My reading list…

OK, so I haven’t blogged in like, forever… (and apparently, I’ve adopted the speech pattern of a teenager from the 80’s while I was away).   Suffice it to say that I’ve been working on a few major projects, and I’ll fill you in on them later.  I did want to pick up the torch again, and thought I would write a quick email about the three books that are currently on my reading list:

On my iPad (and no, I didn’t get a Surface RT, and it sounds like it was a good thing I waited), I recently picked up Managing Humans by Michael Lopp.  It’s a fun read, but his principles and axioms are a bit like the Book of Proverbs; it’s a loose collection of ideas on how to manage software engineers.  I’m a bit more simplistic than he is, and it’s tough for me to put all of the puzzle pieces together.  I’m still digging my way through it; it’s fun at times.

My technical book of choice as of late is Practical PowerPivot & DAX Formulas for Excel 2010 by Art Tennick.  We’ve got a new self-service BI initiative at work, and my department is responsible for evangelizing the capabilities of SQL Server.  What I’ve seen so far of PowerPivot, I like, but there are a few challenges; I’m not an Excel guy, and so the interface is not intuitive for a DBA. This particular book has been helpful on more than one occasion when I’ve been frustrated by my lack of ability to get the software to do what I want.

And now for pure geekiness (and I’m sure my wife is shaking her head at this one), I recently found the entire Apprentice Adept series from Piers Anthony in a used bookstore.  This was one of my favorites in my early high school career (yep, I was a nerd), and I just started reading Split Infinity.  My excuse is that I bought it for my teenage daughter, but in reality, its for me .