X-Git-Url: http://git.hcoop.net/clinton/website/site/unknownlamer.org.git/blobdiff_plain/20c7863fc402c2e2caad7a23a5df16095869c2fb..9be210c03d9856c0f5a15e773e85d45636fc2c6c:/Book%20List.html diff --git a/Book List.html b/Book List.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15dfe1d --- /dev/null +++ b/Book List.html @@ -0,0 +1,1678 @@ + + + + + A Not So Fancy Listing of Books + + + + + + + +

A Not So Fancy Listing of Books

+
+
+
+Douglas Adams +
+
+
+
+Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (collected) +
+
+The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul +
+
+
+
+Aeschylus +
+
+
+
+Oresteia +
+
+Prometheus Bound +
+
+The Persians +
+
+
+
+John Allison +
+
+
+
+Looks, Brains and Everything +
+
+Blame the Sky +
+
+Skellington +
+
+The Retribution Index +
+
+Great Aches +
+
+Ahoy Hoy! +
+
+Heavy Metal Hearts and Flowers +
+
+Ghosts +
+
+
+
+Anonymous +
+
+
+
+Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz +
+
+
+
+Aristophanes +
+
+
+
+The Frogs +
+
+The Clouds +
+
+Ecclesiazusae +
+
+
+
+Aristotle +
+
+
+
+Ethics +
+
+Categories +
+
+Poetics +
+
+Rhetoric +
+
+
+
+Marcus Aurelius +
+
+
+
+Meditations +
+
+
+
+William Blake +
+
+
+
+The Four Zoas +
+
+Jerusalem +
+
+
+
+Albert Camus +
+
+
+
+The Plague +
+
+
+
+Mike Carey +
+
+
+
+Lucifer (series) +
+
+
+
+Confucius +
+
+
+
+Analects +
+
+
+
+Neil Gaiman +
+
+
+
+The Sandman (series) +
+
+Good Omens +
+
+American Gods +
+
+
+
+John Taylor Gatto +
+
+
+
+Underground History of American Education +
+
+
+
+Kahlil Gibran +
+
+
+
+A Tear and a Smile +
+
+The Prophet +
+
+Sand and Foam +
+
+The Madman +
+
+
+
+Homer +
+
+
+
+The Odyssey +
+
+
+
+Aldous Huxley +
+
+
+
+The Doors of Perception +
+
+Heaven and Hell +
+
+Brave New World +
+
+
+
+William James +
+
+
+
+The Varieties of Religious Experience +
+
+The PhD Octopus +
+
+
+
+Henry James +
+
+
+
+The Altar of the Dead +
+
+
+
+Gregor Kiczales +
+
+
+
+The Art of the Metaobject Protocol +
+
+
+
+Søren Kierkegaard +
+
+
+
+Sickness Unto Death +
+
+Either/Or +
+
+Fear and Trembling +
+
+Repetition +
+
+The Concept of Anxiety +
+
+
+
+Alisa Kwitney +
+
+
+
+Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold +
+
+
+
+David Lamkins +
+
+
+
+Successful Lisp +
+
+
+
+Mencius +
+
+
+
+Mencius +
+
+
+
+Walter Miller +
+
+
+
+A Canticle for Leibowitz +
+
+
+
+John Milton +
+
+
+
+Paradise Lost +
+
+
+
+Alan Moore +
+
+
+
+Watchmen +
+
+V for Vendetta +
+
+
+
+Thomas More +
+
+
+
+Utopia +
+
+
+
+Friedrich Nietzsche +
+
+
+
+Thus Spoke Zarathustra +
+
+Beyond Good and Evil +
+
+On the Geneaology of Morals +
+
+Ecce Homo +
+
+
+
+George Orwell +
+
+
+
+1984 +
+
+Animal Farm +
+
+
+
+Plato +
+
+
+
+Symposium +
+
+Euthyphro +
+
+Apology +
+
+Crito +
+
+Phaedo +
+
+Protagoras +
+
+
+
+Edgar Allan Poe +
+
+
+
+Tales of Mystery and Suspense +
+
+
+
+Luke Rhinehardt +
+
+
+
+The Dice Man +
+
+
+
+Neal Stephenson +
+
+
+
+Snow Crash +
+
+Cryptonomicon +
+
+
+
+Bjarne Stroustrup +
+
+
+
+The C++ Programming Language (3rd edition) +
+
+
+
+JRR Tolkien +
+
+
+
+The Lord of the Rings +
+
+The Silmarillion +
+
+The Lost Tales +
+
+
+
+Kurt Vonnegut +
+
+
+
+Cat's Cradle +
+
+
+
+H.G. Wells +
+
+
+
+The Island of Dr Moreau +
+
+
+
+Robert Anton Wilson +
+
+
+
+The Illuminatus! Trilogy +
+
+
+
+Yevgeny Zamyatin +
+
+
+
+We +
+
+
+
+
+ + +

+Douglas Adams

+ + + +

+Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (collected)

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (8) / Fiction

+ + + + + +

+The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (6) / Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Aeschylus

+ + + +

+Oresteia

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Prometheus Bound

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (9) / Fiction

+ + + + + +

+The Persians

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (8) / Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+John Allison

+ +

The author of the rather amazing Scary Go Round. +I highly recommend procuring the printed collections; the printing +quality is superb (full color on glossy paper), and the long story +arcs are much easier to read.

