More books to read and have read

Despite all the time I spend looking at a screen, reading volumes of words, shuffling around paragraphs, and syndicating thoughts, I have managed to keep my love of reading strong. Though, tired eyes at the end of most days mean less time/desire to take a look inside a book.

So, here are the few books that recently caught my interest:

Dataclysm – Who we are when we think no one is looking

It seemed promising. I tried to get into it. Alas, I ditched it about halfway through. The overall premise was based on data collected by Ok Cupid. The book discussed how online our choices show far more who we are than what we would generally disclose: sexual preferences, education, music preferences, background, etc. By entering information thus imputing information about ourselves, our online versions more open to sharing information then say striking up a conversation at a coffee shop.

It presented a lot of stuff to think about. But, the continuous charts and references to analytics just brought this book to an abrupt close.

Isms – Understanding Fashion

This one was a fun, light read. I brought this little book with me on the bus. It only took a few days to finish. I didn’t realize until I was well into the book that it was written by a British author. There was a line about how “Thatcher told about…” that finally clued me in. To me, it made the book even better. Because Britain had, on multiple occasions, been an epicenter of new fashion, it would be far more relevant than say from a far removed third-party. While there was an obvious bias towards British fashion-a number of sections focused on British born fashion movements-there was still a swatch of movements included in this brief overview of fashion.

And, I must say the book did a swell job of incorporating what was going on “historically” during each movement and how everything from the Renaissance to revolutions to the Space Race influenced how people dressed.

This Machine Kills Secrets: Julian Assange, the Cypherpunks, and Their Fight to Empower Whistleblowers

I picked this one up from the library the same time as Dataclysm. Needless to say, when my books were due for renewal, this one I made sure to keep.

For me it’s a different angle on the same story of the construction of the Dark Net and Tor’s and the like. After reading the Dark Net, it is cool to see similar historical developments of things. Though, the cast of colorful characters are different and the influence they have in the world of keeping things private.

The stories can be a little long and the lines blurred when jumping from story to story on the same topic. All in all, this is a book I would recommend if you are interested in the subject.