You have to work at getting things done but David Allen sets down some railroad tracks to help you along the process. At the end of the day, it’s a process that gets results.

It’s hard to escape the musings of David Weinberger since I read his blog regularly. On top of that, Doc Searls echoes most of the concepts in “Small Pieces” so I caved in and bought a used hardback book in order to read it cover to cover at my own speed.

As the author points out, “This book is a biography, not a work of art history.” That’s a proper perspective, because no one has described how to paint a portrat more clearly or succinctly than Henri Matisse. It’s important to analyse how Matisse acquired his powers of contemplation and concentration because those characteristics created beautiful examples of High Art.

Levitt and Dubner write about complex things in a simple and punchy style. It’s a well-written explanation of some of the themes that politicians wrongfully interpret for their own agendas.

With smartphones and cameraphones the first choice of many people, the fact of the matter is that we’re carring computers in our pockets. We should learn how to make them suit our needs and sometimes that means hacking them so they work in ways to suit us best. Paul Graham understands this and he tells more about it by getting inside the head of hackers.

You can count on Terry Eagleton to start his case incisively and lucidly. I enjoy his writing.

J.D. Lasica writes Darknet and reminds me that much of my behaviour is criminal. More frightening is the fact that I’m educating another generation in criminal tactics because I’m encouraging college students to remediate content, tinker with code, and share sounds they enjoy. More people need to read Darknet to appreciate the extent our culture will change if the initiative is left to Hollywood and the entertainment industry.

Jean Baudrillard’s 1981 work helped me unpack postmodernism as part of contemporary culture. His ideas displace economic notions of cultural production and he theorises about notions of cultural expenditure.

I like watching tall ships race and that’s all the more enjoyable after finishing “The Command of the Ocean”. Even though it’s big enough to bruise your foot if dropped, the book reads quickly by integrating stories about common people who formed part of the dynamic behind Britain’s ruling of the waves.