Books
Caliban's War
When was the last time I read a fiction book as quickly as Leviathan Wakes? I don’t even remember. Even before finishing it, I bought Caliban’s War, which I’m also enjoying very much. But this time I’m reading it on my Supernote.
I started reading it using the Supernote’s ePub reader, but after learning about the amazing BookFusion plugin for Obsidian, I had to install the BookFusion app on my Supernote, and that’s where I’m currently reading it. By the way, a video about all these tech adventures is coming soon.
Leviathan Wakes
I don’t remember the last time I couldn’t stop reading a book. Better yet, when I was reading Leviathan Wakes, the first book in The Expanse series, it was comforting to know that I would be able to keep enjoying more stories set in that universe.
I developed a more in-depth understanding of the characters, and the most delightful aspect of this was that it occurred naturally as I was enveloped in the adventure narrative. It’s time to find out if the next books are as good as this one. However, if you like the TV show, you should probably read at least this first book.
I purchased it in paperback while on a recent trip to Ireland, but I chose to go digital for the second book, Calvin’s War. And I’m not using a Kindle or Kobo device or apps. This reading is happening in my Supernote.
A Clockwork Orange
I see A Clockwork Orange as part of a group where I also put Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, 1984, and others that depict this dystopian future that, for some reason, attracts me.
Even though I’m sure it would not be a good experience at all, for some unknown reason, part of me has a secret desire to experience this alternative reality in person. It’s not just the dystopian future that attracts me. I also love the future from the perspective of the 60s.
Back to the A Clockwork Orange book, if you need a tip to use the Nadsat Glossary, I suggest watching this video to learn how I set it up in Obsidian.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies of all time, and, for that reason, the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? has been in my TBR pile for a very long time. It finally happened during a trip to Oxford, where I probably spent too much money on books. No, I take it back. As long as you read them, there is no such thing as spending too much money on books.
Anyway, it is a quick read that I completed by the end of the trip, yet it proved to be highly enjoyable. The essence of what I watched many years ago was there, but it felt like traveling to a parallel universe where there was another version of the movie.
And that brought up many thoughts about another passion of mine, moviemaking. While I was reading, I kept thinking about the director’s process of deciding to change this or that aspect of the movie.
The Memory Illusion
The Memory Illusion was one of the most amazing, accidental reads I’ve ever come across. It was recommended by the library to my wife, but I was the one who ended up reading it.
Similar to Algorithms to Live By, this book provides a wealth of scientific insight into numerous practices that I have developed throughout my life pertaining to note-taking. From how I learned to take notes as a child to the way I use tags to connect thoughts, and much more.
I enjoyed it so much that, after reading it more than once on my Kindle, I purchased the paperback edition.
Algorithms to Live By
Algorithms to Live By is, undoubtedly, the most important book I have read. It shed light in the form of scientific explanations for many things I was already doing, but that I had learned the hard way.
If my memory doesn’t fail me, I learned about it in 2016 listening to a podcast while jogging in Santiago, where I lived at the time. The conversation blew me away, and I got the Kindle edition as soon as I got home. I bought the hard cover and the audio version a few years later.
It’s probably not a book for everyone because of the many detailed explanations. My suggestion is to download the sample to make sure it is something that’s compatible with the kind of books I enjoy reading.
Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!
Yes, I did want to know who Marissa Mayer was, but that was secondary to my main goal when I decided to read this book: learning a bit more about Yahoo’s history.
To some, AOL is synonymous with the Internet, but in my case it was always Yahoo. It was such a prevalent company that when my son was born in 1998, I created a Yahoo Mail for him to reserve a short username.
In addition to their email application, I used the “My Yahoo” page as my browser homepage, Yahoo Messenger, and so many other services, including niche ones like the “Y Drive”, the great-grandfather of Dropbox. Of course it was not all roses; at some point they purchased and ended up destroying many great companies, like my beloved GeoCities, the home of my first-ever website.
Anyway, back to the book. I enjoyed going back in that memory lane and, in the process, learning more about a company that was part of my first steps online.
Weaving the Web
Weaving the Web is a fascinating journey into the history of the creation of the World Wide Web by its inventor. I read it for the first time when I was very young, probably as young as the Web itself.
