Xavier Noria's Reading

Ongoing

Title: Tot Crema
Author: Juan Gómez-Jurado
Progress: 45% (269/588)
Start: August 2023

Done

Title: Eat Sleep Sit
Author: Kaoru Nonomura
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2023
Comment: This book documents the experience of the author training at Eiheiji for a year. Eiheiji is the main temple of the Sōtō Zen school of Buddhism, founded by master Dōgen.
Title: Medita
Author: Dr. Steven Laureys
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2023
Comment: Dr. Steven Laureys is a neuroscientist who has researched consciousness for over two decades. In this book, he explains the benefits of meditation from a scientific point of view. This is the Catalan translation of his bestseller The No Non-Sense Meditation Book.
Title: Polished Ruby Programming
Author: Jeremy Evans
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2023
Comment: In this book, Ruby core team member Jeremy Evans reflects about Ruby programming from different angles.
Title: Alarga tu esperanza de vida
Author: Dr. David A. Sinclair
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2022
Comment: Spanish translation of Lifespan, linked above. A Christmas present. The author is a world-class authority on aging, professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.
Title: Mastering Nim
Author: Andreas Rumpf
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2022
Comment: I am doing Advent of Code in Nim this year. This book is helping me learn the language.
Title: La desparición de Stephanie Mailer
Author: Joël Dicker
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2022
Comment: Spanish translation of La Disparition de Stephanie Mailer. I finished this novel, but was not particularly good for my taste. There were some weak dead ends, non-credible situations. The last 100 pages or so got some rhythm, though.
Title: El cerebro en forma
Author: Sanjay Gupta
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2022
Comment: Spanish translation of Keep Sharp, which gives guidelines to have a healthy lifestyle for the brain according to current science.
Title: Me and the Table
Author: Stephen Hendry
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2022
Comment: Autobiography of the snooker legend Stephen Hendry.
Title: Entrenamiento de fuerza
Author: Austin Current
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2022
Comment: This book was a gift. Covers strength training in a very accessible way, with nice, high-quality diagrams. Not all books about resistance training are as clear as this one.
Title: Python Distilled
Author: David M. Beazley
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2022
Comment: The stack of my current main client is Python and C++. Refreshing this nice programming language is a pleasure.
Title: Nunca
Author: Ken Follet
Progress: Halted
Start: December 2021
Comment: Spanish translation of Never, linked above. I had to rest my eyes for some days and picked this novel as an audiobook. I am liking the experience, but the novel did not really hook me, so I left it at 29%.
Title: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Author: Greg McKeown
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2021
Comment: In essence, this book describes how I am living my adult life. A recommendation from my friend Jorge Gómez Sancha.
Title: The World According to Physics
Author: Jim Al-Khalili
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2021
Comment: Fascinating non-technical book about Physics I devoured as an audiobook while recovering from surgery.
Title: El pequeño libro del estoicismo
Author: Jonas Salzgeber
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2021
Comment: Spanish translation of The Little Book of Stoicism. This book has two parts. The first one covers Stoicism in general and, in my view, could be drastically simplified. The second one consists of +50 short chapters dedicated to particular Stoic ways to look at things. I liked this last part better.
Title: El problema de los tres cuerpos
Author: Liu Cixin
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2021
Comment: Spanish translation of the first volume of the trilogy Remembrance of Earth's Past. This book won a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015.
Title: The Mathematician's Mind
Author: Jacques Hadamard
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2021
Comment: This is a must-read about the psychology of invention in Mathematics, by the French mathematician Jacques Hadamard.
Title: Sustainable Web Development with Ruby on Rails
Author: David Bryant Copeland
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2021
Comment: This book covers a lot of aspects related to writing sustainable Rails applications. Things like project setup, design, mailers, logging, .... These are pragmatic advices coming from first-hand experience evolving a SOA architecture over years. Explains wise practical compromises, no blackboard theoretical bullshit. It's a great book every Rails programmer should read.
Title: Zazen
Author: Katsuki Sekida
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2021
Comment: Spanish translation of Zen Training. One of the few books that goes deep into breathing, kenshō, and samadhi. Half of it is kinda speculative, more interested in the other half.
Title: Els nois de la Nickel
Author: Colson Whitehead
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2021
Comment: Catalan translation of The Nickle Boys, which won the 2020 Pullitzer Prize for Fiction.
Title: A Philosophy of Software Design
Author: John Ousterhout
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2021
Comment: This is a wise book about principles of software design from the professor that teaches CS 190 in Stanford. There's a related talk at Google.
Title: Genius at Play: The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway
Author: Siobhan Roberts
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2021
Comment: Biography of the genius mathematician John Horton Conway.
Title: Haskell Programming from First Principles
Author: Christopher Allen, Julie Moronuki
Progress: Halted
Start: February 2021
Comment: Learned Crystal and Nim recently and wanted to go for something different. Read +300 pages of this book, but it did not click to me. The language is neat, but this book is thought for readers with less background, and the pace is really slow (quite formal, however!). I might give Haskell a second try with a different book.
Title: Les tenebres i l'alba
Author: Ken Follett
Progress: Paused
Start: January 2021
Comment: Catalan translation of The Evening and the Morning. A Christmas present.
Title: The Autobiography of Malcom X
Author: Malcom X
Progress: Halted
Start: October 2020
Comment: Picked this one for Black History Month 2020. I am not in UK, but any excuse is good for reading a great book :). Read about half of it, and watched the biopic for the rest.
Title: Zen Training: Methods and Philosophy
Author: Katsuki Sekida
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2020
Title: Muscle Up
Author: P. D. Mangan
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2020
Comment: A book about the health benefits of strength training.
Title: La quinta estación
Author: N.K. Jemisin
Progress: Halted
Start: July 2020
Comment: Spanish translation of The Fifth Season, linked above. This is the first book of the Broken Earth trilogy, which won several Hugo awards. I read about 100 pages of it, I appreciated the quality of the writing, but the genre is not really my thing.
Title: The Swift Language Guide
Author: Apple
Progress: Halted
Start: April 2020
Comment: I am learning Swift just for fun. Wanted to pick something mainstream and a bit different this time.
Title: Real-Time Phoenix
Author: Stephen Bussey
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2020
Comment: A new book about using WebSockets with Phoenix, the web framework for Elixir. Perfect timing, since I am writing a WS application with Phoenix for a client.
Title: Torn de nit
Author: Stephen King
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2020
Comment: Catalan translation of Night Shift, which is a collection of early short stories written between 1968 and 1977.
Title: Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English
Author: Bhante Gunaratana
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2020
Comment: I liked Mindfulness in Plain English so much that I couldn't but purchase this continuation.
Title: Mindfulness in Plain English
Author: Bhante Gunaratana
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2020
Comment: Among the best books I've read about awareness meditation. Covers vipassana practice with common sense and deep insight.
Title: Possibilities
Author: Herbie Hancock
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2020
Comment: Autobiography of the legendary jazz musician.
Title: Rosa Parks. Mi historia
Author: Rosa Parks
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2020
Comment: Spanish translation of Rosa Park's autobiography.
Title: L'art de la senzillesa
Author: Shunmyō Masuno
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2020
Comment: 100 reflections by Japanese Zen monk Shunmyō Masuno. This is a Catalan translation of The Art of Simple Living.
Title: The PE Diet
Author: Ted Naiman M.D. & William Shewfelt
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2019
Comment: This book covers nutrition and exercise. In the first part it explains macronutrients bottom-up, from their origin in the food chain up to their role in our metabolism. From this data it follows a diet rich in protein, with some carbs, some fats, but ideally not mixing these two. The second part covers the basics of resistence training and high-intensity workouts.
Title: Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
Author: Max Tegmark
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2019
Comment: This book by MIT professor Max Tegmark has two parts: The first one talks about the nature of the Universe as studied by Cosmology (macro scale) and Quantum Theory (micro scale). In the second one, the author speculates about his hypothesis that reality is literally a mathematical structure.
Title: Ho tornarem a fer
Author: Jordi Cuixart
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2019
Comment: Jordi Cuixart is a Catalan political priosioner that, as of this writing, has been in pretrial detention for more that 700 days. He is the president of Òmnim Cultural. A radically peaceful and democratic guy with an admirable integrity. A book written from prision mostly about nonviolent resistance.
Title: L'amic retrobat
Author: Fred Uhlman
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2019
Comment: Catalan translation of Reunion. A very well-written, short, and touching novel about two boys which become best friends in the 30s in Stuttgart (Germany). One is a jewish guy, and the other one a German aristocrat. Political events separate them forever.
Title: The Millionaire Fastlane
Author: MJ DeMarco
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2019
Comment: I think this is a great book about creating wealth. What scales and what does not, simple math, mindsets, reflections, advices, experiences, etc. The title refers to an image on which the book is based: The Sidewalk to wealth (think people with regular jobs), the Slowlane (think successful professionals), and the Fastlane (think owners of businesses that scale).
Title: 100+ No BS Watch Tips
Author: Anthony L.
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2019
Comment: Pearls of wisdom from a professional watchmaker. Anthony has a couple of online courses about watchmaking that I want to take.
Title: Jazz: Cómo la música puede cambiar tu vida
Author: Wynton Marsalis & Geoffrey C. Ward
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2019
Comment: Spanish translation of the Pullitzer Price Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life.
Title: American Gods
Author: Neil Gaiman
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2019
Comment: Spanish translation of the fantasy novel American Gods, with illustrations by Dave McKean.
Title: Por qué el espacio huele a barbacoa
Author: Tim Peake
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2019
Comment: Spanish translation of Ask an Astronaut . Fascinating book in which astronaut Tim Peake shares all kind of information related to what does being an astronaut entails.
Title: The Joy of Living
Author: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche & Eric Swanson
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2019
Comment:

