Sometimes it’s a matter of opinion. Sometimes things are technically more complicated that people assume. Sometimes the Go authors, human beings as they are, just didn’t get it completely right.

This sample takes advantage of Javascript's weird type conversion. !+[] is an empty array added to a not-false, which gets coerced into a boolean, then into an integer value of one. The clause !+[]+!![] gets resolved into an integer value of two.

Some of the authors are a little obscure. If you don't pay attention to the Man-Booker Prize recipients, you may never have heard of Arundhati Roy. If you've even heard of Andre Breton, you might be surprised to find he was a writer, not just a painter.

To help you through these sections, the book includes an explanation of each author's style. If you've ever wondered why anyone would want to read a book by Hemingway, consider this explanation: "In his fiction, he describes only tangible truths: dialog, action, superficial traits. He does not attempt to explain emotion; he leaves it alone....His intent is to create a vacuum so that it might be filled by the reader's own experience. Emotion is more easily felt than described with words."

The book is not above mocking the authors. Of Dan Brown, it says, "He'll often use the same adverb multiple times in a paragraph. In the prologue to The Da Vinci Code almost every action happens "slowly;" in Inferno we're told no less than four times that Langdon's doctor has "bushy eyebrows." Yet Dan Brown has a unique and recognizable style, and that qualifies him for inclusion in the book.

At various interludes, we find original poetry, related to programming, in the style of other famous authors; who apparently couldn't write Javascript but still wanted to contribute. From Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, it degenerates to this doggerel: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I struggled with JQuery/ Sighing softly, weak and weary, troubled by my daunting chore...." Notice how accurately the rhythm is replicated, though. Rhythm is something missing when a lot of people try to write poetry, but not here.

The artwork is fun to look at, even aside from the text. Jane Austen is drawn with an impish little smile to denote her subtle sarcasm, Jack Kerouac shows up in a mug-shot that indicate his wild writing, and Lewis Carrol has a kindly look that suggests he is looking at some poor confused person who is reading what he wrote.

Each author also is quoted, explaining what they think of Javascript. Charles Dickens says, "It was the best of languages, it was the worst of languages." J K Rowling says, "There's more to Javascript than waving your wand and saying a few funny words." Bolano says, "We dreamed of Javascript and woke up screaming."

This book is most certainly a good read. The primary criticisms I have are that the Angus Croll (who wrote the book) is both better at writing Javascript than the authors he chose, and worse at writing English than the authors. He would have done better, in trying to describe the style of the authors, to include more examples of their writing and less of his own. Sometimes his descriptions get too wordy. The editor should have removed some redundancy: whole sentences could be redacted and would only improve readability. He likes playing dress-up with his nouns, giving them adjective after adjective; sometimes making it hard to figure out what is a noun and what is an adjective. Surprisingly, considering how well he matched the rhythm of The Raven, he seems unaware of the cadence of his prose.

Despite these faults, the book is a worthy read. If you've forgotten that programming is fun, not just a profession, maybe this will remind you.