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Birthday present: books

Friday, March 9, 2007 | 2 comments

Today the postman ringed, and that's good news: a parcel had arrived. I went downstairs and opened the door. The postman asked if I was John Bokma, which I confirmed and I got the parcel. The label on the carton box told me my brother Marco had sent it. Finally the present he had sent for my fortieth birthday had arrived.

Last year he had asked me if I wanted a book published by O'Reilly for my birthday, knowing my preferred technical book publisher. But I had replied to his email if it was ok with him to sent me two books instead: "Getting things done" by David Allen, and "The Digital Photography book" by Scott Kelby.

Getting Things Done

Getting Things Done - David Allen.

Somewhere last year I had downloaded a several books in PDF format. One book sounded like a new age self help book: Getting Things Done - The art of stress-free productivity. But when I started to read the PDF file on my PDA, a Dell Axim X51v I was immediately captured by the methods to get things done as explained by David Allen. Some time later I printed Getting Things Done and asked Esme to have it bound at a nearby copy shop so I could easier study the material until I could ask someone to give the book to me in exchange for some Perl programming or as a gift.

The book already has inspired me into coming up with a getting things done device of my own: The Blog Box which helps me to manage a to blog list and other ideas for my blog. Hence I was very happy when finally today the real thing arrived.

Getting Things Done - The art of stress-free productivity, David Allen, ISBN 0-14-200028-0

Intermezzo: Downloading pirated ebooks and copyright infringement

Downloading pirated ebooks (PDF or CHM file format) might be copyright infringement. However, I have, like with music, little problems with doing. My music purchase habbits haven't been changed for the past 20 years or so. However, I do buy less books compared to say 7 years ago for two reasons:

  1. English books are hardly sold locally (Mexico), and
  2. a lot of information is available online, often more up to date compared to books.

But I still do buy books or ask people to sent them to me in exchange for help with Perl or as a birthday gift. And if I could buy books locally I would probably even buy more, even though one can download thousands of pirated books via torrents. Why? Because I prefer to read a real book. I like to read in bed, and I like to have technical books open on my desk for reference or study them away from the computer.

I do use my PDA to browse through books and check if a book is worth buying. Hence I consider downloading books equal to a visit to a bookshop or borrowing a book from the library and copying a chapter for studying. If I need the book I get the real thing, period.

However, the latter is less and less needed as I already stated in my second point. A lot of information can be accessed directly via the Internet. Wiki's and forums often give more up to date answers then books. And especially computer related books outdate faster then one can study them. If the books I have in storage in the Netherlands finally come over to Mexico I have a few meters of books published by O'Reilly and other technical publishers to prove this.

But if book publishers have noted a drop in book sales the past years I am convinced it can be blamed more on the excellent availability of documentation and articles on the Internet than file sharing via peer-to-peer protocols like BitTorrent. And last but not least the huge drop in quality of computer books. Several books I have browsed are clearly written by underskilled authors and dumped on the market because of a the hype.

And don't get me started on trying to buy ebooks books online with clumsy protection - when do they finally get it that pirates remove the protection and hence it only bothers genuine customers? - so back to the other books my brother sent me. Yes, that's right: books, three in total.

The Digital Photography book - Scott Kelby

The Digital Photography book - Scott Kelby.

This is another book I downloaded using µTorrent and browsed on my Dell Axim X51v. And because after browsing it a bit I learned so many new things or saw things I somehow already knew but never used while taking photos I decided that I had to have this book. Also because of the beautiful photos used to illustrate the book.

My current camera, a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S600, falls in the point-and-shoot digital camera category. But the book, focused on digital SLR cameras, has plenty of good tips for low end cameras as well. Add to that the pleasant writing style of Scott Kelby with many jokes makes it an excellent read.

So when my brother asked me what I wanted for my birthday present there was not a single moment of doubt in my mind: "Getting things Done" and "The Digital Photography book". Moreover I strongly recommended both books to my brother as well, and now - via this blog entry - to you.

The Digital Photography Book - The step by step secrets for how to make your photos look like the pros!, Scott Kelby, Peachpit Press.

Cascading Style Sheets - The Definitive Guide

Cascading Style Sheets, 2nd edition, Eric A. Meyer.

So my brother sent me the books I asked for, but there was more in the carton box: an additional book by Eric A. Meyer: Cascading Style Sheets - the definitive guide (2nd edition), a book published by O'Reilly after all.

In the reply to my "Thank you, and thanks a lot for the extra book" email my brother Marco explained that the additional book was to thank me for the times I helped him with some Perl programming. Very nice of him.

And even though I have a Live hotline with accessible web designer slash CSS guru Els, I prefer not to bother her with basic questions which I can answer myself by reading a well-written book. And I am sure that "Cascading Style Sheets" is exactly that. I only have to plan quite some time to study the book, so I think it's best to continue in "Getting Things Done" but now the real book.

Also today

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