ex libris

a tribute to the books i've read - and their authors! i've started this in july 2005, and it will sadly be accurate only from this date.

Death With Interruptions, Jose Saramago, 8/2010

Suddenly people stop dying in just one, unnamed country.

This central question is addressed a bit like a superficial historical account, stating what "the church" did, and "the military", what actions "the unions" or "neighbouring countries" took. There are no personal stories, people don't have names and are not identifiable as individuals, so the reader can't form any personal attachment to any of the characters. In fact, it could probably be said that there are no characters in this book. "The prime minister" occurs a few times, but only as a role, with no personal characteristics beyond that.

If, as has been said, literature helps us understand the world through the specific, then this is not literature.

The development of events is pointed yet plausible, often humorous but hardly ever funny. The machinations of criminal organisations are developed in some detail. From a socio-political perspective the author shows evidence of detached and decidedly cynical insight into how a western country with a strong Catholic tradition would deal with a situation like this, but his ideas never go beyond what any informed citizen with a minimum level of reflective capacities would come up with.

The most interesting aspect is Saramago's style of writing: endlessly meandering sentences, often beautifully constructed, that force the reader to focus on the text. I could observe myself forgetting the start of a sentence somewhere near the end of it, but strangely the themes addressed in each sentence are much more short-lived than the sentence itself, and so require a shorter attention span.

What at first appears as cynical and witty prose, though, feels, after just a few pages, much more like forced wisecracking.

All-in-all an emotionally non-existent, intellectually underwhelming and humorously ineffective book.

Abendland, Michael Koehlmeier, 8/2010

Ich fuehle mich ausserstande, mit ein paar Absaetzen diesem gigantischen Buch gerecht zu werden, darum hier nur dieses: Geschichten rund um das 20. Jahrhundert, aufgehaengt am Leben des Erzaehlers Sebastian Lukasser und seines Wahlonkels Carl Jacob Candoris. Aus der Sicht des deutschen Kulturkreises bestimmende geschichtliche Begebenheiten und Entwicklungen werden als Szenerie und Kontext persoenlicher Erlebnisse praesentiert. Der Aufbau des Buches ist keineswegs chronologisch sondern Koehlmeier spinnt ein immer dichter werdendes Netz von Informationen ueber die handelnden Personen, webt einen Geschichte(n)teppich.

Modelling Dynamic Biological Systems, Bruce Hannon and Matthias Ruth, 7/2010

Much ado about a software that allows the visual construction, execution and visualisation of discrete time simulations of systems. Many nice examples of differential equations that model such systems and the interesting behaviour they give rise to.

DocBook 5, Norman Walsh, 6/2010

The definitive guide, mostly a very well-designed reference but also a good introduction. If only i could get the output to look as good as LaTeX's did out-of-the-box ages ago!

Habe die Ehre!, Ottavio Cappellani, 6/2010

Eine Mafiakomoedie, geschrieben von einem Catanier, und handelt in Catania und Umgebung. Das Zentrum der Handlung ist scheinbar eine lokale Adaption von Shakespeare's Romeo&Julie - doch dies ist ein wahrhaft italienisches Buch und deshalb stehen natuerlich die Menschen im Mittelpunkt - ihre Eitelkeiten, Liebschaften, Feindseeligkeiten, Verbruederungen, Allianzen und natuerlich Tratsch und Konversation und menschliche Interaktion bis zum Abwinken. Sueffisant gezeichnete Charaktere (der Regisseur Cagnotto und Bobo, Mister Turrisi, Betty und Carmine, die Rampensaeue Caporeale und Cosentino, die Contessa Salieri) und die so typische augenzwinkernde Ernsthaftigkeit, mit der diese durch's Leben gehen, erzeugen einen schluessigen, abgerundeten und authentischen Eindruck.

Deutschstunde, Siegfried Lenz, 6/2010

Der ca. 20-jaehrige Siggi Jepsen ist Insasse einer Gefaengnis-aehnlichen Anstalt fuer schwererziehbare Jugendliche, die auf einer Elbe-Insel in der Naehe von Hamburg betrieben wird. Eine Strafarbeit des Deutschlehrers, die er in einer Einzelzelle schreiben muss und immer mehr auch will, artet zu einer Aufarbeitung seiner Jugendjahre in Rugbuell bei Hamburg, dem noerdlichsten Polizeiposten Deutschlands, um das Ende des 2. Weltkriegs herum aus. Die Handlung des Buches pendelt zwischen diesen zwei Geschichten hin-und-her, wobei der Schwerpunkt jedenfalls auf den Rueckblicken liegt, und oft aus den Formulierungen dieser Episoden klar wird, dass sie eben in diesem Augenblick von Siggi niedergeschrieben werden. Es ist also immer nur relativ kurzfristig moeglich, die Perspektive des jungen Siggi ungestoert einzunehmen, bevor diese durch die Position des aelteren Siggi jaeh unterbrochen wird.

Seine Spannung bezieht das Buch aus der problematischen Beziehung zwischen Siggis Vaters, des Polizeiposten Rugbuell, und dem expressionistischen Maler Max Ludwig Nansen, dessen "entartete Kunst" von den Nazis verboten und beschlagnahmt wird, und der ein zeitweiliges Malverbot erhaelt, das der Polizeiposten zu ueberwachen hat. Die komplex gelagerte Feindseeligkeit die Siggis Vater zum Maler entwickelt, schwankend zwischen sehr persoenlicher, charakterlicher Inkompatibilitaet und beruflich legitimierter Machtausuebung, bildet den Kern der Erzaehlung. Diese Rivalitaet ist so praegend fuer Siggi weil er eine enge Beziehung zum Maler aufgebaut hat, der Entstehung vieler seiner Bilder beiwohnt, und dabei ein intuitives, inniges Verhaeltnis zur dessen Malerei entwickelt, und die kreative Atmosphaere darum herum geniesst. Der Maler ist ein komplexer Freigeist, waerend Siggis Vater als engstirniges, pflichtergebenes und verschlossenes Gewohnheitstier gezeichnet wird. Siggi leidet zunehmend unter der Versessenheit seines Vaters und dieser Konflikt muendet schliesslich darin, dass er die Bilder des Malers stielt um sie vor seinem Vater in Sicherheit zu bringen - und dafuer letztlich zu der Haftstrafe verurteilt wird, die den Ausgangspunkt fuer das Buch bildet.

Lenz laesst uns intim am Leben der handelnden Personen teilhaben. In minutioeser, Detail-verliebter, aber immer etwas amuesiert-verspielter Sprache beschreibt er absolut alltaegliche, und fuer sich genommen meistens uninteressante Situationen aus dem Leben in dieser laenglichen Region Norddeutschlands. Es dominieren das Meer; das Watt; Moewen; die Weite der Landschaft; die sehr oft bedrueckende Sprachlosigkeit und Kargheit der Menschen; die ganz selbstverstaendliche und schliesslich auch staats-politisch unterstuetzte Verachtung - insbesondere der Mutter - gegen alles kranke, schwache, "unwerte" Leben, gegen Fremdes und Anderes; die Strawanzereien von Siggi und seiner Schwester; die alte Muehle die Siggi als Versteck dient; kleine soziale Ereignisse in der Umgebung. Der Krieg ist im Hintergrund oft spuerbar aber fast nie vorherrschend, und Politik ist niemals ein Thema - was sehr glaubwuerdig die Sichtweise eines jungen Buben widerspiegelt.

