Category Archives: Books

Sometimes I read books that aren’t technical references or owners manuals. Sometimes.

by srhuston

Everything Zen? I Don’t Think So.

Follow men’s eyes as they look to the skies, the shifting shafts of shining weave the fabric of their dreams.

–Rush, “Jacob’s Ladder”

[Note: Yes, I did think of the Bush quote after already settling on the Rush quote, which is why the title]

Last week I virtually attended the ISC2 Security Congress which was in Las Vegas NV. Three days of cybersecurity talks and other related topics which is always good for increasing the continuing professional education (CPE) credits needed to maintain my CISSP, as well as get insights to new technologies, things I wouldn’t otherwise hear about, new threats, and all sorts of other things. One that comes up now and then is the topic of burnout and fatigue, and they always try to have a few people to talk about how to manage stress. This year was no different, and one of the keynotes in fact was Dan Harris. Dan is a retired news anchor and journalist, and wrote a book called “10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works – A True Story.” While I’ve probably seen him on TV before (I know Stephanie commented that he was one of her favorite journalists when she watched TV news more often in the past), I don’t know that I knew who he was, but I was definitely intrigued as soon as he started talking.

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by srhuston

Reading Is Fundamental

Recently I’ve started reading for pleasure again – more than just technical manuals and white papers anyway. I asked around my friends about a good place for recommendations for books. Mostly what I wanted was a kind of “if you like those, you may like these” type of thing – rate a few books and get recommendations for things other people have rated similarly. Everyone said Goodreads was the answer to that, so I set up an account there. I don’t have many books in my “read list” yet, mostly ones that either I could see from my shelf at the time I created the account or some that were purchased after that and added in there like the Dan Brown series of books I got since the holidays (which was precipitated by watching the movies not that long ago and enjoying them). Some books from when I was younger, like a lot of Dean Koontz novels, have made the list too. Others I’ll add as time permits and I remember them.

Since Goodreads has its own built-in review pages and whatnot, I don’t know if I’m going to duplicate them here. It seems silly to post in both places, though they do have a nice feature that when you post a review you can get a HTML code block that includes the review and links back to the site and whatnot (which is included below for my latest finished book) so I’ll think about it. Meanwhile, at the very least, this post serves to link you to my Goodreads account, as well as an offhand way to mention I finished “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown last night and enjoyed it.

The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3)The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A lot of people seem to crap on Dan Brown for his writing style. I don’t understand the hatred myself – this is the third of his books I’ve read and I’ve enjoyed them all. Are there parts that maybe are a little predictable? Perhaps. But on the other hand there’s the benefit of having your brain draw a conclusion that in the end is found to be false. Maybe you saw it coming a mile away and that’s why you didn’t enjoy it. For me, I enjoyed this book, found a few twists I did not expect and enjoyed, and found it hard to put down more than once when I knew I should be going to bed. I look forward to the next one as well.

View all my reviews