JoeDag32

Went with a different approach with my last read. While I knew that I liked dogs, I wasn’t sure if I’d like a fiction story about a dog, a detective dog actually. Turns out this was a very enjoyable read.

Chet (the dog) and Bernie (the human) are private investigators on the case. But the book is written from Chet’s point of view, which was a nice touch. The author does a great job of thinking how I’d imagine a dog actually thinks.

For the record I did write a short story titled Dog Town for a 7th grade project, so I did almost come up with it first. Believe I got an A on it actually, will have to see if I still have it.

Back to the book, it was a solid mystery. Nothing too over the top (besides a narrative dog of course). Very solid book that appears to be a series which I’ll have to really consider reading more of. It was entertaining stuff.

While at the library I decided to peruse the non-fiction section this time out. I stumbled upon the military/war section (if there is indeed such a section) and recalled that Seal Team Six was recommended as a good book a few months back.

Growing up playing G.I. Joe and certain that I’d of killed countless Soviets by this time in my life (apparently I didn’t take that path over the years), I figured it’d be a pretty interesting read. It was very interesting to get such a great insight into the life of the elite special forces. In this case a member of Seal Team Six.

The training and preparation was pretty amazing. These guys are so prepared for almost any situation you could ever think of.

It’s very amazing to hear a first account of their heroics. They really do an amazing and dangerous job. I doubt most of the fools here even realize just how dangerous a place this world can really be outside of their suburbs and luxury cars.

Not sure what to read next, but a dog on a book cover caught my eye. I’m a sucker for dogs, even horrible dog movies. The title was Thunder Dog, and I had no idea what to expect.

The book was about a man and his guide dogs amazing escape from the World Trade Center on 9/11. It was a pretty amazing tale, how their calmness and a pretty amazing guide dog got them both to safety during the horrific event.

Being a web developer who takes accessibility very seriously, it was very rewarding to hear just how beneficial technology can be to the blind.

A very solid read, and yet again a dog hasn’t let me down.

Just finished reading The Facebook Effect. Figured I was due for a non-fiction read and it’s reflective cover was too tempting to pass down. It was a very good book, detailing the rise of Facebook.

Being a web developer it’s always interesting to hear of a web project that can grow so fast, amazingly fast actually. The chapters on the early days was very interesting. You always hear about Mark Zuckerberg when Facebook is discussed, and rightly so. But to hear about some of the other founders and other important figures in it’s rise was very interesting.

Once again it demonstrates that the first one to do something in tech usually isn’t the winner in the end. Conditions have to be right for a idea, no matter how great to really take off.

I liked reading about when new features were added and reminded of the backlash whenever change comes to the masses online. After  using the newer features, it’s amazing how fast people who complained and formed groups to bring the old Facebook back forget about the change anyway.

This book isn’t written for techies so much, so if you use Facebook a lot or are just into a crazy fast story of riches you might want to give this one a read.

Since the copy of of Game of Thrones that I had loaned from the library became unreadable due to sever book damage (I really shouldn’t taken a photo to share, it was amazingly beat up), I figured I’d continue on my Fate of the Jedi series. The latest book out is Ascension, and thus far I think it was my favorite in the series.

Since this is the eight book in a nine book series, things are really beginning to come together. Lots of battles, a ton of Sith doing bad things, Abeloth doing all sorts of evil, political double crossing, all good stuff. The author does a great job of setting the stage for the final book which I will have to wait until April to read.

I really plowed through the very beginning and the last half of the book. There was just so much unfolding that if was hard to put down during those times. My favorite thus far in the series and am anxious for April now.

Figured I’d give something different a shot at the library, so I checked out Blink. It is pretty much about the first 2 seconds of making a decision. It was pretty interesting stuff.

There’s a ton of real world examples and how split second decisions are usually as good and many times better than a well researched decision. The whole simulated battle with the side with all the additional information losing to the less informed one was really interesting. More information means more time to process, and many decisions just don’t have that much time available.

I kept thinking to work where I see areas that need to form a committee to form a committee to evaluate everything, etc. I see it all the time, and usually the result is no decision seems to be made. Perhaps I should recommend this book to some people I know

Working on the web, and constantly analyzing a users behavior really has a lot of similarities with the Blink theory. It was weird, I felt as though I had read this book before since so much of it has been applied to when I develop things for the web.

Interesting read.