Book Review
In this assignment you will read and review a popular press book from the same topic area as this course. Some possible books include:
- The Search by John Battelle
- The Google Story by David Vise
- Linked: The new Science of Networks
- inside Yahoo: Reinvention and the Road Ahead by Karen Angel
- Ambient Findability by Peter Morville
- The Soul of a New machine by Tracy Kidder
- Social Network Analysis by John Scott
- Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age by Duncan J. Watts
- Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Theory of Networks by Mark Buchanan
- Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means by Albert-Laszlo Barabas
In general, any book that you think is appropriate is OK by me. Of course some are better than others.
What I am principally interested in for this book review is the way in which the technology that underlies the book is represented. For instance, addressing any or all of the following questions might be appropriate
- Is the description of the technology accurate?
- In what ways are the underlying methods described simplistically?
- Are the simplistic explanations so simplistic as to seemingly reduce the topic to the stuff of third graders?
- Is the technology presented as being so complex that mere mortals need not apply.
Specific examples are always good when addressing these questions, in fact the more the better. As a part of this discussion, I would expect to see specific references to topics we discussed in class and how the class discussion differs from that of the book you are reviewing.
What I am not interested in are vague statements like "this was a really good book that did a nice job of explaining the field." A statement like this might be acceptable as an intro or conclusion. Even then I might puke on reading it. So please do not subject me to such things.
Do not be afraid to be critical. I have no vested interest in any of these books. You will not offend me if you conclude that the book was a complete waste of your time. But whatever your criticism, make sure you back it up with specifics. Do not just say "it was repetetive", say that the same information appeared on pages 26, 44, 178 and 212.
Length: I place no boundaries on the length of this paper. One page of unmitigated brilliance is certainly prefered to 20 pages of tedium. What I definitely do not want is a long, tiresome "bromide".