Tal Cohen's Bookshelf: A Collection of Personal Opinions about Books

Fiction

Science Fiction

Non-Fiction

Computer Science

Book In-Jokes
The Fiction Collection
“I wonder... What's in a book while it's closed... Because as soon as I open it, there's a whole story with people I don't know yet and all kinds of adventure and deeds and battles... All those things are somehow shut up in a book. But it's already there, that's the funny thing. I just wish I knew how it could be.”
Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

The Science Fiction Collection
“A wild dream and a far one -- but no wilder and no farther than some of the dreams of man.”
Clifford D. Simak, City

The Non-Fiction Collection
“That's the reason they're called lessons: because they lessen from day to day.”
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The Computer Science Collection
“Think of a computer program. Somewhere, there is one key instruction, and everything else is just functions calling themselves, or brackets billowing out endlessly through an infinite address space. What happens when the brackets collapse? Where's the final “END IF”? Is any of this making sense?”
Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

Book In-Jokes

Here I try to maintain a list of book in-jokes: little jokes that most readers won't notice, hidden in otherwise serious books (for more about what "in-jokes" are, see at the end of the list).

I'll need your help: if you find any such in-jokes, let me know. Please include the word “injoke” in the subject.

The books are listed in no particular order.


Book Reviews / Read Log Book Reviews: Fiction Science-Fiction Book Reviews Non-Fiction Book Reviews Computer Science Book Reviews
[2021-08-15]

A few more Bildungsromane, in English, Hebrew, and German, and a great interview with a comic artist. My read log for May and June of 2021.
[Read Log]
Read more...

[2021-05-30]

The bildungsroman that started it all... and then another one. But also a book about linguistic puzzles. My read log for March and April 2021.
[Read Log]
Read more...

[2021-04-04]

In early 2021, I’ve read about algorithms to live by, but also freshened up my C++, in case I have to deal with actual algorithms. Plus, more about ancient Greece. It was a good start for the year.
[Read Log]
Read more...

[2020-12-30]

Lots of Jane Austen; even more Greek plays; and a book on management by the head of Pixar. My read log for the last two months of 2020.
[Read Log]
Read more...

[2020-11-17]

Evil by Design is a brilliant UX design book; in fact, it’s the best of three different UX design books that are part of my read log for September and October.
[Read Log]
Read more...



[See earlier reviews]
©1997-2022 by Tal Cohen, all rights reserved. [About]