Want a Good Read?

This page catalogs books that I have read, and that I think you might want to check out as well. I’m certainly not egotistical enough to think anyone will read this list start-to-finish, but perhaps just that you may browse to a section where we have a common interest, and see if there happens to be something you haven’t read. In the days of instant information from the internet, some items may be a bit obsolete (see: Total Baseball), but I believe they still have some intrinsic value that is worth noting. I have broken them down by category as needed.

• Software Engineering
• Japanese Martial Arts Culture
• Classical Literature
• Cooking
• Baseball
• Photography
• Science
• Fiction
• Children’s

Software Engineering

On the job, people are always asking me for “good books to get started with x.” Let me just say right off the bat that I have a special preference for educational books that have exercises in them — if they have solutions to those exercises, so much the better. Here is a list of the more interesting software engineering volumes I’ve read. They of course focus more around C and C++, but there certainly are other languages here.

• C++ from the Ground Up: Learn C++ from the Master, by Herbert Schildt, is not the greatest C++ book ever written (in fact, it's very obsolete at this point), but it holds a special place in my heart as the very first book I used while learning C++. Impressively, it explains all there was to C++ in 1994, including “magical” items like templates and exceptions. There are no exercises in this book, though — there are certainly better tomes for learning C++ recently.
• Effective Modern C++: Scott Meyers has since retired from writing such books, as he claims there are many great alternatives these days, but it will be hard to surpass a book like this one for learning C++. This has great explanations of the newer features of C++, so a new engineer starts off using the “good parts” of it, and neglecting all the legacy baggage that can cause problems.
• C++ Template Metaprogramming: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques from Boost and Beyond is an outstanding deep-dive into C++ template metaprogramming. Your C++ skills will be looked upon with reverence if you fully invest yourself into this book. Of course, the “modernization” of C++ hopes to make such magic obsolete, and much of this book is not as important as it was prior to C++14 or so…
• Algorithms & Data Structures, by Niklaus Wirth — if you can get past the author’s inclination to write examples in Modula-2 — it does a good job explaining basic software engineering algorithms. Unlike Knuth’s Art of Computer Programming, it doesn’t delve into mathematical proofs, and comes in at a reasonable 288 pages (compared with almost 10,000 pages for Knuth). Oh, and there are practical exercises. Way more easily consumed.
• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software is a book I had to use for a class I’m ashamed to admit that I always skipped (there were never seats). Using this book alone, I aced the course. When I was unemployed during the recession after I graduated, I studied this book. There are no examples, but it makes something that should be intuitive into something that is. You can look at the very orderly breakdown, compare similar-seeming patters, and relate it all to things you’ve seen in past software experience.
• Linux Kernel Development gives you all you need to know if you want to do some Linux hacking, or even if you just want to know how everything fits together. The concepts discussed here, while concrete, apply generally to basically every kernel. Its age is its main downside, as it hails from the 2.6 kernel days.
• Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (a.k.a., “The Dragon Book”) is the book about compiler design, and it always has been. Many of the exercises are thought experiments or paper-only, and the book is a bit difficult to read, but it’s obviously worth having if you’re going to work with compilers in any capacity.
• The C Programming Language, by Kernighan and Ritchie, is an obvious choice. It's concise, well done, has exercises… and is very old. C has changed a lot. Get this as a historical amusement if you like, but don’t pay more than a few dollars.
• Lisp (Second Edition), by Winston and Horn, is a fun book. I love Lisp, and this book has some pretty fun exercises to try out. It does date to the inception of Common Lisp, and it predates ANSI Common Lisp by about ten years, so not all the examples within it will work, unfortunately.

Japanese Martial Arts Culture

As a lover of history, and a practitioner of jūjutsu, there is a special place in my bookshelf for these books.

• Book of Five Rings, written by the greatest swordsman in Japanese history, Miyamoto Musashi, is informative — even for unarmed combat techniques. It is as much about mindset and positioning as it is about anything else.
• Kodokan Judo is billed as “the essential guide to Judo by its founder, Jigoro Kano,” and that’s exactly what it is. Step-by-step photos help along the way.
• Kodokan Judo Throwing Techniques, by Toshiro Daigo, explains every throw in great detail, giving similarities to and differences from other throws, as well as some basic strategies.
• The Cannon of Judo, by possibly the greatest Judoka of all time (besides Jigoro Kano, of course), Kyuzo Mifine, is somewhere between Kodokan Judo and Kodokan Judo Throwing Techniques, in that it explains all the Kodokan techniques (not just throwing), but with details about similarities, differences, and strategies. This book gives a valuable extra perspective to the other books (visually, with photos) that may just put you into a place of better understanding.
• Dynamic Aikido, by Gōzō Shioda, is a book I bought used for $1. It is a good breakdown of the basic Aikido techniques, and it money well spent (even if you pay more).
• The Encyclopedia of Dim-Mak is invaluable, if you’re into kyūshojutsu (pressure-point healing and attacks).
• The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, provides a philosophy that applies in many aspects of life beyond that for which it was written.
• In the Dojo, by Dave Lowry, is a rather cerebral look at customs and traditions in the Japanese martial arts, which may help us not to stray too far from our chosen art’s origins. This is a book that someone gave me when I reached shodan (first black-belt), and I greatly appreciate it.
• Hagakure, by Yamamoto Tsunemoto, reflects on a somewhat romanticized vision of life as a samurai. It’s important to note that in Tsunemoto’s day, samurai life had moved from the business of waging war to a more administrative role.

