It’s a very short book about the life of the author and how he left home and school at a very young age and became a software programmer and tester. Along the way he introduces a lot of concepts on self-learning that work for him and why school didn’t. I see a whole heaping helping of myself in his story and his methods and we’re a lot alike in so many ways. It’s unfortunately for that reason I didn’t get very much out of the book from the tips side of things. It seems that people like us tend to follow a very similar learning structure about learning how to learn.

If you’re not familiar with autodidacts and self-learners this is a great book to get an introduction and maybe head down that road yourself. For me it was more of a review on how I learn and a good tale of someone who I have a lot in common with. I also recommend it for anyone with kids. Especially kids who don’t do well in school. You might have one of us on your hands and would be wise to pick up a few of our secrets because forcing someone down that path just because you think that’s the way education is supposed to go.

There are so many different themes going on it can be a little jarring but the premise is basically that in certain parts of space things works very differently and computers are sentient there and sometimes they’re downright evil. In some parts of space things move very very slowly which I do believe that’s where good old Earth is from but it’s not mentioned very much. One of those evil AI’s comes back from millions of years in the past and starts wreaking havoc and there is some chasing and fighting and all that jazz but there is also this planet with a race of dogs/rat things. They work in a hive brained system that requires at least 3 or 4 to achieve the level of human consciousness. The parts are interchangeable and as some die or are killed they swap out into other parts but there is a whole intelligence that stays somewhat static but has influences from the disparate parts. It’s a tough thing to wrap your brain around at first because it’s not really explained outright and you have to figure it out yourself so now you’re one step up closer than I was. You’re welcome.

It’s a massively epic tale of millions of civilizations, talking plants, packs of intelligent dogs and a fight for the galaxy. I mean seriously, how can you go wrong there? Like I mentioned I got the audio version from Audible.com and it was a great production. The reader was entertaining and handled the multiple voices extremely well. It wasn’t tiresome at all and after 21 hours all I wanted was more. Fortunately they do have the prequel available. The only downside is that it’s a 2 credit book. I have the platinum plan (and have since 2002 baby!) so I only get 2 credits a month so I have to wait a few weeks for my sub to renew to get the next installment. But if you’re a paperback kinda guy or gal it’s pretty cheap and an amazing read. It also does wonders for cock-eyed furniture if you’re of the procrastinating ilk such as myself.

Annabel Scheme is the story of a techno-occultist detective in San Francisco who is investigating a case where dead musicians are releasing new music and the living partner of a half-deceased duo hires her and her assistant to get to the bottom of it. It’s got some cool tech references and throws demons and quantum computers into the mix and all in all it’s a delightful book and I hope there will be more to come. It had the feel of what it would be like if Hiro Protagonist from Snow Crash and Douglas Adam’s detective Dirk Gently would have had a baby. Since Snow Crash and the Dirk Gently novels are some of my favorites I liked it a whole lot. It’s pretty short so you could get away with reading it on a computer and the issues aside it worked ok on the Kindle. I’m not going to ruin any of the story but if you’re a geek and especially if you live in San Francisco it’s a must read. Go get it.

Freedom™ picks up right where the previous book left off with the same cast of characters and where other sequels fail this one is 1000% WIN. The book introduces some new darknet gadgets and technologies that aren’t too far off to be un-believable which really gives this the feel of plausibility that I loved the first book for. It also tackles a lot of the issues we face as a corporatized society and while it’s taken to the extreme (where the fun is) it also tackles some very serious issues we’re facing around the subjects such as corporitization of our food sources. If you watch a lot of new documentaries like Food Inc a lot of this will be very familiar territory.

There really isn’t a single main character in this story since it’s covering a lot of ground and some parts are predictable but there were parts that had me completely on the edge of my seat and wouldn’t let me put the book down. I think Freedom™ is just utterly fantastic as both a vehicle for social commentary and plain old great story telling.

I got Daemon from Audible but this time I went the old fashioned route and read this one on my Kindle and the Kindle Reader for the iPhone. About half-way through reading it I bit the bullet and bought the Audible version too. I just love the reader for this book and it’s a different experience. I’m also an Audible junkie so that helps explain things just a little bit.

Now I’ve read hundreds of these types of books and most of them are collections of other people’s ideas with a shiny new cover. The best you can usually hope to get out of these things is a few quotable nuggets that you’ll try and incorporate into your life but generally forget about in a week or so. That’s just how it goes. The Leap was different for me because while I was reading it I actually did determine several things about my personal Primary Color (ugh) and it’s led to several new business ideas and one master plan to go on a coast to coast walk which I’m seriously pursuing for early 2011. Not many books I’ve read have led to actual changes in my perception and even fewer have resulted in workable plans. I also thought the case studies and tips in the book were excellent. It has several real world examples of people who changed themselves for the better and did it at their own pace and not on some pre-determined plan on an arbitrary schedule. You work at your own pace and you make the changes you need to make.

In brief I recommend this book if you’re miserable in your job and have that sinking feeling that you should be doing something different with your life. If you’re happy and you know it clap your… um, I mean skip this one.

More information can be found at http://leapbuilder.com/.

A little background is needed before I get to the review. When I was in my early 20′s I worked at my Dad’s art gallery for a while. I did back-room stuff and often times manned the front desk. I was the only guy at the desk so all the reading material under the counter were women’s magazines and I was mostly surrounded by women when I was working. I really loved that job! Sheer boredom and a need to be able to talk like “one of the girls” drove me to eventually read each and every one of the magazines and I became quite the expert in a few short months. By the time I was 23 I’d probably read more issues of Cosmo than most women my age. I think it helped me become a much more well rounded person in the long run. One negative side-effect though was that I tripped up a lot of women’s “gaydar” since straight guys shouldn’t really know all of that stuff let alone be fluent in the conversational tones of the secrets of women. So it’s with not a little insider knowledge that I get to the book at hand.