Dieses Buch zu Lesen erfordert eine absolute Hingabe an seine ganz eigene Geschwindigkeit: waehrend die Handlung kaum Vortschritte macht, und das Beschriebene fast immer banal ist, ist die Sprache sehr erfrischend und ueberhaupt nicht langsam. Die Gefuehlszustaende der Akteure bekommen dadurch eine unerhoerte Klarheit und Praesenz, und das Erzaehlte wird letztlich doch bewegend und beinahe spannend. Mit anderen Worten: der Leser lebt das grossteils ereignislose aber deswegen natuerlich nicht uninteressante Leben Siggis mit, fuehlt mit - und leidet mit unter dem psychologischen Druck den der in Zeitlupe gefuehrte Zweikampf seiner beiden maennlichen erwachsenen Bezugspersonen in ihm aufbaut.

Mein einziges - und sehr persoenliches - Problem mit diesem Buch ist der Ort der Handlung und seine Kultur: eine kalte, unwirtliche Landschaft, mit Orten wie Rugbuell und Glueserup, bevoelkert von Menschen mit Namen wie Hinnerk Timmsen, Jens Ole Jepsen, Deichgraf Bultjohann und Hilde Isenbuettel, die es nicht schaffen ihre Emotionen zu kommunizieren, und sich ueber weite Strecken einfach nur schweigend angaffen, empfinde ich einfach als Folter. Oder, um es in den Worten von Siegfried Lenz auszudruecken: "Dies Land hier, dein Land, es versteht keinen Spass. [...] Immer tief ernst, auch bei Sonne diese Strenge. [...] Auch mittags bleibt es unheimlich. Manchmal habe ich gedacht dieses Land hat keine Oberflaeche, nur [...] Tiefe, es hat nur seine schlimme Tiefe, und alles, was dort liegt, bedroht dich. [...] Ich meine nur, die Oberflaeche hat soviel Menschliches."

Der Weltensammler, Ilija Trojanow, 5/2010

Ein Roman inspiriert vom Leben und den Reisen des Englaenders Richard Francis Burton im 19. Jahrhundert. Der bemerkenswerte Lebenslauf des Autors legt nahe, warum ihn dieser multi-kulturelle Kosmopolit zu einem Roman angeregt hat. Das Ergebnis ist ein faszinierendes Mittelding zwischen Bericht und Fiktion, wobei niemals klar ist, welche Aspekte erfunden sind und welche sich eng an den tatsaechlichen Erfahrungen Burton's orientieren.

Der Aufbau ist in mehrfacher Hinsicht genial an den Inhalt angepasst: Prolog und Epilog behandeln den Tod Burtons in Triest und die Rolle der katholischen Kirche dabei. Die drei Hauptteile des Buches sind drei grossen Reisen gewidmet: nach Indien und Pakistan als Offizier der East India Company, nach Aegypten und Arabien im Zuge der Hadj, und schliesslich nach Ostafrika und den Viktoriasee um die Quelle des Nil aufzuspueren. Jeder der Hauptteile wird sowohl aus der Sicht eines unbeteiligten Erzaehlers, der allerdings vage aus Burton's Sicht berichtet, als auch vom Standpunkt eines Involvierten aus dem jeweiligen Kulturkreis erzaehlt. Dadurch kommen immer sowohl die westliche als auch die jeweils lokale Perspektive zum Ausdruck - und die Reibungspunkte zwischen Ihnen werden vom Autor mit teilweise genuesslicher Sueffisanz herausgearbeitet. Nahezu niemals kommt die westliche Sicht dabei gut weg - wenn man einmal davon Absieht, dass der Westen ein neugieriges und wandelbares Geschoepf wie Burton hervorgebracht hat.

Religion spielt eine besondere Rolle in diesem Roman, einerseits weil alle Kulturen in die Burton so intensiv eingetaucht ist ganz wesentlich von religioesem Gedankengut durchdrungen sind, andererseits weil Burton selbst sich so intensiv mit Buddhismus und vor Allem Islam auseinandersetzt, und letztlich weil viele der Standpunkte die Westler in diesem Buch einnehmen christlich motiviert sind.

Wenn man sich auf den Dialog ziwschen verschiedenen Erzaehlern und Sichtweisen einlassen kann, ist dies ein unglaublich fesselndes und erfuellendes Buch - beinahe jeder Absatz bringt einen interessanten und verfolgendswerten Gesichtspunkt in's Spiel und hilft dem Leser, die beschriebenen Kulturen und die Burtons Rolle darin zu spueren.

Ocean Sea, Alessandro Baricco, 3/2010

Wonderfully versatile and ingenious use of different styles of writing and different narrative positions, put to work on a complex story about the sinking of a ship and the meeting of different people at the seaside. Sensitive and delicate, humorous in a very relaxed way, and at times – and thankfully only rarely – quite savage.

The Metaphysics of Mind, Anthony Kenny, 3/2010

A short philosophical treatise about brain and mind and related topics, devoted to putting the Cartesian subject to rest once-and-for all, and doing so in a manner strongly influenced by Wittgenstein and hence language.

The Museum of Innocence, Orhan Pamuk, 3/2010

The story of Kemal Bey, his engagement to Sibel and his love for the much younger Fuesuen. Set in the modern Westernized society of Istanbul sometime in the second half of the 20th century, where strong remains of traditional Turkish and Islamic values compete with an orientation towards Europe and France in particular, where women buy Turkish fakes of Parisian fashion but still carefully guard the appearance of chastity, where men drive Western cars and drink imported liquor as well as Raki, commit adultery at the Hilton, but feel compelled to drop their lovers as soon as their reputation is ruined.

As interesting and effective as the book is in portraying that part of Istanbul society at that particular time, as tortuous it is as a novel about love. It tells us in minute detail about the motions that Kemal goes through in falling in love and the suffering from love-inflicted pain, but it didn't for a moment make me feel any emotions but intellectual curiosity and boredom. In short, it is a painful technical account, not a book of love.

Identity: A Reader, Paul du Gay et al., 3/2010

A collection of original but edited papers on the subject of identity production in a structuralist and post-structuralist tradition; object-relational psychoanalysis; and the genealogical approaches of Marcel Mauss, Max Weber and Michel Foucault.

Manchmal muss man einfach nur ans Meer fahren, Rosalie Tavernier, 1/2010

Aphorismen zum Glueck und vor Allem zur Langsamkeit. Banal und trotzdem nicht selbstverstaendlich. Stimmungsvoll und sensibel bebildert.

Das Spiel des Engels, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 1/2010

Eine duestere, deprimierende und brutale Geschichte, wahrhaft "gothic", nur selten und viel zu kurz von menschlichen Lichtblicken erhellt. Den passenden Hintergrund bilden Kaelte und Regen eines industriellen Barcelonas der 20-er und 30-er Jahre, in dem die faschistischen Horden schon auf ihren Auftritt lauern. Der Epilog ist zwar kompromisslos mystisch, aber wenigstens erholsam langsam und sensibel. Doch im Rueckblick ueberwiegen bei weitem Horror und Gewalt - wenn nicht Zafon der Autor waere haette ich dieses Buch niemals gelesen.

RESTful Java with JAX-RS, Bill Burke, 12/2009

A delightful book on RESTful design principles and JAX-RS because 1. it uses a concise, no-nonsense style that explains and discusses (and this includes stating disadvantages - how old-fashioned is that!) rather than sells or preaches; 2. it is written with the vast background knowledge of someone who knows most of Java EE like his backyard and has written his own JAX-RS implementation (RESTEasy); 3. it uses code-heavy examples throughout for what is best explained through code; 4. it goes beyond the spec to explain the choices for client-side REST APIs; 5. it spares us the WS-* vs. REST debate. JSR 299/CDI has added its bit of magic on top of the release of JAX-RS described in this book, but that's trivial to learn from the spec. I wish it had given WADL a bit more consideration.

