[clinton/website/site/unknownlamer.org.git] / Reading.html

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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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	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>The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms</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>The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms</h1>
	14	<div class="contents">
	15	<dl>
	16	<dt>
	17	<a href="#sec1">Authors</a>
	18	</dt>
	19	<dd>
	20	<dl>
	21	<dt>
	22	<a href="#sec2">William Blake</a>
	23	</dt>
f7bae6cc	24	<dt>
	25	<a href="#sec3">Kahlil Gibran</a>
	26	</dt>
2aff8b5c	27	</dl>
	28	</dd>
	29	<dt>
f7bae6cc	30	<a href="#sec4">Fiction</a>
2aff8b5c	31	</dt>
	32	<dd>
	33	<dl>
	34	<dt>
f7bae6cc	35	<a href="#sec5">General</a>
2aff8b5c	36	</dt>
	37	<dd>
	38	<dl>
	39	<dt>
f7bae6cc	40	<a href="#sec6">Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man</a>
2aff8b5c	41	</dt>
	42	</dl>
	43	</dd>
	44	<dt>
f7bae6cc	45	<a href="#sec7">Philosophical</a>
2aff8b5c	46	</dt>
2aff8b5c	47	<dt>
	48	<a href="#sec8">Sci-Fi</a>
	49	</dt>
	50	<dd>
	51	<dl>
	52	<dt>
	53	<a href="#sec9">Neal Stephenson</a>
	54	</dt>
	55	</dl>
	56	</dd>
	57	</dl>
	58	</dd>
	59	<dt>
	60	<a href="#sec10">Non-Fiction</a>
	61	</dt>
	62	<dd>
	63	<dl>
	64	<dt>
	65	<a href="#sec11">Education</a>
	66	</dt>
	67	<dd>
	68	<dl>
	69	<dt>
	70	<a href="#sec12">John Taylor Gatto - Underground History of American Education</a>
	71	</dt>
	72	</dl>
	73	</dd>
	74	<dt>
	75	<a href="#sec13">Philosophy</a>
	76	</dt>
	77	<dd>
	78	<dl>
	79	<dt>
	80	<a href="#sec14">Chinese</a>
	81	</dt>
	82	<dt>
	83	<a href="#sec15">Marcus Aurelius - Meditations</a>
	84	</dt>
	85	<dt>
	86	<a href="#sec16">Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death</a>
	87	</dt>
	88	</dl>
	89	</dd>
	90	<dt>
	91	<a href="#sec17">Politics</a>
	92	</dt>
	93	<dd>
	94	<dl>
	95	<dt>
	96	<a href="#sec18">Thomas More - Utopia</a>
	97	</dt>
	98	</dl>
	99	</dd>
	100	<dt>
	101	<a href="#sec19">Religion</a>
	102	</dt>
	103	<dd>
	104	<dl>
	105	<dt>
	106	<a href="#sec20">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</a>
	107	</dt>
	108	</dl>
	109	</dd>
	110	<dt>
111	<a href="#sec21">Technical</a>
112	</dt>
113	<dd>
114	<dl>
115	<dt>
116	<a href="#sec22">C J Date - Database in Depth</a>
117	</dt>
118	<dt>
119	<a href="#sec23">Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a>
120	</dt>
121	</dl>
122	</dd>
123	</dl>
124	</dd>
125	<dt>
126	<a href="#sec24">Reports</a>
127	</dt>
128	<dd>
129	<dl>
130	<dt>
131	<a href="#sec25">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy</a>
132	</dt>
133	</dl>
134	</dd>
135	<dt>
136	<a href="#sec26">Books That I Cannot Find</a>
137	</dt>
138	<dt>
139	<a href="#sec27">Essays</a>
140	</dt>
141	<dd>
142	<dl>
143	<dt>
144	<a href="#sec28">Computing</a>
145	</dt>
146	<dd>
147	<dl>
148	<dt>
149	<a href="#sec29">Design</a>
150	</dt>
151	</dl>
152	</dd>
153	</dl>
154	</dd>
155	</dl>
156	</div>
157
158
159	<!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><p>I enjoy classical literature and works of philosophy and politics with
160	a side of cyberpunk novels for when my brain is tired. When I was in
161	High School I read technical books for fun, but now I tend to find
162	most of them useless (thank you Internet) excepting a few really well
163	written ones (<em>L.i.s.p</em>, <em>TAOCP</em>, ...).</p>
164
165	<p>I spend most of my time reading. A full list of things I have read
166	would be impossible to compile, but here I am collecting links and
167	small summaries of things I have read and find interesting enough to
168	mention, but not always recommend, to others.</p>
169
170	<h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
171	Authors</h2>
172
173	<h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
174	William Blake</h3>
175
176	<p class="first">His poetry is the result of spending too much time etching copper
177	plates and breathing the fumes. Quite wonderful indeed.</p>
178
179
f7bae6cc	180	<h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
	181	Kahlil Gibran</h3>
	182
	183	<p class="first">Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not agree
	184	with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but <em>The Madman</em> onward are all
	185	rather nice. So far I've read <em>A Tear and a Smile</em> (not so good
	186	excepting the last poem), <em>The Madman</em>, <em>The Prophet</em> (both excellent),
	187	and <em>Sand and Foam</em> (an interesting little book of aphorisms). A few of
	188	his works are <a href="http://leb.net/~mira/">online</a>, but I recommend scouting used book stores for
	189	old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least) <em>hardcover</em>
	190	versions from <em>Alfred A. Knopf</em> are in fact permabound paperbacks with a
	191	hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to the editions from
	192	the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more, naturally).</p>
	193
	194
2aff8b5c	195
f7bae6cc	196	<h2><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
2aff8b5c	197	Fiction</h2>
2aff8b5c	198
f7bae6cc	199	<h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a>
2aff8b5c	200	General</h3>
2aff8b5c	201
