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    <h1>The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms</h1>
   <div class="contents">
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec1">Authors</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec2">William Blake</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec3">Kahlil Gibran</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec4">Fiction</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec5">General</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec6">Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec7">Philosophical</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec8">Sci-Fi</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec9">Neal Stephenson</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec10">Non-Fiction</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec11">Education</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec12">John Taylor Gatto - Underground History of American Education</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec13">Philosophy</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec14">Chinese</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec15">Marcus Aurelius - Meditations</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec16">Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec17">Politics</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec18">Thomas More - Utopia</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec19">Religion</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec20">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec21">Technical</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec22">C J Date - Database in Depth</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec23">Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec24">Reports</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec25">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec26">Books That I Cannot Find</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec27">Essays</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec28">Computing</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec29">Design</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>


<!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><p>I enjoy classical literature and works of philosophy and politics with
a side of cyberpunk novels for when my brain is tired. When I was in
High School I read technical books for fun, but now I tend to find
most of them useless (thank you Internet) excepting a few really well
written ones (<em>L.i.s.p</em>, <em>TAOCP</em>, ...).</p>

<p>I spend most of my time reading. A full list of things I have read
would be impossible to compile, but here I am collecting links and
small summaries of things I have read and find interesting enough to
mention, but not always recommend, to others.</p>

<h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
Authors</h2>

<h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
William Blake</h3>

<p class="first">His poetry is the result of spending too much time etching copper
plates and breathing the fumes. Quite wonderful indeed.</p>


<h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
Kahlil Gibran</h3>

<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. So far I've read <em>A Tear and a Smile</em> (not so good
excepting the last poem), <em>The Madman</em>, <em>The Prophet</em> (both excellent),
and <em>Sand and Foam</em> (an interesting little book of aphorisms). 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>


<h2><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
Fiction</h2>

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

<h4><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a>
Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man</h4>

<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>


<h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a>
Philosophical</h3>


<h3><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a>
Sci-Fi</h3>

<h4><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a>
Neal Stephenson</h4>

<h5>Cryptonomicon</h5>

<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>


<h5>Snow Crash</h5>

<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>


<h2><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a>
Non-Fiction</h2>

<h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a>
Education</h3>

<h4><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a>
John Taylor Gatto - <a href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm">Underground History of American Education</a></h4>

<p class="first">Contained within this book (available online for free, but the printed
copy sits wonderfully on a shelf) is a detailed and seemingly well
researched history of American Education with a particular focus on
the transformation that has occured before our eyes in the last
century. I am unsure if Gatto is entirely correct and not exaggerating
anything; I have failed to find any negative criticisms, but it is not
clear to me if that is because he is entirely correct or if no one
cares enough to write a counterargument. I am in the process of
tracking down as many of his sources as possible (a good number of
them are out of print and not in the public domain yet), and will make
an attempt to verify his argument over the course of the next year
(that being 2007).</p>

<p>If he is correct then every one of us has had the first eighteen years
of our lives stolen from us, and we have collectively suffered massive
intellectual damage. My intuitions tell me he is correct (which is why
I am driven to verify; I cannot trust myself because I <em>want</em> to
believe) for my individuality and intelligence were nearly stolen from
me. The only reason I survived relatively unscathed is because I
became completely socially withdrawn for the last half of elementary
school until late in high school due to the abuse I received at the
hands of my peers creating a deep fear of social interaction in
me. The downside is that I had the confidence crushed from my soul,
but now that I have begun to regain it (the good that bicycling
enabling me to stand straight and gradual realization of my own worth
as a human have done) I would never trade the ability to think freely
for the social skills I lack.</p>


<h3><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a>
Philosophy</h3>

<h4><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a>
Chinese</h4>

<h5>Tao Te Ching</h5>


<h5>Confucianism</h5>

<h5>The Analects</h5>


<h4><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations</h4>

<p class="first">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>


<h4><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a>
Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death</h4>

