Book List.html

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  16     <h1>A Not So Fancy Listing of Books</h1>
  17    <div class="contents">
  18 <dl>
  19 <dt>
  20 <a href="#sec1">Marcus Aurelius</a>
  21 </dt>
  22 <dd>
  23 <dl>
  24 <dt>
  25 <a href="#sec2">Meditations</a>
  26 </dt>
  27 </dl>
  28 </dd>
  29 <dt>
  30 <a href="#sec3">William Blake</a>
  31 </dt>
  32 <dd>
  33 <dl>
  34 <dt>
  35 <a href="#sec4">The Four Zoas</a>
  36 </dt>
  37 <dt>
  38 <a href="#sec5">Jerusalem</a>
  39 </dt>
  40 </dl>
  41 </dd>
  42 <dt>
  43 <a href="#sec6">Neil Gaiman</a>
  44 </dt>
  45 <dd>
  46 <dl>
  47 <dt>
  48 <a href="#sec7">The Sandman (series)</a>
  49 </dt>
  50 </dl>
  51 </dd>
  52 <dt>
  53 <a href="#sec8">John Taylor Gatto</a>
  54 </dt>
  55 <dd>
  56 <dl>
  57 <dt>
  58 <a href="#sec9">Underground History of American Education</a>
  59 </dt>
  60 </dl>
  61 </dd>
  62 <dt>
  63 <a href="#sec10">Kahlil Gibran</a>
  64 </dt>
  65 <dd>
  66 <dl>
  67 <dt>
  68 <a href="#sec11">A Tear and a Smile</a>
  69 </dt>
  70 <dt>
  71 <a href="#sec12">The Prophet</a>
  72 </dt>
  73 <dt>
  74 <a href="#sec13">Sand and Foam</a>
  75 </dt>
  76 <dt>
  77 <a href="#sec14">The Madman</a>
  78 </dt>
  79 </dl>
  80 </dd>
  81 <dt>
  82 <a href="#sec15">William James</a>
  83 </dt>
  84 <dd>
  85 <dl>
  86 <dt>
  87 <a href="#sec16">The Varieties of Religious Experience</a>
  88 </dt>
  89 <dt>
  90 <a href="#sec17">The PhD Octopus</a>
  91 </dt>
  92 </dl>
  93 </dd>
  94 <dt>
  95 <a href="#sec18">Henry James</a>
  96 </dt>
  97 <dd>
  98 <dl>
  99 <dt>
 100 <a href="#sec19">The Altar of the Dead</a>
 101 </dt>
 102 </dl>
 103 </dd>
 104 <dt>
 105 <a href="#sec20">Gregor Kiczales</a>
 106 </dt>
 107 <dd>
 108 <dl>
 109 <dt>
 110 <a href="#sec21">The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a>
 111 </dt>
 112 </dl>
 113 </dd>
 114 <dt>
 115 <a href="#sec22">Søren Kierkegaard</a>
 116 </dt>
 117 <dd>
 118 <dl>
 119 <dt>
 120 <a href="#sec23">Sickness Unto Death</a>
 121 </dt>
 122 <dt>
 123 <a href="#sec24">Either/Or</a>
 124 </dt>
 125 <dt>
 126 <a href="#sec25">Fear and Trembling</a>
 127 </dt>
 128 </dl>
 129 </dd>
 130 <dt>
 131 <a href="#sec26">Alan Moore</a>
 132 </dt>
 133 <dd>
 134 <dl>
 135 <dt>
 136 <a href="#sec27">Watchmen</a>
 137 </dt>
 138 <dt>
 139 <a href="#sec28">V for Vendetta</a>
 140 </dt>
 141 </dl>
 142 </dd>
 143 <dt>
 144 <a href="#sec29">Thomas More</a>
 145 </dt>
 146 <dd>
 147 <dl>
 148 <dt>
 149 <a href="#sec30">Utopia</a>
 150 </dt>
 151 </dl>
 152 </dd>
 153 <dt>
 154 <a href="#sec31">Friedrich Nietzsche</a>
 155 </dt>
 156 <dd>
 157 <dl>
 158 <dt>
 159 <a href="#sec32">Beyond Good and Evil</a>
 160 </dt>
 161 <dt>
 162 <a href="#sec33">On the Geneaology of Morals</a>
 163 </dt>
 164 <dt>
 165 <a href="#sec34">Ecce Homo</a>
 166 </dt>
 167 </dl>
 168 </dd>
 169 <dt>
 170 <a href="#sec35">Luke Rhinehardt</a>
 171 </dt>
 172 <dd>
 173 <dl>
 174 <dt>
 175 <a href="#sec36">The Dice Man</a>
 176 </dt>
 177 </dl>
 178 </dd>
 179 <dt>
 180 <a href="#sec37">Neal Stephenson</a>
 181 </dt>
 182 <dd>
 183 <dl>
 184 <dt>
 185 <a href="#sec38">Snow Crash</a>
 186 </dt>
 187 <dt>
 188 <a href="#sec39">Cryptonomicon</a>
 189 </dt>
 190 </dl>
 191 </dd>
 192 </dl>
 193 </div>
 194
 195
 196 <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
 197 Marcus Aurelius</h2>
 198
 199
 200
 201 <h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
 202 Meditations</h3>
 203
 204 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> ••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••• </span> (6) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 205
 206 <p>I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic
 207 philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books
 208 before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the
 209 collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting
 210 according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but
 211 each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A
 212 number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in
 213 my notebook to ponder further.</p>
 214
 215
 216
 217
 218 <h2><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
 219 William Blake</h2>
 220
 221 <p class="first">Blake is my <a href="William%20Blake.html">favorite</a> of the English poets. His
 222 unique use of relief etching and watercoloring makes for very
 223 interesting Illuminated works. There is a very high quality
 224 <a href="http://blakearchive.org">complete archive of Blake's works</a> online
 225 with high resolution plate scans and full transcriptions among other
 226 things.</p>
 227
 228 <h3><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
 229 The Four Zoas</h3>
 230
 231 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> ••••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad"> </span> (10) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 232
 233 <p>The unfinished manuscript of Blake's longest apocalypse. The
 234 Four Zoas divide from Albion and rage through the ages of dismal woe
 235 to bring about the end of the cycle of Ulro and restore the cycle of
 236 Beulah.</p>
 237
 238
 239
