I have finally read a Stephen King book—ironically not a novel, but a nonfiction on writing. In the first half he shares a vivid memoir of how he became a writer. Some of his childhood details are hilarious. In the second half he writes about the craft, the process, and the language. The book is a fascinating read, but in short, King’ Prime Rule to writing is “read a lot, write a lot.” Not revelation but reassuring advice coming from the King himself.
A big, beautiful coffee table book on Erik Spiekermann, an eminent type and graphic designer. Although his body of work is inspiring to flip through, it would be more insightful to read about his process, like Yves Peter’s “The Making of FF Meta Serif.” I was expecting something along the line of Adrian Frutiger Typefaces.
Read this book the first time to learn various punctuations from a variety of sources including AP, APA, Chicago, MLA, and a panel of expert in the field. Knowing the different conventions will help you punctuate with confidence. Read it the second time to learn June Casageande’s clear, concise, and comprehensible writing style. Keep it closed by your desk for punctuation reference.
From content to media to performance, Dutson’s book covers all things responsive with the right balance of strategy and techniques. The discussion on sliders alone should be read by the decision makers and conditional JavaScript (also on sliders) should be read by the developers. It’s a good source to pass around with your team.
From two-bit word to long-short combo to three-part paragraph, Stephen Wilbers offers clear, insightful techniques for improving your writing skills. As someone who is still struggling to learn English, I find his advice to be helpful. I read through the entire book, but skipped the exercises and further thoughts. As recommended by the author, I’ll definitely reread it again slowly and go through everything in the book.
The second edition of Peter Gasston’s The Book of CSS3 is worth a reread. Because CSS has been evolving in the last four years, he revised and updated many new features. If you want to catch up on the latest CSS properties, this book is for you. I intended to use it for my Advanced Web Design class.
As I am preparing the syllabus for Advanced Web Design, a course I will be teaching in a week, one of the things that I want the students to get out of the class is Sass. Without even thinking, I visited A Book Apart and copped a digital version of Dan Cederholm’s Sass For Web Designers. I read through the entire book in an hour or so. Although I have been using Sass for a while, I still find the book to be an engaging read. As always, his explanations are crystal clear and his examples are easy to follow. Dan taught me CSS twenty years ago when he first published Web Standards Solutions. I am positive that he’ll teach my students to get started with Sass with this book.
One if my proud accomplishments for this year is that I set a new record of having read and reviewed 70 books. Here’s my reading history.
I am not sure if I can beat that number in 2015, but I will have more time to read since I have decided to cut back my social media and internet usage. My school will be less demanding because I only have a one-credit research course and teach a class of eight students.
Then again I will be putting more time into my family. I won’t try to break my reading record just for the sake of it. I’ll just read whatever interests me.
Found this old treasure in the basement and could not stop reading it. Flesch and Lass had indeed penned a classic writing guide. I find their techniques on how to save words, find the right word, give it a punch, and get the most out of words to be useful. Not sure why I have not cracked this book open all these years.
A good overview of implementing responsive design into WordPress templates. Joe Casabona has done an excellent job of balancing the concepts and the codes. He also managed to keep the book brief to help you get started. An essential read for designers who are new to WordPress.