My friends and students are always asking me what I'm currently reading.  I thought I would start a list of things that I have read recently.  I'll try to keep the most recent stuff at the top of the list.  I may be reading more than one book at at time, though.  Sometimes I just like to change gears and read something completely different.

Know Your Enemy:  Revealing the Security Tools, Tactics, and Motives of the Blackhat Community by the Honeynet Project. Sun Tzu said you must know your enemy to defeat him.  This is what this book is about.  It details the experiences of the Honeynet project; this project placed a network on the Internet unprotected (seemingly) and they made it appear as if it were a production network. Then the sat back and watched the hackers.  A very revealing look at blackhat hackers.	How to Think Like Einstein: Simple Ways to Break the Rules and Discover Your Hidden Genius by Scott Thorpe. Some say that the key to Einstein's genius that he never accepted conventional thinking.  For years, scientists claimed that light always traveled in a straight line and moved at a constant speed.  Einstein broke with conventional thinking and proved them wrong.  The $12.00 for the book is worth that just for the great quotes.
The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universeby Stephen W. Hawking. I'm about 30% of the way through this book and I'm actually understanding it.  Stephen Hawking has an incredible talent for explaining complex theories so that anyone can understand them.  Each chapter in this book is written as if it were (and probably was) one of his lectures. So far, this is an awesome book.	Stupid White Men ... and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! by Michael Moore. I read about half of this book before I stopped reading it.  It started out being an interesting view in to the mind of a left-wing liberal and some interesting theories on how badly the U.S. government is run, but he began to lose all credibility with me when he continually harped on George W. "stealing" the election.  I'm sure Moore is an interesting person, but he should just give it up already and accept the fact that Bush is president.  Sigh....  He makes me feel like such a conservative.
The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedmanby David Boaz. This is an excellent collection of writings compiled by Cato Institute fellow David Boaz.  If you read this book and really think about what you are reading (something many Americans don't do) then you will see interesting cracks in our own society.  Are you a Libertarian?  Take the World's Smallest Political Quiz and find out.	The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travelby Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht. .Practical advice for the traveling public?  Methinks not.  But funny and interesting advice on how to survive being followed, passing a bribe, building a snow shelter, surviving an alien abduction, and more. I'm embarrassed to say I have several of the "Worst-Case" books and (shudder!) I have enjoyed them all.
Naked Came the Manateeby Various authors. What do you get when you cross Dave Barry, Tananarive Due, John Dufresne, Edna Buchanan, (and more authors), a Manatee named Booger, the Miami/South Beach club scene, and Fidel Castro?  You get this book.  This is a wacky tale of murder, intrigue, international politics, and a Manatee; each chapter is written by a separate author and the book reads remarkably well.	How to Win Friends and Influence Peopleby Dale Carnegie. For years people have recommended this book, yet I kept putting it off. I actually owned the book for nearly 3 years before reading it. I can't actually say that I learned anything new from it, yet I thoroughly enjoyed having things that I already knew emphasized and re-stated. If you work with people in your job, you MUST read this book.  I plan to re-read this book again soon to re-emphasize these all important "people" skills.
The Physics of Star Trekby Lawrence M. Krauss.  Many science fiction writers make up gadgets and technologies that have no basis of actual science. I figured this was the case with "the warp drive", "transporters", "inertial dampeners", and "phasers".  Amazingly enough, Gene Roddenberry and company spent a lot of time researching the science behind these gadgets.  This book is written by a physicist, but don't let that stop you from reading it.  I especially like the explanation of the warp drive.	Duh!  The Stupid History of the Human Raceby Bob Fenster. Let's face it folks, often our gene pool is not chlorinated enough.  As human beings, we have made some pretty stupid decisions.  This book brings them to light in a humorous way discussing ideas that seemed good at the time, stupid religious ideas, silly customs, and bad predictions such as the recording company executive that told the Beatles in 1962 that "guitar music is on the way out."
To Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper Lee. I'm embarrassed to say that I have only recently read this book  I should have read it years ago, but did not.  It is a wonderfully written book on life, growing up, racism, the South during the middle part of the 20th century.  The film by the same name is almost as good as the book.	Goodnight Opusby Berkeley Breathed. Breathed desires an entire section on my web site.  Years after his retirement from 'tooning, I still pick up his books from time to time for some wholesale silliness.  Anything you can get from Berkeley Breathed from the Outland or Bloom County series will be a great long-term investment.   Berkeley, if you are out there, your loopy perspective is sorely missed.
Animal Farmby George Orwell. I read this book in high school and recently re-read it.  It is one of my all time favorite books and (in my opinion) one of the best works of  political allegory that has every been written. It is a wonderful jab at the Russian revolution that most anyone over 16 should be able to grasp. "All animals are created equal."	The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Bookby Bill Watterson. The only person in my family that likes Calvin and Hobbes more than me is my Mom. And that is because she raised a "Calvin".  One of the nicest thing about this collection of Calvin and Hobbes is that it includes some commentary from Calvin creator Bill Watterson.  Although he is not quite as zaney as Berkeley Breathed, I still enjoy reading and re-reading Calvin strips and visualizing just how difficult I must have been at 6 years old.  (Sorry Mom and thanks Bill!)

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