The Reading Life
I'm not doing much writing here because I maintain a WordPress blog on my web site at: http://www.williamsportwebdeveloper.com/cgi/wp/index.php. I really prefer to blog there because I have complete control over my blog. I've even created several custom WordPress themes. I installed the Now Reading WordPress plug-in to indicate what books I am reading because that was something I would frequently blog about.
I plan to visit Berlin next year, maybe, so I'm currently reading many books in preparation for that. I am reading the guide book “National Geographic Traveler Berlin”. I like their guide books because they have great photos, maps, and diagrams. It is like reading a National Geographic Magazine devoted to the city you plan to visit. I've ordered the New York City guide book which I'm really looking forward to.
I'm also reading Thomas Mann's Death In Venice. The title story is perhaps more shocking today when it was first published because the Internet has made the subject even more taboo. But the other stories provide an excellent perspective on the European bourgeoisie before World War II.
I did buy one book in German from the German Amazon web site. I'm still studying French and I hope to be able to read books in French some day. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to read German though because life is too short. There are many spy novels set in Berlin because The Wall was the greatest symbol of the Cold War and a lot of espionage took place in Berlin.
I recently finished reading The Bug by Ellen Ullman. It is a novel about a programmer. I thought this novel would make my profession seem a little more glamorous. The protagonist slowly suffers a mental breakdown while struggling to fix a bug in his software. This didn't exactly help to make programming seem any more exciting! It was a fairly bleak novel about a man who's life falls apart due to his preoccupation with his career.
I plan to visit Berlin next year, maybe, so I'm currently reading many books in preparation for that. I am reading the guide book “National Geographic Traveler Berlin”. I like their guide books because they have great photos, maps, and diagrams. It is like reading a National Geographic Magazine devoted to the city you plan to visit. I've ordered the New York City guide book which I'm really looking forward to.
I'm also reading Thomas Mann's Death In Venice. The title story is perhaps more shocking today when it was first published because the Internet has made the subject even more taboo. But the other stories provide an excellent perspective on the European bourgeoisie before World War II.
I did buy one book in German from the German Amazon web site. I'm still studying French and I hope to be able to read books in French some day. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to read German though because life is too short. There are many spy novels set in Berlin because The Wall was the greatest symbol of the Cold War and a lot of espionage took place in Berlin.
I recently finished reading The Bug by Ellen Ullman. It is a novel about a programmer. I thought this novel would make my profession seem a little more glamorous. The protagonist slowly suffers a mental breakdown while struggling to fix a bug in his software. This didn't exactly help to make programming seem any more exciting! It was a fairly bleak novel about a man who's life falls apart due to his preoccupation with his career.