[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>
<dt>
<a href="#sec15">The PhD Octopus</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec16">Henry James</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec17">The Altar of the Dead</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec18">Gregor Kiczales</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec19">The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec20">Søren Kierkegaard</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec21">Sickness Unto Death</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec22">Either/Or</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec23">Thomas More</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec24">Utopia</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec25">Friedrich Nietzsche</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec26">Beyond Good and Evil</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec27">On the Geneaology of Morals</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec28">Ecce Homo</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec29">Luke Rhinehardt</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec30">The Dice Man</a>
</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
<a href="#sec31">Neal Stephenson</a>
</dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#sec32">Snow Crash</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#sec33">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 <a href="William%20Blake.html">favorite</a> 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. Available
<a href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/">online for free</a>.</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>


<h3><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
The PhD Octopus</h3>

<p><em>Nonfiction</em></p>

<blockquote>
<p class="quoted">
America is thus as a nation rapidly drifting towards a state of things
in which no man of science or letters will be accounted respectable
unless some kind of badge or diploma is stamped upon him, and in which
bare personality will be a mark of outcast estate.  It seems to me high
time to rouse ourselves to consciousness, and to cast a critical eye
upon this decidedly grotesque tendency.  Other nations suffer terribly
from the Mandarin disease.  Are we doomed to suffer like the rest?</p>

</blockquote>

<p><a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20PhD%20Octopus.html">Full Text</a></p>


<h2><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a>
Henry James</h2>

<p class="first">The novelist brother of William James; I've not read many (read:
one) of his books, but what I did was decent.</p>

<h3><a name="sec17" id="sec17"></a>
The Altar of the Dead</h3>

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

<p>A short novella about a man who maintained an altar in a church
for all of his lost loved ones on the surface, but something a bit
more beneath.</p>


<h2><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a>
Gregor Kiczales</h2>


<h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></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="sec20" id="sec20"></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="sec21" id="sec21"></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="sec22" id="sec22"></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="sec23" id="sec23"></a>
Thomas More</h2>


<h3><a name="sec24" id="sec24"></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="sec25" id="sec25"></a>
Friedrich Nietzsche</h2>

<p class="first">A bit acerbic and esoteric, Nietzsche is for me a good <em>secular</em>
counterpart to Kierkegaard's theistic philosophy. Nietzsche's
polemical works raise important questions for anyone who reads works
on ethics. As such it is a shame that he has gotten a bad reputation
by being read by far too many angsty teenagers who see (and relay)
only Nietzsche the asshole rather than Nietzsche the master of the
polemic.</p>

<h3><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a>
Beyond Good and Evil</h3>

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

<p>A somewhat more comprehensible, if a bit less aesthetically
pleasing, presentation of much of the philosophy found in <em>Thus Spoke
Zarathustra</em> in the negative form. The final chapters are very
important (not to detract from the value of the rest of the work) if
one wishes to understand <em>On the Genealogy of Morals</em>.</p>


<h3><a name="sec27" id="sec27"></a>
On the Geneaology of Morals</h3>

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

<p><em>On the Geneaology of Morals</em> is a wonderful book of three
polemical essays on the origin of moral/ethic valuations, and the
blindness of modern philosphers whose very thinking is tainted by
these valuations unknowingly.</p>


<h3><a name="sec28" id="sec28"></a>
Ecce Homo</h3>

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

<p><em>Ecce Homo</em> is Nietzsche's very strange autobiography and
explanation of his own works. At points it is clear that it could have
used a bit more editing (prevented by Nietzsche ... falling into a
catatonic state and all), but is still a very useful book to read as
Nietzsche explains the overall structure of his works.</p>


<h2><a name="sec29" id="sec29"></a>
Luke Rhinehardt</h2>


<h3><a name="sec30" id="sec30"></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="sec31" id="sec31"></a>
Neal Stephenson</h2>