A book about meditation from master Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.

This master has very unique profile. He is a Tibetan Buddhist with decades of intensive practice. If regular men and women who meditate were amateur sporty people, Mingyur would be something like a world-class olympic athlete.

On the other hand, this guy has participated in scientific programs that investigate the effects of meditation in the brain and is genuinely open-minded and interested in science.

I knew about him in the book The Science of Meditation.

Title: ikigai
Author: Héctor García (Kirai) & Francesc Miralles
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2019
Comment: An inspiring book in Spanish about longevity and life joy centered around the concept of ikigai.
Title: Deep Work
Author: Cal Newport
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2018
Comment: A book exploring the concept of deep work, defined as activities in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. The author claims the ability to perform at that level is becoming rare, and at the same time more valuable.
Title: Make Time
Author: Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2018
Comment: A productivity book Francesc Pla recommended to me. The book presents three core ideas. Each day, highlight something you are going to deliberately concentrate on. Learn to focus. Then reflect and fine-tune your techniques.
Title: The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future
Author: Ryder Carroll
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2018
Comment: The Bullet Journal passed my radar long time ago, but my first impression was "too complicated and rigid" and I had forgotten about it. That changed when I saw the astonishing notebook of Iván Párraga. I am sold on this framework, and the book is excellent to really understand it, deeper than any video or blog post that you can read.
Title: Effortless Mastery
Author: Kenny Werner
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2018
Comment: This is a book about mastering abilities that require practice. Focuses on some psychological aspects like cultivating detachment, getting rid of fears and ego, and on some practical aspects in what I'd call extremely deliberate practice. The book frames its mindset around playing musical instruments, Kenny Warner is a world-class jazz pianist, but I believe its principles apply to many other fields.
Title: High-Rise
Author: J. G. Ballard
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2018
Comment: This novel takes place in a brand new 40 story luxury high-raise with 1,000 tenants, two swimming pools, school, bank, supermarket, .... Starting with some complaints and first disagreements, life in the building follows a spiral down to chaos.
Title: The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k
Author: Sarah Knight
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2018
Comment: Hilarious book that made me laugh and nod from cover to cover. This is a keepsake from Santorini, Greece. I purchased it while visiting Oia during holidays, in the unique bookshop Atlantis Books, which is an obligatory stop.
Title: Birth of a Theorem: A Mathematical Adventure
Author: Cédric Villani
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2018
Comment: The author is a world-class French mathematician, who among other things was awarded a Fields Medal in 2010.

This is a fascinating book I could not put down. It documents his day to day pursuing an open problem that was extremely difficult. Emails with his colleague, sustained hard work, highs and lows, errors, confidence and optimism, inspiration, dispair, clever tricks, dead ends, discarded paths, how the proof takes shape over time.... Of course, I didn't understand the math, but that doesn't matter.

Title: El president ha desaparegut
Author: Bill Clinton & James Patterson
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2018
Comment: Catalan translation of the thriller The President Is Missing.
Title: Sentarse y nada más
Author: Éric Rommeluère
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2018
Comment: Cool book about contemporary zen with a somewhat practical and historical way to look at things. It ends with an appendix in which mindfulness is critizized. Well-documented, this book has been a source of a good number of pointers to follow.
Title: Les vuit muntanyes
Author: Paolo Cognetti
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2018
Comment: Delightful novel. Originally written in Italian, this is the Catalan translation. There is also an English translation.
Title: ¿Qué es comer sano?
Author: J. M. Mulet
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2018
Comment: This is a book in Spanish about myths or dubious popular wisdom about food. The author has a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biotechnology professor, researcher, ..., this guy knows what he is talking about. At the same time, the vocabulary and style are very approachable, and there's a nice touch of humor here and there.
Title: Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Author: Martin Kleppmann
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2018
Comment: This is a book about data-intensive software systems, densely packed with information. Reliabilty, scalability, and maintainability are discussed from different perspectives, such as data structures, distributed platforms, or batch and stream processing.
Title: Elixir in Action, Second Edition
Author: Saša Jurić
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2018
Title: The Magic of Watches: A Smart Introduction to Fine Watchmaking
Author: Louis Nardin
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2018
Comment: This is a wonderful and beautifully edited book about watches. It covers a variety of topics, from some historical information, how to purchase, or how to take care of a fine watch, to the technical details about their parts, how they work, complications, etc.
Title: Los sueños de mi padre
Author: Barack Obama
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2018
Comment: Spanish translation of Barack Obama's memoir Dreams from My Father. I loved this book, it was a present from my wife.
Title: Cómo contar hasta el infinito
Author: Marcus du Sautoy
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2018
Comment: Spanish translation of How to Count to Infinity. A very small book around the concept of infinity. Purchased it thinking in my daughter. I liked the intuitive flavor of the exposition, but at times it gets just a bit technical in a way that seems unbalanced for my taste. The overall impression didn't click, and I have actually not passed it to her.
Title: Ranch 1.4 User Guide
Author: Loïc Hoguin
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2018
Comment: Ranch is a socket acceptor pool for TCP protocols used by Cowboy, the Erlang/OTP HTTP server. I am reading its documentation as part of groundwork for a talk, as well as personal interest.
Title: Apocalipsis
Author: Stephen King
Progress: Halted
Start: December 2017
Comment: Spanish translation of The Stand. This was a Christmas gift. Stephen King says in On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft that this is considered to be his best novel by his fans. I left this book after +300 pages read, did not actually like it.
Title: A Mathematician's Lament
Author: Paul Lockhard
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2018
Comment:

