Last year I read over two dozen books in twelve months, switching to new authors and digging up old ones. I am a prolific reader, never putting a book down until it’s finished and unable to re-read one for at least 18 months (I can remember the plot too well otherwise, even after all the other books). Here are just some of the books on the shelves behind me as I write this:
- David Baldacci – The Camel Club
- David Baldacci – Total Control
- James Barrington – Overkill
- James Barrington – Pandemic
- Diane Carey – Aliens: DNA War
- John Case – The Genesis Code
- John Case - Trance State
- Michael Crichton – State Of Fear
- Chris Fox – The Devil’s Halo
- Stephen King – From A Buick Eight
- Dean Koontz – Forever Odd
- Robert Ludlum – The Lazarus Vendetta
- John Robert Marlow – Nano
- John Shirley – Predator: Forever Midnight
Kind of scary now, thinking how many words I’ve read, how many hours I’ve vested just reading another persons tales. Admittedly some of them were stinkers, Stephen King and John Shirley notably, but otherwise I’ve enjoyed them all. A book is unlike any other medium as far as I’m concerned, they can create a world that no CGI effect could achieve and I will continue to read on.
However, I also noticed one thing, last year was the first year I did not purchase any computer or design related books. Not one. Every year before I’ve picked up a couple, whether they be an introduction to certain programming techniques or general design guidelines, this year I didn’t buy one. And I think I can pinpoint that to my growing use of purely online resources.
Why go out and buy an issue of .Net magazine (which I used to subscribe to by the way), when I can simply read any number of the excellent blogs out there on the Net, each showing off the latest techniques or inspecting the latest buzz word floating around. It seems the Internet really is eclipsing the need for traditional guides, at least in my experience. Sure I still use my PHP Cookbook to look at the occasional pattern, but Google or php.net can consistently bring up the results I want faster than I can get the book down off the shelf and skim through it. (And you don’t have to manually type it in.)
I know I’m a rarity, and that there are many more people who do buy the latest CSS guide or new programming language introduction book, but I just feel that my use for these kinds of tomes is at an end. I do miss the feeling of holding a physical object in my hands, being able to flip through, stick post it notes on important pages, and I probably will buy another few books this year, but I think overall the balance has shifted, especially in my life, to online resources over traditional paperbacks.
And speaking of online guides, I’m hoping to push out a few tutorials soon, so stay tuned.
