After talking to fellow administrators about fiction, we discovered that we liked books of a wide variety of genres and styles. Then it became interesting for us to conduct a survey among Selectel system administrators on three topics: what they like from the classics, what is their favorite book, and what is being read now. It turned out to be a large literary selection, where system administrators share their personal impressions of the books they read.
The survey involved 20 Selectel administrators from different departments: OpenStack, VMware, client services administration, network department and technical support team.
What admins like from the classics
The most popular response was Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, as "an interesting story with philosophical overtones."
Next comes Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky and as many as three of his works - "Crime and Punishment", "Demons", "The Brothers Karamazov". In Dostoevsky's books, admins like the "excellent description of St. Petersburg and the personalities that inhabit it, the Russian idea and deep characters."
5 more interesting opinions of admins about the classics:
Chekhov's stories
“The stories are quite short, but witty and can be re-read from time to time without getting bored. Chekhov's mood is just fire!
"Flying over Cuckoo's Nest" и «Martin Iden»
“They are piercing. Both are very close to me."
"A little prince"
"What you need to know about love, friendship, people."
"War and Peace"
“Reread it recently. Compared to school years, it reads completely differently! I like the historical accuracy and the language of Tolstoy (yes, there is a lot of water, but I like it).”
"Oblomov"
"The main character is the embodiment of peace, contentment and serenity."
Favorite books of system administrators
We asked the children to name one favorite book and tell why they like it so much. Sharing your impressions is cool, so below you will find quotes from admins and a brief description of the work. By the way, none of these books was repeated:
Ulysses (James Joyce)
"Why beloved? Because it’s awesome to play with the word like that, you have to try.”
The book tells about one day in the life of Dublin Jew Leopold Bloom. Each chapter of the novel imitates certain literary styles and genres of different eras, the stylistic features of the writers whom Joyce parodies or imitates.
Simulacra and simulation (Jean Baudrillard)
“For me, this book is a real “brain explosion”. Do not expect advice or hints in it. Each sentence provides food for thought. Highly recommended reading."
The Wachowski brothers (now sisters) were inspired by the book when making the movie The Matrix. Before the start of filming, Simulacra and Simulation was required to be read by all the actors in the lead roles and the main members of the film crew. The book itself can be seen at the beginning of the film - Neo hides minidiscs with hacker software in it.
Sirens of Titan (Kurt Vonnegut)
"A good and wise book, I like to re-read."
Vonnegut reflects on the meaning of human existence and the transience of universal human values associated with it. At first it seems that some heroes of the novel use others for their own purposes, but it gradually becomes clear that they were also cruelly and senselessly used by someone else.
17 more favorite booksThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
"Very interesting".
The idea for the book came to Adams while hitchhiking in Istanbul.
The house of the protagonist, Arthur Dent, is being demolished to build a new highway. To stop the demolition, Arthur lies down in front of the bulldozer. At the same time, the planet Earth is planned to be destroyed for the construction of a hyperspace highway.
Silver Dove (Andrey Bely)
"Bely has expressed everything that can be expressed about the beginning of the twentieth century in Russia."
"Silver Dove" by Andrei Bely is a love story between a poet and a simple village woman, set against the backdrop of events that shook Russia during the first Russian revolution.
Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)
“Very touched, right to tears, literally.”
One of the most human works of modern times. Ideas taken by Daniel Keyes from his own life. Keys was teaching English at a school for children with intellectual disabilities when a student asked if he could transfer to a regular school if he worked hard and became smart. This event formed the basis of the story.
Dune (Frank Herbert)
“Cool setting and atmosphere. Well, the idea itself.
Dune is one of the most famous science fiction novels of the XNUMXth century. The author adds the features of a philosophical novel to science fiction and creates a multi-layered narrative that touches on the topics of religion, politics, technology and ecology.
Future (Dmitry Glukhovsky)
“Dystopia in the near future, a fairly realistic description of the world under the condition of absolute immortality. There should be spoilers ahead, hehe."
Immortality is included in the basic social package, and serenity pills help get rid of negative thoughts. It seems that the action takes place in a utopian world, but the "Future" is a real dystopia, and where those who dare to fight the regime will face unimaginable cruelty.
It's great, right? Useless advice. Graduation speeches (Kurt Vonnegut)
“Parting speeches are always a squeeze of the author’s experience, and the experience of this person is wildly interesting. And he has a good sense of humor."
The book contains 9 speeches, the topics of which are chosen randomly, but each of them is very important for Vonnegut and his listeners. He is so serious, witty and profound that the pleasure you get from his speeches only intensifies with repeated re-reading.
Of the Wanderings of the Eternals and of the Earth (Ray Bradbury)
“It was written a long time ago, but it reflects the problems that are relevant now. And she's touching."
The book starts like this:
“Seventy years in a row, Henry William Field wrote stories that no one had ever printed, and then one night at half past twelve he got up and burned ten million words. He took all the manuscripts to the basement of his gloomy old mansion, to the boiler room, and threw them into the oven ... "
The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
"The book makes you think and leaves a very strong impression."
