When she's not providing us with staff picks, Carole is the
editor of Technica, the newsletter of Powell's Technical Bookstore.
Technica is filled with book reviews, essays and the occasional
celebrity interview. Past issues featured Edward
Yourdon
(author of Time
Bomb 2000), radio personality David Lawrence, and Macintosh pioneer Brian
Thomas (creator of the acclaimed "If Monks Had Macs" CD-ROM).
Download Technica now!
Techie
Picks
The
Little Imac Book by Robin
Williams
This book should be tucked inside the Imac's user's manual.
Six
Easy Pieces by Richard
Feynman
This is an introduction to physics for the non-physicist. This book is a compilation
of Feynman's lectures at the California Institute of Technology. Feynman's
charisma translates well into print.
Visual
Explanations by Edward
Tufte
This beautiful book is chock-full of examples on how to visually present information.
Paintings, bookplates, maps, engravings, photographs...if you can think of
it, it's in here. Very scholarly, very good!
Apple:
The Inside story of Intrigue, Egomania and Business Blunders by Jim
Carlton
All the dirt you wanted to know about the Cult of Macintosh. Newly expanded
and revised for the paperback edition
To
Engineer is Human by Henry
Petroski
An almost philosophical book about why some buildings fall down, and others
stay up.
Memoirs
and Diaries (both actual & imaginary)
The
Rachel Papers by Martin
Amis
A wickedly funny read. Get inside the mind of a horny, keenly intelligent
and often miserable 19 year-old lad.
A
Moveable Feast by Ernest
Hemingway
Memories of 1920's Paris. Favorite quote: "The beer was very cold and wonderful
to drink."
Ham
on Rye by Charles
Bukowski
Easily the most horrific book I've ever read. A slightly fictionalized account
of Bukowski's early memoirs.
Basketball
Diaries by Jim
Carroll
I cringed when the new edition came out with Leo DiCaprio's mug on the cover.
Oh well. This is a brilliant book anyway, based on Jim Carroll's teenage years
in 1960's New York City.
Forced
Entries by Jim
Carroll
Sequel to the Basketball Diaries, Jim Carroll recounts his hipster
exploits and misadventures in the early 1970's.
Comix, Graphic Novels and Ephemera
Julius
Knipl, Real Estate Photographer by Ben
Katchor
Great collection of poignant cartoon vignettes of another time.
Robert
Crumb Coffee Table Art Book by Robert
Crumb
THE definitive book on Crumb's life's work. Not for those easily offended.
Love
is Hell by Matt
Groening
A classic collection of Matt Groening's unlucky-in-love cartoons.
Gashlycrumb
Tinies by Edward
Gorey
A ghastly alphabet. You shouldn't read this to your kids, or you'll give them
nightmares for years. Malevolently charming.
Maus:
A Survivor's Tale by Art
Spiegelman
A harrowing masterpiece, based on conversations and taped interviews with
Spiegelman's father, an Auschwitz survivor.
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