Classical Literature

One of the things I love to do is to hop into my time machine and see life through the eyes of people that lived long ago. This collection of books sparks my imagination, and helps teach me about the way people used to live all over the world.

Eastern

These are mostly Japanese, as that’s where my initial interest lies, but it is not exclusively so.

• Taiko, by Yoshikawa Eiji, is a historical novel from a personal perspective about a period of great turmoil in Japan’s history, the Sengoku Jidai.
• The Heike Story, by Yoshikawa Eiji, is much like Taiko, except takes place a few centuries earlier, tracking the story of the Taira clan — one of the first samurai families to rival the emperor in national importance.
• Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan is actually a translation of the family chronicles for Chingis (or Ghengis) Khan. It’s not only insanely interesting, but a pretty easy read.
• Legends of the Samurai, by Sato Hiroaki, presents a number of short stories and excerpts from the samurai tradition in their own (translated) words.
• Ideals of the Samurai, by William Scott Wilson, is a collection of writings from feudal-era Japan’s samurai.

Western

I do enjoy the ancients, but I have also highlighted some later works up to the renaissance (sorted somewhat by era).

• The Illiad, by Homer. Witness Achilles’s rage — and his ability to sulk — all at the same time.
• The Odyssey describes oh-so-clever Odysseus getting lost for decades, having his crew get eaten, all while his wife chooses a new husband back home.
• The Histories, by Herodotus, contains lots of little, brilliant stories with historical basis.
• Descriptions of Greece by Pausanias: Take a walk with me through Greece, 2,000 years ago.
• The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans (Volume 1 and Volume 2), by Plutarch, is a nice set of mini-biographies of famous people from ancient Europe (as advertised).
• The Works and Days; Theogony; The Shield of Herakles, from Hesiod, provides origin stories for some of the famous gods and demigods of ancient Greek culture.
• The Aeneid, by Virgil, is kind of like if you smashed the Odyssey’s journey into the Illiad. It’s very entertaining, and was used to retroactively provide justification for the first Caesars’ claims to Roman domination.
• The History of Rome, by Livy. O.K., so this was written 2,000 years ago. It doesn’t go bad if you keep it in the fridge. Here we can read about how Rome went from an empty field to the “Eternal City.”
• The Metamorphoses of Ovid is a lot like Hesiod’s Theogony, but for the Roman pantheon, and it’s complete. It has a very repetitive theme (girl is attractive, god assaults girl, girl prays to a different god, and is transformed into a tree or something), so beware. Regardless, it’s still one of the more interesting reads.
• The Golden Ass, by Apuleius, is actually a 2,000 year old (fiction) novel that ancients read for personal enjoyment. It is an amusing look at every-day life in ancient Rome through the eyes of a donkey. The ending is a little disappointing, though.
• The Civil War, by Lucan, describes the battle for Rome between Julius Caesar and Pompey.
• Beowulf is one of the oldest existing English legends, but it’s also a really fun story.
• The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli, is a letter essentially urging reunification of Italy. It’s one of the most no-B.S. assessments of politics that you will even find, and you can read it in under an hour.

Cooking

Here is a selection of books I use quite often while preparing food, roasting coffee, or making beer at home. As you can probably tell, I gravitate toward French and Italian cooking.

• Jacques Pépin New Complete Techniques is a step-by-step guide to classic French cooking, from knife selection, to de-boning a quail, and everything in between.
• Mastering the Art of French Cooking is honestly well done in every respect, from the recipes to the typography. It explains classical recipes in it’s own inimitable way, and makes it clear that you are performing a set of techniques that build into a meal, rather than placing a prescribed set of ingredients into a pan, and getting only one fixed outcome.
• The Silver Spoon is encyclopedic, regional Italian cooking manual (virtually all Italian cooking is “regional,” by the way). It's very well organized, and has a few nice photos along the way.
• The Coffee Roaster’s Handbook is written by Len Brault. I’ve met Len at his shop (also, he made coffee party gifts for my wedding), and he’s incredibly passionate about coffee — particularly those that are less common species than Arabica. This book will take you through everything from how beans are grown to how you can consistently taste your roasted coffee.
• Essential Pépin: In particular, the soup section contains recipes that I use all the time. Potato Leek soup, and the Curry Cauliflower soups are two that keep us warm all winter.
• Fast Food My Way has some nice quick meals with a classical French take on them. Lots of pictures help to show you what it’s really supposed to look like.
• Dave Miller’s Homebrewing Guide. Drink fresh beer. Beer is good.

