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> |
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 | |
410 | |
411 | <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse ends here --> |
412 | |
413 | <p class="cke-buttons"> |
414 | <!-- validating badges, any browser, etc --> |
415 | <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img |
416 | src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-xhtml10" |
417 | alt="Valid XHTML 1.0!" /></a> |
418 | |
419 | <a href="http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/"><img |
420 | src="img/buttons/w3c_ab.png" alt="[ Viewable With Any Browser |
421 | ]" /></a> |
422 | |
423 | <a href="http://www.debian.org/"><img |
424 | src="img/buttons/debian.png" alt="[ Powered by Debian ]" /></a> |
425 | |
426 | <a href="http://hcoop.net/"> |
427 | <img src="img/buttons/hcoop.png" |
428 | alt="[ Hosted by HCoop]" /> |
429 | </a> |
430 | |
431 | <a href="http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=114"> |
432 | <img src="img/buttons/fsf_member.png" |
433 | alt="[ FSF Associate Member ]" /> |
434 | </a> |
435 | </p> |
436 | |
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> |
443 | </body> |
444 | </html> |