A very short introduction to …

Last year I spent more time traveling than ever before. At the start of the year I again found out that using a laptop in economy class is pretty much impossible. So for air travel, I resorted to reading. Another problem showed up: most Computer Science related books I own (except maybe “Refactoring” by Fowler) are also too large/heavy to be conveniently read in economy class. Try reading “Head First Design Patterns” in a plane and you will know what I mean ;).

In a shopping spree trying to find suitable (non-computer science, since I read enough of that for my studies already) books to read on planes I stumbled upon the “A very short introduction to” series from Oxford University Press. These are wonderfully small and well written books available in a wide variety of subjects. The first time I was reading such a book on the plane, the person sitting next to me (attempting to read a newspaper), immediately commented on the convenient form factor of the book. I’ve finished the edition on “Galaxies” and am currently reading the one on “Quantum Theory”. I will definitely be buying more of these, though with my girlfriend finally having moved back from Spain the amount of plane travel will be much, much less :).

To get back to my last blog entry, the attempt to get back into blogging regularly has obviously failed. But we will see how it goes in this new year. I’ve been completely swamped with University work over the last few months; but still the prospects of finishing my degrees before the Summer are standing strong.