2012 in books (part 1) 17 Jan 2012
I've wanted to do this 52 books in 52 weeks thing for a while, but never put anything down in writing. I may very well have done it in 2011, the year my Kindle reading really took off, but I didn't keep track, so I can't be sure. I'd like to be a little more formal about it in 2012, as I believe that:
- Measuring a goal is the only way to acheive it
- Being well-read is key to being a good developer (even if everything you read isn't software-related)
This is already the third week of the year (geez!), but so far I'm on track. Here's what I've read so far:
High Probability Trading
426 pages
Following a few conversations with a trader friend of mine I became interested in learning about the mechanics behind quantitative trading. I read a couple of books near the end of 2011 about it, and this was the first book I read in 2012. It was decent, and followed the sort of model that I might actually follow if I were into trading stocks (low trade volume, high winning percentage).
The Ultimate Day Trader
355 pages
Another book on trading that I picked up on a whim after reading the first few chapters at a bookstore, this time about day trading. The material was interesting enough, but I found the tone grating. I don't have the stomach for day trading, either, so perhaps that's why I didn't like it.
Functional Programming for Java Developers
89 pages
I didn't realize that this book was so ridiculously short when I bought it (one downside to the Kindle). I read it in a single sitting on Saturday morning. I'm better versed in functional programming than I am in Java, so I thought seeing how concepts I'm familiar with could be implemented in Java would be beneficial. It was, though the impression I was left with at the end was "why on Earth wouldn't you just do this in Clojure/Scala and call it from Java?!" Probably worth the read if you're a Java-head wanting to learn a bit about functional programming concepts.
Running statistics
- Days: 16
- Books: 3
- Pages: 870
- Books / Week: 1.31
- Pages / Week: 380.63
- Next: Management as the most noble profession
- Previous: Using the Clojure REPL to generate random alphanumeric codes
