I read a lot.  I mean,  I read a *LOT*.    Lately,  over the past
several months,  I've picked up on a few that sorta pertain to this stuff
we're into here...

The first one was "Silicon Follies",  a ficititious account of
what it was like to work for a dot-com company when things started to go
bust.  I found this one in a discount bin outside of a bookstore,  and it
was worth about what I paid for it,  a bit less than the price of the
average paperback these days,  some light entertainment,  and not a whole
lot more.  But still worth the read.  When I got done reading it I was
particularly happy not to have been caught up in employment in that
context,  something I'd sometimes wished for...

Next up on the list was "The Plot To Get Bill Gates",  subtitled,
 "An irreverent investigation of the world's richest man",  which
pretty well sums it up.  But it's more than just talking about billyboy, 
it's also a bit of a history of this personal computing field,  and talks
about a bunch of other characters as well,  and gives a nice overview of
the field as it was and how it got to be the way that it is these days, 
giving some much-wanted perspective on things,  talking about some of the
other characters in the field as well.  I also got a good deal on this one,
 the sticker on the front saying I paid $5.99 for this one.  

Now we come to the real treat...

Last one I stumbled across was "Fire In The Valley: The Making Of The
Personal Computer".  List price on this one was $34.95,  but I
snatched my copy up for a whopping $4.98!  This one is written by Pau
Freiberger and Michael Swaine (formerly editor of Doctor Dobb's Journal), 
and is an *excellent* book.  It starts out early on,  talks about how the
microprocessor first came to be,  talks about all of the pioneers in the
field,  and their rise and fall.  How many people out there even remember
names like Processor Technology,  or Sol? It talks about personalities, 
about poor business decisions,  the rise and fall of the companies that
made this business what it is,  philosophies behind some of what happened, 
and appropriate ends up with a few chapters that talk about what some of
these folks are doing now,  like Steven Wozniak,  and the last one in
particular,  about Ted Nelson -- author of Computer Lib,  which came out
back in 1974!  That was before any of this stuff even existed...  (And yes,
 not only do I have a copy of the original,  but I also have a copy of the
subsequent release,  put out by of all people Microsoft Press!)  This book
was originally released in 1984,  but this edition is updated,  has a whole
bunch of new material,  and even includes a cdrom in the back (that I
haven't gotten to yet).  Grab a copy,  if you can find one.

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