<h3><a name="sec32" id="sec32"></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="sec33" id="sec33"></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
                  Go make your hay beneath a warm sun shining
      But bear in mind one day you'll find the silver cloud's dark lining
</p>
<p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
    September 23, 2008</p>
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Commit	Line	Data
023ad63c	1	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
	2	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
	3	"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
	4	<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	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>
5e4e370e	76	<dt>
	77	<a href="#sec15">The PhD Octopus</a>
	78	</dt>
	79	</dl>
	80	</dd>
	81	<dt>
	82	<a href="#sec16">Henry James</a>
	83	</dt>
	84	<dd>
	85	<dl>
	86	<dt>
	87	<a href="#sec17">The Altar of the Dead</a>
	88	</dt>
023ad63c	89	</dl>
	90	</dd>
	91	<dt>
5e4e370e	92	<a href="#sec18">Gregor Kiczales</a>
023ad63c	93	</dt>
	94	<dd>
	95	<dl>
	96	<dt>
5e4e370e	97	<a href="#sec19">The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a>
023ad63c	98	</dt>
	99	</dl>
	100	</dd>
	101	<dt>
5e4e370e	102	<a href="#sec20">Søren Kierkegaard</a>
023ad63c	103	</dt>
	104	<dd>
	105	<dl>
	106	<dt>
5e4e370e	107	<a href="#sec21">Sickness Unto Death</a>
023ad63c	108	</dt>
023ad63c	109	<dt>
5e4e370e	110	<a href="#sec22">Either/Or</a>
023ad63c	111	</dt>
	112	</dl>
	113	</dd>
	114	<dt>
5e4e370e	115	<a href="#sec23">Thomas More</a>
023ad63c	116	</dt>
	117	<dd>
	118	<dl>
	119	<dt>
5e4e370e	120	<a href="#sec24">Utopia</a>
023ad63c	121	</dt>
	122	</dl>
	123	</dd>
	124	<dt>
5e4e370e	125	<a href="#sec25">Friedrich Nietzsche</a>
023ad63c	126	</dt>
	127	<dd>
	128	<dl>
	129	<dt>
5e4e370e	130	<a href="#sec26">Beyond Good and Evil</a>
04cda6d1	131	</dt>
04cda6d1	132	<dt>
5e4e370e	133	<a href="#sec27">On the Geneaology of Morals</a>
023ad63c	134	</dt>
b61362db	135	<dt>
	136	<a href="#sec28">Ecce Homo</a>
	137	</dt>
023ad63c	138	</dl>
	139	</dd>
	140	<dt>
b61362db	141	<a href="#sec29">Luke Rhinehardt</a>
023ad63c	142	</dt>
	143	<dd>
	144	<dl>
	145	<dt>
b61362db	146	<a href="#sec30">The Dice Man</a>
023ad63c	147	</dt>
04cda6d1	148	</dl>
04cda6d1	149	</dd>
023ad63c	150	<dt>
b61362db	151	<a href="#sec31">Neal Stephenson</a>
04cda6d1	152	</dt>
	153	<dd>
	154	<dl>
	155	<dt>
b61362db	156	<a href="#sec32">Snow Crash</a>
04cda6d1	157	</dt>
04cda6d1	158	<dt>
b61362db	159	<a href="#sec33">Cryptonomicon</a>
023ad63c	160	</dt>
	161	</dl>
	162	</dd>
	163	</dl>
	164	</div>
	165
	166
	167	<!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
	168	Marcus Aurelius</h2>
	169
	170
	171
	172	<h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
	173	Meditations</h3>
	174
	175	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••••</span> (6) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
	176
	177	<p>I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic
	178	philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books
	179	before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the
	180	collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting
	181	according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but
	182	each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A
	183	number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in
	184	my notebook to ponder further.</p>
	185
	186
	187
	188	<h2><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
	189	William Blake</h2>
	190
92ffc65b	191	<p class="first">Blake is my <a href="William%20Blake.html">favorite</a> of the English poets. His
	192	unique use of relief etching and watercoloring makes for very
	193	interesting Illuminated works. There is a very high quality
023ad63c	194	<a href="http://blakearchive.org">complete archive of Blake's works</a> online
	195	with high resolution plate scans and full transcriptions among other
	196	things.</p>
	197
	198	<h3><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
	199	The Four Zoas</h3>
	200
	201	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
	202
	203	<p>The unfinished manuscript of Blake's longest apocalypse. The
	204	Four Zoas divide from Albion and rage through the ages of dismal woe
	205	to bring about the end of the cycle of Ulro and restore the cycle of
	206	Beulah.</p>
	207
	208
	209	<h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a>
	210	Jerusalem</h3>
	211
	212	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
	213
	214	<p>The finest of Blake's Illuminated works.</p>
	215
	216
	217
	218	<h2><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a>
	219	John Taylor Gatto</h2>
	220
	221	<p class="first">Former teacher and now author-activist.</p>
	222
	223	<h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a>
	224	Underground History of American Education</h3>
	225
	226	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
	227
	228	<p>An interesting <em>underground</em> history of the American education
04cda6d1	229	system. Available
04cda6d1	230	<a href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/">online for free</a>.</p>
023ad63c	231
	232
	233
	234	<h2><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a>
	235	Kahlil Gibran</h2>
	236
	237	<p class="first">Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not
	238	agree with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but <em>The Madman</em> onward are
	239	all rather nice. A few of his works are
	240	<a href="http://leb.net/~mira/">online</a>, but I recommend scouting used book
	241	stores for old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least)
