Sure, I thought… I’ll just go downtown with Karen and grab a coffee at the little cafe in Barnes and Noble and browse around. I’d been SO good recently, not buying anything from the bookstores, resisting all possible temptations.
Today I fell off the wagon. Karen got out of there without the books she wanted to buy, and I walked out with 3. How does that happen? Darnit.
So what’d I get? The first is Python: Essential Refernce which a friend got recently, and I decided would be a great addition to my bookshelf. The third edition has been updated for Python version 2.4. I still mostly use my Python Cookbook from OReilly and the interactive mode (now with IPython actually), but sometimes just having a good reference manual is priceless. While I do love OReilly books, this one beats any OReilly one out there for a good up-to-date reference.
The other book I got was Don’t Make Me Think, which is a great basic introduction to usability – mostly focused on web usability. I bought the first edition years ago and gave it to the guy doing web development at the central IT group in MU (he needed it!) and had always sort of wished that I’d kept a copy for myself. More recently Karen had a copy from the library at the house, but she didn’t purchase one. I finally broke down and just got it myself. I just can’t trust her to buy my computer books for me, even under some school guise.
The third is just a guilty pleasure: AI for Game Developers. Not that I’m a game developer, but the whim of AI programming (i.e. problem solving and learning techniques) has continued to fascinate me over the years. It’s actually a fairly basic book, but I really liked the descriptive text and code snippets. Whenever I’m in a whim for reading, I usually go towards AI: A Modern Approach (I have the first edition) because of its breadth. It’s not as easy a read as the OReilly book though. God knows why I bought it – not like I needed it. Just caught up in the book buying frenzy I guess.
Oh – I did have a coffee though – so at least something came out as I expected it.
Rhonabwy 