Charlie Harvey

May 2013 Reading

  • Write Yourself a Scheme in 48 hours by Various Authors

    Write Yourself a Scheme in 48 hours is a wiki tutorial that has been turned into a free PDF. I am working on writing a programming language this year and Scheme is a reasonable start being relatively simple to parse and make into an AST. My version of Scheme is pretty much based on this one, and is gradually acquiring features.

    2013-05-24 by Charlie Harvey
  • Focus Manifesto by Leo Babauta

    An inspiring book about doing less, and enjoying it more. I like the fact that it is very practical and not often too yoghurt-weaving. Its is all about reducing distractions and contains lots of advice, much of which seems pretty wise. Oh and you can get a free version of the book as a PDF from the book’s website.

    2013-05-20 by Charlie Harvey
  • The Traders War by Charles Stross

    The followup to the Bloodline Feud is riduculously exciting, a sort of mash up of steam punk, crime thriller and medieval romp. With parallel worlds and philosophical ponderings about feminism.

    2013-05-18 by Charlie Harvey
  • Practical Vim by Drew Nell

    I wanted to have a catch up on vim stuff for the workshop I’m running at this year’s BarnCamp. Its arranged as a cookbook themed around modes, file management, movement, registers, regexen, and other tools. There is a shitload of great tricks in here and it feels more narrative than Vim Hacks which I read a couple of years back.

    2013-05-16 by Charlie Harvey
  • The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs

    I read a lot of Burroughs when I was in my 20s, but never this one. The Soft Machine is hard work, the most experimental thing of his I’ve come across. But the imagery and the mad, fucked up poetry about gay sex, seedy streetlife, drug addiction, and the control operations of hierarchical society are very much Burroughs. There isn't much in the way of discernable plot, except in one chapter where a secret agent guy swaps bodies, and learns to time travel. He takes on a cabal of Mayan priests who have brainwashed everyone in their society to make them willing labourers by replacing their mind-control tapes with one saying "kill the priests".

    2013-05-09 by Charlie Harvey


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