Nachtzug nach Lissabon, Pascal Mercier, 10/2009

Raimung "Mundus" "Papyrus" Gregorius, ein vertrockneter Berner Altphilologe erwacht durch die Begegnung mit einer mysterioesen Portugiesin. Er bricht sein korrektest geordnetes Leben als Gymnasiallehrer abrupt ab und stuerzt sich in das Erforschen des Lebensweges eines vor 30 Jahren verstorbenen Lissaboner Adeligen und Arztes namens Prado, dessen Aphorismen Gregorius in einer Buchhandlung in Bern zufaellig in die Haende fallen und in seiner hypersensiblen Situation zutiefst bewegen. Der Hauptteil des Buches handelt von seinem Eintauchen in Lissabon und das Leben Prados - und von der Entwicklung die er dabei durchmacht und nachholt.

Prados Buch sind im wesentlichen kurze philosophische Abhandlungen, die Gregorius auf wundersame Weise aus der Seele sprechen und die das Rueckgrat des Buches bilden. Ich kann nicht behaupten dass sie bei mir einen besonderen Eindruck hinterlassen haben. Viel mehr bewegt hat mich die Feinfuehligkeit mit der Gregorius auf seine Entdeckungsreise geht, Beziehungen zu Personen aus Prados Leben aufbaut, und sich dabei veraendert. Diese (Selbst-) Beobachtungen machen dies zum wahrscheinlich sensibelsten Buch dass ich jemals gelesen habe, und sie sind es die mein Interesse wachgehalten haben. Auch ist der Leser sicher interessiert, wie sich Gregorius' Ausbruch aus seinem alten Leben aufloesen koennte. Doch darueber hinaus funktioniert das Buch als Roman und Geschichte nur relativ bedingt. Merkwuerdig sind auch die unzaehligen Wiederholungen von bereits Gelesenem oder Gehoertem, die wohl Gregorius' Reflexionen ausdruecken sollen, aber auch schlichtweg Spannung und Fluss aus der Handlung nehmen.

Matter, Ian M. Banks, 10/2009

Ferbin and Holse from the shellworld Sursamen seek Ferbin's sister Anaplian who left many years ago to live with the Culture. Nothing if not imaginative and epic, but over long stretches i simply did not care to hear about yet another "historical" fact about this planet or that society. Although the main actors are drawn in quite a bit of detail, in the main i missed credible and - most of all - engaging emotions and behaviour. Most disturbingly, though, it occurred to me that Banks' approach must simply be called racist: with the exception of Culture citizens, almost every other being's attitude, motivation and actions are first-and-foremost determined by his/her/its race. Nariscene do this, Oct have that belief, Morthanveld respond like so, and so on, and so forth. Maybe this is inevitable in a novel that spans such enormous distances in time and space and biological diversity, but if that's so, then i must say i prefer the close-up view that exposes individual differences.

Der blinde Masseur, Catalin Dorian Florescu, 10/2009

Teodor, Ion Palatinus, Marius, Elena, Valeria: Ein gebuertiger
Rumaene, der als junger Erwachsener von der kommunistischen Diktatur
in die Schweiz gefluechtet ist, macht sich 20 Jahre spaeter auf die
Suche nach seiner rumaenischen Identitaet - und das scheint fuer den
Romanheld so zuzutreffen wie scheinbar fuer den Autor auch. Die
rumaenische Gesellschaft wir sehr ernuechternd geschildert: Armut,
Korruption, Hinterlist, emotionale Unehrlichkeit und alles
durchdringende Geldgier. Hier und da glimmt etwas schwermuetige Poesie
und Zertlichkeit auf. Doch das rumaenische Leben hat harte Geschoepfe
hervorgebracht, und der "Schweizer" ist weich... Ein ernnuechterndes
Buch.

Man in the Dark, Paul Auster, 9/2009

Numerous stories and short episodes, all somehow intertwined, and at the centre lies 70-year-old August Brill awake in the dark, mostly also in a dark mood, and - this is Paul Auster, after all - politics. For quite a long time it seems as if this were the somewhat bizarre story of Owen Brick, as imagined by Brill, but then the narrative web becomes more complicated, is enriched by seemingly irrelevant details about a hapless writers life, goes on what seem like tangents about Brill's daughter Miriam and her daughter Katya, only to gravitate to what happened to Titus, Katya's former boyfriend, and how he died in Iraq. The actions of a few "fascists" (his words; not that i object) at the helm of political power are contrasted with a stream of intensely personal actions, how the former shapes the latter but can not quite control it, inflicts pain but can not extinguish the positive energy that flows whenever people how love each other interact. The "weird world rolls on". A very positive message, in the end, despite of the negative preconditions and all the suffering involved. (How good to read again for the soul and not the intellect.)

What I Loved, Siri Hustvedt, 8/2009

(This book provided the much-needed sensuous escape from a recent concentration on neuroscience papers.)

Set amongst artists and scholars of the arts in Manhattan, the plot follows the very personal life of the narrator Leo over several decades. The dominant topic is the relationship between Leo, Bill, Erica and Violet and their children Matt and Mark. The children are an important source of sorrow and pain and Mark's adventures give the last third of the book a significant tension.But most important to me was the depiction of the very thoughtful, tender yet immensely strong social web that ties the adults together and is woven by a myriad of small, in themselves mostly insignificant events and social interactions.

The book is dedicated to Paul Auster and i can't help but notice the similarity in style: an incredibly fluent, unassuming and seemingly detached prose that succeeds in being analytical and emotional at the same time.

Lemmings Himmelfahrt, Stefan Slupetzky, 6/2009

Lemming "Unter den Ulmen" (Gugging?), nachdem er am Naschmarkt in eine Schiesserei verwickelt wird. Ein wirklich exzellenter, vielseitiger Krimi, mit vor Allem wunderschoenen sprachlichen Bildern. Einige Figuren sind evtl. etwas oberflaechlich gezeichnet. All meine Kritikpunkte am ersten Band sind beseitigt: die Story speilt zwar natuerlich nach-wie-vor in Wien, und betont dies auch durchaus, aber das Touristische ist verschwunden und der Ort gliedert sich harmonisch in die Handlung ein.

Der Fall des Lemming, Stefan Slupetzky, 5/2009

Vielseitiger wiener Kriminalroman. Der Protagonist ist natuerlich ein Antiheld - aber nicht in so grotesker Weise wie oft typisch fuer oesterreichische Machwerke sondern eher subtil und sympathisch. Der Roman hat eine humoristische Seite - aber sie ist zart und nicht schenkelklopfend. Er ist gesellschaftskritisch - aber nicht in deprimierend-nihilistischer Weise. Und er ist spannend - aber definitiv kein Thriller. Der einzige Aspekt der mich wirklich gestoert hat ist eine oft in die Sprache der Tourismuswerbung abgleitende Erklaerung wiener Eigenarten.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, Richard P. Feynman, 4/2009

A collection of mainly transcripts of interviews with and talks by the great physicist. Focuses rather too much on the person than on his work, for my taste. So we read only a tiny bit about high-energy physics and hardly anything at all about quantum electrodynamics, but quite a bit about his relationship with his father and his scientific world view. The latter is really interesting and inspiring, though, as he argues very passionately and with varying degrees of sophistication and eloquence for what one could call an orthodox, personalized scientific approach: internalizing doubt; always questioning, always arguing rationally; categorizing theories and "knowledge" on a scale of (un)certainty that does not include the extremes on that scale; the value of the repeatable, carefully controlled experiment; the power of generalization and the need to look at "enough" detail. The good old-fashioned scientific approach, of course, but without any of the philosophy-of-science self-importance.

There is a small piece on the relationship of science and religion, that contains this quote, which i really liked because it applies so well to many areas, from "best-practices" in software development to the theory and practice of economics and finance over the last decades:

"It is true that if you have a tyranny of ideas, so that you know exactly what has to be true, you act very decisively, and it looks good - for a while. But soon the ship is heading in the wrong direction, and no one can modify the direction anymore."

