

Does your bookshelf teach concepts or just tools? - amyshelton
http://amy-shelton.blogspot.com/

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gte910h
I don't understand why I shouldn't have books that teach tools: It's transient
stuff that keeping in my head isn't as useful as the concepts.

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amyshelton
It isn't that you shouldn't have those books. My point is mainly that once you
read them and learn the tools, they just gather dust. I just went back and
amended my post with an additional sentence. Basically, most of the books that
teach tools are read once, Google later. Once I know about a tool, it is
usually a lot faster to quickly search for a bit of refresher knowledge than
to thumb through the book looking for some specific page.

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gte910h
Sounds like you need a kindle :D

I recommend the DX for technical users.

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amyshelton
Funny you should mention that. I'm definitely buying more electronic books
(Kindle app for iPad). Somehow I feel better paying less for the electronic
version. _But_ I still prefer a hard copy for the classics. :-)

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gte910h
In the process of weeding down our possessions in general, I've been ditching
a lot of books.

Kindle on the iPad definitely works, however the batteried nature of the
device makes Kindle on Mac and Kindle on well, a Kindle, more useful for
certain things.

I usually actually read on Kindle on iPhone.

Real estate costs so much, I'd pay _more_ for ebooks than the dead tree
version. That is an expensive bookshelf to keep.

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jcromartie
I make it a point to only have books that I could see myself reading 10 years
from now. This _occasionally_ applies to tools that have almost become
concepts in themselves, like C or Unix shell scripting for example.

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seancron
amyshelton: In the future, you might want to link to the specific post and not
just your homepage.

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amyshelton
Thanks for the tip! Will do.

