Eyes and Ears – December

This is the second edition of my “Eyes and Ears” series of posts and this time it’s Christmas time, so I felt the urge to start by sharing this typical Christmas music video (yes it is typical):

Christmas Is All Around from Clips on Vimeo.

And without much further ado, here are a few books for your Christmas.

Books

• X-Wing Rogue Squadron: This book is obviously old for a StarWars novel (the nineties?) and I’m about to finish the first one of the series of the “X-Wings”. At first I thought such novels would be a league under my expectations even as a StarWars fan. All Ican say is that if this first episode is representative of the rest of the series, it would explain the longevity of the “X-Wing” series of novels. The story is not overly elaborate but easy to get hooked in. A real page turner!
• Dog Songs by Mary Oliver: I first read about it in the Atlantic and made it a present for my lovely wife; the poems are about dogs and how dogs are in our lives. More than the topic, the delicate emotions and beautiful style of Mary Oliver make it a beautiful book for special moments.
• The Art of Memory by Frances Yates: This is a topic I’ve grown interested since several years. The Art of Memory is made of several methods to , well, memorize anything, and in doing so this art could have shaped the way the Western World has defined broad range of knowledge, culture, but also beliefs, practices and technology. In two words, the Art of Memory, which is today forgotten in the shape it  existed in the Renaissance may have helped defined pretty much anything from the scientific method to a good half of the western mysteries and esoteric streams. A fascinating read by an exceptional scholar.
• Du bon usage des licences libres by Benjamin Jean (“on free software licensing best practices”): unfortunately the title is only in French but this book is a must have for any Free and Open Source Software expert. And it’s written by one of the most knowledgeable lawyers out there, Benjamin, who’s also a friend.

Merry Christmas everyone!