On my desktop

On my desktop currently...

Technical
1) Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond
by Paul Clements, Felix Bachmann, Len Bass, David Garlan, James Ivers, Reed Little, Robert Nord, Judith Stafford
Great book for creating architectural documents. UML based views and approaches to capturing architectural patterns in docs.

2) The Timeless Way of Building (Hardcover) by Christopher Alexander
Rereading this. Classic work. A bible for both classic architects and software architects.

Fiction
1) Life of Pi (Paperback) by Yann Martel
A book about an Indian kid traveling by ship. Interesting read so far.

2)The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho
A fairy tale of sorts... I was impressed by some portions of it, but it sounded too goody two shoes, kids fairy tale like, for my taste.

Non Fiction
1) Thus Spake Zarathustra (Paperback) by Friedrich Nietzsche
This is hardcore fringe western philosophy. ..please don't blame me if you don't like it..please read a chapter on amazon before buying it. I mean he claims that God is dead and that we are living in the age of the super man. I had read the first volume, so when I got a deal for the three volumes for 5 bucks, I went for it.

2) The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias
A classic investment book, been constantly updated for the last 25 years now. Some of the ideas are pretty common sense based, but some gems worth knowing about. Only useful for the US markets though...a lot of material only about here and not useful if you are interested in world wide fund management strategies.