Category Archives: Books

Content of my reading list by amazon (part 1 of 9)

Posted on by

I’m starting to copy here the reading list from the older readings and moving to the most recent.
Here you can read why I’m doing this.
In some cases I had inserted in the list also books that I had read earlier when I found them interesting.
Below is the first batch of books and, when available, the related comments.

Wednesday, Jan 28 2009
Vita Activa Oder Vom Tatigen Leben by Hannah Arendt

The more I progressed in the reading the more I appreciated the genius of Hannah Arendt and her ability to foresee the dinamics that currently dominate people in the west world.
Not a book for casual reading, but worth all the effort.

Thursday, Nov 20 2008
War, progress, and the end of history, including a short story of the Anti-Christ. Three discussions by Vladimir Soloviev

I’m always fascinated by the writings of authors that were able to predict the society evolution way head of theyr time.
Even when the prediction is not about a better situation.

1994 (and again in 1996)
Conceptual Database Design: An Entity-Relationship Approach by Carol Batini, Stefano Ceri, Shamkant B. Navathe

I’ve read this book as part of my master degree, but I think that it’s a good introductory reading also for people that need to approach the subject for work-related reasons”

1989
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter

Great book. Suggested without doubt to anyone interested in the field of computer science and philosophy.
I expected a lot from the author’s other books, but this one was not matched by other titles.
Not ok for a casual reading in my opinion.

1994
Theoretical Foundations of Computer Science by D. Mandrioli; C. Ghezzi
Great book on the subject. Very technical, but with linear progression.

Friday, Nov 7 2008
Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty by Zygmunt Bauman
Comment: “A very interesting view of the status of our society.”

2008
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
Comment: “After reading an interesting book (L’individuo senza passioni. Individualismo oderno e perdita del legame sociale, available only in italian) I become fascinated and started to read some of the sources.
While for some aspects Weber’s book may be considered dated and it doesn’t fit for casual readers it’s a very interesting reading that I reccomend.”

Why I’m about to remove “reading list by amazon” from my linkedin profile

Posted on by

I started to use this application at the end of 2008 and stopped about 3 years (and more than 80 books) later due to two intrinsic limitations of it.

First limitation: it’s not possible to start a discussion about the books.

Second limitation: if a book is not sold by Amazon it doesn’t exist.

As I’ve started this blog I don’t see a good reason to keep using the application: here the opportunity to followup and comment is available and I’m not limited to the books sold by a single shopping site.

As part of the removal process I’ll copy the content of the current reading list into a dedicated post.

Anyone interested in discussing one of my comments about the books can let me know and I will elaborate in a dedicated post.

Aldous Huxley: Point counter point

Posted on by

A couple of days ago I’ve completed the reading of the Italian version from Adelphi and I’m quite disappointed.

It took me about one month (with other books in parallel) to reach the end: the story did not really picked up at any time and this slowed down my pace a lot.

I’m ok with novels that make a philosophical or political point and I’ve found stimulating a number of points made by Huxley in the book, but in my opinion a novel must first entertain  and only later send an higher message.

From the same author I’ve read  “Brave new world” and  “After Many a Summer Dies the Swan” with satisfaction.

I suggest skipping this book and invest time in better readings.