One of the best books to get a broad intro to OS X programming. I recommend starting with it and having an Objective-C reference by your side for specific questions. Then Google around for other examples and tidbits. The web site Cocoa is my Girlfriend is a good start :-)

Another book I’ve read several times. I think that it should be required reading for everyone, but especially people in public office. Sure, it may be outdated in some respects, but the main messages are still relevant IMHO.

No way I can add anything meaningful that hasn’t already been said, but I will say that I read it every couple of years (up to 20 times now) and have read it twice through in German. Great way to learn a language, though I suppose I won’t use the entire vocabulary much :-)

My interest in this trilogy was always high, but I was moved to read them all in a 2 week period after hearing Philip Pullman interviewed about it on CBC’s Writer’s and Company (I think that’s the show) late one night. He made clear that this was more of an adult book than a children’s book, especially after the first book. Like most people, I was amused by the objections to the book by the church and various school boards in the lead-up to the first movie release. Predictably, that was a blip probably fueled by media hype. Still , it resulted in getting to hear him speak, not only about the books, but about his opinions of CS Lewis, Tolkien, and a little about White.

It’s not so much about liking someone, but respecting them for ploughing through this tome. If you like it, then consider Speer’s Inside the Third Reich. Much more readable and as interesting.

I’m about 150 pages into this new history of Canada’s Infantry in WW I. It’s the first comprehensive history in about 40 years. The second volume is to come out next year.

So far, I find it very engaging. While it’s not as personal as something like Vimy (Pierre Berton), it provides a nice mixture of big picture perspective and then individual stories and perspectives from the top ranks all the way down.

Well, it’s a work-related book, but I find the converging trends of pervasive computing, social networking, and location-based services very interesting. If anything was ever to achieve some kind of true gestalt, this is it.

Anyway, this book is the most recent publication outside of journal and technical papers I can find. The main project, CONTEXT, to which they refer, is available for review on the net. I like the approach and philosophy, so got the book. Good companion to the other book I am consuming. Check out my LibraryThing.com entries (knud).

Pretty good introduction to the Semantic Web and the ideas behind it. Enough technical and intellectual detail is provided to serve as a jumping off point for anyone interested in doing more than just read about it.