[clinton/website/site/unknownlamer.org.git] / Book List.html

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    <h1>A Not So Fancy Listing of Books</h1>
   <div class="contents">
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec1">Marcus Aurelius</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec2">Meditations</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec3">William Blake</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec4">The Four Zoas</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec5">Jerusalem</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec6">John Taylor Gatto</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec7">Underground History of American Education</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec8">Kahlil Gibran</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec9">A Tear and a Smile</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec10">The Prophet</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec11">Sand and Foam</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec12">The Madman</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec13">William James</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec14">The Varieties of Religious Experience</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec15">Gregor Kiczales</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec16">The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec17">Søren Kierkegaard</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec18">Sickness Unto Death</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec19">Either/Or</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec20">Thomas More</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec21">Utopia</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec22">Luke Rhinehardt</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec23">The Dice Man</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec24">Neal Stephenson</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec25">Snow Crash</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec26">Cryptonomicon</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>


<!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
Marcus Aurelius</h2>


<h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
Meditations</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••••</span> (6) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>

<p>I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic
philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books
before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the
collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting
according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but
each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A
number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in
my notebook to ponder further.</p>


<h2><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
William Blake</h2>

<p class="first">Blake is my favorite of the English poets. His unique use of
relief etching and watercoloring makes for very interesting
Illuminated works. There is a very high quality
<a href="http://blakearchive.org">complete archive of Blake's works</a> online
with high resolution plate scans and full transcriptions among other
things.</p>

<h3><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
The Four Zoas</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Fiction</em></p>

<p>The unfinished manuscript of Blake's longest apocalypse. The
Four Zoas divide from Albion and rage through the ages of dismal woe
to bring about the end of the cycle of Ulro and restore the cycle of
Beulah.</p>


<h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a>
Jerusalem</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Fiction</em></p>

<p>The finest of Blake's Illuminated works.</p>


<h2><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a>
John Taylor Gatto</h2>

<p class="first">Former teacher and now author-activist.</p>

<h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a>
Underground History of American Education</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>

<p>An interesting <em>underground</em> history of the American education
system.</p>


<h2><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a>
Kahlil Gibran</h2>

<p class="first">Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not
agree with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but <em>The Madman</em> onward are
all rather nice. A few of his works are
<a href="http://leb.net/~mira/">online</a>, but I recommend scouting used book
stores for old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least)
<em>hardcover</em> versions from <em>Alfred A. Knopf</em> are in fact permabound
paperbacks with a hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to
the editions from the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more,
naturally).</p>

<h3><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a>
A Tear and a Smile</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••••••</span> (3) / <em>Fiction</em></p>

<p>One of Kahlil Gibran's earlier works, I did not much like <em>A
Tear and a Smile</em> excepting the last poem (&quot;A Poet's Voice&quot;).</p>


<h3><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a>
The Prophet</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Fiction</em></p>


<h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a>
Sand and Foam</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>

<p>An interesting little book of aphorisms.</p>


<h3><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a>
The Madman</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> (8) / <em>Fiction</em></p>


<h2><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a>
William James</h2>


<h3><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a>
The Varieties of Religious Experience</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>

<p><a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20Varieties%20of%20Religious%20Experience.html">A partially finished extended summary</a></p>


<h2><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
Gregor Kiczales</h2>


<h3><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a>
The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>

<p>AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with
the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first
half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a
series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations
and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for
CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general
object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly
make mapping decisions customizable.</p>


<h2><a name="sec17" id="sec17"></a>
Søren Kierkegaard</h2>

<p class="first">Kierkegaard was a master of style and philosophy; his writing is
interesting even if one finds the theistic extentialism espoused
disagreeable.</p>

<h3><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a>
Sickness Unto Death</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>

<p>I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after
being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it
was better for me to have found this one.</p>

<p>Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of
Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends,
the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is
reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation
forces reflection.</p>


<h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></a>
Either/Or</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>

