Books

Ten months ago I purchased an Audible.com AudibleListener® Platinum Annual Membership which gave me 24 “credits” to buy audio books with. All of the books I purchased were only one credit but there are books that cost more. Buying 24 credits at once lowered the cost to under $10 a book, which is a great deal when most audiobooks are $25 or more. The subscription is meant to last a year, but I used all my credits in 10 months. I could buy another 24 credits right now but have decided to listen to podcasts for a little while. ...

In August I read Taking of Chelsea 426 also from David Llewellyn, which I really enjoyed, and now after a lot of starts and stops I have finally finished Night of the Humans. The time it took me to finish the book is no fault of the writing it is because I have so many books and projects going on, oh yeah, and a new baby at home. ...

I am working my way through the Dresden Files books purchased from Audible.com and narrated by James Marsters. Book 9 is named “White Night” and book 10 is “Small Favor.” The pacing in these books is very similar, there is a lot of great action with a little bit of character building in each one to keep them growing. I really appreciate that about this series, none of the characters have become stale for me and I am still interested in each character’s life and want to see how they evolve. ...

I found The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide on Amazon on a Tuesday night, on Wednesday I decided I wanted to buy the book during lunch hour. I was on a full impulse need to buy and read the book ASAP. After searching borders.com and finding the local stores did not have the book I searched barnesandnoble.com who had the book online for about $18 and a local store had it in stock. Wahoo! ...

I have really gotten into Lego lately. I am an AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego) and really enjoy putting the kits together as a way to wind down and relax. I also like the challenge of taking a handful of bricks and creating something totally original. The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide is a great starting point for someone getting into Lego building with tips on how to build solid and stable structures with a minimum of bricks, how to calculate scale so your models look “real” or at least recognizable, tips on sorting and storing, and a brickopedia to help with describing and categorizing different bricks. ...

I have continued listening to the Dresden Files books from Audible narrated by James Marsters. The series continues to be a great mixture of adventure, action, paranormal and mystery genres. I have enjoyed every book and look forward to listening to the next while dreading the day that I finish the last book. Harry Dresden is maturing as the story progresses and the other characters in the series are growing with him. I find that a rare quality among series like this. Seeing Charity and Michael’s children grow and change draws me deeper into the story line and makes me want to continue reading until the very last word. ...

Firebug is a debugging tool for the Firefox web browser and as I continue ramping up my JavaScript skills knowing how to quickly find and correct bugs is essential. A lot of what is in this book can be learned by using Firebug to deconstruct other people’s web sites, I find it very educational to see how others are coding their web sites, and Firebug is great for that. It is so easy to use that I have been unaware of advanced features even after years of using it. ...

I read this book from Safari Books Online using various computers and an iPad, which worked great for me. I used Evernote to take notes and have them available in all the computers I used. Of the programming languages I have used JavaScript is the one that I currently use the most. I chose to read this book hoping to learn techniques that will make me a better programmer, make my code execute faster in a web browser, speed-up page rendering and the snappiness of my interfaces, and to use the latest coding conventions. ...

I read this book using a trial subscription with Safari Books Online. I recently decided that I want to use Safari Books Online to expand my knowledge of JavaScript and other web technologies that will help me build great web sites. I bought an Apple iPad with the idea that it will be a great reading device for Safari Books, eBooks, web sites, and even audio books. I will review both Safari Books Online and the iPad in future posts. ...

I am really enjoying these books by Jim Butcher as read by James Marsters for Buzzy Multimedia and purchased from Audible. This is the book where the pace of the novels changes; there is a lot more action and sexual content. The book reads more like a good action movie than the previous novels. For me the involvement of Michael’s wife in this book ads a lot of emotion to the story which balanced out the action. ...