+ +

+Looks, Brains and Everything

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Blame the Sky

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Skellington

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+The Retribution Index

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Great Aches

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Ahoy Hoy!

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Heavy Metal Hearts and Flowers

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Ghosts

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Anonymous

+ + + +

+Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Aristophanes

+ + + +

+The Frogs

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+The Clouds

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Ecclesiazusae

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Aristotle

+ + + +

+Ethics

+ +

Nonfiction

+ + + + + +

+Categories

+ +

Nonfiction

+ + + + + +

+Poetics

+ +

Nonfiction

+ + + + + +

+Rhetoric

+ +

Nonfiction

+ + + + + + +

+Marcus Aurelius

+ + + +

+Meditations

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (4) / Nonfiction

+ +

At the time, I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on +Stoic philosophy, and it was a fairly quick read (fifteen minutes a +day over the course of two weeks for me). Nowadays I've read +Epictetus, and I suggest reading his Discourses instead.

+ + + + +

+William Blake

+ +

Blake is my favorite of the English poets. His +unique use of relief etching and watercoloring makes for very +interesting Illuminated works. There is a very high quality +complete archive of Blake's works online +with high resolution plate scans and full transcriptions among other +things.

+ +

+The Four Zoas

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Fiction

+ +

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.

+ + + +

+Jerusalem

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Fiction

+ +

The finest of Blake's Illuminated works.

+ + + + +

+Albert Camus

+ + + +

+The Plague

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Mike Carey

+ + + +

+Lucifer (series)

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (6) / Fiction

+ +

Of the Sandman spinoffs, Lucifer stands out as the best for +the first half, but then the writer appears to take on far too great a +task, and, with the introduction of some disagreeable character +relations, fails to execute the story as well as it could have +been. Still, it was worth reading to the end even though most of the +stories after issue 35 or so were merely ok. If you like Kierkegaard I +suggest issues 2, 3, and 62—they show the form of the incommensurable +relation of the single individual to the absolute perfectly.

+ + + + +

+Confucius

+ + + +

+Analects

+ +

Nonfiction

+ + + + + + +

+Neil Gaiman

+ + + +

+The Sandman (series)

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Fiction

+ +

Perhaps the best comic book series of all time; I would say The +Sandman as a whole ranks higher than anything even Alan Moore has +written.

+ + + +

+Good Omens

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (8) / Fiction

+ +

A friend of a friend decided one evening that I needed to read +so-called normal people books, and so she lent me Good Omens. It +was an enjoyable read and unearthed vague memories of comic book +magazines I read when I was small and the name Sandman; thus through +one book I found something far greater.

+ + + +

+American Gods

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (6) / Fiction

+ +

Entertaining, but the end was a bit much rushed.

+ + + + +

+John Taylor Gatto

+ +

Former teacher and now author-activist.

+ +

+Underground History of American Education

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (9) / Nonfiction

+ +

An interesting underground history of the American education +system. Available +online for free.

+ + + + +

+Kahlil Gibran

+ +

Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not +agree with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but The Madman onward are +all rather nice. A few of his works are +online, but I recommend scouting used book +stores for old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least) +hardcover versions from Alfred A. Knopf 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).

+ +

+A Tear and a Smile

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (3) / Fiction

+ +

One of Kahlil Gibran's earlier works, I did not much like A +Tear and a Smile excepting the last poem ("A Poet's Voice").

+ + + +

+The Prophet

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (9) / Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Sand and Foam

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (7) / Fiction

+ +

An interesting little book of aphorisms.

+ + + +

+The Madman

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (8) / Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Homer

+ + + +

+The Odyssey

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Aldous Huxley

+ +

Perhaps the most overrated modern writer. Other people have written +everything he has to write better and many years before he got around +to it.

+ +

+The Doors of Perception

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (0) / Nonfiction

+ +

Huxley stains the name of Blake by naming this horrible +pseudo-scientific and pseudo-poetic essay after a line from The +Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Subjectivity and objectivity are +incommensurable; his attempt and being subjectively objective is +utterly worthless.

+ + + +

+Heaven and Hell

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (0) / Nonfiction

+ +

Blah blah LSD blah blah Mushrooms blah blah Peyote blah blah I'm +Aldous Huxley I'm a pretentious jerk. Don't bother.