<p class="first">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="sec17" id="sec17"></a>
Politics</h3>

<h4><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a>
Thomas More - Utopia</h4>

<p class="first">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>


<h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></a>
Religion</h3>

<h4><a name="sec20" id="sec20"></a>
<a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20Varieties%20of%20Religious%20Experience.html">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</a></h4>


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

<h4><a name="sec22" id="sec22"></a>
C J Date - Database in Depth</h4>

<p class="first">This was a complete waste of time. The author rants on for 180 pages
and presents the information in a disorderly and shallow manner. It
could be rewritten in about fifty pages and contain the same amount of
information if it were organized properly and the off topic commentary
were minimized.</p>


<h4><a name="sec23" id="sec23"></a>
Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</h4>

<p class="first">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="sec24" id="sec24"></a>
Reports</h2>

<h3><a name="sec25" id="sec25"></a>
<a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006483.pdf">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy</a></h3>

<p class="first">A depressing view of American literacy rates. Literacy skills
decreased across almost every population segment in the US between
1993 and 2003; a mere 31% of college graduates are considered
proficient in quantitative literacy (defined as being able to do
things as terribly complicated as comparing two editorials).</p>


<h2><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a>
Books That I Cannot Find</h2>

<p class="first">If you know anyone who has copies I'd appreciate an email. I'm willing
to buy books for a reasonable cost, and for ones that are more than 25
years old and out of print I am not opposed to <em>piracy</em> (no one is
making money from them, and I feel that long copyrights are unethical
and therefore feel no pangs of moral guilt).</p>

<ul>
<li><em>Crystallizing Public Opinion</em> by Edward Bernays

<ul>
<li>A supposed classic in the field of public relations. Curiosity
demands that I read the writings of the father of the field to
better understand the way the international media works.</li>
<li>Another example of out of print books clearly having a market,
but no publisher due to copyright (used copies go for nearly a
thousand dollars in poor condition and hit five thousand or so
for ones in good shape).</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>


<h2><a name="sec27" id="sec27"></a>
Essays</h2>

<h3><a name="sec28" id="sec28"></a>
Computing</h3>

<h4><a name="sec29" id="sec29"></a>
Design</h4>

<h5><a href="http://deadhobosociety.com/index.php/Essays/ESSAY12">Confucianism and Technical Standards</a></h5>


