In this book the author tries to portray in a comic way the Italian society, what really happens in small towns. And let me tell you, he really manages it.
Throughout the whole book, Benni centers the activity of his stories in the Bar Sport. A Bar Sport is a common name given to bars in small towns which are usually the place where elderly people and other strange characters gather during the day.

Of course, everything is a joke, but if you’re Italian or have been in Italy for a while, you know this joke’s for real.
While reading it, I happened to burst out laughing while on the tube a lot of time, because every single story is incredibly funny and somehow a tad real.

If you can read Italian, make sure you get this gem, and you’ll sure spend a couple of hours laughing out loud. :)

It features 33 articles of a variable length written by some of the smartest people in the business world.
Instead, of telling you how to have success by imitating others, they try to convince the reader to act differently, because there’s no way one can change the world without acting in a way that’s different from what everyone else is doing.

The book is quite short and I found it a great read. I’d suggest it to anyone interested in business, marketing, or simply interested in being different.

Guy Kawasaki definitely knows what he’s talking about, so I found most of his tips brilliant.
It’s not enough to read a book to build a successful business, but having good advices like the ones found in this book is extremely important.

If you’re running a start-up, you might find this book very interesting.

Bertrand Russell is a great thinker and this book provides a very good starting point for everyone interested in atheism and religions in general.
Throughout the book, Russell tries to confute the more common explanations Christian usually use to explain the existence of God, and IMHO he’s successful.

Probably, I liked the book because I think almost the same things Russell believed, so it might be interested to know what others think about it.
Also, as I said, it’s a starting point: it’s not enough to read this book and personally I think it would be stupid to take everything is written there for granted.
Russell was a great personality and a well renown atheist, but many of the things he say in this book are just pointers to other books or articles the reader should read in case he/she wanted to go further in his/her research.

I’m very interested in religions, so I found the book a great read as I love to read about them.
Still, I think everyone would find this book interesting as religions are something anyone should care about, either if they are in favour or against. And nowadays, as always, religion is a big issue.

Throughout the book, Barthes tries to dissect photography, ending up with the discovery of two fundamentals characteristics a photograph should have: studium, being the social and cultural aspect of a photo, and punctum, being the detail that connects the spectator, not to be confused with the photographer or subject, and the photo at an emotional level.
Basically, there’s no Photo without a punctum, which in turn is a very subjective thing.

I’ve found the book to be very interesting and it helped forming my thoughts on photography which were shortly exposed in my Is Photography Art? post.

In each of his novels, Barry has a look at society from different viewpoints. It was marketing in his first two novels — Syrup and Jennifer Government — and now it’s the enterprise world.

Company is a very funny and clever account of what happens in a big company.
Sure enough, in Barry-esque style, everything is brought to exaggeration, which is, I guess, how the author tries to deliver his message.
What I mean, is that yes, he exaggerates, but not bringing the story to something unbelievable or that could never happen, it’s like if he’s having a look at where we’re heading.

Again, if you’re in for a light, yet interesting read, just give it a try. :)

The book gave me another perspective on WWII. Most accounts are from soldiers, historians or regular people, which all had something in common: they tried to avoid the War. Capa, instead, always tried to be where the action was.

Capa wanted to be a writer, not a photographer, and you can tell it by his work.
His photo were probably not perfect from a technical standpoint, but they got into the action, they give an inside view of the scene, and I think it’s because he wasn’t trained to be a photographer, he just happened to be one.
His unprofessionality is what made his work great, I believe: he understood photography better than most other photographers.

As he said after the book was released, the whole book is based on actual facts, but there are a few fictional elements here and there to have a better flow and make the story a tad more impressive, so it can’t be considered 100% true, even though most of it is.

It doesn’t matter if your interested in photography, you should read this book.
It’ll give you some more info on WWII and you’ll also get to know about a very eclectic individual and an amazing photographer.

Unfortunately, nowadays it’s difficult to get a good photography manual. More are just about connecting your digital camera and printing your digital photos with your inkjet printer.
If you want a book about real photography, you need to turn to Ansel Adams.

The Ansel Adams Guide: Basic Techniques of Photography is a book in two parts that tries to sum up and revamp a bit Ansel Adams’ teachings. And BTW, the author was a student and a collaborator of Ansel Adams.
I feel this is a very good book for both newbie and advanced amateurs as it covers almost every aspect of photography — well, mostly B&W photography.

If you’re serious about Photography — the one with film, developers, fixers, not the point-and-shoot kind of experience you get out of digital photography — this book might put you on the right path.

This book is an attempt at imagining his perfect society.
A society where everyone is important, where everyone can live in piece, where everyone can Live. And when I say Live I mean it in the deepest meaning you can give to this word.

He imagine to be forced to stop and spend a few weeks in this perfect country — Kirghisia — while flying to some place.
During his stay, he write a few letters to his friends describing how beautiful life is in Kirghisia.

It was a very nice book to read. It’s maybe pure Utopia, but it gives some hope to think a place like Kirghisia exists, even if only in one person’s mind. Actually, I think Kirghisia exists in the mind of many.

Given there’s no published English translation I know of, you can always read Letters From Kirghisia online on Silvano Agosti’s website. :)