Never Judge A Book By Its Cover

Picked up The Photography Encyclopedia by Fred W McDarrah and Gloria S McDarrah at a Friends of the Library book sale yesterday and Wow, what a great reference book of who's who in photography, print collections (many genre-defining photographs) and some 300 technical terms arranged in alphabetical order.

A great compendium for any student of photography, it contains a wealth of useful information in one giant paperback that is a little under 700 pages long. Many notable photographers whose names I did not know before, photographs and prints I had not seen until I came across this fantastic book. This book comes wrapped in an unassuming cover. The saying "Never judge a book by its cover" definitely comes to mind.

This great book covers history of photography from camera obscura to digital images, techniques from calotype to Kai's Super Goo, great photographers, photojournalists, artists from Ansel Adams, Cindy Sherman to Susan Sontag and Andy Warhol, galleries and museums and key events in the development of photography in this wonderful encyclopedia.

If you would like to get a copy, you can find it at Amazon and Abebooks

The author, Fred W McDarrah was a staff photographer for The Village Voice, he spent the 1950s documenting the Beat Generation can be seen at Fred W McDarrah Exhibit The Artist's World at Steven Kasher Gallery

Read more about him on this short wiki page

The Villager reported his passing on Nov 6, 2007 Fred W McDarrah

On a different note, for a book lover (and we have thousands of books in our library collection), this is such a refreshing piece of news. The Guardian's article - People are hungry for real bookstores, Judy Blume on why indie booksellers are thriving

picture credit The Guardian

It looks like the tide may have turned for printed books. I secretly wish the same will happen in the camera world, that folks will discard their digital cameras and film will thrive again............

Must Read Books in Trading and Finance

This blog has somehow slipped through my fingers in my "busy" world of too many things to do and too many tech gadgets in my space. I have not kept up with the writing nor the review of books I have added to my collection and have enjoyed reading them.

Between the last post and now, I have been to dozens and dozens of good book sales, mostly friends of the library sales, and stepped into many Goodwill stores only to be rewarded with good finds in the book section. Our library has grown by leaps and bounds, it must be over 1000 books by now. My reading interests are still broadly the same: finance, business, food, photography, but lately curiosity has taken hold of me and I have delved into Mathematics and Sciences...Comets, planets of sorts, mind you I am at a loss on the last two subjects and could only understand 5% of what I am reading there.

Let's start with the three books I hold dear:

Reminiscence of a Stock Operator by #Edwin Lefevre. If you trade or are an investor, this is the one book to read and read it from cover to cover. There are many gems in this book and you will not be disappointed



I thoroughly enjoy reading these books, given that I love all things finance and I trade my own account for a living. The Antifragile book is an easier read than The Black Swan. It is such a good book that we have his and hers copy :)

I shall close with one quote: "In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody." - Oscar Wilde

Small House Living and a Mission to Unclutter My Life

My dream house is a small cabin on a piece of land, large enough to plant my own fruit trees and vegetables and many flower beds. At the end of the day I would sit on the porch with my favorite book and a glass of merlot, savoring every imagery in my view. Lately, I have had a little time on my hand and that has allowed me to pick up a project where I last left off, that of searching real estate listings for an acreage or a small house in the country. In my quest to live the lifestyle I yearn for, I have poured over many books we have, and found two books to be excellent read. The first is a book by Lloyd Kahn titled:

What I like about the book? It is a book of stories and pictures of the most unusual hand-built homes around the world, all with innovative designs and built with natural materials, from small town America to Latin America, Africa and Asia. It is wonderful to read and a great idea book for anyone interested in building a house that is in harmony with nature.

The second book above belongs to the "unclutter my life" project. A book by Reader's Digest titled



First published in 1981, it is now in its Third Edition today and ranks high on Amazon's book list. The book is about living life simply (my motto), being independent and self-reliant. In today's busy life, reading this book gives one's pause.....

Braille and Binary Codes, Abaci to Chips and the Graphical Revolution

Even though Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software was published almost a decade ago, it is a wonderful, fascinating read. If you have ever wondered about the codes (broadly speaking) that make computer hardware and software work the way they do, how the many inventions of mankind that have made our lives more productive work, read this book. The fact that it was printed in 2000 did not stop me from buying it. I was initially intrigued by the title and after reading a few pages, I decided it is a book I MUST have for my personal library.



Three chapters caught my eyes particularly: Chapter 3 - Braille and Binary Codes. You could not find a better chapter/book on Braille and how it came about. Chapter 18 - From Abaci to Chips. Here you will find a great account of the evolution of the calculating machine, from abacus to the modern calculator. (being Chinese, I learned how to use abacus from my dad/and in school) Finally, the last chapter. Chapter 25 - The Graphical Revolution. As someone who is not a technie but someone into art/photography, this chapter is priceless, it takes the reader from the very beginning of computing, the evolution of how graphical information is presented, CRT, TV, GUI, Vector and Raster graphics, jpegs, gifs. I am so pleased to have bought the book. Highly recommended.

