Justin Lloyd's Thinkering

Somebody needs to think about this stuff...

Reading

I made it a goal in 1985 to read one book a week.

Generally I have managed to stick to that goal for the most part.

Some years I couldn't get as much reading done as I wanted to.

My GoodReads list shows that I have a smidgen under 3,500 books that I have read.

And there are at least 300 books on my GoodReads list I have yet to tackle.

So much to read. So slow a reader.

Due to dyslexia I am not a particularly fast reader.

I plod through books at a pedestrian pace. I am jealous of people who can read quickly and I have no clue how people are able to speed read and retain all that information.

It's only dogged persistence that lets me get through a book some days.

Read – The Art of Readable Code

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Today I finished reading “The Art of Readable Code” by Dustin Boswell

Good ideas. Many I agree with. Some I very much don’t. But like everything that is opinionated & style-based, what’s the saying? Fashions come and go.

But I will agree with this, a good aesthetic style makes code easily readable. And code is read far more than it is written.

Whether you agree with the contents of the book or not, I think this book should be one of those “required readings” books that every programmer should be made to read at least once in their life.

Read – Morgawr

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Today I finished reading “Morgawr” by Terry Brooks

Another Shannara book. And whilst I enjoy the world, I cannot help but feel I’ve been here before. The premise was strong, the series started out well, but it, much like the airship Jerle Shannara, seemed to drift aimlessly at times, awkwardly stumbling from one set piece to another. I’ve got very mixed feelings about this book, on the one hand, the narrative moves fast in this book, unlike the earlier books of the series that are positively glacial at times (lots of scene setting). On the other hand, I got the sense it was moving fast just to move fast.

Brooks, over the years, has become stronger as a writer than I could have ever thought. I cannot read his earlier works, but I am also getting the sense that he is treading old ground at times. One of the things I have always liked about Brooks’ writing though is the fact he is willing to kill his children if the story arc dictates it, and this series has not disappointed.

Read – Fundamentals of Sports Game Design

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Today I finished reading “Fundamentals of Sports Game Design” by Ernest Adams.

Adams has been prolific in his writings about game design and all the different niches that they cover, from the generic “game development” to role-playing games and even the more esoteric such the narrative skills required for game design. This was a nice roundup of the rules and design challenges of creating video games that concern, well… it’s in the title, sports games.”

Whilst the book doesn’t get in to the specifics of any particular sports game it has a definite slant to team vs team based sports. And team vs team based sports usually involve a ball or puck of some sort that the players hit around. The book deals with concepts such as physics, injuries and home-field advantages (the psychology of that specific topic at least) that teams may have. Each section doesn’t get bogged down too deeply on each topic, but I also felt that there was more that could have been written, but then, where do you draw that line?

In our modern IP (intellectual property) driven world there’s a brief section on licenses, trademarks and publicity rights. I didn’t feel these few pages were in-depth enough, but then, that said, if you are working on a sports title that is part of a larger ecosystem then your company lawyers are going to be more involved with that aspect of the business anyway.

Overall a fast read through, worth picking up, even (if like me who has sworn to never work on another sports title as long as I live) sports games are not on the horizon for your next few upcoming projects.

P.S. If you say “sports” too many times it no longer sounds like a real word.

Read – The Natural Laws of Business

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Today I finished reading “The Natural Laws of Business: How to Harness the Power of Evolution, Physics, and Economics to Achieve Business Success” by Richard Koch

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