Nonfiction
I've been enjoying some nonfiction recently, to cleanse the palate after tackling Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell-- I don't like to follow up enjoyable novels with other novels, thinking I'll either be disappointed, or overstuffing my brain past the point of satiety.
John Batelle's history of Google, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture
was fun on a personal level-- I used to work for Excite.com's search engine from 1999-2000, and even then, six years ago, we were playing catch-up with Google. (I was in the first round of layoffs, before Excite@Home went belly up. You may not remember this, but the reason Excite@Home went under, apart from bad investments ($750 million to acquire Blue Mountain Arts?), was that Wall Street firmly refused to believe that anyone would want internet access via their Cable company. DSL was the only future. Now it's 2006, and the majority of high-speed connections in the USA are via Comcast Cable (most of which it acquired from AT&T, which got them in the Chapter 11 selloff of Excite@Home's assets). Batelle's book is fun reading, if you're interested in Google or Silicon Valley, but if you're a techie, be forewarned... this is a history of a business, not a technology. Despite the over 300 interviews Batelle did for the book, there are very few insights into the technology, as Google is obviously very protective of its proprietary intellectual property.
Frank Abagnale's memoir, Catch Me If You Can (the same one that Steven Spielberg turned into a Leonardo DiCaprio/Tom Hanks movie) is a ripping yarn told by a brilliant con man. The book is even more fun than the movie (which had to leave out some great moments, including a jailbreak and a stint as a Professor of Sociology).
I had to bail 280 pages into Charles Mann's 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, to return it to the library. Probably won't get back to it, although it was a fun read since its coverage of the last three decades of archaeological research in the Americas is turning everything I learned in school about Amerindians, and the Incas, Aztecs, and Maya empires on its head.
I'm tackling Michael Pollan's latest investigation into where our dinner comes from, The Omnivore's Dilemma. He makes an excellent point in the introduction: Why does it take an investigative journalist to explain where the food on our plate comes from?
Next on my nonfiction list: Dirty Sugar Cookies, by Ayun Halliday. From the zinester who brought us The East Village Inky comes this kitchen memoir, delving into her life through odd meals and ambitious recipes. Ms. Halliday herself will make an appearance here as part of her Virtual Blog Tour next month.
John Batelle's history of Google, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture
was fun on a personal level-- I used to work for Excite.com's search engine from 1999-2000, and even then, six years ago, we were playing catch-up with Google. (I was in the first round of layoffs, before Excite@Home went belly up. You may not remember this, but the reason Excite@Home went under, apart from bad investments ($750 million to acquire Blue Mountain Arts?), was that Wall Street firmly refused to believe that anyone would want internet access via their Cable company. DSL was the only future. Now it's 2006, and the majority of high-speed connections in the USA are via Comcast Cable (most of which it acquired from AT&T, which got them in the Chapter 11 selloff of Excite@Home's assets). Batelle's book is fun reading, if you're interested in Google or Silicon Valley, but if you're a techie, be forewarned... this is a history of a business, not a technology. Despite the over 300 interviews Batelle did for the book, there are very few insights into the technology, as Google is obviously very protective of its proprietary intellectual property.
Frank Abagnale's memoir, Catch Me If You Can (the same one that Steven Spielberg turned into a Leonardo DiCaprio/Tom Hanks movie) is a ripping yarn told by a brilliant con man. The book is even more fun than the movie (which had to leave out some great moments, including a jailbreak and a stint as a Professor of Sociology).
I had to bail 280 pages into Charles Mann's 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, to return it to the library. Probably won't get back to it, although it was a fun read since its coverage of the last three decades of archaeological research in the Americas is turning everything I learned in school about Amerindians, and the Incas, Aztecs, and Maya empires on its head.
I'm tackling Michael Pollan's latest investigation into where our dinner comes from, The Omnivore's Dilemma. He makes an excellent point in the introduction: Why does it take an investigative journalist to explain where the food on our plate comes from?
Next on my nonfiction list: Dirty Sugar Cookies, by Ayun Halliday. From the zinester who brought us The East Village Inky comes this kitchen memoir, delving into her life through odd meals and ambitious recipes. Ms. Halliday herself will make an appearance here as part of her Virtual Blog Tour next month.