This book criticizes the way mathematics are taught.

It is mostly about K-12, but the same criticism is also applicable to the university in my experience. Creativity is not encouraged, lack of exploration and development of intuitions, lack of motivational historical context, excessive emphasis on notation, formalism, and sequences definition-lemma-theorem-corollary for which you have a formal understanding only, without a true and profound grasping.

I have a criticism for the book itself, though. The thesis of the author is quickly clear, and then repeated again and again. This essay is only 25 pages long, but could have been way shorter in my view.

This book is available as a PDF here.

Title: Designing for Scalability with Erlang/OTP
Author: Francesco Cesarini & Steve Vinoski
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2017
Comment: An extraordinary book on OTP and distributed systems. This is not just a dry listing of APIs or principles, rather, the extensive practical knowledge of the authors in production systems permeates the exposition. The book is comprehensive and very well-written.
Title: Adopting Elixir: From Concept to Production
Author: Ben Marx, José Valim, Bruce Tate
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2017
Comment: Reviewed a draft of this book. Covers several aspects related to the adoption of Elixir in three blocks. The first one is about adopting Elixir in a team or company. Covers team building, people, training, etc. The second block covers several aspects of Elixir development. And the third block is about taking Elixir to production, deployments, benchmarking, etc.
Title: Mientras escribo
Author: Stephen King
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2017
Comment:

Spanish translation of On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

This book has three parts. In the first one Stephen explains a bunch of scattered memories from his youth, early steps, addictions, love, ..., I believe they kind of build who is he going to be, both as a writer, and as a person. In the second one, the raison d'être of the book, Stephen writes about his craft from different perspectives. The third part is more vital, reflects about an important accident.

This summary is 10% shorter than the first one.