Other Books by Charles Petzold

Geology Underfoot in Northern Arizona by Lon Abbott and Terri Cook

If you are planning a trip to see the Grand Canyon, the beautiful Red Rocks of Sedona, or the famed magical rock formation of the Antelope Valley, or the Meteor Crater, you MUST get Geology Underfoot in Northern Arizona by Lon Abbott and Terri Cook this book as your travel companion. The book may look like a serious university geology book on the surface, it is a truly fascinating read about Northern Arizona's unique geological past. For example, do you the patch of ground that is Northern Arizona today was once a seabed until about 1800 millions years ago?

Having seen the beautiful red rocks of Sedona, I was intrigued by its endless lines of tuscan red, brown and peach, towering spires perfectly sculptored by forces of nature, majestic mesas and butte rising above the arid desert floor. They did not just happen to look this way. I wanted to find out how it all began. This book did not disappoint. Tons of interesting information, I felt as if I had taken a university geology class :) See Pictures of Sedona



About the Authors

"Geologists Lon Abbott and Terri Cook teach at Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona. Lon's fieldwork has taken him from the remote mountain peaks of Papua New Guinea to a 15,000-foot-deep ocean trench near Costa Rica and many places in between. Terri has specialized in rocks from deep-sea hot springs. Her interests in geology and archaeology have led her across six continents. Lon and Terri are also the authors of Hiking the Grand Canyon's Geology."

Native North America - a book by Larry J Zimmerman

Picked up the following book and it has been a wonderful read. "Native North America" by Larry Zimmerman offers a comprehensive account of Native North American life, complete with many illustrations, artefacts and beautiful images. Highly recommended.

Check out my other blog for Sedona photography


Product Description

"With abundant photographs, more than 150 in color, NATIVE NORTH AMERICA illustrates tribal life, sacred arenas, spiritual traditions, and artifacts of the indigenous peoples of North America, from the Inuit of the Canadian north to the Navajo of the American southwest.

Beginning with a brief history of Native Americans, Larry Zimmerman and Brian Molyneaux explore individual culture areas, region by region. They discuss Native American spiritual observances, including personal and communal rituals, initiation rites, and curing ceremonies. Through descriptions of the powwow, rites of passage, plant rituals, oral storytelling, dreams, the ghost dance, and the drum, the authors provide a sensitive introduction to Native American spiritual traditions and examines issues that face Native Americans today."

About the Author

"Larry Zimmerman is Chair of the American Indian and Native Studies Program at the University of Iowa. He is author of Peoples of Prehistoric South Dakota and coeditor of Indians and Anthropologists: Vine Deloria, Jr. and the Critique of Anthropology and South Dakota Leaders. Brian Molyneaux is Director of the University of South Dakota Archaeology Laboratory. He has done extensive archaeological fieldwork in the Great Plains and Canada. He is the author of The Sacred Earth, editor of The Cultural Life of Images: Visual Representation in Archaeology, and coeditor of The Presented Past: Heritage, Museums and Education."

"Web Style Guide" - Looking for Ideas? Read this Book :)

For every photography enthusiast out there thinking of building a better website, you might want to read Web Style Guide by Lynch and Horton. I finished reading the book (352 page long) in one afternoon last Saturday, it was that good! I have read a few web design/html books in the past (I am not a geek) and most of them left me more discouraged than ever. This book on the other hand explains what makes a good website and the different page elements and contents one could have to make a nice website, the trade offs, all in plain language, as well as the very important subject of SEO (search engine optimization). As an avid photographer, I found the chapters on Web Page Structure and Design, Graphics and Multimedia and the illustrations extremely useful. In addition, the book contains many wonderful tips and design ideas. Having read this wonderful book, I am definitely better prepared now to start thinking about my new website.


""Web Style Guide, 3rd edition: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites"by Patrick J Lynch and Sarah Horton

Editorial Reviews from Amazon

". . . a non-geeky Web-design primer-a rule-of-thumb guide that calmly introduces you to the issues involved in developing a Web site. . . . what you need to know about Web-site design in plain language, with understandable examples. . . . this . . . book is a gem."-Mary Creswell, Presentations (Mary Creswell Presentations )

"Just as many writers reserve a space on their book shelves for the thin but essential work of William Strunk and E.B. White, a similar space should be hallowed out for The Web Style Guide."-John Mello, HR Today (John Mello HR Today )

"This is one of the best design books that I''ve seen, catering specifically to information-oriented sites. . . . The Web would be an easier world to navigate if all Web designers read this book."-Deborah Lynne Wiley, Online (Deborah Lynne Wiley Online )

"[A]n excellent, practical handbook. . . . [T]he book can be unreservedly recommended."-Tom Wilson, Information Research (Tom Wilson Information Research )