The Girl Code: The Secret Language of Single Women (On Dating, Sex, Shopping, and Honor Among Girlfriends)

This book comes in at 192 pages but I read it cover to cover in about 2 hours. Lots of blank pages and big fluffy illustrations artificially pump up the page count considerably. That reason alone is enough to make me recommend skipping the expensive hardcover edition ($27 from Amazon) and go with a used or Kindle Edition if you decide to pick it up. No book that my slow ass can read in 2 hours is worth $27!

The entire book is a series of definitions for common single-girl-isms like the types of relationships and men you can expect to deal with over the course of your dating career. As a guy I found it fascinating how little substance is given to the particular guys and the definitions read like a Sears catalog of screwed up personality types. Not much of a surprise since the author spent 2 years on “Love Line” dealing with the most screwed up and ignorant of the gender. But she also spends a lot of time going over the ground rules for being a good girlfriend and the do’s and don’ts of the whole intricate dance.

This is not heady reading by any stretch and for young girls ( and guys ) it’s got a little insight into how things do actually work in women’s heads. And for guys there are a few gems. The section on how to be a good Wingman is especially fruitful. One of the rules of a good Wingman is to never let your friend go home with a guy she just met at a bar. I think this is common knowledge among a lot of people but for guys who are going to a bar to specifically pick up women it presents a particularly thorny problem and probably why books by Neil Strauss do so well. There’s an inherent battle of the Wings being played out in endless repetition at countless bars across the world. Women have wingmen (actually girls if you’re not keeping up) and Men have wingmen also who are given completely opposite goals. A guys wingman’s job is to help his buddy get laid. A girls wingman’s job is to keep her from doing just that. Every single night someone’s gonna lose. But these are the tidbits guys can pick up by reading books like this and why I’m a fan.

All in all it’s a silly little book that anyone who’s been single till their 30′s already knows so I’d say skip it. If you’re under 20 and still single get a used copy or the Kindle edition for a fast fun read that might give you a few things to think about.

My first review of the year is “The Think Big Manifesto: Think You Can’t Change Your Life (and the World)? Think Again” by Michael Port. While the title of the book is certainly BIG the book itself is quite small. It’s a 166 pages and although the book is hardcover it’s in paperback size so it’s a perfect size for tossing in a pocket on your way out the door.

Now I think I have to say this or the FTC will come and send me to Gitmo or some damn fool crap like that. I got the book for free as a review copy almost a year ago. That means this review is utterly useless to the publisher and probably why everyone’s stopped sending me review copies but I digress.

I had never heard of this book or it’s author when it arrived out of the blue. I tossed it in a pile of other ‘someday’ books where it has sat for over 6 months. Seriously, it’s a book on thinking big by a guy I had never heard of so I didn’t think I was missing out on the year’s sleeper thriller hit if ya know what I mean. This was a tiny bit of a mistake I’m sad to say. This is a short book with big bold statements (Some of them inaccurately rehashed from other sources- the Steve Jobs reflections were misquoted) but it has some really good stuff that I think will resonate differently for different people. I don’t think it really picks up steam until you get about halfway in and some actual steps and practical advice starts to flow. Some of it’s crap (Particularly the bending to authority section) but some of it’s extremely insightful. There were a few sections that were very extraordinarily helpful to me personally around the areas of collaboration and people that, if I’d had actually paid for the book been 100% worth the cover price. I skimmed through the first half at speed since it really wasn’t all that interesting to me but since the second half was so good I am thinking about giving it another once over.

The book has a companion website which on the surface looks to be just a marketing tool. I liked the book but there’s only so much time I’m willing to devote to these things so Caveat Emptor on that one.

3.5 out of 5 whatever arbitrary scale you want to use.

My latest book is Crush It! by the ever effervescent Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary is the creator and host of Wine Library TV and one of the most intense people I’ve ever met. He came on the scene a few years ago completely out of nowhere with his video blog and hasn’t slowed down one bit. My first exposure to Gary was on Geek Entertainment TV when he did a show literally, where I used to sit when I worked at Technorati. He’s the poster boy of how to make it big in new media and Crush It! is in a sorts a manual on how to replicate his success.

The book itself isn’t very long and it’s surprisingly short on actual technical details which I find completely refreshing. Most books of this type have chapters of links and resources that are utterly out of date and useless by the time it hits the shelves. Crush It! on the other hand talks more about passion, motivation and the spirit required to succeed in new media. There are some technical details but they’re thankfully light and cover only the big dogs who are still going to be around for a while. I’ve been in this thing for over 15 years and I found the book quite delightful to read and breezed through it in a couple days. His tone is very conversational and feels very much like he’s in the room talking to you. Not surprising since the book was dictated to a writer who polished it for print. The information in the book isn’t anything I haven’t seen or read elsewhere and the ideas section at the end of the book reminded me of old Napoleon Hill books where he gave out ideas for people to go forth and create, but it’s Gary’s spirit and style that makes this book enjoyable and worth picking up. If you’re new to the space and want to become the next Gary Vaynerchuk or have been here a while and want a good kick in the pants or refresher I definitely recommend snagging a copy of Crush It! today.

( The photo above is from a private wine tasting and show taping. More photos from that night. )