Physiology of Behavior, Neil R. Carlson, 4/2009

(OK - i'm not through with this yet, but then i probably never will be entirely, so this is a good a time as any to jot down my impressions.)

A representative of the astonishing class of absolutely brilliant American text books in the life sciences: a truly great American tradition. This is one of the most important text books on physiological (biological) psychology. It discusses this subject from several perspectives, with copious use of figures and diagrams, and even a CD-ROM with animations. The presentation thus really succeeds in being accessible - which is very welcome given the complexity of the content. The German equivalent would shroud the content in Latin and oh-so-educated language...

Clean Code, Robert C. Martin, 3/2009

Micro-design guidelines in the Software Craftsmanship tradition. Very thorough and well-argued; step-by-step refactorings. Design at this level really matters - but does it matter that much? And does consistency maybe matter more than the actual style that is being aspired to? One may call this the Object Mentor school of micro-design, which is closely related to the Kent Beck school.

Enterprise Architecture as Strategy, Jeanne W. Ross et al., 3/2009

A discussion of and framework for enterprise architecture originating at MIT Sloan School. Plausible, based on empirical research - but the problems in enterprise architecture are not in coherently reasoning about it...

Wie ein Staubkorn auf der Erde. Thailand erzaehlt, 3/2009

Eine Anthologie moderner thailaendischer Autoren mit den vorscherrschenden Themen Rolle der Frau, Armut und (Ueber-) Lebenskampf. Nicht gerade aufbauend. Teilweise recht holpriges Deutsch - man fragt sich wie viel hier "lost in translation" ist...

Die Form des Wassers, Andrea Camilleri, 2/2009

Comissario Montalbano schlawinert sich durch die Ermittlungen im Fall Luparello.

Leben macht muede, Jean-Claude Izzo, 1/2009

Ein kleines Buechlein mit sehr kurzen Geschichten in typischer Izzo-Manier: einfache Leute, auf der Suche nach Liebe, mit einer Ueberdosis Melancholie, oft schlichtweg depressiv.

Software Craftsmanship, Pete McBreen, 1/2009

Software craftsmen: are proud of their work and hence sign it; value quality; deliver value to the users; take full responsibility for their work; work in small teams of craftsmen (apprentices/journeymen/masters); interact directly with the users; continuously maintain and develop broad and specific skills; build-up a portfolio that showcases their achievements; focus on the long-term life of applications; chose technologies wisely; are paid according to their skills and paid well.

Der fernste Ort, Daniel Kehlmann, 1/2009

Ein kleiner Text ueber das verwirrte Leben von Julian. Wunderschoene sprachliche Bilder, leicht dahererzaehlt. Ein Buch ueber verschiedene und inkompatible Sichtweisen auf das Leben, ueber Zwaenge und den vergeblichen Versuch sie zu ueberwinden und aus dem Gefaengnis, das sie um uns herum errichten, auszubrechen, ueber die scheinbare Vorherbestimmtheit allen Tuns. All das vor dem Hintergrund deutscher Kleinstadt-Tristesse, allgegenwaertiger Angepasstheit und Mittelmaessigkeit. Und immer wieder die ueberwaeltigende Schoenheit von Sprache, sei es die von Spinoza oder die von Vetering.

Programming in Scala, Martin Odersky, Lex Spoon and Bill Venners, 1/2009

There is so much to say about Scala the language - but this is "just" about the book.

The book outright oozes the huge amount of hard work that has gone into it. I've never read a tutorial-style book before that accomplishes to be introductory yet comprehensive: in their (misguided) attempt to be approachable and not "confuse" the reader, most tutorials silently ignore aspects of a subject that are too advanced for the current discussion. This leaves a very bad taste, as one can never be sure as to the understanding one has achieved. There is always some residual "magic" that hasn't been explained and can not be judged at all by the reader. This book never does that, it never takes anything for granted: every detail is either sufficiently explained or a reference to a later explanation is given. Indeed, the text is extensively cross-referenced and indexed, so that forming a complete picture of a complex topic is relatively easy.

Since this book is a tutorial, it sometimes leaves a residual doubt whether a topic has been discussed in its full breadth and depth. Cross-referencing helps a lot, but related content is still somewhat spread all over the book. However, there is always the Scala language spec to satisfy that need for cohesion and comprehensiveness...

I quite liked the subtle and nerdy (but not too nerdy) humour, especially in the first part of the book. For instance, section 8.9 discusses tail recursion and ends in "If you don't fully understand tail recursion yet, see Section 8.9." It gives the text (at least the first half of it) an almost light appearance. Later parts of the book are more dense and definitely more serious, but nevertheless quite accessible.

As an aside, this book contains the best treatment of the mess that is equals() i've read so far. And the solution is applicable not only to Scala but also to good old Java.

The only subject that hasn't been covered exhaustively is annotations: there is a bit about how Java-defined annotations can be used in Scala, but there is nothing on defining annotations in Scala in the first place.

All-in-all my favourite language-book so far!

City of Glass, Paul Auster, adaptation by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli, 1/2009

This is an adaptation of Auster's City of Glass as a graphic novel. I've read the New York Trilogy (including City of Glass) when i was in New York in 1999 and it opened my eyes to Auster's writing. I'm not into graphic novels at all, but this one is obviously a piece of art: it's black-and-white throughout and makes good use of shadow effects to underline the surreal aspects of the story. There are several sequences where the images zoom-in or out, starting or ending with some innocuous detail in an image. This is very effective in illustrating the questions of identity that the story explores. The text is obviously strongly based on Auster's, although it is condensed to fit the new format. It still shows some of the beauty of the original, though. As is so often the case when images are involved, it's very hard to forget them, and i'm sure that when i re-read the New York Trilogy (as i intend to do soon) i'll be haunted by the impressions left by this adaptation. A very interesting experience.

Effective Java, Second Edition, Joshua Bloch, 1/2009

The Classic 2.0. Important, comprehensive, carefully argued items ranging from the mundane through the well-known to a few genuinely surprising nuggets. Sheer beauty (constant-specifc method implementations in enums) next to utter ugliness (Cloneable). Reading a book that is just about the Java language itself (rather than about any higher-level frameworks or technologies) exposes what an unholy mess the Java platform has become. A threading model that's largely obsolete, mutable Dates, ill-conceived Calendar's, grotesque Cloneable, arrays that don't work with generics, a type system can can infer some but not all type information ... and just the general burden of methods and types that can't be removed or sanitized for compatibility reasons. It's amazing how many mistakes were made in the early days of Java (in addition to all the far-sighted decisions, of course) - but what is even more amazing is the increasingly ugly cage this makes for a present-day Java programmers and how we somehow learned to live in it. Scala to the resuce?

