Category Archives: Books

Columbine, by Dave Cullen

Cover of Columbine book

Columbine, by Dave Cullen, is probably the best piece I’ve read about the Columbine shooting. The book is great for three reasons.

  1. It has the perspective that comes with being published more than 10 years after the event.
  2. Cullen makes the point that Columbine should be seen as a failed bombing, and not a shooting.
  3. He also discusses the psycopathy of Eric Harris to a satisfying degree, and illustrates the differences between he and Dylan based on their writings.

It’s not an easy read at parts, particularly if you (like me) don’t think about Columbine all that often. It’s a tough reminder.

This was the first full book I read through on my Kindle. Yeah, I know, I’m way behind the times. I love the super simple version of the device. I’ve been reading more since I picked it up.

Library Uses Flickr in Very Innovative Way

Westmont Public Library in Illinois has (as far as I know) just pioneered an innovative way for libraries to use Flickr.

Someone over there is thinking. They’re publishing photos of new released books with notes attached to each book that link back to reserve that book on their website. Awesome.

Another great use of Flickr notes that I can remember seeing was this one featuring a lot of web 2.0 logos and notes linking to the relevant website. Any others you know of?

Nathan’s Blog and 2 New Books

I wanted to take a (probably long overdue) moment to thank Nathan over at Nathan’s Blog for a gift card to Amazon. Nathan was running a feed subscription contest a little while back – and I won. If you haven’t checked out Nathan’s blog before, please do. He writes on some really interesting stuff, especially if science or politics interest you. Thank again Nathan.

“So, Ryan, what did you do with the money?”

I’m glad you asked. Continue reading →