So I am not much of a planner. I didn’t read tomes and I read few work related books, but on the other hand I really enjoyed most of those I did read. Still it seems to be a challenge for me to really dive into world literature. I purposefully slowed my reading in second half of the year with aim of getting work done which didn’t pan out that well either.

I suspect I also didn’t read as many tech books as I wanted because I mostly buy them in electronic form and don’t enjoy reading books on computer screens including tablets. E-ink readers are nicer, but underpowered and have issues displaying code samples well. Postponing decision is not working out, but I’m not happy with existing choices. Not sure how this will be resolved or when.

Links in the list still point to Amazon, but without affiliate IDs and are as always present only for those that are at least fine. Bold is reserved for those I found best: The White Tiger, Safe Area Goražde, Bright Earth, Next World Novella, Behind the Beautiful Forevers and The Sense of Ending . If you are a web front-end developer, then you should also look at Undercover User Experience Design and SMACSS .

The list:

1. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. I bought this book by mistake and don’t regret it. An astonishing and brutal portrait of India’s underclass that grips you and doesn’t let go even after you finish its last page.
2. Undercover User Experience Design by Cennydd Bowles & James Box. Excellent guide on doing UX on the cheap that is also a good introduction to UX. There are few people who couldn’t learn something from this book.
3. The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø. Gripping enough if you don’t mind in-text ads for previous books or genre tropes. A good book for beach, if you are into that sort of thing. I don’t see myself reading another one from this series.
4. Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995 by Joe Sacco. Certainly one of the best graphic novels I’ve ever read which can teach something about conflict even those who have been following it closely. Deserves all awards it got.
5. Object-Oriented Javascript by Stoyan Stefanov. An introduction book to Javascript (in browsers) best suited to programmers of other languages. Chapters about classes and inheritance are good reminders of less often used parts for intermediate Javascript developers.
6. The Habit of Art by Alan Bennett. Multi-layered drama with much humor. I saw its original production and I still think of it often.
7. The Stone by Marius von Mayenburg. A recurring motif of modern German literature – doubtful memories of recent past. I would love to see it on stage.
8. We’re with Nobody: Two Insiders Reveal the Dark Side of American Politics by Alan Huffman & Michael Rejebian. An interesting first-person look at how background researchers work in US politics without sordid details.
9. In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut. A book about traveling, un-articulated rootlessness and failed human connections that switches remarkably well between first-person and third-person narrator. It brought up some of my own almost forgotten memories and I would recommend it without hesitation.
10. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. I don’t really know what to think of this book. It’s well written, engaging and reading it I do not not feel like time was wasted. On the other hand I don’t see depth others see or a master writer others describe. Still not a bad book to pick up.
11. Bright Earth by Philip Ball. I bought this book after I heard his talk on the same subject but still missed that it is foremost about painting colors. It is an amazing book which has significantly changed my perception and understanding of paintings and I would recommend it to anyone remotely interested in colors or visual arts.
12. Tempo by Venkatesh Rao. Venkatesh’s blog is among the most interesting ones I follow, but I was less impressed with this book on role of tempo in our lives and ways to work with it. There are certainly interesting ideas in it, but it often felt disconnected and too full of new jargon. I suspect I need to read it again with more focus and fewer interruptions.
13. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter. The first book in upcoming trilogy. Fun to read and well thought through look at what could happen if we suddenly had infinite natural resources.
14. Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos. Easy and interesting read, but it’s not clear to me what the purpose of the book is. It’s unlikely to be read by those who need it most or offer much in ways of tools and techniques. It is more of a cautionary tale of mistakes and lament about state of affairs which is still the same.
15. How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace by Frank M. Ahearn & Eileen C. Horan. A warning book for those who are not particularly paranoid and less useful as a how-to. The rest of us largely won’t be surprised although you might find out a thing or two. I hated author’s voice.
16. Next World Novella by Matthias Politycki. A beautifully written multi-layered book about death, marriage, loneliness, memories… One of those rare books that not only can be re-read, but should be.
17. SMACSS by Jonathan Snook. A guide to writing modular CSS that should be easier to maintain and more reusable. A must read for web developers even if they don’t agree or use all described techniques.
18. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. A devastating, uncompromising and well-researched look into life in an Indian slum. Together with White Tiger it significantly influenced and informed my view of India and I wholly recommend it.
19. Dodger by Terry Pratchett. An enjoyable and informative recreation of Victorian London with a story a bit too predictive, straight-forward and far fetched for adult readers. Read only if you’re Terry’s fan or not an adult.
20. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. Opinions may vary, but I recommend it without reservations. Really well written and was able to evoke memories of my youth without really describing it. I enjoyed reading it till the surprising and devastating end. Doubtlessly I will read it again.

