The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft

A collection of short stories written by the American horror writer between 1917 and 1935.  If I had looked through the first couple of stories in the shop, I probably wouldn't have bought this book.  They were rather cliched and flat, nowhere near as interesting as Borges or as scary as de Maupassant.  However, the later stories were a bit better.  I most enjoyed the Rats in the Walls and the longish Shadow over Innsmouth.  The stories were probably weird when they were written but now they just seem like the plots of bad movies.

Joel on Software by Joel Spolsky

A collection of essays on software development written by one of the leading gurus in the field. The majority of the essays deal with the practice of programming and managing developers, especially within a small software company. They are interesting, pragmatic, relevant, authoritative and funny.

A couple of quotables:

... the history of the evolution of C++ can be described as a history of trying to plug the leaks in the string abstraction.

The idea of advertising is to lie without getting caught. Most companies when they run an advertising campaign, simply take the most unfortunate truth about their company, turn it upside down ("lie"), and drill that lie home.

All of the essays have previously been published on the author's web-site but the book also includes some new introductions and, besides, a book is much more convenient for reading in the bath, or on the train.

Tree-top Egyptian Geese

On our walk round the University lakes this afternoon we heard the rasping honking of Egyptian geese but they were nowhere to be seen, neither on land nor on the water.  Then a passer-by pointed them out in the top a tree.  There were two of them about 10 metres above the ground.  Unlike other geese, Egyptian geese are quite at home in trees, indeed they actually nest in them.

Red Kite over Broad Street, Reading

This Sunday, just before noon, Zoe and I were walking up Broad Street, the main shopping street in Reading. It was a fine sunny day and there were lots of people about.  Suddenly Zoe pointed to the sky.  There a red kite was drifting eastwards just above the level of the roof tops.  It was so low that all the markings on its underside were clearly visible.  This was the best view I have ever had of one of these birds, and it was from a town centre not from the countryside.

The Book of Sand and Shakespeare's Memory by Jorge Luis Borges

Another collection of short stories, this time written when the author was in old age.  These are just as fascinating and deal with the same kind of ideas as those in Labyrinths, which he wrote when he was young.  I particularly liked A Weary Man's Utopia, The Book of Sand and Blue Tigers.