There’s a thing that Elke did last year that I thought was really cool - she was going to try and read a book a week (more or less, I think 52 books in 52 weeks was the actual goal.) I thought this was admirable and something I’d like to do, but realized that it’s unlikely I’d do it. Regardless, I decided to make a list of books that I did want to read, and see how many of them I’d get through. Then I started to think about it a bit too much, and did I include books that I already read, but wanted to read again? Finally I decided to just list books that I hadn’t read, and actually wrote down the first few. Then I forgot about it for a month. Then last week I got it out when I was going to the used book store and wrote down a few more, and then afterwards put down some off of my Amazon wish list. Anyways, here’s what I have so far:

1. Going Postal - Terry Pratchett ( I recently read he’s got some horrible disease. How awful.)
2. Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson (I read Cryptonomicon and it was excellent, and heard nothing but good stuff.)
3. Eleanor Rigby - Douglas Coupland (After reading Microserfs I wanted to read lots more of his stuff, then after JPod, I didn’t. My brother left this at my house 2 years ago and It’s been calling to me.)
4. Walden - Thoreau
5. Generation X - Douglas Coupland (heard this was one of his best.)
6. Hey Nostradamus - Douglas Coupland
7. Leaves Of Grass - Walt Whitman (I’ve read bits and pieces of this on and off over the last 2 years and really want to spend some time reading the whole thing.)
8. How to talk so your kids will listen - Adele Faber, Elaine Mazlish
9. Managing Humans - Michael Lopp (Jon turned me on to his blog (I think Jon, anyways) and it’s been a staple.)
10. Hackers & Painters - Paul Graham (I’m a student of cyberanthropology.)
11. Joel On Software - Joel Spolsky (Also love his blog, and want to both have this in book form as well as contribute something so that he keeps writing.)
12. Expect the Unexpected - Roger Von Oech (I loved his other two books)
13. The Cult Of Mac - Leander Kahney (I think I mentioned I’m into CyberAnthropology)
14. Cyberia - Douglas Rushkoff (I’ve started this book 3 separate times and something has come up each time. Plus, cyberanthropology.)
15. In The Garden Of Iden - Kage Baker (Jon told me about this and I think it sounds cool.)
16. Labyrinths Of Reason - William Poundstone
17. 21 Dog Years - Doing time @amazon.com - Mike Daisey (Cyberanthropology)
18. The Bug - Ellen Ullman (Cyberanthropology)
19. Smart & Get Things Done - Joel Spolsky
20. Sunshine Sketches Of A Little Town - Steven Leacock (Again, have read bits and pieces, but want to read the whole thing.)

I also did read Anansi Boys by Neal Gaiman, which was awesome, but need to write about it in another post.

To a different blogging system. We’ll see.
My blog was hacked last week, and hopefully this might help.

a penguin was asking for some input on questions about blogging. you can check it out here. i’m going to post my reply because it’s almost a reason why i blog.

her question is:

- what has writing online/the blogging community done for you? how did you
> get involved? why do you stay involved? what are your thoughts about sharing
> your poetry/words online?

well i’m going to point this more at writing online as opposed to the blogging community angle. i write online almost as a catharsis, just for myself. i don’t so much share as just write publicly, like scrawling my thoughts on a subway wall. i think that most poets (and by that i am encompassing bloggers, using it as a loose term not restricted to classical definitions of ‘poetry’) write because they can’t keep their ideas inside. the fact that someone else reads what i write is entirely secondary. it’s the same reason that i play guitar when no-one is around to hear. i’ve always felt like my brain was a huge jumble of ideas that has been waiting to get out, and a blog gives an outlet to shape those ideas, or at least release them from my brain. as to a blogging community, i don’t really know how to define it. is it the blogs that i read on a semi regular basis? or the ones that i interact on? i think the yearning for kinship, of like minded people is what has brought people to other’s blogs, and that is a basic need that is more easily fulfilled online. where previously you might have had to ferret out a poetry class, or independant coffeeshop somewhere, now you can interact from the comforts of your armchair, read and have read your flowing prose, all from safety. some last thoughts about sharing your words online: it’s definately a risk, especially for people who are open and can share their personal lives. i have a great respect for them. if, however, i was truly worried that someone might critique something i’ve wrote in a mean way, or if i had a very fragile self-image (well, i mean, more than most….) then i wouldn’t have put stuff online in the first place, it would still be in a hardbound journal stuck under my mattress.
sorry for going on and on.. that damn penguin is too tempting not to follow.

—–

today a penguin tapped me on the shoulder and mentioned that i took some of her ideas when i built my blog. yup, i did. should i have contacted her first and asked? yep. did i? nope. of course imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but none the less, when she asked that i change the look of my site, i quickly and happily agreed. the point here is that while we may ‘use’ or ‘borrow’ others ideas (and i use the term borrow very loosely - who among us has no mp3’s on their drive?), they aren’t ours, and if we don’t respect others rights to protect what *they* develop, create, and bring about, then why should others bother to respect yours? i guess this could be taken as some moralistic statement about everyone’s rights etc etc… the real point that i guess i’m trying to get to is that i found something that i thought was fantastic, and wanted to use it for my own purposes, neglecting how the rightful owner might think or feel about that. to jen: an open apology; i’m sorry, and don’t let my stupidity dull your creative juices :)

—–

so the last couple of months i’ve been surfing a couple of different blogs looking for style, good management systems and stuff, trying to design mine.

one that i really liked, stylewise etc was followthepenguin. (see any similarities?) i based the style template of my blog on hers.

anyways, today i’m surfing through some of her entries and i find this one, from june 2002 that talks about where she got the idea of “follow the penguin”: she was at a conference and a speaker from ireland was talking and kept going off on tangents, and when asked if there was a saying for this, someone called out “you’re following the penguin”. as soon as i read it i got really freaked out, because *i* was the one who said that. it was one of those totally random occurances. still.. strange.

—–