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I've decided to go a little different route with "The Developers" than your normal let's-just-sell-in-the-bookstore approach. There are numerous reasons I'm trying this, but it comes down to two major ones:
1. Bookstores end up taking a huge portion of the money.
2. Bookstores bury books that aren't being sold at record-setting paces.
Lately I've had a great string of luck in reading good books by good authors. Unfortunately, the string has run out. "Jpod" by Douglas Coupland is not-so-good book by a good author.
It's easy to blame a computer or program or even a social networking site for all the evils in the world. In fact, the last time I yelled at my computer, and told it to stop screwing up, you know how it replied?
It just sat there and did nothing. Yep, that's the obvious sign of a guilty party.
For the most part, I'll pretty much pick up and read any book, although I can usually tell how interested I'll be in it within the first 20 pages. I found a copy of "Neuromancer" by William Gibson at (no joke) the dump, and even though I wasn't mesmerized by the jacket text, I thought I'd give it a shot.
Nearly everyone I have talked to has heard of Upton Sinclair, a muckraker at the turn of the 20th Century. And more often than that, people have heard of "The Jungle," one of his masterpieces. Yet I have not encountered a single person who has read the book, nor anyone who knows more about the book than its focus on the meat-packing industry.
Today, March 14, is Pi Day. Well, according to the Wikipedia entry about it, March 14 is the unofficial celebration for Pi Day, because the date is 3/14. Other countries read dates a little bit differently but it seems appropriate due to other factors, listed by Wikipedia:
If people are really starting to get on your nerves (I mean, come on, how can they not?), and you are a great babbler, there is finally a simple alternative for you. And as always, that alternative can exist at your very own home, assuming you have a computer, Internet access and time to waste.
Last weekend, I was tangled in a crazy game of H-O-R-S-E with my cousins.
For those of you unfamiliar with the game, or think it is somehow tied to the Kentucky Derby, the game is simple. Make a basket (shoot, don't weave), and if the person behind you misses, they get a letter. You keep playing until you spell "horse." There are many versions of the game, including H-O-R-S-E-S, P-I-G, and a personal favorite, D-R-O-M-E-D-A-R-Y.
But which is more important to the game – athletic skill to make a shot, or being able to spell?
I currently have a stack of books at home that I should be reading. Unfortunately, there's only so much time in the day, so it's difficult to rationalize buying even more books. Still, I manage to do so, with the hopes of eventually reading them, maybe if it snows 7 feet and I cannot leave for a month.
For people who want to read the book but cannot get to a bookstore, a viable option is checking it out from your local library. "The Developers" is available for checkout at the following libraries:
I would gather that everyone reading this column has seen a computer before. I'm also betting that just about everyone reading has an email address, which means this is directed at YOU.