<p>Composed of two portions, <em>Either/Or</em> is a rather lengthy but
rewarding read. The first book is a series of essays and a diary of a
young esthetician; the second is a pair of long letters from an older
ethicist friend to this esthetician. You are then left to resolve the
conflict between the views.</p>


<h2><a name="sec20" id="sec20"></a>
Thomas More</h2>


<h3><a name="sec21" id="sec21"></a>
Utopia</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>

<p>I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but
the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the
overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so
I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick
read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system
espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a
negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European
social customs.</p>


<h2><a name="sec22" id="sec22"></a>
Luke Rhinehardt</h2>


<h3><a name="sec23" id="sec23"></a>
The Dice Man</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>

<blockquote>
<p class="quoted">
And it's his illusions about what
constitutes the real world which are
inhibiting him...
His reality, his reason, his society
...these are what must be destroyed</p>

</blockquote>

<p>A quotation from one of my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter_of_the_Soul">favorite metal songs</a> inspired me to grab
this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found
in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an
autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression
through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through
random chance.</p>

<p>The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part
attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often
difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.</p>


<h2><a name="sec24" id="sec24"></a>
Neal Stephenson</h2>


<h3><a name="sec25" id="sec25"></a>
Snow Crash</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Fiction</em></p>

<p>As one must read the <em>Bible</em> to understand English literature, so one
must read <em>Snow Crash</em> today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop
fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in
a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come
up with enganging tales. <em>Snow Crash</em> has a nice undertone of (quite
accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading
as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.</p>


<h3><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a>
Cryptonomicon</h3>

<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> (8) / <em>Fiction</em></p>

<p>I read <em>Cryptonomicon</em> when it was new, and at the time I thought it was
good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from
the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to
finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between
the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way.</p>

<p>I'd still have to recommend <em>Snow Crash</em> if one wished to read only one
Stephenson novel.</p>