 240 <h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a>
 241 Jerusalem</h3>
 242
 243 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> ••••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad"> </span> (10) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 244
 245 <p>The finest of Blake's Illuminated works.</p>
 246
 247
 248
 249
 250 <h2><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a>
 251 Neil Gaiman</h2>
 252
 253
 254
 255 <h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a>
 256 The Sandman (series)</h3>
 257
 258 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> ••••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad"> </span> (10) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 259
 260 <p>Perhaps the best comic book series of all time; I would say <em>The
 261 Sandman</em> as a whole ranks higher than anything even Alan Moore has
 262 written.</p>
 263
 264
 265
 266
 267 <h2><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a>
 268 John Taylor Gatto</h2>
 269
 270 <p class="first">Former teacher and now author-activist.</p>
 271
 272 <h3><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a>
 273 Underground History of American Education</h3>
 274
 275 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> •••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">• </span> (9) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 276
 277 <p>An interesting <em>underground</em> history of the American education
 278 system. Available
 279 <a href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/">online for free</a>.</p>
 280
 281
 282
 283
 284 <h2><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a>
 285 Kahlil Gibran</h2>
 286
 287 <p class="first">Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not
 288 agree with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but <em>The Madman</em> onward are
 289 all rather nice. A few of his works are
 290 <a href="http://leb.net/~mira/">online</a>, but I recommend scouting used book
 291 stores for old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least)
 292 <em>hardcover</em> versions from <em>Alfred A. Knopf</em> are in fact permabound
 293 paperbacks with a hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to
 294 the editions from the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more,
 295 naturally).</p>
 296
 297 <h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a>
 298 A Tear and a Smile</h3>
 299
 300 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> •••</span><span class="rating-bad">••••••• </span> (3) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 301
 302 <p>One of Kahlil Gibran's earlier works, I did not much like <em>A
 303 Tear and a Smile</em> excepting the last poem (&quot;A Poet's Voice&quot;).</p>
 304
 305
 306
 307 <h3><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a>
 308 The Prophet</h3>
 309
 310 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> •••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">• </span> (9) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 311
 312
 313
 314
 315
 316 <h3><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a>
 317 Sand and Foam</h3>
 318
 319 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> •••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••• </span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 320
 321 <p>An interesting little book of aphorisms.</p>
 322
 323
 324
 325 <h3><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a>
 326 The Madman</h3>
 327
 328 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> ••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•• </span> (8) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 329
 330
 331
 332
 333
 334
 335 <h2><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
 336 William James</h2>
 337
 338
 339
 340 <h3><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a>
 341 The Varieties of Religious Experience</h3>
 342
 343 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> •••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••• </span> (7) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 344
 345 <p><a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20Varieties%20of%20Religious%20Experience.html">A partially finished extended summary</a></p>
 346
 347
 348
 349 <h3><a name="sec17" id="sec17"></a>
 350 The PhD Octopus</h3>
 351
 352 <p><em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 353
 354 <blockquote>
 355 <p class="quoted">
 356 America is thus as a nation rapidly drifting towards a state of things
 357 in which no man of science or letters will be accounted respectable
 358 unless some kind of badge or diploma is stamped upon him, and in which
 359 bare personality will be a mark of outcast estate.  It seems to me high
 360 time to rouse ourselves to consciousness, and to cast a critical eye
 361 upon this decidedly grotesque tendency.  Other nations suffer terribly
 362 from the Mandarin disease.  Are we doomed to suffer like the rest?</p>
 363
 364 </blockquote>
 365
 366 <p><a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20PhD%20Octopus.html">Full Text</a></p>
 367
 368
 369
 370
 371 <h2><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a>