Title: The Science of Meditation
Author: Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2017
Comment: The authors of this book are long-time meditators and scientists. They have studied meditators of different traditions and levels of expertise for a long time, and summarize here their most important findings.
Title: Coltrane: The Story of a Sound
Author: Ben Ratliff
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2017
Comment: Another keepsake from New York, also purchased at McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince St. This book is not really a biography of Coltrane as such, but more of a story of his sound and evolution as musician.
Title: The Grass Flute Zen Master: Sodo Yokoyama
Author: Arthur Braverman
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2017
Comment: Keepsake from New York, purchased at McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince St.
Title: Matar un rossinyol
Author: Harper Lee
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2017
Comment: Catalan translation of the Pulitzer-awarded novel To Kill A Mockingbird.
Title: Vim 8.0 User Manual
Author: Bram Moolenaar
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2017
Title: iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide
Author: Christian Keur and Aaron Hillegass
Progress: Paused
Start: July 2017
Title: Meditació zen: L'art de simplement ser
Author: Lluís Nansen Salas
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2017
Comment: I am really enjoying this book. Master Lluís Nansen studied theoretical physics and I believe that is reflected in the way topics are addressed. The text has clarity, and the style is straightforward. This book is the Catalan edition, there is a Spanish edition as well, but no English translation as of this writing.
Title: La frontera invisible
Author: Kilian Jornet
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2016
Comment: I devoured Córrer o morir, so I purchased this second book by Kilian Jornet right away. I am reading the Catalan edition, there is no English translation by now.
Title: Córrer o morir
Author: Kilian Jornet
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2017
Comment: Original Catalan version of this book by superhuman Kilian Jornet (who is Catalan). This is among the most authentic and inspiring books I have read, totally recommended. There is an English translation titled Run or Die.
Title: Fat Chance
Author: Robert H. Lustig
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2017
Title: On Zen Practice: Body, Breath, and Mind
Author: Taizan Maezumi & Bernie Glassman
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2017
Title: Erlang/OTP System Documentation
Author: Ericsson AB
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2017
Title: Introducción a la práctica del Zen
Author: Albert Low
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2017
Comment: Father's Day present of this year. This is a Spanish translation of An Invitation to Practice Zen.
Title: Programming Elixir 1.3
Author: Dave Thomas
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2017
Title: Writing an Interpreter in Go
Author: Thorsten Ball
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2017
Title: El elogio de la sombra
Author: Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2017
Title: Becoming Beyoncé
Author: J. Randy Taraborrelli
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2017
Title: Elixir Getting Started Guide
Author: Elixir Contributors
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2016
Comment: Going through the official Elixir docs, and leveraging the pass to contribute some patches since I am on it.
Title: Ego is the Enemy
Author: Ryan Holiday
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2016
Comment: Trying Audible with this one.
Title: Your Brain at Work
Author: David Rock
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2016
Title: Practical Vim, Second Edition
Author: Drew Neil
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2016
Title: The Two-Body Problem
Author: Thomas Farber & Edward Frenkel
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2016
Title: The Go Programming Language
Author: Alan A. A. Donovan & Brian W. Kernighan
Progress: Paused
Start: April 2016
Comment: I am solving the exercises of this book, check them out in this repo.
Title: Ruby Performance Optimization
Author: Alexander Dymo
Progress: Paused
Start: July 2016
Title: Engañar a Houdini
Author: Alex Stone
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2016
Comment: Spanish translation of Fooling Houdini. Fascinating book about the underground world of magicians.
Title: The Wright Brothers
Author: David McCullough
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2016
Comment: Extraordinarily well-written account of Wright Brothers' life, written by Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough. I purchased this book in the airport of Philadelphia, while waiting for my connection to Barcelona coming back from RailsConf.
Title: Gratitude
Author: Oliver Sacks
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2016
Comment: This is a book with short essays written by Oliver Sacks knowing he was about to die due to some metastasis found in his body. In it, Oliver Sacks reflects about life. I purchased this book in the airport of Chicago while waiting for my conneciton to Kansas City for RailsConf.
Title: Set lliçons breus de física
Author: Carlo Robelli
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2016
Comment: Catalan translation of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics.
Title: What is Zen?: Plain Talk for a Beginner's Mind
Author: Norman Fischer & Susan Moon
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2016
Comment: This is very down-to-earth book about Zen. It is presented as a series of questions (by Susan), answered by Norman. The book covers a really broad set of topics. Norman Fischer is a Sōtō Zen roshi, former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center among other things. Purchased this book in Ottawa, while visiting Shopify.
Title: Peak: Secrets from The New Science of Expertise
Author: Anders Ericsson
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2016
Title: La magia del orden
Author: Marie Kondo
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2016
Comment: Spanish translation of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. I got this one after seen it referenced online as something potentially life-changing, but would not recommend it. You could summarize this book in a tweet: "Throw stuff".
Title: Dexter Gordon: A Musical Biography
Author: Stan Britt
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2016
Comment: Biography of the legendary tenor saxophone Dexter Gordon. I finished this book during a trip to Ottawa and dropped it in the sculpture homage to Oscar Peterson. You can see it in this photo, to the right of the piano.
Title: Programming Phoenix
Author: Chris McCord, Bruce Tate, and José Valim
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2016
Comment: Second pass, reviewing the final draft of this book. Phoenix is going to be really big. Reading this book makes me very happy, I personally appreciate José a lot and remember his first steps with Elixir. The success of Elixir is inexorable!
Title: Specialising Dynamic Techniques for Implementing The Ruby Programming Language
Author: Chris Seaton
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2016
Comment: This is the PhD thesis behind JRuby+Truffle, a Ruby implementation based on the Truffle AST interpreter framework and the Graal dynamic compiler for the JVM. The performance of JRuby+Truffle is spectacular, I think it could be an inflection point in the history of Ruby.
Title: A Scientist in Wonderland
Author: Edzard Ernst
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2015
Comment: Autobiography of a physician who did scientific research on alternative medicines for many years at the University of Exeter. His work often got controversy, hostility, and personal issues coming from alternative medicine advocates.
Title: Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen
Author: Shunryu Suzuki
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2015
Comment: This month I visited San Francisco for the first time to attend the Google Summer of Code 2015 Mentors Summit at the Google headquarters. I leveraged the occasion to visit the San Francisco Zen Center, founded by master Suzuki. The temple was not open at that moment but they very kindly showed it to me, and I could do zazen (I am a Soto zen practitioner). They have a small bookstore where I bought this book.
Title: Elixir in Action
Author: Saša Jurić
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2015
Title: El marciano
Author: Andy Weir
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2015
Comment: Spanish translation of The Martian.
Title: The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom
Author: Graham Farmelo
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2015
Title: Un cerezo en el balcón: Practicar Zen en la ciudad
Author: Laia Montserrat
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2015
Comment: Second time I read this book.
Title: Siéntate como un Buda
Author: Lodro Rinzler
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2015
Comment: Spanish translation of Sit Like a Buda.
Title: El libro de los cinco anillos
Author: Miyamoto Musashi
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2015
Comment: Spanish translation of the Japanese classic. Translated to English as The Book of Five Rings.
Title: The Water Knife
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Progress: Halted
Start: June 2015
Comment: Instant purchase after @sd's recommendation. The premise of the story is really interesting, but didn't finish it because it is a novel written in American English, which was hard to follow at a normal pace for me due to its idiomatic vocabulary, slang, ignorance of American context, culture, etc.
Title: Mastering Emacs
Author: Mickey Petersen
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2015
Title: Sublime Text Power User
Author: Wes Bos
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2015
Title: El libro de las Matemáticas
Author: Clifford A. Pickover
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2015
Comment: Spanish translation of The Math Book.
Title: Scalability Rules: 50 Principles for Scaling Web Sites
Author: Martin L. Abbot, Michael T. Fisher
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2015
Title: Padre rico, padre pobre
Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2015
Comment: This book clicked page after page. Financial independence through a fundamental mindset shift, get out of the vicious cycle "get a job, work hard to earn money to pay debts and buy more things." Emphasis on dedicated study of the involved topics: accounting, personal finances, taxes, law, etc. (English translation of Rich Dad, Poor Dad.)
Title: The Minitest Cookbook
Author: Chris Kottom
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2015
Title: The Practice of Practice
Author: Jonathan Harnum
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2015
Title: AngularJS Tutorial
Author: AngularJS Team
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2015
Title: 101 cuentos zen
Author: Nyogen Senzaki, Paul Reps
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2015
Title: El ahorrador inteligente
Author: Emilio Ontiveros, David Cano
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2015
Title: Early Retirement Extreme
Author: Jacob Lund Fisker
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2014
Comment: This book talks about financial independence through frugality: hack your life to need a ridiculously small amount of money per month, and invest for a few years to be able to cover that amount.
Title: How Linux Works (2nd Edition)
Author: Brian Ward
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2014
Title: The Inner Game of Music
Author: Barry Green
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2014
Title: Node.js the Right Way
Author: Jim R. Wilson
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2014
Title: Victus: Barcelona 1714
Author: Albert Sánchez Piñol
Progress: Paused
Start: September 2014
Comment: Catalan translation of Victus: The Fall of Barcelona, a Novel (originally written in Spanish). This is a historical novel about the fall of Barcelona after its siege in the Spanish Succession War in 1714. Probably the single most important event in the history of Catalonia.