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<p class="cke-footer">unknownlamer: you cannot both me in the state of sin and grace
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	6	<title>The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms</title>
	7	<meta name="generator" content="muse.el" />
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2aff8b5c	14	</head>
	15	<body>
	16	<h1>The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms</h1>
	17	<div class="contents">
	18	<dl>
	19	<dt>
	20	<a href="#sec1">Authors</a>
	21	</dt>
	22	<dd>
	23	<dl>
	24	<dt>
	25	<a href="#sec2">William Blake</a>
	26	</dt>
f7bae6cc	27	<dt>
	28	<a href="#sec3">Kahlil Gibran</a>
	29	</dt>
2aff8b5c	30	</dl>
	31	</dd>
	32	<dt>
f7bae6cc	33	<a href="#sec4">Fiction</a>
2aff8b5c	34	</dt>
	35	<dd>
	36	<dl>
	37	<dt>
f7bae6cc	38	<a href="#sec5">General</a>
2aff8b5c	39	</dt>
	40	<dd>
	41	<dl>
	42	<dt>
f7bae6cc	43	<a href="#sec6">Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man</a>
2aff8b5c	44	</dt>
	45	</dl>
	46	</dd>
	47	<dt>
f7bae6cc	48	<a href="#sec7">Philosophical</a>
2aff8b5c	49	</dt>
2aff8b5c	50	<dt>
	51	<a href="#sec8">Sci-Fi</a>
	52	</dt>
	53	<dd>
	54	<dl>
	55	<dt>
	56	<a href="#sec9">Neal Stephenson</a>
	57	</dt>
	58	</dl>
	59	</dd>
	60	</dl>
	61	</dd>
	62	<dt>
	63	<a href="#sec10">Non-Fiction</a>
	64	</dt>
	65	<dd>
	66	<dl>
	67	<dt>
	68	<a href="#sec11">Education</a>
	69	</dt>
	70	<dd>
	71	<dl>
	72	<dt>
	73	<a href="#sec12">John Taylor Gatto - Underground History of American Education</a>
	74	</dt>
	75	</dl>
	76	</dd>
	77	<dt>
	78	<a href="#sec13">Philosophy</a>
	79	</dt>
	80	<dd>
	81	<dl>
	82	<dt>
	83	<a href="#sec14">Chinese</a>
	84	</dt>
	85	<dt>
	86	<a href="#sec15">Marcus Aurelius - Meditations</a>
	87	</dt>
	88	<dt>
	89	<a href="#sec16">Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death</a>
	90	</dt>
	91	</dl>
	92	</dd>
	93	<dt>
	94	<a href="#sec17">Politics</a>
	95	</dt>
	96	<dd>
	97	<dl>
	98	<dt>
	99	<a href="#sec18">Thomas More - Utopia</a>
	100	</dt>
	101	</dl>
	102	</dd>
	103	<dt>
	104	<a href="#sec19">Religion</a>
	105	</dt>
	106	<dd>
	107	<dl>
	108	<dt>
	109	<a href="#sec20">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</a>
	110	</dt>
	111	</dl>
	112	</dd>
	113	<dt>
114	<a href="#sec21">Technical</a>
115	</dt>
116	<dd>
117	<dl>
118	<dt>
119	<a href="#sec22">C J Date - Database in Depth</a>
120	</dt>
121	<dt>
122	<a href="#sec23">Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a>
123	</dt>
124	</dl>
125	</dd>
126	</dl>
127	</dd>
128	<dt>
129	<a href="#sec24">Reports</a>
130	</dt>
131	<dd>
132	<dl>
133	<dt>
134	<a href="#sec25">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy</a>
135	</dt>
136	</dl>
137	</dd>
138	<dt>
139	<a href="#sec26">Books That I Cannot Find</a>
140	</dt>
141	<dt>
142	<a href="#sec27">Essays</a>
143	</dt>
144	<dd>
145	<dl>
146	<dt>
147	<a href="#sec28">Computing</a>
148	</dt>
149	<dd>
150	<dl>
151	<dt>
152	<a href="#sec29">Design</a>
153	</dt>
154	</dl>
155	</dd>
156	</dl>
157	</dd>
158	</dl>
159	</div>
160
161
162	<!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><p>I enjoy classical literature and works of philosophy and politics with
163	a side of cyberpunk novels for when my brain is tired. When I was in
164	High School I read technical books for fun, but now I tend to find
165	most of them useless (thank you Internet) excepting a few really well
166	written ones (<em>L.i.s.p</em>, <em>TAOCP</em>, ...).</p>
167
168	<p>I spend most of my time reading. A full list of things I have read
169	would be impossible to compile, but here I am collecting links and
170	small summaries of things I have read and find interesting enough to
171	mention, but not always recommend, to others.</p>
172
173	<h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
174	Authors</h2>
175
176	<h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
177	William Blake</h3>
178
179	<p class="first">His poetry is the result of spending too much time etching copper
180	plates and breathing the fumes. Quite wonderful indeed.</p>
181
182
f7bae6cc	183	<h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
	184	Kahlil Gibran</h3>
	185
	186	<p class="first">Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not agree
	187	with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but <em>The Madman</em> onward are all
	188	rather nice. So far I've read <em>A Tear and a Smile</em> (not so good
	189	excepting the last poem), <em>The Madman</em>, <em>The Prophet</em> (both excellent),
	190	and <em>Sand and Foam</em> (an interesting little book of aphorisms). A few of
	191	his works are <a href="http://leb.net/~mira/">online</a>, but I recommend scouting used book stores for
	192	old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least) <em>hardcover</em>
	193	versions from <em>Alfred A. Knopf</em> are in fact permabound paperbacks with a
	194	hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to the editions from
	195	the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more, naturally).</p>
	196
	197
2aff8b5c	198
f7bae6cc	199	<h2><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
2aff8b5c	200	Fiction</h2>
2aff8b5c	201
f7bae6cc	202	<h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a>
2aff8b5c	203	General</h3>
2aff8b5c	204
f7bae6cc	205	<h4><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a>
