Since I’m on the subject of books…
I’m also a huge Iain M. Banks fan: his work is outstanding. I used to read volumes of Sci-Fi when I was in my teens but later went off it, finding it a bit childish and sometimes too out of touch with today’s science let alone that of tomorrow. So discovering Iain M. Banks was something of a revelation. His last book ‘The Algebraist” shows just what an exquisite imagination coupled with an understanding of the possibilities science can create. Simply wonderful. Another of his that really stands out is ‘Feersum Enjun’.
I’ve just finished reading “The Best Software Writing Vol. I”, a collection of essays and commentary, selected and edited by Joel Spolsky. Joel makes the point that “…communicating is one of the most overlooked skills in software development.” Another pithy one-liner is “Show, Don’t tell.” This pretty much sums up what any software development book or training course should do to be successful. That means fewer slides in those PowerPoint presentations and more coding demos! This book won’t tell you how to implement the MVP (model-view-presenter) pattern using TDD (although this MSDN article Model View Presenter by Jean-Paul Boodhoo will!), but it is brimming with anecdotes that encourage you to think outside your locked in terms of reference. This book is worth reading by developers and non-developers alike.