This summer, the Spanish goverment via its embassy censored the presentation of the translation to Dutch in Utrech. That created a Streisand effect, and I decided to buy the novel as a way to protest. Enjoying the protest indeed, the novel is well-written, having a great time.
Title: The $100 Startup
Author: Chris Guillebeau
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2014
Title: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Author: Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2014
Title: The Life Plan
Author: Jeffry S. Life, M.D., Ph.D.
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2014
Comment: Solid book. A doctor that is specialized in age management explains key stuff to fix ourselves and stay healthy as we age. Everything is backed up by research or professional knowledge of our body. He has tested all he preaches on himself, and has seen the plan at work on his patients.
Title: Berklee Music Theory: Book 1
Author: Paul Schmeling
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2014
Comment: Refreshing theory to complement my saxophone classes.
Title: Doing Data Science
Author: Rachel Schutt, Cathy O’Neil
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2014
Title: The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228
Author: Dick Couch
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2014
Comment: A book about the Navy SEALs: how they train, how's their life, war stories, what does it take. Written by a veteran SEAL who was the Honorman of class 45 (1969), and Commander with SEAL Team One in Vietnam.
Title: How to Sit
Author: Thich Nhat Hanh
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2014
Title: A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
Author: William B. Irvine
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2014
Comment: A book about the stoic philosophy of life. It matches a lot the way I see life since my 20s, but didn't know it had a name. DHH recommended this book in Twitter.
Title: 98% Funky Stuff: My Life in Music
Author: Maceo Parker
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2014
Title: The Calorie Myth
Author: Jonathan Bailor
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2014
Comment: Well-researched book that explains why calories math or eating less, exercising more are not effective methods of weight control. The text refers to a lot of research lab studies its remarks are founded on, and based on all that known, proved science, develops a five week plan to fix hormonal clog and lower your set-point in a sustainable way.
Title: Remote
Author: Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2014
Comment: I have been working remotely since 2006. This book is full of common sense and matches my personal experience.
Title: Practical Vim: Edit Text at the Speed of Thought
Author: Drew Neil
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2013
Title: vimtutor
Author: Michael C. Pierce and Robert K. Ware
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2013
Title: El perseguidor y otros cuentos de cine
Author: Julio Cortázar
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2013
Title: Are Your Lights on?
Author: Donald C. Gause and Gerald M. Weinberg
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2013
Title: Single Page Web Applications
Author: Michael S. Mikowski and Josh C. Powell
Progress: Paused
Start: November 2013
Title: The New Kingmakers
Author: Stephen O'Grady
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2013
Title: GPS For Dummies
Author: Joel McNamara
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2013
Title: Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality
Author: Edward Frenkel
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2013
Title: The History of Jazz (Second Edition)
Author: Ted Gioia
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2013
Title: L'avi de 100 anys que es va escapar per la finestra
Author: Jonas Jonasson
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2013
Comment: Catalan translation of The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. A present from this year's Diada de Sant Jordi.
Title: Zen and the Brain
Author: James H. Austin, M.D.
Progress: Paused
Start: July 2013
Comment: This is a unique tome. The author is a scholar, a neurologist, who happens to have been practicing zen for about thirty years. This large work merges his scientific knowledge of the brain with his zazen experience.
Title: The Wind Beneath My Wings: John Hutchinson Concorde Pilot
Author: Susan Ottaway
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2013
Title: Los tópicos del Budismo
Author: Bernard Faure
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2013
Comment: Spanish translation of Unmasking Buddhism. The book strips away some existing preconceptions about Buddhism.
Title: Crafting Rails 4 Applications
Author: José Valim
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2013
Comment: The most advanced book about Rails in the market. Reading a draft of the new edition.
Title: Noche sobre las aguas
Author: Ken Follet
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2013
Comment: Spanish translation of Night Over Water, linked above.
Title: Playing the Saxophone
Author: Rob Buckland
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2013
Comment: I started to play the alto saxophone last October. This is an extraordinaire book which covers playing the instrument in depth. Teaching style is profound. It covers a solid explanation of the techniques, how and why you build a strong foundation, together with a more transversal message about reflecting, consciously observing yourself, and in general taking an active approach to improve your playing. Awesome book.
Title: Why does E = mc²? (and why should we care?)
Author: Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2013
Title: Paul Newman: La biografía
Author: Shawn Levy
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2013
Comment: Spanish translation of Paul Newman's biography by Shawn Levy, linked above. Paul Newman was an extraordinaire man.
Title: The Irrationals
Author: Julian Havil
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2013
Title: How Music Works
Author: David Byrne
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2012
Title: Redis in Action
Author: Josiah L. Carlson
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2012
Title: Ruby Under a Microscope
Author: Pat Shaughnessy
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2012
Comment: Amazing book about Ruby internals soon to be published. I am proofreading a draft.
Title: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2012
Comment: I am reading the Spanish translation.
Title: Exploring Everyday Things with R and Ruby
Author: Sau Sheong Chang
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2012
Title: Zen Verdadero
Author: Taisen Deshimaru
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2012
Comment: This is the first book by Taisen Deshimaru, a Zen master who brought Soto Zen to Europe. He founded the dojo where I did zazen in Barcelona.
Title: The Art of Flying
Author: Robert N. Buck
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2012
Title: The Stand Up Paddle Book
Author: Nate Burgoyne
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2012
Title: Deploying Rails
Author: Tom Copeland and Anthony Burns
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2012
Title: Yeager: An Autobiography
Author: General Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2012
Comment: Autobiography of General Chuck Yeager. Legendary test pilot, WWII flying ace, first man who broke the sound barrier.
Title: Essential Bodyweight Exercises and Nutrition
Author: Richard West
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2012
Title: The Productive Programmer
Author: Neal Ford
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2012
Title: La esquina
Author: David Simon and Ed Burns
Progress: Halted
Start: June 2012
Comment: Spanish translation of The Corner, linked above. A nonfiction book about West Baltimore written as a novel that spawned the HBO series of the same title, and later The Wire. I read about 1/3 of the book, but once the day to day of the corner had been depicted I wasn't hooked enough to have other 400 pages of the same thing.
Title: Lo que hay que tener (elegidos para la gloria)
Author: Tom Wolfe
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2012
Comment: Spanish translation of The Right Stuff, linked above. Fascinating research story about test pilots engaged in U.S. postwar experiments with rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft, and the Mercury project.
Title: Un cerezo en el balcón: Practicar Zen en la ciudad
Author: Laia Montserrat
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2012
Comment: Simple, authentic, unpretentious, a little jewel.
Title: The Rails View
Author: John Athayde and Bruce Williams
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2012
Title: The SPDY Book: Making Websites Fly
Author: Chris Strom
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2012
Title: MacRuby: The Definitive Guide
Author: Matt Aimonetti
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2012
Title: Getting Started with Fluidinfo
Author: Nicholas J. Radcliffe and Nicholas H. Tollervey
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2012
Comment: This book is not published yet. I am reading a practically final draft Nick (@njr) kindly gave me. I am the author of the Perl interface to Fluidinfo, and was involved in the project for some weeks in 2009. It has an enormous potential to become a world-wide database of everything.
