book reviews
Recent book reviews below. Follow this sunny tale of book reading!
Marcovaldo, or the Seasons in the City - Italo Calvino
Character based miniatures on par but less abstract than (Invisible Cities, Cosmicomics, Castle of Crossed Destinies, Mr. Palomar). Cartoony and sad city stories of a daydreamer factory worker; would be great adapted to the Japanese anime or manga formats. My favorite could be the rabbit, the sexy neon sign, or the giant hungry crane.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche
Zarathustra is an poetic oscillating machine that spits out joy and vitriol. This guy would love fellow cheerleaders of the creative fire, Ayn Rand and Rush. He extols the future and progress, and tells us when it arrives, even the greatest and most wonderful among us will be broken. This opinion betrays a lack of optimism and will be noted on your yearly performance review, Nietzsche.
The Labyrinth of Solitude - Octavio Paz
The comparative verses at the head are enticing,
Nothing could be further from this feeling than the solitude of the North American. In the United States man does not feel that he has been torn from the center of creation and suspended between hostile forces. He has built his own world and it is built in his own image: it is his mirror. But now he cannot recognize humself in his inhuman objects, nor in his fellows. His creations, like those of an inept sorcerer, no longer obey him. He is alone among his works, lost --- to use the phrase by José Gorostiza --- in a "wilderness of mirrors".
The history that follows traces roots of the Mexican people from indigenous cultures, colonials through counter-reformation, revolution, and reform to modern day with lots of references to art and literature.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert T. Kiyosaki
Author explains that you need to accumulate assets rather than liabilities (sources of expenses) if you wish to be rich; a mix of personal philosophies about career and wealth informed by parental guidance and experience. My current level of "financial intelligence" scarcely allows for simple red/black statistics.
The New South Creed - Paul M. Gaston
New South Myth, you disappointed me. Sure, you built enthusiasm for industrial and scientific enterprise in my state at a critical time, but gee whiz, you also used it to shift attention from social reconstruction, thereby prolonging segregation and lack of voting rights. No soup for you, New South Myth.
Discrete-Time Signal Processing - Oppenheim and Schafer
If you can be convinced that sinusoids are merely rotations in the "complex plane", you will believe anything. Enjoy the ride through the z-domain and you will encounter more practical concerns - such as implementing said systems with signal networks on digital logic. If your interests include computer audio at a higher level, you may find the sections on the fast fourier transform and block convolution algorithms more practical. Seekers of information on homomorphic transformation possibly look elsewhere, after reading this book.
Marcovaldo, or the Seasons in the City - Italo Calvino
Character based miniatures on par but less abstract than (Invisible Cities, Cosmicomics, Castle of Crossed Destinies, Mr. Palomar). Cartoony and sad city stories of a daydreamer factory worker; would be great adapted to the Japanese anime or manga formats. My favorite could be the rabbit, the sexy neon sign, or the giant hungry crane.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche
Zarathustra is an poetic oscillating machine that spits out joy and vitriol. This guy would love fellow cheerleaders of the creative fire, Ayn Rand and Rush. He extols the future and progress, and tells us when it arrives, even the greatest and most wonderful among us will be broken. This opinion betrays a lack of optimism and will be noted on your yearly performance review, Nietzsche.
The Labyrinth of Solitude - Octavio Paz
The comparative verses at the head are enticing,
Nothing could be further from this feeling than the solitude of the North American. In the United States man does not feel that he has been torn from the center of creation and suspended between hostile forces. He has built his own world and it is built in his own image: it is his mirror. But now he cannot recognize humself in his inhuman objects, nor in his fellows. His creations, like those of an inept sorcerer, no longer obey him. He is alone among his works, lost --- to use the phrase by José Gorostiza --- in a "wilderness of mirrors".
The history that follows traces roots of the Mexican people from indigenous cultures, colonials through counter-reformation, revolution, and reform to modern day with lots of references to art and literature.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert T. Kiyosaki
Author explains that you need to accumulate assets rather than liabilities (sources of expenses) if you wish to be rich; a mix of personal philosophies about career and wealth informed by parental guidance and experience. My current level of "financial intelligence" scarcely allows for simple red/black statistics.
The New South Creed - Paul M. Gaston
New South Myth, you disappointed me. Sure, you built enthusiasm for industrial and scientific enterprise in my state at a critical time, but gee whiz, you also used it to shift attention from social reconstruction, thereby prolonging segregation and lack of voting rights. No soup for you, New South Myth.
Discrete-Time Signal Processing - Oppenheim and Schafer
If you can be convinced that sinusoids are merely rotations in the "complex plane", you will believe anything. Enjoy the ride through the z-domain and you will encounter more practical concerns - such as implementing said systems with signal networks on digital logic. If your interests include computer audio at a higher level, you may find the sections on the fast fourier transform and block convolution algorithms more practical. Seekers of information on homomorphic transformation possibly look elsewhere, after reading this book.