	242	<em>hardcover</em> versions from <em>Alfred A. Knopf</em> are in fact permabound
	243	paperbacks with a hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to
	244	the editions from the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more,
	245	naturally).</p>
	246
	247	<h3><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a>
	248	A Tear and a Smile</h3>
	249
	250	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••••••</span> (3) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
	251
	252	<p>One of Kahlil Gibran's earlier works, I did not much like <em>A
	253	Tear and a Smile</em> excepting the last poem ("A Poet's Voice").</p>
	254
	255
	256	<h3><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a>
	257	The Prophet</h3>
	258
	259	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
	260
	261
	262
	263
	264	<h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a>
	265	Sand and Foam</h3>
	266
	267	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
	268
	269	<p>An interesting little book of aphorisms.</p>
	270
	271
	272	<h3><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a>
	273	The Madman</h3>
	274
	275	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> (8) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
	276
	277
	278
	279
	280
	281	<h2><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a>
	282	William James</h2>
	283
	284
	285
	286	<h3><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a>
	287	The Varieties of Religious Experience</h3>
	288
	289	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
	290
	291	<p><a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20Varieties%20of%20Religious%20Experience.html">A partially finished extended summary</a></p>
	292
	293
5e4e370e	294	<h3><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
	295	The PhD Octopus</h3>
	296
	297	<p><em>Nonfiction</em></p>
	298
	299	<blockquote>
	300	<p class="quoted">
	301	America is thus as a nation rapidly drifting towards a state of things
	302	in which no man of science or letters will be accounted respectable
	303	unless some kind of badge or diploma is stamped upon him, and in which
	304	bare personality will be a mark of outcast estate. It seems to me high
	305	time to rouse ourselves to consciousness, and to cast a critical eye
	306	upon this decidedly grotesque tendency. Other nations suffer terribly
	307	from the Mandarin disease. Are we doomed to suffer like the rest?</p>
	308
	309	</blockquote>
b61362db	310
b61362db	311	<p><a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20PhD%20Octopus.html">Full Text</a></p>
5e4e370e	312
	313
	314
	315	<h2><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a>
	316	Henry James</h2>
	317
	318	<p class="first">The novelist brother of William James; I've not read many (read:
	319	one) of his books, but what I did was decent.</p>
023ad63c	320
5e4e370e	321	<h3><a name="sec17" id="sec17"></a>
	322	The Altar of the Dead</h3>
	323
	324	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
	325
	326	<p>A short novella about a man who maintained an altar in a church
	327	for all of his lost loved ones on the surface, but something a bit
	328	more beneath.</p>
	329
	330
	331
	332	<h2><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a>
023ad63c	333	Gregor Kiczales</h2>
	334
	335
	336
5e4e370e	337	<h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></a>
023ad63c	338	The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</h3>
	339
	340	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
	341
	342	<p>AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with
	343	the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first
	344	half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a
	345	series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations
	346	and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for
	347	CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general
	348	object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly
	349	make mapping decisions customizable.</p>
	350
	351
	352
5e4e370e	353	<h2><a name="sec20" id="sec20"></a>
023ad63c	354	Søren Kierkegaard</h2>
	355
	356	<p class="first">Kierkegaard was a master of style and philosophy; his writing is
	357	interesting even if one finds the theistic extentialism espoused
	358	disagreeable.</p>
	359
5e4e370e	360	<h3><a name="sec21" id="sec21"></a>
023ad63c	361	Sickness Unto Death</h3>
	362
	363	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
	364
	365	<p>I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after
	366	being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it
	367	was better for me to have found this one.</p>
	368
	369	<p>Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of
	370	Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends,
	371	the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is
	372	reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation
	373	forces reflection.</p>
	374
	375
5e4e370e	376	<h3><a name="sec22" id="sec22"></a>
023ad63c	377	Either/Or</h3>
	378
	379	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
	380
	381	<p>Composed of two portions, <em>Either/Or</em> is a rather lengthy but
	382	rewarding read. The first book is a series of essays and a diary of a
	383	young esthetician; the second is a pair of long letters from an older
	384	ethicist friend to this esthetician. You are then left to resolve the
	385	conflict between the views.</p>
	386
	387
	388
5e4e370e	389	<h2><a name="sec23" id="sec23"></a>
023ad63c	390	Thomas More</h2>
	391
	392
	393
5e4e370e	394	<h3><a name="sec24" id="sec24"></a>
023ad63c	395	Utopia</h3>
	396