Title: X-Plane 10 Desktop Manual
Author: Laminar Research
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2012
Comment: I am getting into flight simulation these days. X-Plane 10 has been the first simulation I've tried. Also got FSX.
Title: Understanding Flight (Second Edition)
Author: David F. Anderson and Scott Eberhardt
Progress: Paused
Start: January 2012
Title: The Principia
Author: Isaac Newton
Progress: Paused
Start: January 2012
Title: Tot és definitiu: Catorze contes obscurs
Author: Stephen King
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2011
Comment: Catalan translation of Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales, linked above.
Title: Inflight Science
Author: Brian Clegg
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2011
Title: The Courage To Start: A Guide To Running for Your Life
Author: John "The Penguin" Bingham
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2011
Title: Steve Jobs
Author: Walter Isaacson
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2011
Comment: Hardcover edition, Catalan translation.
Title: Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking
Author: Christopher Hadnagy
Progress: Paused
Start: October 2011
Title: Rails AntiPatterns
Author: Chad Pytel, Tammer Saleh
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2011
Comment: Excellent book about Rails best practices and refactorings to fix common AntiPatterns. A must read for any beginner/intermediate Rails developer.
Title: Kafka a la platja
Author: Haruki Murakami
Progress: Paused
Start: September 2011
Comment: Catalan translation of Murakami's acclaimed novel 海辺のカフカ, translated to English as Kafka on the Shore.
Title: Paraula de Pep
Author: Pep Guardiola
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2011
Title: De qué hablo cuando hablo de correr
Author: Haruki Murakami
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2011
Comment: Spanish translation of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Fantastic book about... I don't know, it is supposed to be about running and writing novels, and it certainly covers those topics, but there's more in it, about life, endurance, little things, being oneself. I devoured it in two sittings.
Title: Budismo para dummies
Author: Jonathan Landaw, Stephan Bodian
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2011
Comment: Spanish translation of Buddhism for Dummies. Introduction to Buddhism using a clear language, its basis, history, practices, branches, etc.
Title: Córrer per ser feliç: 42 motius i 195 raons per a córrer
Author: Arcadi Alibés
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2011
Comment: Arcadi Alibés is a known Catalan journalist who has done more than 100 marathons all over the world as an amateur runner. This book, written in Catalan, explains his experience. A really nice story that breaths simplicity, humbleness, and love for this sport. Recommended.
Title: For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge Of Time
Author: Walter Lewin and Warren Goldstein
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2011
Title: 30-Second Psychology
Editor: Christian Jarrett
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2011
Title: The Deadline
Author: Tom DeMarco
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2011
Title: Programming Prolog in Depth
Author: Michael A. Covington, Donald Nute, André Vellino
Progress: Paused
Start: July 2011
Comment: Somehow lost this book. I was doing the exercises, check their GitHub repo.
Title: Ciclismo indoor
Author: José María Muyor Rodríguez
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2011
Title: Visual Complex Analysis
Author: Tristan Needham
Progress: Paused
Start: May 2011
Comment: This book is a gem. It is a formal and rigorous math book, but it is full on drawings and intuitions that explain why things behave the way they do. You think math non-linearly using intuitions, symbolic manipulation and orderly exposition comes after that. IMHO the approach in this book should be the norm for books and classes.
Title: The RSpec Book
Author: David Chelimsky
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2011
Comment: Test::Unit user over here, but worth reading about anyway.
Title: TeX: The Program
Author: Donald E. Knuth
Progress: Paused
Start: May 2011
Comment: The source code of TeX. A masterpiece of literate programming.
Title: L'Última Lliçó
Author: Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2011
Comment: Catalan translation of The Last Lecture. This is a wonderful book about life. Go read it.
Title: Apprenticeship Patterns
Author: Dave Hoover, Adewale Oshineye
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2011
Comment: Really insightful. Recommended if you're into software development no matter your expertise level.
Title: Notes from the Universe
Author: Mike Dooley
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2011
Title: Pro Git
Author: Scott Chacon
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2011
Comment: Very clear introduction to Git. I read its online version in my iPad.
Title: Agile Web Development with Rails (Fourth Edition)
Author: Sam Ruby, Dave Thomas, and David Heinemeier Hansson
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2011
Comment: I learned Ruby on Rails with the first edition of this book. Still the best introduction in the market in my view. Good coverage, good pace, good exposition, superb editorial quality, with an extensive test suite that explains its overall correctness.
Title: Lejos de casa
Author: Kiyohiro Miura
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2011
Comment: Spanish translation of He's Leaving Home.
Title: How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming
Author: Mike Brown
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2011
Title: Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightenment
Author: David Perlmutter and Alberto Villoldo
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2011
Comment: Really insteresting book with quite a lot of information about what modern neuroscience knows about brain health. With some incursions into shamanic practices I don't care about, buy anyway worth reading.
Title: Bases del condicionament físic
Author: Alberto Martín Costa, Edgar Tejedor García
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2010
Title: La barrera sin puerta: Comentarios zen al Mumonkan
Author: Zenkei Shibayama
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2010
Comment: Spanish translation of Sumiko Kudo's Gateless Barrier: Zen Comments on the Mumonkan.
Title: La Bolsa en tu bolsillo
Author: Francisco Álvarez
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2010
Comment: And introduction to the stock market in Spain, not very to the point though.
Title: Crafting Rails Applications
Author: José Valim
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2010
Comment: I read a draft of José's book. Superb, the most advanced Rails book in the market.
Title: Un matemático invierte en la Bolsa
Author: John Allen Paulos
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2010
Comment: Spanish translation of A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market.
Title: La Biblioteca de los Muertos
Author: Glenn Cooper
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2010
Comment: Marketed as Secret of the Seventh Son in USA, linked above.
Title: The Web Application Hacker's Handbook: Detecting and Exploiting Security Flaws
Author: Dafydd Stuttard and Marcus Pinto
Progress: Paused
Start: October 2010
Comment: A second edition of this book is due by October 2011, will wait for that one.
Title: Logicomix: an Epic Search for Truth
Author: Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2010
Title: The Elements of Style (Fourth Edition)
Author: William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2010
Comment: Second time I read this little jewel.
Title: Head First Statistics
Author: Dawn Griffiths
Progress: Halted
Start: September 2010
Comment: This book covers only the basics, but the Head First series is interesting in itself. Didn't read the +700 pages though.
Title: Rework
Author: Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2010
Comment: A book by 37signals, full of a common-sense that is not so common.
Title: Last Words: A Memoir
Author: George Carlin and Tony Hendra
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2010
Title: The Barefoot Running Book: A Practical Guide to the Art and Science of Barefoot and Minimalist Shoe Running
Author: Jason Robillard
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2010
Comment: I've been wearing Vibram FiveFingers for months now and am gonna give running a whirl, inspired by Born to Run.
Title: Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
Author: Christopher McDougall
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2010
Comment: Really fascinating, no matter whether you run or not (I don't). There's something fundamental in it, about running, authenticity, endurance, about we as human beings.... Totally recommended.
Title: The Rails 3 Way
Author: Obie Fernandez
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2010
Comment: This book has not been yet published, I reviewed some chapters of it.
Title: Sin sangre
Author: Alessandro Baricco
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2010
Comment: Spanish translation of Senza sangue, also translated to English as Without Blood, linked above.
Title: Being Zen: Bringing Meditation to Life
Author: Ezra Bayda
Progress: Halted
Start: June 2010