Es geht uns gut, Arno Geiger, 12/2008

Die Geschichte Wiens im 20. Jahrhundert auf gesellschaftlicher und politischer Ebene, erlebt und erzaehlt durch 3 Generationen einer wiener Familie. Alma und Richard; Otto, Ingrid und ihr Mann Peter; Sissi, Phillip und seine Freundin Johanna. Die Erzaehlung geht von Philipp's ineffizienten Versuchen aus, das grosselterliche Haus auszuruempeln, und erfolgt in Rueckblicken auf einzelne Tage im Leben dieser Leute, von den 30-ern bis jetzt. In erster Linie erhalten wir so Einblick in ganz persoenliche Vorgaenge und Ueberlegungen, die aber natuerlich oft mehr oder weniger stark von den damals vorherrschenden politischen Ereignissen gepraegt sind. So werden die Staatsvertragsverhandlungen neben eitrigen Zaehnen behandelt - und die Zaehne bekommen deutlich mehr Bedeutung. Erfrischend (und dringend noetig) ist eine gehoerige Portion Respektlosigkeit im Umgang mit den Eckpfeilern der oesterreichischen Nachkriegsgeschichte. Immer praesent und bestimmend sind die gesellschaftlichen Zwaenge der Zeit - vom konservativen Patriarchat der Grosseltern ueber die beginnende aber frustrierende Emanzipation der Eltern bis zur Sorglosigkeit, Freizuegigkeit und teilweise auch Orientierungslosigkeit der Kinder. Viele Bilder sind amuesant oder skurril, vor allem wenn sie Philipp betreffen, immer wieder jedoch sind sie von zarter und dezenter Schoenheit, ganz besonders im Umgang der alten Alma mit dem greisen Richard.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid, 12/2008

The book uses an interesting and original approach: the text is without exception the transcript of one half of the dialogue between a Pakistani and an American in a cafe in Lahore. It is the Pakistani's words that we read, but he is explicit enough about the American's actions and reactions that we nevertheless get a good understanding of the dynamics of the interaction. There are 3 levels to the story: one is an account of the time the Pakistani spent in the USA, first as a student in Princeton and then as a consultant in New York. This is the primary topic of the discussion. The second level is the environment in the Lahore cafe that the two people experience together: the meal they're sharing; the observations they make and discuss. The third level is the question of why this conversation takes place at all. The Pakistani introduced himself to the American and is obviously directing the evening towards an aim that we are beginning to glimpse as the discussion unfolds. But we are never actually sure of the motivation of the Pakistani and what it will lead to. It turns out to be a very cleverly constructed web of allusions of the Pakistani and reactions of the American that play with the reader's preconceptions, prejudices and the nascent ideas that he forms about the nature of the interchange.

The heart of the story is the transformation of the Pakistani from a well-oiled wheel in the machinery of American capitalism to an enemy of American imperialism and military aggression. That transformation took place while he was in the states, working as a consultant for a boutique valuation business in New York, and was precipitated by the 9/11 attacks and, most importantly, by the American reaction to it. In short, the Pakistani was politicized by these events and has made the conscious decision to break with his education, career and lifestyle and fight the Americans. The month leading to that personal crisis, and its resolution are recounted in enough detail to be believable. But the whole idea would be more realistic if the Pakistani where a bit less intelligent, successful and popular before he took the decision to change his life. The author overshoots in his obvious attempt to show that turning against the USA is possible even when one starts from a position of strength.

The language of the Pakistani is forcefully educated and British. Very pleasant to read but also a bit comic in its exaggeration.

I find the title strangely wrong and helpful at the same time: it is helpful because it clearly signposts (together with the cover image) that the book is somehow about the struggle of a Muslim against the USA. However, it is also plainly wrong because religion does not seem to have any part in this man's decision. He is not by any means an Islamic fundamentalist. Nor does he seem to take a fundamentalist's approach (religious or otherwise) to any questions that are raised in the book. On the contrary, his state of mind is that of an enlightened man that synthesizes the experiences he has made in Pakistan and the USA and draws the sober and conscious conclusion to fight the USA. Nor is he reluctant as the title seems to suggest. His acceptance of his personal transformation process was a reluctant one, but once he has made the step he seems to be fully behind it, without lingering doubts.

All in all a wonderfully elegant and engaging book.

Pushing Ice, Alastair Reynolds, 12/2008

The backdrop for this story is nothing less than the development of humanity from 2057 to the most distant future. The foreground is a sociological study of a group of some 100 settlers and the epic struggle of their 2 leaders, Bella and Svetlana. The motives of these 2 women are quite different, but the results of their deeds often look very much alike. The end surprises with an ingenious idea for reconciliation that is truly worthy of a science fiction novel of this scale.

Besuch von Glorf, Stefan Slupetzky, 12/2008

Holk, Drimmel und Drue vom Glorf erkunden die Welt mithilfe einer Kuh, des Bauern Fladnitzer, des pensionierten Volksschullehrers Bemmerl und des Papstes. Slupetzky haelt uns mit viel Wortwitz einen rabenschwarzen Spiegel vor. Einsprengsel von 5 deprimierenden Kurzgeschichten - Produkte des schiffseigenen Prosagenerators - verstaerken die vorherrschenden Themen: Zwietracht, Selbstsuechtigkeit, Gier.

Total Control, David Baldacci, 11/2008

Arthur Lieberman's and Jason Archer's alleged death in a plane crash; Jason's wife Sidney's and FBI agent Lee Sawyer's struggle to unearth the events that led there. Ridiculously outdated use of computers. Complicated story, not entirely convincing in retrospect. Too many cliches about gender and profession to be really enjoyable: wincing every half-hour somewhat destroys the immersion in a plot.

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, 11/2008

Amir and Hassan; Kabul, Peshawar, California; 1970s to today. Few short sections of beautiful, sensitive descriptions; mostly though hurried and over-engineered for effect: there is hardly any person or event that doesn't serve any specific purpose later in the text. It's really an adventure novel with an almost unbearable emotional density.

The Key to Midnight, Dean Koontz, 10/2008

Not a typical Koontz novel, rather a fast-paced espionage thriller with a healthy dose of romance. Quite enjoyable. I'd stopped reading Koontz a while ago but now i realize it's mostly the Germany translation that's unbearable.

The Stone Gods, Jeannette Winterson, 10/2008

A book on the surface about repeating worlds, but really about the inadequacy of humankind and the primacy of the personal sphere and of love. Here it's mostly homosexual love, Spike and Billie, again and again. Very poetic but also a bit frustrating because repeating worlds only provide variations of a theme. The part about Wreck City was a bit to hallucinatory for my taste.

Rainer Maria sucht das Paradies, Daniel Glattauer, 9/2009

Lieb. Aufwendig gedruckt und illustriert.

Der Buergermeister von Furnes, Georges Simenon, 9/2008

Eine etwas muehsame Milieustudio einer flaemischen Kleinstadt in den spaeten 30-ern, erzaehlt anhand einer Episode aus dem Leben des Industriellen und Buergermeisters Joris Terlinck.

Beerholms Vorstellung, Daniel Kehlmann, 9/2008

Die Lebensgeschichte des Zauberkuenstlers (Magiers?) Arthur Beerholm, chronologisch erzaehlt, mit einigen kleinen Bemerkungen ueber den zukuenftigen Verlauf eingestreut um die Spannung zu steigern. Wunderbar sensible Sprache, nie praetentioes, immer passend zur Situation.

Release It! Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software, Michael T. Nygard, 9/2009

This is a book about non-functional properties in enterprise-class software, especially Java EE web applications. The author covers stability, capacity and availability in great detail and gives a very readable introduction into several operation and infrastructure topics such as data center networking, administration, monitoring and transparency. The book covers an interesting and important area where software architecture, system architecture and IT operations meet. The author also obviously tries to bring the mindset of IT operations and system administration closer to the hearts of software developers and architects, so that they may be better able to understand and appreciate how their software will be used once it has gone live, and architect/design/code it accordingly.

I think this is an excellent book: it covers these topics with both a sufficient amount of intellectual depth and a healthy dose of anecdotes and metaphors, which makes it rewarding and very enjoyable to read. The organisation of about two thirds of the book is in the form of patterns and antipatterns (although without using the typical pattern presentation template) which i find not very appropriate. I ended up reading the patterns first, because most of the antipatterns refer to the patterns. Often i wished the discussion had been more concrete in terms of technical solution rather than just intent.

