One of the first verifiable predictions of Einstein's theory was that
gravity bends light by a certain precise amount. If true, this could be
observed by measuring the apparent positions of stars near the Sun during a
total solar eclipse. The book follows the scientists and expeditions around
the world that set out to test it.
Spanish translation of Infinite Jest, linked
above. This novel was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 best
English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.
Spanish translation of the classic novel Kinkaku-ji
(金閣寺), known in English as
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. A captivating
novel telling the life and inner world of the monk who
burned Kinkaku-ji down in 1950.
I bought this book after visiting
the temple in Kyoto during holidays.
The author has been in the high-end audio industry for decades. He is the
CEO of PS Audio, a company he
cofounded in the 70s. This book is dedicated to digital audio, its history,
formats, streamers, DACs, clocks, .... It is part of a series on high-fidelity.
After reading Fat Loss Forever, I wanted to
know a bit more about nutrition in general. This is a recording of a series
of lectures by Roberta H. Anding,
M.S..
I used LaTeX quite a lot during my math degree. It is my favorite
typesetting tool and I am writing a tech book with it. I have refreshed my
knowledge with this book that covers modern LaTeX usage.
A book for the general public that covers modern Physics, and how we got
there. Engaging, easy-going, enjoyable, and hilarious! This book is also the
story of a personal dream. The author participated in the discovery of the
Higgs boson at CERN. His name is listed as author in the landmark
paper about the discovery. This was the one in a lifetime culmination of
a dream pursued since he entered the Physics faculty.
n 2025, I switched from yoga to Pilates. Learned the fundamentals in this
book written by pioneers in Catalonia and Spain who studied at the original
Pilates studio in New York.
Among other things like being a world-class natural bodybuilder, Dr. Layne
Norton is a biochemist with a PhD in nutrition. This book is really awesome,
evidence-based based weight control and nutrition advice by people that stay
away from myths and fads. This book has given me a comprehensive way to
think about weight control and nutrition I am applying.
(I read about half of it, and left it there.) Stories about enlightenment
usually end when realization occurs. But what is life like afterward? You
might still face a divorce, have a bossy manager, or lead a stressful
life. Does enlightenment profoundly transform you? Or are you still pulled
into the dualistic world? This book explores these kinds of questions.
A bilingual book with a copule of stories. Even pages have a Spanish
translation of the original English, which you have in odd pages. This was
a present from my daughter.
English translation of an Italian sci-fi novel of the same title, written
by a programmer I admire. The novel is fascinating. It's about strong AI
and is set in the not-too-distant future. Salvatore's technical knowledge
shows in the details and credibility of the fiction.
Spanish translation of Zen Buddhism. An introduction to Zen with
a broad, succint, and descriptive approach, written with clarity. This
book is somewhat different from other introductions; it covers the
historical Buddhist roots of Zen, its philosophy, practice, masters,
rituals, etc. It is not limited to one particular Zen school.
The author of this book has been
into AI professionally for decades. It explains how different approaches
work and have evolved over the years. Towards the end, the book reflects
about the inflection point LLMs represent.
The author is a world-class authority on aging. This book explains what
science currently understands about the effects of nutrition on
longevity, using a multidisciplinary approach. This is the Spanish
translation of The Longevity Diet.
This book discusses methods for evolving Rails applications idiomatically,
ensuring they remain well-structured and maintainable. The presentation is
excellent, typically starting by demonstrating the limitations of basic
approaches before gradually and logically building abstractions to address
them. The patterns introduced reflect Vladimir's extensive production
experience and deep understanding of Rails.
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.
A gift from my family. This is a thriller set in Madrid. Three women from
different backgrounds have lost it all. They come together to lead a quest
for revenge. This is the Catalan translation of the book; I don't think it
has been translated into English so far.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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%.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Author: Nicholas J. Radcliffe and Nicholas H. Tollervey
Progress:
Finished
Start: February 2012
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.
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.
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.
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.
Author: Sam Ruby, Dave Thomas, and David Heinemeier Hansson
Progress:
Finished
Start: March 2011
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
