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Reading
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| 10/5/2004 |
Various stuff I've been reading lately:
- The "No 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series by Alexander McCall Smith. Not the genre I usually read, but strangely compelling. It's a snapshot of a totally different life, and I like the way that the "whodunnit" detective aspects are balanced against the ongoing stories of the lives of the characters. It almost feels as if the author doesn't actually know what's coming next, but has constructed these characters and their environment and is just watching, along with the reader, to see what happens to them. Just like real life, there's no big master plan - or if there is, he hides it well.
- Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (half-way through, currently). Easily up to Pterry's usual standard, which is high praise even though he accomplishes it so regularly. Still waiting for another "proper" witches story, though - they were always my favorite and the Granny cameos in the nascent Tiffany Aching series aren't enough to sate my appetite.
- The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. After being disheartened to learn that this would be $80 to purchase, I just downloaded the entire text onto my laptop with wget and am making my way through it slowly. I'm impressed that even the first set of exercises contain a few tasks that are difficult enough to at least be interesting. I fully expect this book to blow my mind, and it's rare for programming-related material to be able to do that these days.
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