Das Herz des Moerders, Eugenio Fuentes, 9/2008

Ricardo Cupido, grossgewachsener, gutaussehender, melancholischer spanischer Privatdetektiv ermittelt im Fall des angeblichen Selbstmordes eines hohen Militaers. Detailierte Schilderungen von Persoenlichkeitsmerkmalen, einige schmerzhaft-grobe Cliches (z.B. Frauen und Bodybuilder betreffend), aber ein spannender und origineller Handlungsverlauf.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris, 8/2008

A collection of 20-odd witty, humorous essays about nothing in particular - just everyday experiences harvested from the life of the author, but packaged up in light, beautiful prose with mild punchlines.

My primary grudge is about the fact that the book is not marked at all as an essay collection. On the back, right above the barcode, it says "Autobiography". Only when you look at the 4th page do you find a note, hidden between the copyright statement and the ISBN that "Acknowledgment is made to the following, in which the stories in this collection first appeared...". So after the first few essays, when i discovered that these seemingly unrelated "chapters" will never add up to a true autobiography or novel, i've learned to appreciate the stories in a new way...

Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures, Roy Thomas Fielding, 8/2008

I had seen so many references to this authoritative (and one might say: defining) work on REST that i just had to read it myself. It's obvious that the REST evangelists have done an excellent job of explaining this architectural style, because hardly anything in Fielding's discussion of REST itself comes as a surprise. What did surprise me, though, was his enlightening and eye-opening comparison of network-based architectural styles using a set of architectural properties (such as performance, scalability, visibility, reliability, etc. - in short: non-functional properties relevant for distributed applications), in particular since he also included messaging (pipes-and-filters) in that comparison. What was also new to me is the role that REST has apparently played for some time in the reasoning about proposals for later web standards (in which Fielding was involved) such as HTTP/1.1 and URIs.

Die Marseille-Trilogie: Total Cheops, Chourmo, Solea, Jean-Claude Izzo, 7/2008

Drei Romane um die Hauptfigur Fabio Montage, zuerst Polizist, spaeter Arbeitsloser. Viele kulinarische Eindruecke von Marseille und seinen Bewohnern aus der Gegend und den ehemaligen franzoesischen Kolonien. Sehr eindringliche Schilderungen der sozialen und politischen Umstaende in Marseille und Frankreich: Zuwanderung, wirtschaftliche Hoffnungslosigkeit, steigende Unterstuetzung des Front National, zunehmende Globalisierung und Europaeisierung. Aber vor Allem: das Leben der "kleinen Leute", mit viel Einfuehlungsvermoegen und expressionistischer Sprache sehr effektiv beschrieben, aus einer links-liberalen und stark regional verankerten Position heraus.

Letztlich jedoch vermitteln die 3 Buecher auf viel zu glaubhafte und spuerbare Weise ein zunehmendes Abgleiten in die Tristesse und Lustlosigkeit, sowohl bei Fabio Montale persoenlich als auch bei der Marseiller Gesellschaft (zumindest in den Kreisen die er beschreibt). Koennen die ersten beiden Buecher noch mit einem unerwarteten aber glaubhaften happy end aufwarten, so deprimiert das dritte Buch fast ausschliesslich - inklusive dem Ende. Beinahe unertraeglich, aber natuerlich eben dadurch besonders kraftvoll.

On Becoming a Person, Carl R. Rogers, 7/2008

Consisting of several of Rogers' essays compiled in one volume in the early 1960s, this is supposedly his most popular book. Not long ago i didn't even know who Rogers was, which seems ridiculous now. It has definitely been one of the most thought-provoking reads i can recall. Although, after having studied approximately the first half of the book, i found myself becoming very familiar indeed with his attitudes and approaches. His style of writing is captivating in its own right, so even just as a literary text the second half of the book was worthwhile. Although it definitely wouldn't be fair to say the he repeated himself over and over again. Rather, he has developed a certain perspective on how interpersonal relationships can and should be constructed in order to be helpful (integrated, acceptant and empathic), and he applied this viewpoint to increasingly broader situations (such as education and society) in a consistent but somewhat predictable way. Still, measured by the having-to-put-book-aside-to-ponder-a-thought metric this has been a wonderful book.

The Devil's Footprints, John Burnside, 6/2008

The protagonist, a man in his late 30-ies living in an isolated village in Scotland, tells us about how he recently ran off with a 14 year old girl who he suspected might be his daughter. We also learn about his and his parent's life, and the extraordinary events that shaped their fate. It is a wonderfully narrated story, that meanders through present and past and kept me utterly captivated. Burnside's style reminds me of Ian M. Banks: a very calm and elegant prose, that tells the most astonishing details in a seemingly detached and yet at the same time deeply moving way.

Maigret und die Keller des Majestic, Georges Simenon, 6/2008

Tod im Herbst, Madgalen Nabb, 5/2008

Florenz im Herbst - welch unpassende Lektuere in Griechenland im Fruehling! Gut gemacht.

Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds, 5/2008

Dan Sylveste's exploration of the alien species and culture of the Amarantin. At times truly breathtaking in its imaginative and believable use of physical concepts. Mostly frustratingly cold in its depiction of the main characters, although it turns out that in the some cases that's actually a repercussion of the mental manipulations these people suffered. Nevertheless, it makes for a less rounded experience because of that emotional shallowness. The book with the grandest and most awe-inspiring ending i can recall!

The Scar, China Mieville, 4/2008

The adventures of the floating pirate city of Armada told mostly from the perspective of Bellis Coldwine, a linguist who had to flee New Crobuzon. A fantastically rich book in all respects, always engaging, never dull, never predictable.

Nova Swing, M. John Harrison, 3/2008

Quite imaginative, but a bit too old-fashioned as a story and at times too surreal for my taste.

SAO Approach to Integration, Matjaz B. Juric et al., 3/2008

Very promising and very frustrating because hardly any of the promises are kept. We are supposed to be enlightened about "XML, Web services, ESB, and BPEL in real-world SOA projects" yet hardly anything of substance is said and the treatment of some topics is outright weird. Take the section on "Using XSL for Transformation" as a case in point, which choses to talk exclusively about the differences between xsl:import and xsl:include. Having said that, chapter 5 is a nice and useful BPEL tutorial and the discussion of transaction strategies and semantics in chapter 6 shows abundant insight into this topic.

Tote essen keinen Doener, Osman Engin, 3/2008

Einigermassen amuesant, zeitweise recht muehsam, virtuoses Finale.

Woran glaubt, wer nicht glaubt?, Carlo Maria Martini und Umberto Eco, 3/2008

Ein fuer die italienische Zeitschrift "liberal" mitte der 90-er Jahre inszenierter Briefwechsel zwischen Eco und dem Mailaender Kardinal, angereichert um ein paar Nachworte italienischer Intellektueller. Eco darf in 3 Beitraegen Fragen zu gesellschaftlichen und religioesen Themen stellen, auf die Martini in jeweils einer Replik eingeht. Zuletzt drehen sie den Spiess um und Martini fragt zur Moral von Nichtglaeubigen und Eco antwortet darauf.

In Summe auesserst unbefriedigend: Eco kann der Versuchung nicht widerstehen, seine religioese Bildung zur Schau zu stellen und bricht vollkommen sinnlose theologische Diskussionen vom Zaun. Anstatt die grundsaetzlichen Fragen zur Existenz Gottes und der Plausibilitaet von Religion zu stellen bewegt er sich also aus simpler Geltungssucht fast ausschliesslich innerhalb der christlichen Glaubenskonstrukte. Martini kann dementsprechend grossherzig antworten, und tut dies auch in durchaus sympathischer Weise. Der letzte Beitrag Martinis ist schlicht die Behauptung dass nur Religion einen absoluten Moralmassstab anbieten kann, und alle Alternativen von Nichtglaeubigen im Vergleich dazu minderwertig weil nicht kategorisch genug sind. Eine naheliegende Sichtweise fuer einen Christen, die allerdings auch eine wesentliche Problematik von Religion offenlegt: (auf der Grundlage von Erfundenem!) eine absolute Moral zu schaffen, die als kategorischer Imperativ zu befolgen ist, muss zwangslaeufig zu Intoleranz gegenueber allen anderen Ansaetzen von Moral fuehren: Es kann nur einen geben...