Jokes aside, this is a must-read. Even after so many years from its publication, it’s still worth reading as it tells us how the Web, this integral part of our lives, came to be.
Furthermore, this book illustrates how many technologies are usually used together to innovate. Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee created the Web on a NeXT computer while working at CEARN. Isn’t that intriguing?
What Technology Wants
I found “What Technology Wants” by Kevin Kelly a fascinating read because it beautifully connects two of my biggest passions: technology and evolution. The “technium” is this evolving, self-organizing system that represents all technology, past, present, and future.
However, unlike species, which can become extinct, he presents the idea that old tech simply finds new purposes or persists quietly in the background. I loved it because I’m constantly repurposing old tech myself.
But what blew my mind was the parallel between evolution and technology. He argues that just as natural selection favors solutions best suited to an environment, the technium’s “natural selection” favors technologies that efficiently address human needs. There are several examples in the book of humans in vastly separated regions facing similar challenges and coming up with responses, often with similar designs. Just like how diverse species in similar environments develop comparable traits.
By the way, that’s the same argument we use when looking for life on other planets. If we find one with similar conditions to Earth, life there might have evolved in similar ways to what happened here.
Freedom at Midnight
I came across the book Freedom at Midnight while browsing the shelves of used bookstores. At that time, I was searching for everything I could read to help me learn more about our next adventure. So, finding a book about India before our trip to the country was no coincidence. However, it was a great surprise to come across this book in particular.
This is an exceptionally well-written account of the touching life of Mahatma Gandhi and the history of India’s independence. It touched me so deeply.
Update: I learned so much about the country and its most significant historical figure that I wanted to give it to my friend, who was also planning a trip to India. But I couldn’t help it and recently bought another copy to read it again.
Odyssey
Reading Dealers of Lightning sparked a curiosity to learn more about the history of technology, and that’s when I started looking for other similar books.
I see Odyssey as an autobiography by Sculley, centered on his trajectory at Pepsi and then Apple. But it is a fun read nevertheless. Especially because I understand things better when I have a clear chronological sense of the timeline of events. While Defying Gravity, Startup, and Piloting Palm helped me with the mobile computing industry context I was immersed in at the time, I needed more.
So, even if the narrative is from the perspective of John Sculley, it helped me add some more pieces to the broader historical context I’m trying to understand.
Piloting Palm
Piloting Palm was the first book I read on my Palm. It couldn’t be more appropriate: a book about Palm, read on a Palm.
But the most interesting part is being able to look at the device I’m reading the book on and see some of the details being described in the book. As a person super passionate about this device, it’s really difficult to put this down. Not to mention that it’s not even technically possible, as the Palm is always with me! LOL.
Dealers of Lightning
I wish I could remember who recommended this book to me, but the only thing I recall was my desire to learn more about Xerox PARC to understand what it actually was. Before reading Dealers of Lightning, all I knew about it was the legendary story of Steve Jobs going there and stealing the ideas of a graphical user interface for the Lisa and then the Mac. I was keen to know more.
What started with a very specific goal in mind ended up being one of the most inspiring books I’ve ever read. I completely fell in love with Xerox PARC and wished I could go back in time and somehow be there as an invisible specter, watching all those brilliant minds inventing remarkable things for the first time.
Defying Gravity
I wouldn’t classify Defying Gravity as a book. The coffee table format, all the pictures, and the narration in chronological order make the reading feel more like watching an extraordinarily well-made documentary about the behind-the-scenes of the Apple Newton creation.
As a teenager, I remember seeing so many Newton ads and articles in computer magazines. A self-inflicted torture, I would say, as my second-hand Apple II+ with almost no accessories was all I could afford after saving money for so long.
Needless to say, I was so fascinated by this book. Despite the size and shape, I had to bring it with me on a long trip from Brazil to Mexico to keep rereading it at the airport and on the plane.
Startup
Although Startup was written from the perspective of Jerry Kaplan, the founder of GO Corporation, it was a fascinating read, especially because I could learn about the existence of the PenPoint OS and the tablet itself—which, to be honest, I had never heard about before.
The book is almost an adventure tale, as Kaplan shares many details of his journey to bring his vision to fruition. Not to mention all the personal details and the drama with giants like Microsoft and Bill Gates.