Archive for the 'Reading' Category

I’m not much of a movie person, but tonight, thanks to a storm-related cable outage, I watched The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe for the first time. What a great movie! I’ve always been a giant fan of the Chronicles of Narnia, and this movie was particularly well done. A few key details were left out, however. Aslan didn’t mention the deeper magic when the Stone Table was broken in two, He simply explained that the witch didn’t fully understand what would happen. Also, the professor never hints that he too has been to Narnia. Take, for instance, this passage from the book:

And the professor, who was a very remarkable man, didn’t tell them not to be silly or not to tell lies, but believed the whole story. “No,” he said, “I don’t think it will be any good trying to go back through the wardrobe door to get the coats. You won’t get into Narnia again by that route. Nor would the coats be much use by now if you did! Eh? What’s that? Yes, of course you’ll get back to Narnia again some day. Once a King in Narnia, always a King in Narnia.”

Nowhere in the movie does the professor make such a statement (the last sentence in particular). That omission really took some of the surprise out of it (although anyone who’s read the books already knows the story). There were some interesting additions to the movie as well. Aslan says to the witch that he was present when the deep magic was written, a statement that isn’t in the book (I checked). It will be interesting to see what other movies they decide to make. I really enjoyed this one; hopefully they will stick to the books, and not alter the stories too much.

All hail the Highest of High Kings!

Not too long ago, I purchased Rick Wakeman’s phenomenal album Journey to the Centre of the Earth. And it has spurred within me an interest to re-read the masterpiece by Jules Verne. It has been quite some time since I read a novel (I believe the seven Chronicles of Narnia books were the last ones I read), and I feel it’s about time to pick up another one. I’ve always been a fan of Jules Verne works, and A Journey to the Center of the Earth is particularly excellent.

I’m slowly making my way through The Mythical Man Month, and so far it has been most excellent. The points that Dr. Brooks makes throughout the book are incredibly insightful. How sad that practically no one makes use of the suggestions he puts forth!

Does anyone have suggestions for books worth reading? Feel free to let me know what you like.

My dad pointed me to an excellent article entitled The Perils of JavaSchools. Although it’s a little lengthy, the article is an incredibly worthwhile read on why schools that teach Java as the primary programming language are, to some degree, dumbing down the future generation of computer programmers. My alma mater took this route, but I was fortunate enough to be in the class before this change was made. I picked up C++ first: both on my own (by learning Visual C++ and MFC) and in school (my first programming courses were all taught using C++). After learning the intracacies of C++, learning Java was incredibly simple (almost too simple, in fact). I believe I passed my “Java for C Programmers” course with an A+; a feat that required very little effort on my part.

Once one knows about pointers, objects in Java become rediculously easy to discuss. As does the entire programming language itself. Java is a fine programming language (it fixes a lot of the brokenness in C++), but to know C++ is to feel enabled. I can wield the mighty sword of pointers and memory management; something that many Java programmers do not, and quite possible can not, ever do. I’m not saying that Java programmers cannot become successful C++ programmers; I’m simply making the point that there are more Java programmers who cannot pick up C++ than there are C++ programmers who cannot pick up Java.

Again, I highly recommend the article. The author also has an incredibly enticing reading list, which he uses to train managers in his company. There are a number of books there that look really great. I hope to begin reading The Mythical Man Month, the masterpiece written by Fred Brooks. It’s one that I’ve been meaning to read for a long, long time.

I’ve made progress on two fronts today:

• Googlebar Lite now sports an auto-complete search box, just like the URL bar in Firefox. Although it’s still a prototype, I have a good feeling that this is what I’ll be going to in the future. The new interface should also allow for some interesting new options.
• Only 10 books remain unpurchased in my Prince Valiant collection. I hope to update the corresponding page sometime soon, providing more information on each volume. I’d also like to track how much I’ve been spending on these, just for kicks. It will most likely be a shocking amount in the end.

I’m off to my grandparent’s house in Georgia tomorrow, but I’m taking my work laptop. Perhaps I can make some progress on non-work related stuff. I definitely plan to do so later this week, when I return.

Tonight I bid on 4 hard to find volumes in the Fantagraphics Prince Valiant book series: volumes 34, 35, 38, and 40. And I lost every single auction. What’s interesting is that, if I had won all of the auctions at the prices I was willing to pay, I would have spent $958.50 … for four books! That’s an average of nearly $240 per book; books which cost a mere $16.95 when they were published. It’s hard for me to justify paying such a hefty sum for a single volume, but I am simply smitten with the Prince Valiant comic. And to have come this far in completing my collection dictates that I go all the way. Perhaps I just need to become bolder in my bidding. There are clearly people out there who want them more than I. And at these prices, they must want them pretty bad.

My collection of Prince Valiant comics is nearing its completion, as I have purchased the last of the books available at the Fantagraphics store. I have 13 remaining books to purchase, all of which (with the exception of volume 32) fetch incredibly high prices on eBay. Interestingly enough, volumes 38-40 are the more difficult books to find, and often sell for nearly $200 or $300 a piece! The earlier books (vols. 3-8) also command high prices, averaging anywhere from $60 to $200. So I expect that filling in these last few holes will cost me a pretty penny.

One of my more expensive purchases recently was a collection of 6 DVD’s, containing scans of the Valiant strips from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s (including the year 2000). These strips aren’t available in print, so I was willing to shell out big money to obtain them. And the scans are absolutely marvelous! So far, I have read up through the end of 1987, enjoying every strip along the way. The story lines are gripping and the artwork is, as always, stunning.

I plan to eventually update my Valiant library page, including more information on each book in the series. There are so many characters, that it would be interesting to note in which books they get introduced to the story. And a general summary of each book couldn’t hurt either.

I frequently get lost in Wikipedia. Not because the site is difficult to navigate, but rather because the stuff I learn there is so interesting. I routinely find myself clicking from one article to another. This is without a doubt the second best (?) time waster ever invented (the Internet in general being #1). Must … stop … surfing …