This year? More useful education, more foreign literature and hopefully one or two longer ones that have been on the shelf for a while.

Related articles

• Books I read in 2011 (markos.gaivo.net)
• Books I read in 2010 (markos.gaivo.net)
• Books I read in 2009 (markos.gaivo.net)

Happy and healthy new year!

Mine started as it ended, in bed with a nasty cold. We were in one of few places in Slovenia where there was snow, great weather and I got to experience it all mostly through windows. In a way it was a perfect sum of last year: missed opportunities and unexpected disappointments, but at the same time actually quite good if looked at from a different perspective. 2012 was a year full of health scares, not all of which were resolved happily (so far). I certainly hope this year will be better for my loved ones.

I learned last year that I don’t miss Twitter. Occasionally I read Fry ‘s stream, but otherwise end up there only by mistake. There’s still work to be done on how to manage empty distractions and I miss tools that would help me decide what to read and how much of it. Facebook account — also gone (I hope; who can really tell?). Rarely used, never missed and incompatible with my convictions.

Digital sabbath continues to be a great idea and I can’t recommend it enough. Setting too ambitious personal goals…to be avoided. Explicit goals can lead to worse results when it becomes clear they can’t be met, even more so if they morph from a metric to a substitute of original purpose. Knowing this I nevertheless managed to become a textbook case of a goal-induced failure and will need to spend quite a bit of effort to get in a better shape. Need to keep focusing on whys too.

Having a list of possible and finished projects on wall still frees my mind. I have just released one of them, but it is obvious I haven’t really stayed the course this year, switching projects with predictable result of finishing few and losing a bet with Sebastjan . You could look at it as the most expensive dinner of my life (if valued by time spent) or a hell of a good investment in code I will use this year. I prefer the latter (and what kind of twat would object to paying friend’s dinner).

I actually did work on my personal research agenda in my spare time. I just don’t have enough of it and it is what I struggle with most. I found development proceeds more smoothly when done regularly, but to do that I need to maintain a very detailed to-do list which allows me to make a meaningful contribution even when there is only half an hour to spare. I have also added reminders to my calendar to regularly review (or re-awake) my work.

I decided to stop using these end of year posts for commenting on external developments. So far mostly impotent protests in Slovenia left a bittersweet taste. I am curious what this year will bring, but these reviews tended to be bleak and I’m not becoming an optimist.

I am happier. It really is a privilege to, not just nominally, work with and for people from whole planet on stuff that matters. I learned a lot as person and a developer from my colleagues and I enjoy my work as much as when I started. However getting accustomed to our way of doing things and things we do can create a small worry of where I will be able to work, if I ever have to leave.

It was definitely a year of personal change. Not sure who to “blame” for rediscovering a radical streak in me, but I am less willing to be silent when encountering prejudice and small-mindedness. Silence condones and some troubles should be embraced.

This year I would like to finish existing projects that already have good foundations and to promote building web services for low-bandwidth environments (where low-bandwidth doesn’t mean just slow). That really should be enough. I expect it will be an interesting year.

As a person with a somewhat unusual fondness for measuring and modelling my own behavior I should be a happy buyer of gadgets for collecting data about myself and my environment. Yet so far I bought none, because they don’t seem to work well without (occasional) data sync with producer’s servers.

I really shouldn’t have to explain privacy standpoint of this. Describing my life and immediate environment in detail to a bunch of people I have never met, some of whom don’t even work for the company yet and trusting all of them that they will not compromise it for as long as they will keep it is to me self-evidently moronic.

But I also avoid such hardware even when data in question might not be particularly sensitive. If I am paying for something to be manufactured, then I expect to own it. If a gadget depends on an external service to be useful, then I am really only leasing it. Services disappear for many reasons and it doesn’t make much sense to rely on their availability unless you can host them yourself. I loath ads, but paying for a service is not a guarantee for its continuing presence either.

I am not against functionality that reasonably requires at least occasional connection to grid. Most social features probably do. Products like phones don’t even make sense without network. Web interfaces certainly do make these devices cheaper and more quickly evolving. So there are certainly good reasons beyond roping you in to make them partially off-loaded on web.

However I don’t want to use those features and I certainly don’t want to give up data I care about for features I don’t. What I expect from devices I buy is my control of data and purchased functionality without others meddling or peeking over my shoulders.