Best Books Read in 2005

My Previous Best Books: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004.

I only read twelve books in 2005. One of them was Snow Crash, by Neil Stephenson. I read this book back in its prime (early 1990s), and when I reread it in early 2005, I remember thinking "this is still hip!" This book has a great chapter one. This is a real favorite of mine.

My big book from 2005 was The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This is a dense book, and it was while reading this book that I made a change in commuting habits, forgoing public transportation for the automobile (I had a job assignment that required car travel). It took me several months to get to the end of this loopy tale of woe. "The Brothers" is complex and dark. There are whole chapters that digress into the pressing issues of the time (religion versus state being one of them). The book brought to mind images of the frozen tundra, and desolate settings of the poor and destitute in Russia. All the humor in the book is dark, and sinister. I kept hearing a cackling laughter during all the parts that were funny, because it was usually at someone's grave expense. This is one of the great works, and it's worth the time to read.

Of all the books last year, I was most pleased with the last book that I read: Solo. Written by an Air Force pilot, Clyde Edgerton guides the reader through his passion for flying. He talks about each of the airplanes that he flew in Air Force training, and later in Vietnam. When he got the flying bug again, he talked about buying a smaller plane and how he ran a very informal shuttle service with it. It's clear throughout that Clyde loves flying, and I was glad he wrote about it.

Last Year's Books and Movies

It was a quiet year for both reading and movie-watching. Only twelve books, and only thirteen movies. In fact, after "Revenge of the Sith", I didn't watch a movie in nearly six months!

I'll post some notables in my next entry.

Process Versus Product

I was flipping through a new knitting book that my wife got in the mail. She wanted me to pick out some projects that she could make for me. (She had just finished a nice vest, and I liked how it turned out.)

This knitting book, by Sally Melville, was quite inviting. I skimmed the pictures, marveling that the description of the actual stitching is done in a very terse language that looks like computer code ("Yf, sl 1 p-wise, yb, k to 5 sts remaining"). In Ms. Melville's The Purl Stitch ("don't try purling until you've learned knitting," she warns), she has a "meditation" on "Process versus Product." She states clearly that the process is "knitting," and the product is the final "garment." She strongly claims that the more valuable of the two is "the process." In fact, she writes "if you ask a knitter what she loves, she often won't even mention the finished garment."

Ms. Melville then applies the Process versus Product analogy to relationships ("dating and engagement" versus "the wedding"), to child caring (quick: what's the product? what's the process?), to education, to life itself.

For me, I most savor the times in my job when I can just "try things out": compiling code and seeing if it works, trying some different command or statement to see its effect. I love the process. Same with the guitar. My favorite part of working through the guitar DVDs is making my fingers learn the song. For most songs, this is a grueling process. However, once I finish learning the song, I am eager to go through the process again.

In the end, she says "it's what we do in the time we pass that makes up a lifetime. The journey is the destination." How wonderful to be reminded of this, from such an unexpected place!

Law and Order

Happy New Year! Today, my wife and I sat through a lot of the "Law and Order" marathon on TNT. Great episodes! We are big fans of this long-running series.

When I was growing up, I was a huge fan of "M*A*S*H", and I felt I had seen every episode of that series. Of course, I was a fan of M*A*S*H before cable and all-day marathon viewings. I probably saw only 80% of that series. Back then, however, when I caught an episode that I hadn't seen, I'd be amazed. "How did this get past me?" Nowadays, with fan websites and episode guides and entire seasons on DVD, a TV series fan can be very certain that they've seen every episode. As for "Law and Order"? I know I haven't seen every episode, not by a long shot.

Christmas

Peace, everyone. Merry Christmas.

Flickr

I have 88 photos uploaded on Flickr, the popular "photo sharing" service that was recently purchased by Yahoo!. I modified my BLOG template to show off three pictures at random on the left-hand side of this page. I hope you enjoy them, and I hope to see some of your photos on Flickr.

My Life. My Card.

American Express has been running an ad campaign called "My life. My card.", and it's in the style of those quick-quiz profiles. I first saw this ad a few weeks ago in my Sports Illustrated. I've always been fond of these of these little snap-shot portraits. In the style of these ads, here's me:

childhood ambition: to become a writer
fondest memory: trip to Paris with my wife
soundtrack: theme to Star Wars
retreat: uncrowded movie theater
wildest dream: to publish a book
proudest moment: hearing my daughter say "thank you", "please", and "I love you"
biggest challenge: getting the next job
alarm clock: lately, my Palm Pilot (6:20AM)
perfect day: a round of golf
first job: computer operator
indulgence: taking the long way while running an errand
last purchase: take-out pizza for me and my wife
favorite movie: one of them is Cinema Paradiso
inspiration: people figuring things out

The Strike

I had been working on a long blog about the strike by the Transit Workers Union in New York City, when I learned this afternoon that an agreement had been reached, and the strike would be stopped. So much for topical blogging on my part. However, Tom Evslin wrote a strong piece that has aspects of my position on pensions, which was a major sticking point in this strike. I hope the spotlight stays on pensions even though the strike has ended.