 372 Henry James</h2>
 373
 374 <p class="first">The novelist brother of William James; I've not read many (read:
 375 one) of his books, but what I did was decent.</p>
 376
 377 <h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></a>
 378 The Altar of the Dead</h3>
 379
 380 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> •••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••• </span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 381
 382 <p>A short novella about a man who maintained an altar in a church
 383 for all of his lost loved ones on the surface, but something a bit
 384 more beneath.</p>
 385
 386
 387
 388
 389 <h2><a name="sec20" id="sec20"></a>
 390 Gregor Kiczales</h2>
 391
 392
 393
 394 <h3><a name="sec21" id="sec21"></a>
 395 The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</h3>
 396
 397 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> ••••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad"> </span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 398
 399 <p>AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with
 400 the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first
 401 half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a
 402 series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations
 403 and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for
 404 CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general
 405 object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly
 406 make mapping decisions customizable.</p>
 407
 408
 409
 410
 411 <h2><a name="sec22" id="sec22"></a>
 412 Søren Kierkegaard</h2>
 413
 414 <p class="first">Kierkegaard was a master of style and philosophy; his writing is
 415 interesting even if one finds the theistic extentialism espoused
 416 disagreeable.</p>
 417
 418 <h3><a name="sec23" id="sec23"></a>
 419 Sickness Unto Death</h3>
 420
 421 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> ••••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad"> </span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 422
 423 <p>I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after
 424 being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it
 425 was better for me to have found this one.</p>
 426
 427 <p>Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of
 428 Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends,
 429 the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is
 430 reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation
 431 forces reflection.</p>
 432
 433
 434
 435 <h3><a name="sec24" id="sec24"></a>
 436 Either/Or</h3>
 437
 438 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> ••••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad"> </span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 439
 440 <p>Composed of two portions, <em>Either/Or</em> is a rather lengthy but
 441 rewarding read. The first book is a series of essays and a diary of a
 442 young esthetician; the second is a pair of long letters from an older
 443 ethicist friend to this esthetician. You are then left to resolve the
 444 conflict between the views.</p>
 445
 446
 447
 448 <h3><a name="sec25" id="sec25"></a>
 449 Fear and Trembling</h3>
 450
 451 <p><em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 452
 453 <p>An interesting dialectical lyric contrasting Despair and Faith.</p>
 454
 455
 456
 457
 458 <h2><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a>
 459 Alan Moore</h2>
 460
 461
 462
 463 <h3><a name="sec27" id="sec27"></a>
 464 Watchmen</h3>
 465
 466 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> ••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•• </span> (8) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 467
 468
 469
 470
 471
 472 <h3><a name="sec28" id="sec28"></a>
 473 V for Vendetta</h3>
 474
 475 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> ••••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad"> </span> (10) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 476
 477
 478
 479
 480
 481
 482 <h2><a name="sec29" id="sec29"></a>
 483 Thomas More</h2>
 484
 485
 486
 487 <h3><a name="sec30" id="sec30"></a>
 488 Utopia</h3>
 489
 490 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> •••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••• </span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 491
 492 <p>I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but
 493 the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the
 494 overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so
 495 I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick
 496 read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system
 497 espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a
 498 negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European
 499 social customs.</p>
 500
 501
 502
 503
 504 <h2><a name="sec31" id="sec31"></a>
 505 Friedrich Nietzsche</h2>
 506
 507 <p class="first">A bit acerbic and esoteric, Nietzsche is for me a good <em>secular</em>
 508 counterpart to Kierkegaard's theistic philosophy. Nietzsche's
 509 polemical works raise important questions for anyone who reads works