2aff8b5c	206	Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man</h4>
	207
	208	<blockquote>
	209	<p class="quoted">
	210	And it's his illusions about what
	211	constitutes the real world which are
	212	inhibiting him...
	213	His reality, his reason, his society
	214	...these are what must be destroyed</p>
	215
	216	</blockquote>
	217
	218	<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
	219	this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found
	220	in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an
	221	autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression
	222	through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through
	223	random chance.</p>
	224
	225	<p>The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part
	226	attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often
	227	difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.</p>
	228
	229
	230
f7bae6cc	231	<h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a>
2aff8b5c	232	Philosophical</h3>
2aff8b5c	233
2aff8b5c	234
	235	<h3><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a>
	236	Sci-Fi</h3>
	237
	238	<h4><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a>
	239	Neal Stephenson</h4>
	240
	241	<h5>Cryptonomicon</h5>
	242
	243	<p>I read <em>Cryptonomicon</em> when it was new, and at the time I thought it was
	244	good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from
	245	the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to
	246	finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between
	247	the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way.</p>
	248
	249	<p>I'd still have to recommend <em>Snow Crash</em> if one wished to read only one
	250	Stephenson novel.</p>
	251
	252
	253	<h5>Snow Crash</h5>
	254
	255	<p>As one must read the <em>Bible</em> to understand English literature, so one
	256	must read <em>Snow Crash</em> today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop
	257	fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in
	258	a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come
	259	up with enganging tales. <em>Snow Crash</em> has a nice undertone of (quite
	260	accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading
	261	as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.</p>
	262
	263
	264
	265
	266
	267	<h2><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a>
	268	Non-Fiction</h2>
	269
	270	<h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a>
	271	Education</h3>
	272
	273	<h4><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a>
	274	John Taylor Gatto - <a href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm">Underground History of American Education</a></h4>
	275
	276	<p class="first">Contained within this book (available online for free, but the printed
	277	copy sits wonderfully on a shelf) is a detailed and seemingly well
	278	researched history of American Education with a particular focus on
	279	the transformation that has occured before our eyes in the last
	280	century. I am unsure if Gatto is entirely correct and not exaggerating
	281	anything; I have failed to find any negative criticisms, but it is not
	282	clear to me if that is because he is entirely correct or if no one
	283	cares enough to write a counterargument. I am in the process of
	284	tracking down as many of his sources as possible (a good number of
	285	them are out of print and not in the public domain yet), and will make
	286	an attempt to verify his argument over the course of the next year
	287	(that being 2007).</p>
	288
	289	<p>If he is correct then every one of us has had the first eighteen years
	290	of our lives stolen from us, and we have collectively suffered massive
	291	intellectual damage. My intuitions tell me he is correct (which is why
	292	I am driven to verify; I cannot trust myself because I <em>want</em> to
	293	believe) for my individuality and intelligence were nearly stolen from
	294	me. The only reason I survived relatively unscathed is because I
	295	became completely socially withdrawn for the last half of elementary
	296	school until late in high school due to the abuse I received at the
	297	hands of my peers creating a deep fear of social interaction in
298	me. The downside is that I had the confidence crushed from my soul,
299	but now that I have begun to regain it (the good that bicycling
300	enabling me to stand straight and gradual realization of my own worth
301	as a human have done) I would never trade the ability to think freely
302	for the social skills I lack.</p>
303
304
305
306	<h3><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a>
307	Philosophy</h3>
308
309	<h4><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a>
310	Chinese</h4>
311
312	<h5>Tao Te Ching</h5>
313
314
315	<h5>Confucianism</h5>
316
317	<h5>The Analects</h5>
318
319
320
321
322	<h4><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
323	Marcus Aurelius - Meditations</h4>
324
325	<p class="first">I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic
326	philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books
327	before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the
328	collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting
329	according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but
