Alan’s favorite books / authors
The test is what books come off the top of my mind.
I love Science Fiction. I love audio books (http://www.audible.com/). I now have a Kindle but haven’t tried it yet.
Top 5 Sci Fi is easy.
1. Dune, by Frank Herbert - read the entire series but really only the first book is worth it
2. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card - read the entire series, but only Ender’s Shadow comes close
3. Foundation, by Isaac Asimov - Asimov’s Robot series is what made me study Electrical Engineering, hoping to design the next robot. I didn’t learn until Junior year in college that CS / AI was probably closer to what I wanted to do, but by then, I was too far into my EE program to change.
4. Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book) by Neal Stephenson - Loved this book, so read all his other ones. The Diamond Age was a good read, but the plot got really weird. Cryptonomicon was a toil to get thru - loved the WWII story, not the modern day one.
5. Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom by David Wingrove - So excited to read a Sci Fi book centered around China. Like all above, the first book was best. Plodded thru the rest of the series. The ending was a disappointment. Some of the violence was too much for me.
Other Sci Fi I’ve really enjoyed:
Excession by Iain M. Banks - I love Ian’s imagination in the Culture but often his plots disappoint. Just enjoy the journey.
Altered Carbon: A Takeshi Kovacs Novel (Takeshi Kovacs Novels) by Richard K. Morgan
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson - but I didn’t like the 2nd book Axis
Spy Novels
This is my 2nd favorite genre, with Ludlum as all time favorite.
The Bourne Identity: A Novel by Robert Ludlum - after his 5th book, you realize all his books follow a pattern, but damn, it’s a good oneEye of the Needle by Ken Follet; The Key to Rebecca
The Ninja by Eric Van Lustbader - read this a long time ago but seem to remember i loved it
Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy - but his other books are way too long
Fantasy
I read a lot of fantasy as a kid but not as interested any more.
J.R.R. Tolkien Boxed Set (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) by J. R. R. Tolkien - the king of Fantasy, but to tell you the truth, I thought the series was ok; maybe I should reread as an adult
Harry Potter Paperback Boxed Set (Books 1-3) by J. K. Rowling - read this as an adult; loved the first 3
Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori, Book 1) by Lian Hearn
Other Fiction
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - Angel & Demons was close, but not quite
The Firm: A Novel by John Grisham - read of few of his other ones but weren’t as good
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - didn’t expect to like this so much, but couldn’t get past the first few chapters of the 2nd book
Tai-Pan by James Clavell - but couldn’t get into Noble House
The Persian Boy by Mary Renault - made Alexander the Great one of my favorite history heroes; also loved The King Must Die: A Novel and The Bull from the Sea by Mary Renault
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Non fiction
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson - loved a bunch of his books, though much slower reading / listening
Caesar’s Commentaries: On The Gallic War and On The Civil War by Julius Caesar - pretty crazy that this is his own story
Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunus - recommended by my friend Dave McClure; finally a type of philanthropy that I found meaningful for me
The Story of Civilization [Volumes 1 to 11] (Hardcover Set 1963-1975) by Will & Ariel Durant - I listened to these audiotapes (literally cassette tapes) for a year while I commuted to San Ramon with Andersen Consulting. What a way to learn history. Some of it has been debunked by now but still an amazing tour de force by 1 person.Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip by Jim Rogers - pretty sweet to see his investment theses in each country he drives thru
Business / Self Help
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - the classic; I resisted reading it for a while because I didn’t like the word “influence”.
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference is good too but Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking isn’t as useful, good for cocktail parties; now reading What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki - Tipping Point borrowed a lot from here
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - intriguing but got a bit tired at the end
Children’s Technology Workshop
In Kyle’s own words:
We first see all around the treehouse. And then the garage door opens. Here comes the car on the driveway. The garage door is closing. Now the mailman comes. He jumps up to put the mail in the mailbox. Now the dog comes and gets the mail. He brings it to his master up the treehouse stairs. The man wakes up and reads it. Now he’s taking a shower. Now he’s watching TV. Now he’s eating pizza. Now he’s washing his dishes. Now he’s working out with his tools. Now he’s working on his computer. Now that’s me!
Another exhausting day. Had breakfast at the 24 hour cafe at Circular Quay, watching the ferries come and go with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge as backdrop. Walked to the Royal Botanic Gardens - loved the glass pyramid in the middle. Walked past the state library, and dropped into the Legislature hall where they had Chinese calligraphy scrolls to celebrate the upcoming Olympics. I really liked “The Ultimate Aim” with the paint splash looking like an arrow shot. Stopped for a super healthy and tasty lunch at some mall that was enroute to my destination goal of Queen Victoria Building/Shopping Center. Stopped in St. Andrew’s Cathedral to take some shelter from the rain and to rest my aching back. Gorgeous stained glass windows and comforting (live) organ music. Walked through City Centre Station to avoid the rain but couldn’t figure out a train/metro to Darling Harbour, where the IMAX theatre is. Finally ran thru the rain to the theatre and sat in line for an hour to watch The Dark Knight on a truly huge screen with terrifyingly loud sound. Not sure I really understood the whole movie. Went to dinner back at the Rocks and stumbled “home” to work.
