Reading Material

An incomplete record of the books I am reading or have read.

What I'm reading right now

• Eats, roots, shoots and leaves by Lynne Truss (ISBN 1-86197-612-7).There are, surely, very few people in the UK who have never heard of this book. (It's a nitpicking guide to punctuation).
• Churchill, by Roy Jenkins (ISBN 0-330-48805-8). Fascinating, but hard going. Update: It's been on my shelf for a couple of months, but I will pick it up again.

Back on the bookshelf

• Off The Rails: The Crisis on Britain's Railways, by Andrew Murray (ISBN 1-85984-496-0). This is a reasonably well-balanced summary of the idiocy of railway privatisation in Britain. However, Murray was, at the time of writing the book, Communications Officer for ASLEF (a train drivers' union) and it shows. Possibly the worst example of his bias is his defence of a decision by South West Trains guards to strike over a change in uniform. If the unions have also played their part in the downfall of the british railways, we are unlikely to learn of it from Murray. The central point of his book is that there is a need for public funding of the railways, that this is not tenable or sensible with private, profit seeking owners; something almost anyone would agree with.
• 31 Songs, by Nick Hornby (ISBN 0-141-01340-0). Not, uniformly brilliant and some chapters quite disinteresting, but some interesting personal essays.
• The Art of Unix Programming, by Eric Raymond (ISBN 0-13-142901-9). Appears to be the definitive guide to development on Unix platforms. A distillation of best practice (commonly known as the Unix philosophy) into a single reference.
• Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice To All Creation, by Olivia Judson. A layman's guide to the evolutionary biology of sex, written in the style of an agony aunt addressing queries from concerned members of various species. Essential reading.
• Wellington: The Iron Duke, by Richard Holmes (ISBN 0-00-713750-8). This appeared in Dad's Christmas stocking, but he's finished it already. He described it as rather dry, but I've found it interesting so far.
• The Competitive Runner's Handbook, Bob Glover and Shelly-lynn Florence Glover (ISBN 0-14-046990-7). Mainly now used as a reference guide.
• The Corrections, by Jonathan Frantzen (ISBN 1-84115-673-6).
• The Forbidden Coast, John Lodwick (pre-ISBN). The author explores the Canary Islands and the West African Coast in the 1950s.
• The Debacle, Emile Zola, translation by Leonard Tancock (ISBN 0-14-044280-4). Gripping account of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. Unfortunately the fate of the principal characters is given away in the translater's introduction.
• Security Engineering, Ross Anderson. Great book. Full review forthcoming.
• The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens (ISBN 1-85994-398-0). My book of the year so far, scarily topical in the context of the latest US sabre-rattling, outlines the case against Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State. If you believe in world justice, read this book and wonder for yourself at how the Nuremburg trials sentenced Nazis to death, Bosnians and Serbs can be tried at The Hague, but this man is still free. I won't duplicate material - check out this website
• The Complete Book of Massage, Clare Maxwell-Hudson (ISBN 0-86318-281-X)
• Red or White, Fiona Sims (ISBN 1-84273-858-5). Accessible introduction to wine.
• The Man who Broke Napoleon's Codes, by Mark Urban (ISBN 0-571-20538-0). The book tells the story of George Scovell, an English Staff Officer, who was able to decipher many French and Spanish messages during the Peninsula Wars in Spain and Portugal. It emphasises the significance of the intelligence obtained, but is also a highly readable account of the war itself. As the title might suggest, there is plenty of description of the mechanism of code-breaking and Scovell's life. It's an excellent history book and brings the horrors and highlights of the campaign to life with excellent description and attention to detail.

Reviews

• Security Engineering, Ross Anderson