330	each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A
331	number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in
332	my notebook to ponder further.</p>
333
334
335	<h4><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a>
336	Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death</h4>
337
338	<p class="first">I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after
339	being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it
340	was better for me to have found this one.</p>
341
342	<p>Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of
343	Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends,
344	the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is
345	reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation
346	forces reflection.</p>
347
348
349
350	<h3><a name="sec17" id="sec17"></a>
351	Politics</h3>
352
353	<h4><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a>
354	Thomas More - Utopia</h4>
355
356	<p class="first">I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but
357	the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the
358	overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so
359	I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick
360	read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system
361	espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a
362	negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European
363	social customs.</p>
364
365
366
367	<h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></a>
368	Religion</h3>
369
370	<h4><a name="sec20" id="sec20"></a>
371	<a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20Varieties%20of%20Religious%20Experience.html">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</a></h4>
372
373
374
375
376	<h3><a name="sec21" id="sec21"></a>
377	Technical</h3>
378
379	<h4><a name="sec22" id="sec22"></a>
380	C J Date - Database in Depth</h4>
381
382	<p class="first">This was a complete waste of time. The author rants on for 180 pages
383	and presents the information in a disorderly and shallow manner. It
384	could be rewritten in about fifty pages and contain the same amount of
385	information if it were organized properly and the off topic commentary
386	were minimized.</p>
387
388
389	<h4><a name="sec23" id="sec23"></a>
390	Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</h4>
391
392	<p class="first">AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with
393	the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first
394	half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a
395	series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations
396	and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for
397	CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general
398	object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly
399	make mapping decisions customizable.</p>
400
401
402
403
404
405	<h2><a name="sec24" id="sec24"></a>
406	Reports</h2>
407
408	<h3><a name="sec25" id="sec25"></a>
409	<a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006483.pdf">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy</a></h3>
410
411	<p class="first">A depressing view of American literacy rates. Literacy skills
412	decreased across almost every population segment in the US between
413	1993 and 2003; a mere 31% of college graduates are considered
414	proficient in quantitative literacy (defined as being able to do
415	things as terribly complicated as comparing two editorials).</p>
416
417
418
419
420	<h2><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a>
421	Books That I Cannot Find</h2>
422
423	<p class="first">If you know anyone who has copies I'd appreciate an email. I'm willing
424	to buy books for a reasonable cost, and for ones that are more than 25
425	years old and out of print I am not opposed to <em>piracy</em> (no one is
426	making money from them, and I feel that long copyrights are unethical
427	and therefore feel no pangs of moral guilt).</p>
428
429	<ul>
430	<li><em>Crystallizing Public Opinion</em> by Edward Bernays
431
432	<ul>
433	<li>A supposed classic in the field of public relations. Curiosity
434	demands that I read the writings of the father of the field to
435	better understand the way the international media works.</li>
436	<li>Another example of out of print books clearly having a market,
437	but no publisher due to copyright (used copies go for nearly a
438	thousand dollars in poor condition and hit five thousand or so
439	for ones in good shape).</li>
440	</ul></li>
441	</ul>
442
443
444	<h2><a name="sec27" id="sec27"></a>
445	Essays</h2>
446
447	<h3><a name="sec28" id="sec28"></a>
448	Computing</h3>
449
450	<h4><a name="sec29" id="sec29"></a>
451	Design</h4>
452
453	<h5><a href="http://deadhobosociety.com/index.php/Essays/ESSAY12">Confucianism and Technical Standards</a></h5>
454
455
456
457
458
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7404d4e1	485	<p class="cke-footer">unknownlamer: you cannot both me in the state of sin and grace
	486	simultaneously
	487	Tony: sure you can, sex while figure skating is pretty sinfully
	488	graceful
2aff8b5c	489	</p>
2aff8b5c	490	<p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
f7bae6cc	491	July 29, 2008</p>
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