I came early to enjoy the beautiful city
since it’s such a long flight, and ML and Kyle are in
7pm, and enjoyed a great soba salmon salad and beer at the micro-brewery in the
great Changi airport. I casually walked
up to my gate, only to find my flight wasn’t there anymore! After much confusion, I realized I read my
connecting flight time wrong – it turns out 20:00 is not 10pm!! Arghh, I missed my flight! Thank god
they got me on the next flight out at 12:30am.
I had to practice the Power of Now to not totally stress out.
And the Power of Now was right. The stress was totally in my head. Whether I stressed or not wouldn’t make me
get on the flight I missed, nor would it help my chances to get on a future
flight. Staying calm, using my mind as a
tool (e.g., go to Singapore Airlines desk and ask politely for help), and
accepting the consequences (in this case it was good – “Please wait 2 more
hours in the lounge Mr. Tien”) was the best way to handle the situation.
I arrived in
noon. My room has a view of the
(pic 1)! The helpful concierge Shane
directed me to The Rocks for lunch. I
enjoyed a great gyro at Dare (to eat responsibly, is their motto) café on a
cool but sunny day.
Then I walked through the flea market and
watched in amazement as Darren Germain spray-painted incredible “space
art.” I asked him to make a custom one
for me – pic 4 shows him with a blank canvas above a similar spray-painting,
and pic 5 is the finished product. See
this YouTube video to get a sense of how he did it. It was awesome!
Cravings covered, I took the monorail
through its entire loop – about half an hour.
It shoud’ve been a nice view of the city centre but it was raining. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable (my practicing
the Power of Now?).
I then walked over to
anything. Hungry, I walked back to
Harbourside but didn’t find anything to my liking. I walked around to the other side of
to
– my back started hurting by then.
During the walk, I saw that The Dark Knight was playing on IMAX! It was sold out for the night, so I bought
tickets for tomorrow. It’s going to be
awesome! I finally settled on Blackbird
Café for some fish & chips, but it was disappointing. If I’m going to eat deep fried food, it
should be really really good!
Rather stupidly, I walked all the way back
to Shangri-La, stopping in Max Brenner’s chocolate bar for some soy hot
chocolate to give my aching back a rest.
Whew, what a jam-packed day! The advantages of traveling alone.
Mae-Ling recommended I read the Power of
Now.
It basically tells you that what you
perceive as reality is really your mind creating a world of its own. The real you is deep inside, beneath this
mind-generated idea of self or “ego”.
The trick is to just watch what your mind is thinking, and taking that 3rd
person perspective is the first step to being aware of your inner Being, which
is really a part of god. Also, another
interesting point of the book is that time is actually another one of the
mind’s tricks, worrying too much about the past and future, instead of just
focusing the only important moment, Now.
If you’re really focused on Now, you can still use your mind as a tool
to plan for the future, but without all the angst.
The book is much like the teachings of
Buddha and Jesus at the basic level, which is to forgive and forget all the
hurt and pain you perceive in the world because they are not real. The rest of the book is actually very
mystical and hard to understand (in fact the author tells you not to try to
understand with your mind but feel with your inner being). It reminds me of reading Descartes in college
and not understanding anything, just waiting for the famous line “I think;
therefore, I am.” Which Mr. Tolle says
is wrong.
I think the real value of the book is to
give you a tool to manage your emotions when things go wrong. If I could get to the next level and feel my
inner self and stop my mind from thinking all the time, that would be a major
bonus. My mind obviously has a lot of
doubts of this approach though; what happens to society if everyone was
completely happy just as they were? Who
would strive to get anything done? This
is like the conflict between Confucious and Taoism. You need both. The structure of Confucianism to create a
strong society, but Taoism so we don’t become too pragmatic (e.g.,
materialistic) and forget to stop and smell the flowers.
Another book that was on our shelves – The
Four Agreements – essentially repackages the same message, except this time
it’s from the “Toltec mysteries” – the Toltec were ancient masters of wisdom
and spiritual knowledge from
1) Be impeccable with your word.
Your word is like magic do not practice black magic like lying, judging,
spreading rumors, gossiping, etc.
2) Don’t take anything personally.
Same effect if you practiced the Power of Now. Basically nothing anyone says can hurt you.
3) Don’t make any assumptions.
Most of the pain you perceive is self-created based on wrong
assumptions.
4) Always do your best.