 05/24 06/04
15 Food Matters Mark Bittman 298 06/05 06/06
16 Home Witold Rybczynski 232 06/07 06/14
17 Adventures in Architecture Dan Cruickshank 283 06/14 06/25
18 The City in Mind James Howard Kunstler 252 06/15 06/25
19* Cyteen C.J. Cherryh 696 06/27 07/10
20 The Great Good Place Ray Oldenburg 368 07/11 07/18
21 In Praise of Slowness Carl Honore 336 07/19 07/21
22* The Bldg Blog Book Geoff Manaugh 272 07/27 08/01
23 Three Novels of Ancient Egypt Naguib Mahfouz 648 08/02 08/10
24 What I Talk About When I Talk About Running Haruki Murakami 192 08/15 08/15
25 The Angel’s Game Carlos Ruiz Zafón 544 08/16 08/20
26 Against a Dark Background Iain M. Banks 613 08/22 09/01
27 American Houses Gerald L. Foster 416 09/04 09/13
28 Create Your Own Economy Tyler Cowen 272 09/11 09/13
29* The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson 590 09/16 09/26
30 The Endless City Ricky Burdett and Deyan Sudjic, eds. 481 09/26 11/08
31 Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer Novella Carpenter 288 09/28 10/09
32 The Best American Travel Writing 2009 Simon Winchester, ed. 384 10/03 10/18
33 The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-to-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich Timothy Ferriss 320 10/09 10/12
34* The Geography of Bliss Eric Weiner 335 10/20 10/24
35* Regenesis C.J. Cherryh 585 11/08 11/16
36* Getting Stoned with Savages J. Maarten Troost 256 11/09 11/13
37 The Sex Lives of Cannibals J. Maarten Troost 288 11/13 11/16
38 Brunelleschi’s Dome Ross King 165 11/17 11/26
39* Green Metropolis David Owen 368 11/23 12/07
40 The Crystal World J.G. Ballard 210 12/01 12/12
41 The Girl who Played with Fire Stieg Larsson 503 12/14 12/18
42 The Magicians Lev Grossman 402 12/19 12/21
43 The Lost Symbol Dan Brown 528 12/22 12/29
44 Intown Living: A different American Dream Ann Breen, Dick Rigby 249 12/21 12/26

Update: I’ve added stars to those books that I particularly like.

Book Sale

Books, ,

Ithaca Book Sale

Last weekend was the beginning of the biannual Ithaca book sale. It’s run by volunteers, and usually has upwards of 250,000 books. The prices decrease for each of three consecutive weekends, but they start at $4.50 for a hardback, so I though it would be worth it to go early. Apparently everybody else had the same idea, because it was packed on Saturday morning. I was about ready to leave during my two hour wait in line, but I am glad I didn’t as the selection was pretty amazing. I looked exclusively for computer science books and found a number of gems:

  • Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (first edition) by Aho, Sethi, and Ullman — The classic “red dragon book” on compilers. This was actually very well timed as I am in the midst of writing the front end of a simple compiler for my research.
  • Introduction to Algorithms (first edition) by Cormen, Leiserson, and Rivest — Along with the compilers text, this is the book I’m likely to get the most use out of. It’s one of the classic works on algorithms, and it is pretty encyclopedic for results up through the eighties. It’s probably not the best for an introductory algorithms course, but it’s great as a reference.
  • Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation (first edition) by Hopcroft and Ullman — The “Cinderella book.” This is another classic, and I’ve been told that the first edition is better than subsequent editions.
  • Operating System Concepts (sixth edition) by Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne — The “Dinosaur book.”  I think this is the textbook for the Cornell OS class, so I will need it at some point.
  • The C Programming Language (second edition) by Kernighan and Ritchie — I need to brush up on my C/C++, and who better to read than the creators of C themselves. I’ve read part of the first edition but it’s been a while
  • Agile Web Development with Rails by Dave Thomas and David Heinemeier Hansson — Rails is a popular web application framework for the Ruby language. I’m probably unlikely to use it in the near future, but I’m a sucker for web development.
  • GNU Emacs Pocket Reference – I’m also a sucker for Emacs. I know most of the stuff in here, but it never hurts to have a reference.
  • C Pocket Reference – Likewise for C.

Not too bad for $35. I hope to go back at some point and take a look at their fiction.