Comment: Bought in Barnes & Noble in Baltimore, during RailsConf 2010. Read like half of it, too much talk.
Title: The Passionate Programmer
Author: Chad Fowler
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2010
Comment: Insightful and reflective about you and your career. Full of wisdom. This was the first book I read in the iPad.
Title: Paz
Author: Richard Bausch
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2010
Comment: Spanish translation of Peace, linked above.
Title: Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (Second Edition)
Author: Stephen G. Kochan
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2009
Title: The Science of Leonardo
Author: Fritjof Capra
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2010
Title: Advanced UNIX Programming (2nd Edition)
Author: Marc J. Rochkind
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2009
Title: Ruby 1.9.x Web Servers Booklet
Author: Muhammad A. Ali
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2009
Title: afterzen: Experiencias de un estudiante zen de patitas en la calle
Author: Janwillem van de Wetering
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2009
Comment: Spanish translation of afterzen: Experiences of a Zen Student Out on His Ear, linked above. A perspective of Janwillem's Zen experience, 40 years after he went to Tokyo as related in The Empty Mirror.
Title: El espejo vacío: Experiencias en un monasterio Zen
Author: Janwillem van de Wetering
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2009
Comment: Spanish translation of The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery, linked above. This guy went to Japan to study in a monastery of the Rinzai school and explains his experience in a very honest way.
Title: To The Limit: The Untold Story Of The Eagles
Author: Marc Eliot
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2009
Title: Beginning iPhone 3 Development
Author: Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche
Progress: Paused
Start: October 2009
Title: Your Body: The Missing Manual
Author: Matthew MacDonald
Progress: Paused
Start: October 2009
Title: The Pomodoro Technique
Author: Francesco Cirillo
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2009
Title: La broma infinita
Author: David Foster Wallace
Progress: Paused
Start: August 2009
Comment: Spanish translation of Infinite Jest. I lost it in a bus, hope to retake it someday.
Title: Python Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition
Author: Mark Lutz
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2009
Title: Rails Rescue Handbook
Author: Mike Gunderloy
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2009
Comment: A must-read, full of experience, balance, and reflection.
Title: El Zen
Author: Raquel Bouso
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2009
Comment: Short but very good overview of zen: practice, terminology, history, art, philosophy. In Catalan.
Title: The Objective-C 2.0 Programming Language
Author: Apple Inc.
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2009
Title: Mac OS X Technology Overview
Author: Apple Inc.
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2009
Title: Tribes
Author: Seth Godin
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2009
Comment: Seth Goding deeply understands modern leadership.
Title: The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
Author: Jason Beaird
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2009
Title: Advanced Rails
Author: Brad Ediger
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2009
Title: The Bruce Lee Story
Author: Linda Lee
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2009
Title: La teoría del todo
Author: Stephen W. Hawking
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2009
Title: Agile Web Development with Rails (Third Edition)
Author: Sam Ruby, Dave Thomas, David Heinemeier Hansson
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2009
Comment: I read the first edition of AWDwR back in 2005. Still a must for any Rails developer.
Title: Outliers
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Progress: Halted
Start: January 2009
Comment: I liked The Tipping Point, but this one is unconvincing for me.
Title: The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2e
Author: Tobias Oetiker
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2009
Comment: I first read this intro circa 1995, nice little book.
Title: Pragmatic Version Control Using Git
Author: Travis Swicegood
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2009
Title: Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware
Author: Andy Hunt
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2008
Comment: I received this book in PDF format as a gift from a user of my Rails plugin model_auto_completer. I am proud to read it to use for the first time my brand new shiny iRex DR 1000S ebook reader.
Title: JavaScript: The Good Parts
Author: Douglas Crockford
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2008
Title: Founders at Work
Author: Jessica Livingston
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2008
Title: The Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2008
Comment: A revealing book. Must read. There's a short summary in the Wikipedia. (Check the "Criticism" section as well.) And another longer one at Wiki Summaries.
Title: Hacking: The Art of Explotation (2nd Edition)
Author: Jon Erickson
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2008
Title: El manuscrito Voynich
Author: Gerry Kennedy and Rob Churchill
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2008
Comment: Spanish translation of The Voynich Manuscript, linked above. I wrote summary (in Spanish)
Title: Els pilars de la terra
Author: Ken Follet
Progress: Halted
Start: March 2008
Comment: Catalan translation of The Pillars of the Earth, linked above. I liked it a lot but some work interrumpts prevented me from following the story, parked until the right time comes.
Title: The Ruby Programming Language
Author: David Flanagan and Yukihiro Matsumoto
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2008
Comment: Prize for my 2nd in the Rails Hackfest of January 2008
Title: L'anell de la via zen
Author: Taisen Deshimaru
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2008
Title: Running into the Sky
Author: Chris Wolf
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2008
Title: Programming Erlang
Author: Joe Armstrong
Progress: Halted
Start: January 2008
Comment: I got the idea of the language, but the book itself didn't hook me enough to finish it.
Title: La carretera
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2008
Comment: Spanish translation of The Road.
Title: The Rails Way
Author: Obie Fernandez
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2007
Comment: This book is outstanding, Rails has now two must-reads.
Title: The Ruby Way (2nd Edition)
Author: Hal Fulton
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2007
Title: Practical JRuby on Rails Web 2.0 Projects
Author: Ola Bini
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2007
Comment: I skipped a lot of material
Title: Los más bellos cuentos zen
Author: Henri Brunel
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2007
Title: High Performance Web Sites: Essential Knowledge for Front-End Engineers
Author: Steve Souders
Progress: Finished
Start: Novembre 2007
Title: Rails 2: New features for your applications
Author: Ryan Daigle
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2007
Title: Lectures on the Hyperreals: An Introduction to Nonstandard Analysis
Author: Robert Goldblatt
Progress: Paused
Start: October 2007
Title: RESTful Web Services
Author: Leonard Richardson, Sam Ruby
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2007
Title: Programming in Haskell
Author: Graham Hutton
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2007
Title: En el desierto no hay atascos: Un tuareg en la ciudad
Author: Moussa Ag Assarid
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2007
Comment: Spanish translation of Y a pas d'embouteillages dans le désert ! : Chroniques d'un Touareg en France
Title: Yet Another Haskell Tutorial
Author: Hal Daumé III
Progress: Halted
Start: August 2007
Title: Perl Hacks
Author: chromatic, Damian Conway, Curtis "Ovid" Poe
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2007
Title: Seis piezas fáciles
Author: Richard P. Feynman
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2007
Comment: Spanish translation of Six Easy Pieces
Title: Reinventing the Wheel: A Story of Genius, Innovation, and Grand Ambition
Author: Steve Kemper
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2007
Comment: The first time I rode a Segway I knew I would buy one as soon as I could afford it (I did). I was really intrigued about the story behind such an extraordinarie invention, it promised genius and transpiration. This book explains it, thank you guys for documenting and sharing this.
Title: The Idea Factory: Learning to Think at MIT
Author: Pepper White
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2007
Title: Hablando de física a la salida del cine
Author: Antoni Amengual Colom
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2007
Comment: AFAIK there's no English translation of this book
Title: Partir
Author: Tahar Ben Jelloun
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2007
Comment: Catalan translation of Partir
Title: Children and the Martial Arts: An Aikido Point of View
Author: Gaku Homma
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2007
Title: Rubyisms in Rails
Author: Jacob Harris
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2007
