An unintentional Sociology of Blogs experiment

Yesterday I posted a list of books that I want reviews of as SIGACT NEWS Book Review Column Editor. This resulted in an unintentional study of Sociology and Blogs which would make an awful paper but a reasonable posting. Some comments below, plus response to comments, and some pointers.

1. So far 12 books have been claimed. More than 12 people made requests but some of the books were already claimed. Of the 12 only 1 has reviewed for me before. The typical column generates 3 or 4 requests, and even those are usually from people who have reviewed before. Why is the blog so much more effective than my column for finding people to write book reviews for me?
2. The most popular book by far was not Knuth Vol 4 Fascicle 0, nor any of the other algorithms book, or crypto books (usually a popular topic) but was instead the book Concentration of Measure for the Analysis of Randomized Algorithms. Why that one? The catchy title? The hotness of the topic? Perhaps several of the other books on my list people already have from the publishers as they are potential textbooks, but this one is not in that category.
3. One of the commenters wanted to know if you need to be an expert to read a book. NO. But you have to be interested and actually read it and have the background to read it.
4. One of the commenters wanted to know what level the books were at. Alas. In the far future there may be a way to, given a book title, type it into what might be some kind of Engine of Search and find out more about it. Next time I do this I will supply more information about the book, unless by some miracle some sort of Search Technology has evolved to make such unneeded.
5. Below I have the revised list with the books that are already claimed removed.
6. Deadline for reviews is Jan 14, 2010, though the intention is to finish them before your next semester starts. If you need more time then tell me. LaTeX template is at here. Plaintext is also fine if the review does not have too much math in it.

Books on Algorithms and Data Structures

1. Algorithmic Adventures: From Knowledge to Magic by Juraj Hromkovic.
2. Algorithms and Data Structures: The Basic Toolbox by Mehlhorn and Sanders.
3. The Algorithms Design Manual by Skiena.
4. Combinatorial Geometry and its Algorithmic Applications: The Alcala Lectures by Pach and Sharir.
5. Algorithms for Statistical Signal Processing by Proakis, Rader, Ling, Nikias, Moonen, Proudler.
6. Nonlinear Integer Programming by Li and Sun.
7. Binary Quadratic Forms: An Algorithmic Approach by Buchmann and Vollmer.
8. Parallel Algorithms by Casanova, Legrand, and Robert.
9. Mathematics for the Analysis of Algorithms by Greene and Knuth.
10. Concentration of Measure for the Analysis of Randomized Algorithms by Dubhashi and Panconesi.
11. Vehicular Networks: From Theory to Practice Edited by Olariu and Weigle.

Books on Cryptography

1. Introduction to Modern Cryptography by Katz and Lindell.
2. Concurrent Zero-Knowledge by Alon Rosen.
3. Elliptic Curves: Number Theory and Cryptography by Washington.
4. Secure Key Establishment by Choo.
5. Algebraic Cryptanalysis by Bard
6. A Course in Number Theory and Cryptography by Koblitz.
7. Cryptanalytic Attacks on RSA by Yan.

Books on Coding Theory

1. Algebraic Function Fields and Codes by Stichtenoth.
2. Applied Algebra: Codes, Ciphers, and Discrete Algorithms by Hardy, Richman, and Walker.

Books on Theory of Computation

1. The Calculus of Computation: Decision Procedures with Applications to Verification by Bradley and Manna.
2. Models of Computation: An introduction to Computability Theory by Fernandez.

Combinatorics

1. Applied Combinatorics by Roberts and Tesman.
2. A Course in Enumeration by Aigner.
3. Chromatic Graph Theory by Chatrang and Zhang.
4. Design Theory by Lindner and Rodger.
5. Combinatorial Methods with computer applications by Gross
6. A combinatorial approach to matrix theory and its application by Brualdi and Cvetkovic.

Misc Books

1. Quantum Computer Science: An Introduction by Mermin.
2. Complex Social Networks by Vega-Redondo
3. Branching Programs and Binary Decision Diagrams by Wegener.
4. When Least is Best: How Mathematicians Discovered many clever ways to make things as small (or as large) as possible by Nahin.
5. Stories about Maxima and Minima by Tikhomirov.
6. Decision and Elections: Explaining the Unexpected by Saari.
7. Creative Mathematics by Wall
8. Is Mathematics Inevitable? A Miscellany Edited by Underwood Dudley.
9. Comprehensive Mathematics for Computer Scientists 1: Sets and numbers, graphs and algebra, logic and machines, linear geometry by Mazzola, Milmeister, and Weissmann.
10. Difference Equations: From Rabbits to Chaos by Cull, Flahive, and Robson.
11. A Concise introduction to Data Compression by Salomon.
12. Practical Text Mining with Perl by Roger Biliosly.