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<p class="cke-footer">                                 So play today
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<p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
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	5	<head>
	6	<title>A Not So Fancy Listing of Books</title>
	7	<meta name="generator" content="muse.el" />
	8	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
	9	content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
	10	<link rel="stylesheet" href="default.css" media="screen" />
	11	</head>
	12	<body>
	13	<h1>A Not So Fancy Listing of Books</h1>
	14	<div class="contents">
	15	<dl>
	16	<dt>
	17	<a href="#sec1">Marcus Aurelius</a>
	18	</dt>
	19	<dd>
	20	<dl>
	21	<dt>
	22	<a href="#sec2">Meditations</a>
	23	</dt>
	24	</dl>
	25	</dd>
	26	<dt>
	27	<a href="#sec3">William Blake</a>
	28	</dt>
	29	<dd>
	30	<dl>
	31	<dt>
	32	<a href="#sec4">The Four Zoas</a>
	33	</dt>
	34	<dt>
	35	<a href="#sec5">Jerusalem</a>
	36	</dt>
	37	</dl>
	38	</dd>
	39	<dt>
	40	<a href="#sec6">John Taylor Gatto</a>
	41	</dt>
	42	<dd>
	43	<dl>
	44	<dt>
	45	<a href="#sec7">Underground History of American Education</a>
	46	</dt>
	47	</dl>
	48	</dd>
	49	<dt>
	50	<a href="#sec8">Kahlil Gibran</a>
	51	</dt>
	52	<dd>
	53	<dl>
	54	<dt>
	55	<a href="#sec9">A Tear and a Smile</a>
	56	</dt>
	57	<dt>
	58	<a href="#sec10">The Prophet</a>
	59	</dt>
	60	<dt>
	61	<a href="#sec11">Sand and Foam</a>
	62	</dt>
	63	<dt>
	64	<a href="#sec12">The Madman</a>
65	</dt>
66	</dl>
67	</dd>
68	<dt>
69	<a href="#sec13">William James</a>
70	</dt>
71	<dd>
72	<dl>
73	<dt>
74	<a href="#sec14">The Varieties of Religious Experience</a>
75	</dt>
76	</dl>
77	</dd>
78	<dt>
79	<a href="#sec15">Gregor Kiczales</a>
80	</dt>
81	<dd>
82	<dl>
83	<dt>
84	<a href="#sec16">The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a>
85	</dt>
86	</dl>
87	</dd>
88	<dt>
89	<a href="#sec17">Søren Kierkegaard</a>
90	</dt>
91	<dd>
92	<dl>
93	<dt>
94	<a href="#sec18">Sickness Unto Death</a>
95	</dt>
96	<dt>
97	<a href="#sec19">Either/Or</a>
98	</dt>
99	</dl>
100	</dd>
101	<dt>
102	<a href="#sec20">Thomas More</a>
103	</dt>
104	<dd>
105	<dl>
106	<dt>
107	<a href="#sec21">Utopia</a>
108	</dt>
109	</dl>
110	</dd>
111	<dt>
112	<a href="#sec22">Luke Rhinehardt</a>
113	</dt>
114	<dd>
115	<dl>
116	<dt>
117	<a href="#sec23">The Dice Man</a>
118	</dt>
119	</dl>
120	</dd>
121	<dt>
122	<a href="#sec24">Neal Stephenson</a>
123	</dt>
124	<dd>
125	<dl>
126	<dt>
127	<a href="#sec25">Snow Crash</a>
128	</dt>
129	<dt>
130	<a href="#sec26">Cryptonomicon</a>
131	</dt>
132	</dl>
133	</dd>
134	</dl>
135	</div>
136
137
138	<!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
139	Marcus Aurelius</h2>
140
141
142
143	<h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
144	Meditations</h3>
145
146	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••••</span> (6) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
147
148	<p>I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic
149	philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books
150	before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the
151	collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting
152	according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but
153	each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A
154	number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in
155	my notebook to ponder further.</p>
156
157
158
159	<h2><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
160	William Blake</h2>
161
162	<p class="first">Blake is my favorite of the English poets. His unique use of
163	relief etching and watercoloring makes for very interesting
164	Illuminated works. There is a very high quality
165	<a href="http://blakearchive.org">complete archive of Blake's works</a> online
166	with high resolution plate scans and full transcriptions among other
167	things.</p>
168
169	<h3><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
170	The Four Zoas</h3>
171
172	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
173
174	<p>The unfinished manuscript of Blake's longest apocalypse. The
175	Four Zoas divide from Albion and rage through the ages of dismal woe
176	to bring about the end of the cycle of Ulro and restore the cycle of
177	Beulah.</p>
178
179
180	<h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a>
181	Jerusalem</h3>
182
183	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
184
185	<p>The finest of Blake's Illuminated works.</p>
186
187
188
189	<h2><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a>
190	John Taylor Gatto</h2>
191
192	<p class="first">Former teacher and now author-activist.</p>
193
194	<h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a>
195	Underground History of American Education</h3>
196
197	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
198
199	<p>An interesting <em>underground</em> history of the American education
200	system.</p>
201
202
203
204	<h2><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a>
205	Kahlil Gibran</h2>
206
207	<p class="first">Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not
208	agree with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but <em>The Madman</em> onward are
209	all rather nice. A few of his works are
210	<a href="http://leb.net/~mira/">online</a>, but I recommend scouting used book
211	stores for old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least)
212	<em>hardcover</em> versions from <em>Alfred A. Knopf</em> are in fact permabound
213	paperbacks with a hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to
214	the editions from the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more,
215	naturally).</p>
216
217	<h3><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a>
218	A Tear and a Smile</h3>
219
220	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••••••</span> (3) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
221
222	<p>One of Kahlil Gibran's earlier works, I did not much like <em>A
223	Tear and a Smile</em> excepting the last poem ("A Poet's Voice").</p>
224
225
226	<h3><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a>
227	The Prophet</h3>
228
229	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
230
231
232
233
234	<h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a>
235	Sand and Foam</h3>
236
237	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
238
239	<p>An interesting little book of aphorisms.</p>