Title: Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
Author: Paul Graham
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2007
Comment: My friend jao lent me this thought-provoking book, thank you dude!
Title: Proofs from THE BOOK (Second Edition)
Author: Martin Aigner, Günter M. Ziegler
Progress: Paused
Start: March 2007
Title: Una breve historia de casi todo
Author: Bill Bryson
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2007
Comment: Spanish translation of A Short History of Nearly Everything
Title: Caminar para mantenerse en forma
Author: Nina Barough
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2007
Comment: Spanish translation of Walking for Fitness. I've started to walk regularly and this book has been a good guide to better understand this sport
Title: Write Great Code, Volume 1: Understanding the Machine
Author: Randall Hyde
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2007
Title: Mi visión del mundo
Author: Albert Einstein
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2006
Comment: Spanish translation of The World As I See It, a present from my friend Jesús Cerquides
Title: Rails Plugins: Extending Rails Beyond the Core
Author: James Adam
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2007
Title: Ruby Cookbook
Author: Lucas Carlson, Leonard Richarson
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2006
Title: Cartas a una joven matemática
Author: Ian Stewart
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2006
Comment: Spanish translation of Letters to a Young Mathematician, linked above
Title: RJS Templates for Rails
Author: Cody Fauser
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2006
Title: Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics
Author: John Derbyshire
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2006
Title: Ship it!: A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects
Author: Jared Richardson, William Gwaltney Jr.
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2006
Title: Practices of an Agile Developer
Author: Venkat Subramanian, Andy Junt
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2006
Title: From Java to Ruby: Things Every Manager Should Know
Author: Bruce Tate
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2006
Title: Gödel's Theorem: An Incomplete Guide to Its Use and Abuse
Author: Torkel Franzén
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2006
Comment: I wrote a summary
Title: Rails Recipes
Author: Chad Fowler
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2006
Title: watir.rb
Author: Paul Rogers, Bret Pettichord
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2006
Comment: That's Ruby source code
Title: Snow Crash
Author: Neal Stephenson
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2006
Comment: Roger Casaponsa lent me this book, I had a great time thank you dude!
Title: Historias de cronopios y de famas
Author: Julio Cortázar
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2006
Title: Head Rush Ajax
Author: Brett McLaughlin
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2006
Title: Ruby for Rails: Ruby Techniques for Rails Developers
Author: David A. Black
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2006
Title: El mestre us convida a un concert: Concerts per a joves
Author: Leonard Bernstein
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2006
Comment: Catalan translation of Leonard Bernstein - Young People's Concerts
Title: Zen in the Martial Arts
Author: Byjoe Hyams
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2006
Title: The Honors Class: Hilbert's Problems and Their Solvers
Author: Ben Yandell
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2006
Title: Getting Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application
Author: 37signals
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2006
Title: Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML
Author: Elisabeth Freeman, Eric Freeman
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2006
Title: SQLite
Author: Chris Newman
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2006
Title: Programming Languages Pragmatics (Second Edition)
Author: Michael L. Scott
Progress: Paused
Start: January 2006
Title: The Art of Project Management
Author: Scott Berkun
Progress: Paused
Start: November 2005
Title: Erykah Badu: The First Lady of Neo-Soul
Author: Joel McIver
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2005
Title: Agile Web Development with Rails
Author: Dave Thomas, David Heinemeier Hansson
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2005
Title: Diario de un bebé
Author: Daniel N. Stern
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2005
Comment: Spanish translation of Diary of a Baby
Title: El legado espiritual del templo Shaolin
Author: Andy James
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2005
Comment: Spanish translation of The Spiritual Legacy of Shaolin Temple, linked above
Title: The Mac Xcode 2 Book
Author: Michael Cohen, Dennis Cohen
Progress: Paused
Start: November 2005
Title: Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity
Author: Soko Morinaga
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2005
Title: Database In Depth: Relational Theory for Practitioners
Author: C.J. Date
Progress: Halted
Start: November 2005
Comment: I was looking for something more formal
Title: Extending and Embedding Perl
Author: Tim Jenness, Simon Cozens
Progress: Finished
Start: November 2005
Title: Criptonomicón: 1. El código enigma
Author: Neal Stephenson
Progress: Halted
Start: October 2005
Comment: First book (of three) of the Spanish translation of Cryptonomicon. It hasn't hooked me.
Title: Perl Best Practices
Author: Damian Conway
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2005
Title: Damunt les espatlles dels gegants
Author: Josep Pla i Carrera
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2005
Title: Concurrent Programming in Java: Design Principles and Patterns (Second Edition)
Author: Doug Lea
Progress: Halted
Start: September 2005
Comment: Too dense and conceptual for what I wanted.
Title: L'Ombra del Vent
Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2005
Comment: Catalan translation of The Shadow of the Wind
Title: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity
Author: David Allen
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2005
Title: Migraña
Author: Oliver Sacks
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2005
Comment: Spanish translation of Migraine, I wrote a summary.
Title: Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How The Mac Was Made
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2005
Title: El arte de permanecer sentado
Editor: John Daido Loori
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2005
Comment: Spanish translation of The Art of Just Sitting
Title: Advanced Perl Programming (Second Edition)
Author: Simon Cozens
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2005
Title: Guia Galàctica per a Autoestopistes
Author: Douglas Adams
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2005
Comment: Catalan translation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Title: The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web
Author: Dave Shea, Molly E. Holzschlag
Progress: Finished
Start: July 2005
Title: Programming Ruby (Second Edition)
Author: Dave Thomas, with Chad Fowler and Andy Hunt
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2005
Title: Visual Complex Analysis
Author: Tristan Needham
Progress: Paused
Start: June 2005
Title: The Now Habit
Author: Neil Fiore
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2005
Comment: I wrote a summary.
Title: Fermat's Enigma
Author: Simon Singh
Progress: Finished
Start: May 2005
Title: Learn To Remember
Author: Dominic O'Brien
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2005
Title: Higher-Order Perl
Author: Mark Jason Dominus
Progress: Finished
Start: April 2005
Title: The Art of UNIX Programming
Author: Eric S. Raymond
Progress: Finished
Start: March 2005
Title: Mind Hacks: Tips & Tools for Using Your Brain
Author: Tom Stafford, Matt Webb
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2005
Title: El monje que vendió su Ferrari
Author: Robin S. Sharma
Progress: Finished
Start: February 2005
Title: Apple Software Design Guidelines
Author: Apple Computer, Inc.
Progress: Finished
Start: January 2005
Comment: The original document is no longer available
Title: Las cenizas de Ángela
Author: Frank McCourt
Progress: Halted
Start: January 2005
Comment: I didn't like the style. Declarative sentences in present tense.
Title: Python Cookbook
Editor: Alex Martelli, David Ascher
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2004
Title: Miles Davis y Kind of Blue: La creación de una obra maestra
Author: Ashley Kahn
Progress: Finished
Start: December 2004
Title: On Intelligence
Author: Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2004
Title: The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations
Author: Rob Cross, Andrew Parker
Progress: Finished
Start: October 2004
Title: La práctica de la concentración
Author: Taisen Deshimaru
Progress: Finished
Start: September 2004
Title: A Semantic Web Primer
Author: Grigoris Antoniou, Frank van Harmelen
Progress: Finished
Start: August 2004
Title: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Revised Edition)
Author: Robert B. Cialdini
Progress: Paused
Start: August 2004
Title: Cocoa Programming For Mac OS X (Second Edition)
Author: Aaron Hillegass
Progress: Paused
Start: August 2004
Title: Learning Python (Second Edition)
Author: Mark Lutz, David Ascher
Progress: Finished
Start: June 2004