Baseball

I love baseball history, and I love to study the game. Here are some good reads on both fronts.

• Sports Illustrated Baseball is like an instruction manual for every aspect of baseball. It demonstrates how to throw virtually any pitch, where to be on the base paths, and so much more. It seems to be geared toward the college athlete, but it made sense to me as a Little Leaguer.
• Pete Rose on Hitting: I wonder if they have things like this for people learning to play baseball today. This book has great tips from one of the greatest hitters.
• Lost Ballparks, by Lawrence S. Ritter, captures the imagination with large photographs of stadiums from bygone eras.
• Total Baseball is a huge book! Randomly, when I was a kid, my aunt got it for me, and I spent endless hours pouring over statistics, looking up “dream teams” for my (computer) baseball game. You can even look at how the baseball rule book evolved from its inception. This book is from 1990, and it is obsoleted by the internet, of course.
• The Series has box scores from every World Series game ever (until 1988, of course), which the internet sends to obsolescence. What it has beyond this, however, are stories of all the games to go with it, and pictures of the more important moments.

Photography

I’ve been taking photos since a pretty young age, so people have been giving me photography books for a while now. Here are some of my favorites.

• The Time-Life Library of Photography. It’s a great series of books if you are interested in photography, but I don’t know if they sell it any longer. So many great volumes comprise this set that, if they were sold separately, would make for a long list in this “Photography” section.
• Photojournalism: The Professionals’ Approach is a very large, informative and inspirational book about being in the right place and taking the right photograph.
• The Negative, by Ansel Adams: sure, it explains a bit about film, but mostly it’s about his “Zone System” for making the perfect exposure, given the light available.
• The Print, by Ansel Adams, is really more focused on chemical photographic printing. If you ever do end up using a dark room, this book is essential.

Science

I think Physics is really fun, and more than this, studying and working problems keeps your mind sharp. One must always wander outside their usual daily work to stay sane, and here are some things I found that expanded my view of the natural universe.

• Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries, by Neil deGrasse Tyson, explores everything he can think about with respect to science — from the nature of existence to the end of the universe itself.
• Simply Einstein, by Richard Wolfson. This is a really interesting book that goes through some of the history leading to Einstein’s theory of relativity, then reveals some of the astounding consequences of his theory.
• A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking, is brief… very brief, but a very good introduction to the kind of Physics that they teach after high school.
• QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, by Richard Feynman, takes something so complex, and makes it so straightforward that I actually read it in a few hours on a flight.
• The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene, is, for many outside of the field, their first introduction to String Theory. It takes the reader from somewhat basics of General Relativity, all the way into unproven, cutting-edge theories.
• The Fabric of the Cosmos, also by Brian Greene, is the next installment after The Elegant Universe, taking us deeper into particle physics, quantum, and cosmology.

Fiction

I find it hard to get into a lot of pure fiction, since there is so much real drama (and valuable learning material) written down, but I never end up regretting what little fiction I do read.

• The Martian, by Andy Weir, is one of my favorites. I actually can’t believe it was made into a (successful) movie, considering it’s essentially a monologue. The book has a few twists that the movie didn’t have, and it’s completely worth the read.
• 1396, by Bernard Cornwell, is a historical fiction that I bought before a flight, and I could not put it down. It follows the main character through historic battles in the Hundred Years’ War, and is part of a series of novels that I suddenly find that I have to continue reading.
• Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden: I love a good surprise ending! What a great book.
• The Watchmen: Both the book and the movie were done brilliantly, and go in different directions. This probably my favorite comic — I enjoyed every minute of reading it.
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller has it all: Batman vs. Superman, Batman vs. the Joker, Two-face, anarchy… the ravages of age. A little tough to follow in certain parts, but there’s no doubt you will read it cover to cover.
• Batman: The Killing Joke, by Alan Moore, is one of the best looking comics ever done. I’m not sure about the ending…

Children’s

As a father, and a former child, I think I might have an idea or two about some fun reading materials for kids.

Come back in a bit!

© 1997 – 2021 Matt Bisson | Last Update: Jul. 21, 2021 | Comments? Send to: me [at] cyberbisson.com