Song of Kali, Dan Simmons, 2/2008

A brilliant story about a young family who travel to Calcutta to meet a poet who had been thought dead but has recently circulated new work. There are very dense and captivating descriptions of life in Calcutta. The story has a mystical undercurrent that remains believable at all times and also allows alternative, more conventional explanations. The eventual meeting with the poet seems to be the climax of the book but turns out to be only a prelude to the personal catastrophe of the couple that follows when their daughter is kidnapped.

Katerfruehstueck, Robert Pucher, 2/2008

Ein "Kriminalroman aus Wien", d.h. es darf natuerlich in diesem Buch keine einzige handelnde Person geben, die nicht schwere psychische oder moralische Defekte hat, die sich so benimmt, dass man sich mit ihr identifizieren kann, oder die auch nur ansatzweise sympathische Charakterzuege aufweisst. Die Geschichte selbst ist originell, wenn auch alles andere als naheliegend. Die Details der Geschichte sind durchwegs ekelhaft. So bald werde ich mich nicht mehr ueber ein "Wiener" Buch trauen.

The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, 1/2008

As an atheist i didn't expect this book to be particularly interesting, but it turned out to be very thorough and enlightening in the way it puts the "god hypothesis" under a magnifying class. The book tells us about different types of religiosity, arguments for and against god (not entirely conclusive, as can be expected) and possible evolutionary explanations for the existence of religions. It goes into great detail on what it means to lead an atheistic life and why it would be preferable to a religious life in most of the dimensions (such as moral) that are usually considered a forte of religion.

(By the way: Ian McEwan wrote the cover-praise for this.)

Saturday, Ian McEwan, 1/2008

A doctor is involved in a traffic accident and is too socially handicapped and self-centered to realize that his way of dealing with it is gravely insulting to the other party. Consequently, the other party tries to take revenge. Told in very slow, meticulous language, the book portrays an appalling specimen of the English upper-middle class. If you can overcome the nausea it is a very arresting story indeed, particularly because of the meanderings of the protagonists mind, which are laid open in all detail in front of us.

Der Schrecksenmeister, Walter Moers, 1/2008

Einfach gut: liebevoll detailiert, aber nicht uebertrieben, mutig phantasievoll, aber nicht absurd, spannend, sensibel. Erzaehlt das grosse Abenteuer der Kratze Echo ohne viele Mythenmetz'sche Abschweifungen.

Kali, Peter Handke, 1/2008

Ein Text wie ein Fiebertraum: emotional, die Details oft ueberdeutlich im Fokus, dafuer im Grossen meist verschwommen; keiner Logik folgend und manchmal richtiggehen absurd. Und wie ein Traum beduerfte dieses Buch fuer mich auch einer Deutung durch einen Wissenden, den obwohl die einfuehlsame Sprache durchaus mitreissend ist, weiss ich doch letztlich nicht, was Peter Handke damit sagen will.

Implementation Patterns, Kent Beck, 12/2007

A book about low-level (= close to the code) design decisions in object-oriented software development, discussed in terms of Java. Kent Beck's style is to carefully and honestly argue and discuss, without ever being chatty or pretentious or self-important. A wonderfully satisfying book because it discusses issues that most experienced software developers know are crucial to high-quality software, yet few have the honesty to delve into "in public", because these issues are neither fashionable nor visionary. To me this is an excellent example of what one might call an artisan approach to software development: driven by knowledge, experience, passion and attention to detail; rather than hype and the business interests that need that hype.

The Road, Cormac McCarthy, 12/2007

A man and his small boy travel south in an attempt to flee winter in a world that has become inhabitable. A torturous, painful text, full of despair, only the flickers of empathy between the two protagonists gave me the strength to continue. Unadorned language to tell a story without hope.

Maigrets erste Faelle, Georges Simenon, 12/2007

Unterhaltsam, langsam, schlechtes Deutsch.

Von Athen bis Auschwitz, Christian Meier, 11/2007

(Up until now, when i wrote about a book on this page, i did so in English. Why? Probably because of my deep-felt believe that the language of the internet is English. However, it doesn't feel right any more: a German book wants to be discussed in German, not the least because a German note is more likely to trigger authentic recollections of the book in the future. So that's what i will do from now on.)

Der Autor spannt einen weiten Bogen ueber die Essenz der europaeischen Geschichte und Tradition (und inkludiert dabei auch die USA als europaeischen Ableger). Letztlich ist das Buch ein sehr maechtiges Plaedoyer fuer die Notwendigkeit jeder einzelnen Person und der Gesellschaft als Ganzes sich ihrer geschichtlichen Wurzeln bewusst zu sein. Das ist wichtige Voraussetzung fuer eine Standortbestimmung des status quo einer Gesellschaft im Strom der geschichtlichen Entwicklung. Und diese wiederum ist Voraussetzung fuer Verstehen und adaequat Reagieren auf die Herausforderungen des Jetzt.

Spook Country, William Gibson, 11/2007

Three carefully arranged narrative strands and their protagonists (the ex-pop star, the criminal, the junkie), edging closer over the course of the story, briefly meet at the climax of the book and then separate again. Dense, visually evocative language.

On Beauty and Being Just, Elaine Scarry, 10/2007

I'm not at all sure what this book is about. It seems to discuss beauty, yet it's language is certainly not beautiful but, although educated, frighteningly cold. It seems to put forward rational arguments, yet I couldn't follow any of them: each one seems to have made a leap that was completely unexpected and the best I could do was thinking "now where did that come from?" and just accept it.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Paul Torday, 10/2007

An unusual novel that is indeed about what the title suggests. Full of excellently observed broadsides against (British) politics. Starts off very humoristic and light but develops into an increasingly sinistre and sobering direction.

Arbeit zwischen Misere und Utopie, Andre Gorz, 10/2007

Written 10 years ago, the book convincingly argues why the current organisation of paid labour contradicts the needs of the individual and society. Sketches alternative solutions, which sadly seem today even more far-fetched and without hope of realisation than at the end of the 20th century.

Morophogenesis, Michael Marrak, 10/2007

A mind-boggling fusion of ideas and pictures ranging from from history to religion to science. If only the end didn't leave such a stale taste.

The Steep Approach to Garbadale, Ian Banks, 9/2007

We accompany a 30-something man as he is drawn into family matters and along the way gains new insight into his past and his personality. Looking back the book is very carefully composed: it all comes together at the end and is very fulfilling. While reading it, though, this was not at all apparent and I actually lost my patience to some degree with a story that appeared at times rather shallow.

Travels in the Scriptorium, Paul Auster, 9/2007

A tedious little novella, full of micro-observations about the non-events occuring during a day in an old man's life. Nice idea for the resolution at the very end, granted, but quite annoying all the same.

Troll: Eine Liebesgeschichte, Johanna Sinisalo, 9/2007

Sensitive and imaginative story about a young gay photographer who picks up a little troll baby and keeps him in his appartment in Finnland.

Requiem for the East, Andrei Makine, 8/2007

Three generations of Russian men in the thrall of war and violence. The only escape are love and friendships - if they get a chance to blossom. Quiet moments amidst the madness.

