10 of 10.
I can't believe I never got my hands on this puppy previously. After seeing Mark and David's pre-con at PDC this year, I had to run out and buy it. Yes, I read it like a novel. And yes, it was just as suspenseful and enjoying. If you want to learn more about Windows esoterica--including memory management, thread scheduling, I/O, and various other internals--this is the best book on the market. At least the best one I've seen so far. I can't say enough about it.

8 of 10.
(I've owned this book for years, but picked it up for a re-read. I was surprised at how much new I gleaned from it.) OK, Eric Raymond is known as a complete MS-basher. But this book is quite well written. He makes tons of interesting claims, backed up with logical arguments (albeit little data), and challenges the traditional viewpoint on software development economics. He does so from more of an anthropologists view rather than an economist, but he does surprisingly well mixing the two. You can find a digital copy right here if you're too cheap to buy the book. ;)

6 of 10.
This is probably a good book to have, and to skim through. I personally only read about 1/5th of it (those that were relevant and contained information I wasn't already entirely comfortable with) but the sections I did go through were well written. It covers various "virtual machines," from virtual execution environments--e.g. CLR and JVM--to hypervisors and more traditional virtualization (a la VirtualPC and VMWare). The content is, unfortunately, quite introductory in nature.

8 of 10.
Wow, super entertaining. This book talks about all of the foods throughout history which have been labeled "forbidden," yet for some reason always seemed to be secretly enjoyed by the more privileged classes in certain societies. Its chapters are broken up into the Deadly Sins, leading to some surprising and definitely engaging narratives throughout various cultures. I blew through this in just two sittings, mostly because it's an easy read, but also because I couldn't put it down.

8 of 10.
OK, so this book is about food. A really good book about food. Anthony Bourdain did a brief stint as a "celebrity chef," but ultimately he's just a raw all-American cook. He is executive chef as Brasserie Les Halles in New York City. And his book details the grungy side of kitchens and the restaurant industry, but in a very intruiging and culinary-rich sense. I read it on the beach in Maui, which made it even better.

7 of 10.
This is an enligntening tale of one man's journey through the world of wine. At first, he is confronted with a dizzying array of magical words thrown together by "experts" on taste and wine, and struggles to find his ground. Over time, a subtle transformation takes place, where the comfort level with the industry, influentials, and its products gradually rises. No strong conclusion is made, but the journey is fun.