	397	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
	398
	399	<p>I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but
	400	the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the
	401	overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so
	402	I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick
	403	read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system
	404	espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a
	405	negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European
	406	social customs.</p>
	407
	408
	409
5e4e370e	410	<h2><a name="sec25" id="sec25"></a>
04cda6d1	411	Friedrich Nietzsche</h2>
	412
	413	<p class="first">A bit acerbic and esoteric, Nietzsche is for me a good <em>secular</em>
	414	counterpart to Kierkegaard's theistic philosophy. Nietzsche's
	415	polemical works raise important questions for anyone who reads works
	416	on ethics. As such it is a shame that he has gotten a bad reputation
	417	by being read by far too many angsty teenagers who see (and relay)
	418	only Nietzsche the asshole rather than Nietzsche the master of the
	419	polemic.</p>
	420
5e4e370e	421	<h3><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a>
04cda6d1	422	Beyond Good and Evil</h3>
	423
	424	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> (8) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
	425
	426	<p>A somewhat more comprehensible, if a bit less aesthetically
	427	pleasing, presentation of much of the philosophy found in <em>Thus Spoke
b61362db	428	Zarathustra</em> in the negative form. The final chapters are very
	429	important (not to detract from the value of the rest of the work) if
	430	one wishes to understand <em>On the Genealogy of Morals</em>.</p>
04cda6d1	431
04cda6d1	432
5e4e370e	433	<h3><a name="sec27" id="sec27"></a>
04cda6d1	434	On the Geneaology of Morals</h3>
	435
	436	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
	437
	438	<p><em>On the Geneaology of Morals</em> is a wonderful book of three
	439	polemical essays on the origin of moral/ethic valuations, and the
	440	blindness of modern philosphers whose very thinking is tainted by
	441	these valuations unknowingly.</p>
	442
	443
b61362db	444	<h3><a name="sec28" id="sec28"></a>
	445	Ecce Homo</h3>
	446
	447	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
	448
	449	<p><em>Ecce Homo</em> is Nietzsche's very strange autobiography and
	450	explanation of his own works. At points it is clear that it could have
	451	used a bit more editing (prevented by Nietzsche ... falling into a
	452	catatonic state and all), but is still a very useful book to read as
	453	Nietzsche explains the overall structure of his works.</p>
	454
	455
04cda6d1	456
b61362db	457	<h2><a name="sec29" id="sec29"></a>
023ad63c	458	Luke Rhinehardt</h2>
	459
	460
	461
b61362db	462	<h3><a name="sec30" id="sec30"></a>
023ad63c	463	The Dice Man</h3>
	464
	465	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
	466
	467	<blockquote>
	468	<p class="quoted">
	469	And it's his illusions about what
	470	constitutes the real world which are
	471	inhibiting him...
	472	His reality, his reason, his society
	473	...these are what must be destroyed</p>
	474
	475	</blockquote>
	476
	477	<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
	478	this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found
	479	in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an
	480	autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression
	481	through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through
	482	random chance.</p>
	483
	484	<p>The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part
	485	attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often
	486	difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.</p>
	487
	488
	489
b61362db	490	<h2><a name="sec31" id="sec31"></a>
023ad63c	491	Neal Stephenson</h2>
	492
	493
	494
b61362db	495	<h3><a name="sec32" id="sec32"></a>
023ad63c	496	Snow Crash</h3>
	497
	498	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
	499
	500	<p>As one must read the <em>Bible</em> to understand English literature, so one
	501	must read <em>Snow Crash</em> today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop
	502	fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in
	503	a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come
	504	up with enganging tales. <em>Snow Crash</em> has a nice undertone of (quite
	505	accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading
	506	as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.</p>
	507
	508
b61362db	509	<h3><a name="sec33" id="sec33"></a>
023ad63c	510	Cryptonomicon</h3>
	511
	512	<p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> (8) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
	513
	514	<p>I read <em>Cryptonomicon</em> when it was new, and at the time I thought it was
	515	good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from
	516	the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to
	517	finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between
	518	the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way.</p>
	519
	520	<p>I'd still have to recommend <em>Snow Crash</em> if one wished to read only one
	521	Stephenson novel.</p>
	522
	523
	524
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b61362db	551	<p class="cke-footer"> So play today
	552	Go make your hay beneath a warm sun shining
	553	But bear in mind one day you'll find the silver cloud's dark lining
023ad63c	554	</p>
023ad63c	555	<p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
b61362db	556	September 23, 2008</p>
023ad63c	557	</body>
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