The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.
A great way to finish the year! I had read this about five years back, but gained a lot more insight into it now. This reinforces my belief that there are some things that can be learnt only after the requisite experience. This may be about software engineering, but I think it applies to all aspects of project management in general.

Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
Ugh. I don't know what country this guy lived in, but it certainly wasn't India! I have no idea which slum has such great religous/social/marital tolerance, or which place has a monsoon perpetually imminent for months on end, or where to find such wise, wonderful, generous underworld figures. I couldn't read beyond the first couple of hundred pages....

The Warren Buffett Portfolio : Mastering the Power of the Focus Investment Strategy , Robert G. Hagstrom
Didn't like it as much as the The Warren Buffett Way. This is more of the psychology rather than the mechanics of investing, and I liked the precition of the first book to this one. I'm also more comfortable with
x = 2p - 1
rather than
2p - 1 = x
I guess thats just the engineer in me.

The Gunslinger , Stephen King


Literate Programming , Donald E. Knuth


The Warren Buffett Way , Robert G. Hagstrom
Ah, that I had read this book (and understood its lessons five years ago....

The Everest Hotel , I. Allan Sealy


Big Bang : The Origin of the Universe , Simon Singh


Light , M. John Harrison


Buffett : The Making of an American Capitalist , Roger Lowenstein
Anybody interested in investing will have heard of Buffett, as had I. However, even though I'd invested a bit in brk.b, knew about "value" investing, and agreed with some of the philosophies put forth in the annual letters, I didn't really *know* about Buffett. This book makes me respect him more, and makes me want to sell everything I have and buy more brk(.b, not .a). It ends around 1994, so we miss out all the fun with gen. re....

S*PAM _KiNgS: The Real Story Behind the High-Rolling Hucksters Pushing Porn, Pills and @*#?% Enlargements , Brian McWilliams
An interesting look at the spam wars. I found it cool since I used to read nanae occasionally a few years back, and could identify some of the people mentioned in this book. Ofcourse, it is impossible to list everything that happens, and all the people involved, but I remember a kook called Jason, and the (in)famous incident when slashdotters subscribed Richter to a bunch of magazines, lists, etc....

Leonardo Da Vinci: Flights of the Mind , Charles Nicholl
This (as well as the Galileo bio) was a fun book to read. I kept hearing about the genius about these two people, but didn't know anything more than the rudimentary facts. What strikes me the most was the involvement of the papacy in temporal issues, let alone the behaviour of some of the Popes and cardinals.

Galileo: A Life , James Reston


Love Me , Garrison Keillor


House of Blue Mangoes , David Davidar
Books about dynasties seem to blend into a pattern, but I enjoyed this one more than One Hundred Years of Solitude or The Glass Palace. The author does enjoy using cliches...

Cryptonomicon , Neal Stephenson
A must read for any self respecting geek. Also pretty funny - check out a couple of quotes on the misc page.

Linus Pauling: A Life in Science and Politics , Ted Goertzel and Ben Goertzel
*snore* I'm sure there are better biographies of Pauling, the authors of this one can't make up their mind about where to focus - his science, politics, psyche...