240
241
242	<h3><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a>
243	The Madman</h3>
244
245	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> (8) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
246
247
248
249
250
251	<h2><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a>
252	William James</h2>
253
254
255
256	<h3><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a>
257	The Varieties of Religious Experience</h3>
258
259	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
260
261	<p><a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20Varieties%20of%20Religious%20Experience.html">A partially finished extended summary</a></p>
262
263
264
265	<h2><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
266	Gregor Kiczales</h2>
267
268
269
270	<h3><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a>
271	The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</h3>
272
273	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
274
275	<p>AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with
276	the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first
277	half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a
278	series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations
279	and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for
280	CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general
281	object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly
282	make mapping decisions customizable.</p>
283
284
285
286	<h2><a name="sec17" id="sec17"></a>
287	Søren Kierkegaard</h2>
288
289	<p class="first">Kierkegaard was a master of style and philosophy; his writing is
290	interesting even if one finds the theistic extentialism espoused
291	disagreeable.</p>
292
293	<h3><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a>
294	Sickness Unto Death</h3>
295
296	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
297
298	<p>I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after
299	being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it
300	was better for me to have found this one.</p>
301
302	<p>Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of
303	Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends,
304	the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is
305	reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation
306	forces reflection.</p>
307
308
309	<h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></a>
310	Either/Or</h3>
311
312	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
313
314	<p>Composed of two portions, <em>Either/Or</em> is a rather lengthy but
315	rewarding read. The first book is a series of essays and a diary of a
316	young esthetician; the second is a pair of long letters from an older
317	ethicist friend to this esthetician. You are then left to resolve the
318	conflict between the views.</p>
319
320
321
322	<h2><a name="sec20" id="sec20"></a>
323	Thomas More</h2>
324
325
326
327	<h3><a name="sec21" id="sec21"></a>
328	Utopia</h3>
329
330	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
331
332	<p>I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but
333	the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the
334	overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so
335	I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick
336	read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system
337	espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a
338	negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European
339	social customs.</p>
340
341
342
343	<h2><a name="sec22" id="sec22"></a>
344	Luke Rhinehardt</h2>
345
346
347
348	<h3><a name="sec23" id="sec23"></a>
349	The Dice Man</h3>
350
351	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
352
353	<blockquote>
354	<p class="quoted">
355	And it's his illusions about what
356	constitutes the real world which are
357	inhibiting him...
358	His reality, his reason, his society
359	...these are what must be destroyed</p>
360
361	</blockquote>
362
363	<p>A quotation from one of my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter_of_the_Soul">favorite metal songs</a> inspired me to grab
364	this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found
365	in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an
366	autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression
367	through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through
368	random chance.</p>
369
370	<p>The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part
371	attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often
372	difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.</p>
373
374
375
376	<h2><a name="sec24" id="sec24"></a>
377	Neal Stephenson</h2>
378
379
380
381	<h3><a name="sec25" id="sec25"></a>
382	Snow Crash</h3>
383
384	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
385
386	<p>As one must read the <em>Bible</em> to understand English literature, so one
387	must read <em>Snow Crash</em> today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop
388	fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in
389	a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come
390	up with enganging tales. <em>Snow Crash</em> has a nice undertone of (quite
391	accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading
392	as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.</p>
393
394
395	<h3><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a>
396	Cryptonomicon</h3>
397
398	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> (8) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
399
400	<p>I read <em>Cryptonomicon</em> when it was new, and at the time I thought it was
401	good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from
402	the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to
403	finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between
404	the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way.</p>
405
406	<p>I'd still have to recommend <em>Snow Crash</em> if one wished to read only one
407	Stephenson novel.</p>
408
409
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437	<p class="cke-footer"> So play today
438	Go make your hay beneath a warm sun shining
439	But bear in mind one day you'll find the silver cloud's dark lining
440	</p>
441	<p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
442	July 29, 2008</p>
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