I’ve always tried to maintain a rough balance of reading one book written before my lifetime for every book I read written during my lifetime. And so it is that, having recently finished Mrs Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters, I’m moving on to Paul Graham’s Hackers and Painters.
Wives and Daughters is wonderful, and is also the basis of a fabulous BBC dramatisation which is every bit as good, I think, as their rather better-known Pride and Prejudice. Having now read the book, I’m very impressed with how well they adapted it for the screen. Highly recommended; if you like P&P, you’ll also like W&D!
Paul Graham’s book is also splendid. I’m currently reading the chapter where he talks about why web-based software is so much nicer to develop than desktop-based software. One point he makes is that traditional desktop software requires the user to be the sysadmin. Web-based software requires the programmer to be the sysadmin. This is better for both of them!
You can hear some conversations with Paul over at IT Conversations.
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