Data and Reality, William Kent, 8/2007

Published in 1978, this is a very fulfilling and frustrating text at the same time. It is fulfilling because William Kent is a very careful and thorough thinker how explores from first principles the relationship between 1) the "real world", 2) our perception(s) thereof and communication about it, 3) ways of modelling it and 4) how to implement those models in database systems. There are no trivialities or platitudes - he "simply" tries to grasp and capture the nature of these issues as honestly as possible. On the other hand the book is frustrating because it would have been much more interesting to see it explore more recent techniques and achievements in IT such as object orientation and the UML meta-model.

Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red, 7/2007

Set in late 16-th century Istanbul, the book has two main threads: a love story and a murder investigation among miniaturists (= book illustrators). It gives fascinating insight into the way of living, loving and thinking in that culture at that time - and told me more about arabic, persian and turkish schools of painting than i ever wanted to know. Strangely, the characters remained incomprehensible and opaque until the very end of the book, but that may just be because their culture is so very different than mine.

Wiener Blei, Leo Lukas, 6/2007

Trashy science-fiction fantasy story, overloaded with depictions of elements of Viennese lifestyle.

Deadstock, Jeffrey Thomas, 6/2007

Cyber-punk-like science-fiction thriller around a mutant private detective, containing numerous original ideas and images.

The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 4/2007

Describes the hero's adolescent years in Barcelona as a backdrop to a wonderfully mystic adventure amidst an array of colourful and charming book lovers. A magnificently rewarding book.

No one thinks of Greenland, John Griesemer, 4/2007

Cold-war political thriller, sensitive love-story and powerful humanistic statement in one excellent book about a young colonel who is sent to a secret army hospital in Greenland.

Music of a Life, Andrei Makine, 3/2007

A man's horrible life story between Stalinistic prosecution, world-war II and post-war Communism, told in simple, melancholic and very powerful prose.

Applying Domain-Driven Design and Patterns: With Examples in C# and .NET, Jimmy Nilsson, 3/2007

Unpretentious and honest style of writing but really just a recap of well-known ideas and concepts.

Java Generics and Collections, Maurice Naftalin and Philip Wadler, 1/2007

Comprehensive yet practical discussion of Java5 generics, giving a good appreciation of the design decisions for this new language feature and clear advice on how to use it.

Supernaturalists, Eoin Colfer, 1/2007

A nice idea or two about society after the welfare state - but otherwise complete trash.

Statisten, Arnon Gruenberg, 12/2006

A triangle of three young jewish Amsterdamers tries to live their dream of becoming actors - and ultimately fails.

Theorie der Unbildung, Konrad Paul Liessmann, 12/2006

A damning cirtique of so-called university reforms and the role of knowledge and education in our society.

Iron Council, China Mievielle, 11/2006

A homage to the pioneers of the railway, disguised as a fantasy epic.
Almost too much to digest for that limited imagination of mine.
Extremely dense language.

Der ferne Regenbogen, Strugatzki, 11/2006

Russian science-fiction from the 60s, translated into a strange
technocratic East-German.

Paperweight, Stephen Fry, 10/2006

Collection of short texts by Stephen Fry from the 90s. Intelligent,
witty, humorous prose at it's very best.

Climbing Mount Improbable, Stephen Dawkins, 09/2006

Boring, pretentious account of the well-known mechanisms of evolution.

Arthur & George, Julian Barnes, 08/2006

A novel around the historic events that brought together Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle and George Edalji. Why have your imagination constrained
by historic facts when writing a novel?

Understanding SOA with Web Services, Eric Newcomer and Greg Lomow, 08/2006

A bit repetitive but thorough and quite convincing discussion of the
merits of SOA thinking and its implementation with the WS-* stack.

Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development I, Awais Rashid and Mehmet Aksit (eds), 07/2006

Contains two particularly notable papers: "Modularizing Design
Patterns with Aspects: A Quantitative Study" by A. Garcia et al.
applies aspect-aware metrics to the AspectJ implementations of the GoF
patterns by Hannemann and Kiczales. "Towards a Catalogue of
Refactorings and Code Smells for AspectJ" by M.P. Monteiro et al.
presents some refactorings and code smells for Java and AspectJ code.

Aspect-Oriented Analysis and Design: The Theme Approach, Siobhan Clarke and Elisa Baniassad, 07/2006

Der Schwarm, Frank Schaetzing, 06/2006

A science thriller that does not sacrifice scientific rigour and is
clever and rewarding until the very end - brilliant!

Foundations of AOP for J2EE Development, Renaud Pawlak et al., 06/2006

Thorough and rounded presentation of the rationale for and practice of
AOP. Strangely, none of the many AOP examples is really convincing but
they do provide plenty of inspiration...

Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell, 04/2006

How very appropriate and chilling to re-read this book at exactly this
time! How can these sentences not strongly resonate with the
politically interested reader in 2006?:

On the arch-enemy: "All subsequent crimes [..], acts of sabotage,
heresies, deviations sprang directly out of his teaching. Somewhere or
other he was still alive and hatching his conspiracies: perhaps
somewhere beyond the sea, under the protection of his foreign
paymasters [..]. [H]is influence never seemed to grow less. Always
there were fresh dupes waiting to be seduced by him. A day never
passed when spies and saboteurs acting under his directions were not
unmasked [..]. He was the commander of a vast shadowy army, an
underground network of conspirators dedicated to overthrow the State.
[..] [He is] capable by the mere power of his voice of wrecking the
structure of civilisation."

On state and war: "In the vast majority of cases there was no trial,
no report of arrest. People simply disappeared [..] The enemy of the
moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past
or future agreement with him was impossible. [..] And at the same time
the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the
handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural,
unavoidable condition of survival. [..] [I]t helps to preserve the
special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs."

On society: "The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact
there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not
thinking - not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. [..]
But it was also clear that an all-round increase in wealth threatened
the destruction - indeed, in some sense was the destruction - of a
hierarchical society. [..] In the long run, a hierarchical society was
only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance. [..] The citizen
[..] is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other [..]
philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages
upon morality and commons sense. [..] The essence of oligarchical rule
is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain
world-view and a certain way of life, imposed by the dead upon the
living. A ruling group is a ruling group as long as it can nominate
its successors. [..] Who wields power is not important, provided that
the hierarchical structure remains always the same. [..] [He]
tolerates present-day conditions because he has no standards of
comparison. He must be cut off from the past, just as he must be cut
off from foreign countries, because it is necessary for him to believe
that he is better off than his ancestors and that the average level of
material comfort is constantly rising."

Beyond Java, Bruce A. Tate, 01/2006

An inspirational, positive little book that encourages the software
developer to look beyond his/her favourite paradigms. The problem is
just that I don't accept his core assumption, which is that
dynamically typed languages are superior to statically typed languages
in terms of productivity. Frustratingly, Tate also never attempts to
argue about this issue, but rather offers a series of interviews with
people who provide their personal opinion on this and related topics.
This provides valuable insight and is entertaining, but is just not
thorough and convincing enough.

The Brooklyn Follies, Paul Auster, 12/2005

60-ish loner moves to Brooklyn and gradually becomes drawn into a
wonderful mess of social interactions. A beautiful and powerful call
to embrace life with all its ups and downs. Austers prose reads so
fluently, yet is never trivial - a modern, urban humanism.

Enterprise Service Bus, David A. Chappell, 09/2005

CTO-level introduction to the the ESB concept, and yet not so vague as
to be entirely useless. Instead, gives quite a good understanding of
what feature-set makes an an ESB nd how it can be employed in
integration projects. Could have all been said in 50 pages, though.

The Algebraist, Iain M. Banks, 08/2005

The Corporation, Joel Bakan, 07/2005

Excellent analysis of the history (briefly) and status quo of
capitalism and how it shapes society and democracy. Concentrates on
the large (globalised) public limited company.