f7bae6cc	202	<h4><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a>
2aff8b5c	203	Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man</h4>
	204
	205	<blockquote>
	206	<p class="quoted">
	207	And it's his illusions about what
	208	constitutes the real world which are
	209	inhibiting him...
	210	His reality, his reason, his society
	211	...these are what must be destroyed</p>
	212
	213	</blockquote>
	214
	215	<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
	216	this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found
	217	in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an
	218	autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression
	219	through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through
	220	random chance.</p>
	221
	222	<p>The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part
	223	attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often
	224	difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.</p>
	225
	226
	227
f7bae6cc	228	<h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a>
2aff8b5c	229	Philosophical</h3>
2aff8b5c	230
2aff8b5c	231
	232	<h3><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a>
	233	Sci-Fi</h3>
	234
	235	<h4><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a>
	236	Neal Stephenson</h4>
	237
	238	<h5>Cryptonomicon</h5>
	239
	240	<p>I read <em>Cryptonomicon</em> when it was new, and at the time I thought it was
	241	good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from
	242	the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to
	243	finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between
	244	the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way.</p>
	245
	246	<p>I'd still have to recommend <em>Snow Crash</em> if one wished to read only one
	247	Stephenson novel.</p>
	248
	249
	250	<h5>Snow Crash</h5>
	251
	252	<p>As one must read the <em>Bible</em> to understand English literature, so one
	253	must read <em>Snow Crash</em> today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop
	254	fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in
	255	a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come
	256	up with enganging tales. <em>Snow Crash</em> has a nice undertone of (quite
	257	accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading
	258	as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.</p>
	259
	260
	261
	262
	263
	264	<h2><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a>
	265	Non-Fiction</h2>
	266
	267	<h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a>
	268	Education</h3>
	269
	270	<h4><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a>
	271	John Taylor Gatto - <a href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm">Underground History of American Education</a></h4>
	272
	273	<p class="first">Contained within this book (available online for free, but the printed
	274	copy sits wonderfully on a shelf) is a detailed and seemingly well
	275	researched history of American Education with a particular focus on
	276	the transformation that has occured before our eyes in the last
	277	century. I am unsure if Gatto is entirely correct and not exaggerating
	278	anything; I have failed to find any negative criticisms, but it is not
	279	clear to me if that is because he is entirely correct or if no one
	280	cares enough to write a counterargument. I am in the process of
	281	tracking down as many of his sources as possible (a good number of
	282	them are out of print and not in the public domain yet), and will make
	283	an attempt to verify his argument over the course of the next year
	284	(that being 2007).</p>
	285
	286	<p>If he is correct then every one of us has had the first eighteen years
	287	of our lives stolen from us, and we have collectively suffered massive
	288	intellectual damage. My intuitions tell me he is correct (which is why
	289	I am driven to verify; I cannot trust myself because I <em>want</em> to
	290	believe) for my individuality and intelligence were nearly stolen from
	291	me. The only reason I survived relatively unscathed is because I
	292	became completely socially withdrawn for the last half of elementary
	293	school until late in high school due to the abuse I received at the
	294	hands of my peers creating a deep fear of social interaction in
295	me. The downside is that I had the confidence crushed from my soul,
296	but now that I have begun to regain it (the good that bicycling
297	enabling me to stand straight and gradual realization of my own worth
298	as a human have done) I would never trade the ability to think freely
299	for the social skills I lack.</p>
300
301
302
303	<h3><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a>
304	Philosophy</h3>
305
306	<h4><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a>
307	Chinese</h4>
308
309	<h5>Tao Te Ching</h5>
310
311
312	<h5>Confucianism</h5>
313
314	<h5>The Analects</h5>
315
316
317
318
319	<h4><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
320	Marcus Aurelius - Meditations</h4>
321
322	<p class="first">I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic
323	philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books
324	before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the
325	collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting
326	according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but
327	each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A
328	number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in
329	my notebook to ponder further.</p>
330
331
332	<h4><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a>
333	Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death</h4>
334
335	<p class="first">I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after
336	being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it
337	was better for me to have found this one.</p>
338
339	<p>Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of
340	Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends,
341	the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is
342	reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation
343	forces reflection.</p>
344
345
346
347	<h3><a name="sec17" id="sec17"></a>
348	Politics</h3>
349
350	<h4><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a>
351	Thomas More - Utopia</h4>
352
353	<p class="first">I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but
354	the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the
355	overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so
356	I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick
357	read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system
358	espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a
359	negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European
360	social customs.</p>
361
362
363
364	<h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></a>
365	Religion</h3>
366
367	<h4><a name="sec20" id="sec20"></a>
368	<a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20Varieties%20of%20Religious%20Experience.html">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</a></h4>
369
370
371
372
373	<h3><a name="sec21" id="sec21"></a>
374	Technical</h3>
375
376	<h4><a name="sec22" id="sec22"></a>
377	C J Date - Database in Depth</h4>
378
379	<p class="first">This was a complete waste of time. The author rants on for 180 pages
380	and presents the information in a disorderly and shallow manner. It
381	could be rewritten in about fifty pages and contain the same amount of
382	information if it were organized properly and the off topic commentary
383	were minimized.</p>
384
385
386	<h4><a name="sec23" id="sec23"></a>
387	Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</h4>
388
389	<p class="first">AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with
390	the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first
391	half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a
392	series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations
393	and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for
394	CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general
395	object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly
396	make mapping decisions customizable.</p>
397
398
399
400
401
402	<h2><a name="sec24" id="sec24"></a>
403	Reports</h2>
404
405	<h3><a name="sec25" id="sec25"></a>
406	<a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006483.pdf">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy</a></h3>
407
408	<p class="first">A depressing view of American literacy rates. Literacy skills
409	decreased across almost every population segment in the US between
410	1993 and 2003; a mere 31% of college graduates are considered
411	proficient in quantitative literacy (defined as being able to do
412	things as terribly complicated as comparing two editorials).</p>
413
414
415
416
417	<h2><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a>
418	Books That I Cannot Find</h2>
419
420	<p class="first">If you know anyone who has copies I'd appreciate an email. I'm willing
421	to buy books for a reasonable cost, and for ones that are more than 25
422	years old and out of print I am not opposed to <em>piracy</em> (no one is
423	making money from them, and I feel that long copyrights are unethical
424	and therefore feel no pangs of moral guilt).</p>
425
426	<ul>
427	<li><em>Crystallizing Public Opinion</em> by Edward Bernays
428
429	<ul>
430	<li>A supposed classic in the field of public relations. Curiosity
431	demands that I read the writings of the father of the field to
432	better understand the way the international media works.</li>
433	<li>Another example of out of print books clearly having a market,
434	but no publisher due to copyright (used copies go for nearly a
435	thousand dollars in poor condition and hit five thousand or so
436	for ones in good shape).</li>
437	</ul></li>
438	</ul>
439
440
441	<h2><a name="sec27" id="sec27"></a>
442	Essays</h2>
443
444	<h3><a name="sec28" id="sec28"></a>
445	Computing</h3>
446
447	<h4><a name="sec29" id="sec29"></a>
448	Design</h4>
449
450	<h5><a href="http://deadhobosociety.com/index.php/Essays/ESSAY12">Confucianism and Technical Standards</a></h5>
451
452
453
454
455
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f7bae6cc	482	<p class="cke-footer">Mike: I WAS NOT MICROWAVED.
2aff8b5c	483	</p>
2aff8b5c	484	<p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
f7bae6cc	485	July 29, 2008</p>
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