Dumas conceived The Count of Monte Cristo in the early 1840s. The writer came up with the name of the hero while traveling in the Mediterranean, when he saw the island of Montecristo and heard the legend of countless treasures buried there. And Dumas drew the plot from the archives of the Parisian police: the real life of Francois Picot turned into a fascinating story about Edmond Dantes, a sailor from the Pharaoh ship.
Elite of elites (Roman Zlotnikov)
"She's very motivating for me."
An imperial guardsman from the future, in which mankind has mastered the entire galaxy and created space colonial powers, finds himself in 1941, on the border of the USSR, on the land already occupied by the Nazis.
The Dark Tower Series (Stephen King)
"The book echoes the eras of the wild west, the Middle Ages, the future and the present."
A cycle of novels by Stephen King, written at the junction of several literary genres. The series follows gunslinger Roland Deschain's long journey in search of the legendary Dark Tower and features many themes, characters, and storylines from other unrelated King books.
All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque)
"I love war books."
This novel is the first part of the trilogy, which the author dedicated to the First World War and the fate of the soldiers who went through this war. This book is an attempt to tell about the generation that was destroyed by the war, about those who became its victims, even if they escaped the shells.
WE (Evgeny Zamyatin)
“Dystopia, totalitarian society, people are blissful in ignorance. I especially like the idea of pink tickets.”
Zamyatin portrayed a society ideologically based on Taylorism, scientism and the denial of fantasy, ruled by the “Benefactor” who was “elected” on a non-alternative basis. Names and surnames of people are replaced by letters and numbers. The state controls even intimate life.
Witcher. Blood of the Elves (Andrzej Sapkowski)
“I have always loved medieval fantasy. But it is in the universe of The Witcher that it is shown as the most medieval - diseases, poverty, wars, political strife, rudeness, and much more. And all this is seasoned with healthy (and not quite) humor and the most memorable characters.
The action of the books from the series "The Witcher" by Andrzej Sapkowski takes place in a fictional world reminiscent of Eastern Europe during the late Middle Ages, where all kinds of magical creatures and monsters exist next to people. Geralt of Rivia is one of the last "Witchers", rogue monster hunters.
The Fox Who Colored the Dawns (Nell White-Smith)
“I love steam engines and the Victorian era, and a mechanoid werewolf who turns into a fox and paints dawns on his airship is wonderful!”
This is a collection of four stories that reflect different (but always unique) features of the life of the world of steam engines, mechanical werewolves and the Temple bordering on Chaos. A world around which the moon, created from living mechanics, glides.
The Berserker Cycle (Fred Saberhagen)
“Different stories connected by the same theme. And of course space, killer machines, human survival.”
Huge automatic ships with artificial intelligence and inhuman logic are the legacy of a space war between long-vanished races that ended millennia ago. Their sole purpose is to kill all life, and their logic is random and unpredictable. People called these killing machines Berserkers. Now either people will destroy the space killers, or the berserkers will destroy the human race.
Monday starts on Saturday (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky)
“I like the atmosphere of NIICHAVO. People are enjoying their work."
The book by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky tells about the everyday life of NIICHAVO (Scientific Research Institute of Witchcraft and Wizardry) - a place where the life of a respectable institution and the folklore-fairy whirlwind are bizarrely mixed up.
Discworld Cycle (Terry Pratchett)
"Great humor and a fantasy world suspiciously real."
In the Discworld book series, Pratchett began by parodying the fantasy genre, but gradually moved on to a comprehensive critique of the modern world. A distinctive feature of Pratchett's works is the subtle philosophical ideas hidden in the text.
What admins are reading now
Although work takes up most of the day, colleagues try to find time to read. They mostly read on the subway or listen to audiobooks on their way to work.
This week's sponsors of the missed stops are Richard Morgan's Black Man, Peter Watts' Hard Sci-Fi (look out for False Blindness!), Chuck Palahniuk's Ghosts, and Dmitry Glukhovsky's Metro 2034.
Fans of postmodernism recommend Pynchon's Gravity Rainbow and Danilevsky's House of Leaves.
Those who are especially tired read My 150 Corpses, and the dreamers read essays on Skryagin's shipwrecks.
The admins also advise reading Irvine Welsh, Andy Weier, Alastair Reynolds, Eliezer Yudkovsky and Russian authors - Alexei Salnikov, Boris Akunin, early Oleg Divov, Alexander Dugin.
And finally
We like to read and we want to share these emotions.
In honor of the holiday, we give a book with LitRes and a 30% discount on the entire catalog of electronic and audio books - promo code selectel.
“All good books are similar in one thing - when you read to the end, it seems to you that all this happened to you, and so it will always remain with you: good or bad, delights, sorrows and regrets, people and places, and what was weather".
We wish you good books. Happy system administrator day!
Source: habr.com