 510 on ethics. As such it is a shame that he has gotten a bad reputation
 511 by being read by far too many angsty teenagers who see (and relay)
 512 only Nietzsche the asshole rather than Nietzsche the master of the
 513 polemic.</p>
 514
 515 <h3><a name="sec32" id="sec32"></a>
 516 Beyond Good and Evil</h3>
 517
 518 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> ••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•• </span> (8) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 519
 520 <p>A somewhat more comprehensible, if a bit less aesthetically
 521 pleasing, presentation of much of the philosophy found in <em>Thus Spoke
 522 Zarathustra</em> in the negative form. The final chapters are very
 523 important (not to detract from the value of the rest of the work) if
 524 one wishes to understand <em>On the Genealogy of Morals</em>.</p>
 525
 526
 527
 528 <h3><a name="sec33" id="sec33"></a>
 529 On the Geneaology of Morals</h3>
 530
 531 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> •••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">• </span> (9) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 532
 533 <p><em>On the Geneaology of Morals</em> is a wonderful book of three
 534 polemical essays on the origin of moral/ethic valuations, and the
 535 blindness of modern philosphers whose very thinking is tainted by
 536 these valuations unknowingly.</p>
 537
 538
 539
 540 <h3><a name="sec34" id="sec34"></a>
 541 Ecce Homo</h3>
 542
 543 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> •••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••• </span> (7) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 544
 545 <p><em>Ecce Homo</em> is Nietzsche's very strange autobiography and
 546 explanation of his own works. At points it is clear that it could have
 547 used a bit more editing (prevented by Nietzsche ... falling into a
 548 catatonic state and all), but is still a very useful book to read as
 549 Nietzsche explains the overall structure of his works.</p>
 550
 551
 552
 553
 554 <h2><a name="sec35" id="sec35"></a>
 555 Luke Rhinehardt</h2>
 556
 557
 558
 559 <h3><a name="sec36" id="sec36"></a>
 560 The Dice Man</h3>
 561
 562 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> •••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••• </span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 563
 564 <blockquote>
 565 <p class="quoted">
 566 And it's his illusions about what
 567 constitutes the real world which are
 568 inhibiting him...
 569 His reality, his reason, his society
 570 ...these are what must be destroyed</p>
 571
 572 </blockquote>
 573
 574 <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
 575 this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found
 576 in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an
 577 autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression
 578 through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through
 579 random chance.</p>
 580
 581 <p>The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part
 582 attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often
 583 difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.</p>
 584
 585
 586
 587
 588 <h2><a name="sec37" id="sec37"></a>
 589 Neal Stephenson</h2>
 590
 591
 592
 593 <h3><a name="sec38" id="sec38"></a>
 594 Snow Crash</h3>
 595
 596 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> •••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">• </span> (9) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 597
 598 <p>As one must read the <em>Bible</em> to understand English literature, so one
 599 must read <em>Snow Crash</em> today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop
 600 fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in
 601 a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come
 602 up with enganging tales. <em>Snow Crash</em> has a nice undertone of (quite
 603 accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading
 604 as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.</p>
 605
 606
 607
 608 <h3><a name="sec39" id="sec39"></a>
 609 Cryptonomicon</h3>
 610
 611 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good"> ••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•• </span> (8) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 612
 613 <p>I read <em>Cryptonomicon</em> when it was new, and at the time I thought it was
 614 good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from
 615 the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to
 616 finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between
 617 the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way.</p>
 618
 619 <p>I'd still have to recommend <em>Snow Crash</em> if one wished to read only one
 620 Stephenson novel.</p>
 621
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 650 <p class="cke-footer">Corinne: this is why we should have designated bath buddies
 651 Corinne: to get places you cant reach because youre slippery and in
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 655 <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
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