books

Another month, another long train trip enjoyed in the company of great books, among which a work-related one, Kill it with fire by Marianne Bellotti. As indicated by its subtitle “Manage Aging Computer Systems (and Future Proof Modern Ones)”, the book deals with handling legacy computer systems. The focus is on bigger projects (including serious internal politics) than what I usually deal with, but there’s some valuable lessons for any project size in there.

While preparing materials for teaching Git a few months ago, I re-read Suzan Baert’s excellent post about Git and GitHub, where she mentioned having read “Git in Practice” by Mike McQuaid. I added the book to my Momox alerts, where it got available a few weeks later. The book source is on GitHub. The book isn’t too heavy, so I took it with me on a long train journey! 🚋

When I see a book recommendation somewhere, be it for work or leisure, I often either order the book or set an alert in my favorite online second-hand bookstore. By the time I am notified the book is available, I sometimes don’t remember why I listed it! That’s what happened for the book A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout. I decided to trust my past self and buy it.