+ + + +

+Brave New World

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (7) / Fiction

+ +

A nice light read; the story is obvious and by the hundreth page +the ending is clear, but it provided a bit of a break from heavier +reading for me. I must say that anyone who has read Brave New World +and does not despise modern society has the intellectual capacity of +an Epsilon. 1984 is perhaps easily misread, but Brave New World +is very clear with its message and is a bit like being smacked upside +the head with a hammer.

+ + + + +

+William James

+ + + +

+The Varieties of Religious Experience

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (7) / Nonfiction

+ +

A partially finished extended summary

+ + + +

+The PhD Octopus

+ +

Nonfiction

+ +
+

+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?

+ +
+ +

Full Text

+ + + + +

+Henry James

+ +

The novelist brother of William James; I've not read many (read: +one) of his books, but what I did was decent.

+ +

+The Altar of the Dead

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (7) / Fiction

+ +

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.

+ + + + +

+Gregor Kiczales

+ + + +

+The Art of the Metaobject Protocol

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Nonfiction

+ +

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.

+ + + + +

+Søren Kierkegaard

+ +

Kierkegaard was a master of style and philosophy; his writing is +interesting even if one finds the theistic extentialism espoused +disagreeable.

+ +

+Sickness Unto Death

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Nonfiction

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ + + +

+Either/Or

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Nonfiction

+ +

Composed of two portions, Either/Or 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.

+ + + +

+Fear and Trembling

+ +

Nonfiction

+ +

An interesting dialectical lyric contrasting Despair and Faith.

+ + + +

+Repetition

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Nonfiction

+ +

He who despairs of esthetic repetition gets none; he who despairs +of ethical repetition receieves the esthetic. Is it true then that no +repetition exists? Is transition all one can hope for?

+ + + +

+The Concept of Anxiety

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (7) / Nonfiction

+ +

...Very clearly an early work of Kierkegaard. It is rather formal +and difficult to get through. I'd recommend reading a lot of other +Kierkegaard before this.

+ + + + +

+Alisa Kwitney

+ + + +

+Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (8) / Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+David Lamkins

+ + + +

+Successful Lisp

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (8) / Nonfiction

+ +

After learning Scheme, I read Successful Lisp and was able to +pick up Common Lisp fairly easily.

+ + + + +

+Mencius

+ + + +

+Mencius

+ +

Nonfiction

+ + + + + + +

+Walter Miller

+ + + +

+A Canticle for Leibowitz

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+John Milton

+ + + +

+Paradise Lost

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Alan Moore

+ + + +

+Watchmen

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (8) / Fiction

+ + + + + +

+V for Vendetta

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Thomas More

+ + + +

+Utopia

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (7) / Fiction

+ +

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.

+ + + + +

+Friedrich Nietzsche

+ +

A bit acerbic and esoteric, Nietzsche is for me a good secular +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.

+ +

+Thus Spoke Zarathustra

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (8) / Fiction

+ +

A masterpiece of indirect communication depsite the occasional +flaw and overly dramatic passage. Certainly a book worth reading many +times over the course of one's life.

+ + + +

+Beyond Good and Evil

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (8) / Nonfiction

+ +

A somewhat more comprehensible, if a bit less aesthetically +pleasing, presentation of much of the philosophy found in Thus Spoke +Zarathustra 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 On the Genealogy of Morals.

+ + + +

+On the Geneaology of Morals

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (9) / Nonfiction

+ +

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

+ + + +

+Ecce Homo

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (7) / Nonfiction

+ +

Ecce Homo 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.

+ + + + +

+George Orwell

+ + + +

+1984

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Animal Farm

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Plato

+ + + +

+Symposium

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Euthyphro

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Apology

+ +

Nonfiction

+ + + + + +

+Crito

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+Phaedo

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Nonfiction

+ + + + + +

+Protagoras

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Edgar Allan Poe

+ +

ULTRAGOTHIK

+ +

+Tales of Mystery and Suspense

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (6) / Fiction

+ +

This is when I learned that I still don't really like late 1800s +American literature all that much. Some of the tales were worth +reading, but most of it was not in a style I like all that much.

+ + + + +

+Luke Rhinehardt

+ + + +

+The Dice Man

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (7) / Fiction

+ +
+

+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

+ +
+ +

A quotation from one of my favorite metal songs 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.

+ +

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.

+ + + + +

+Neal Stephenson

+ + + +

+Snow Crash

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (9) / Fiction

+ +

As one must read the Bible to understand English literature, so one +must read Snow Crash 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. Snow Crash has a nice undertone of (quite +accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading +as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.

+ + + +

+Cryptonomicon

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (8) / Fiction

+ +

I read Cryptonomicon 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.

+ +

I'd still have to recommend Snow Crash if one wished to read only one +Stephenson novel.

+ + + + +

+Bjarne Stroustrup

+ + + +

+The C++ Programming Language (3rd edition)

+ +

Nonfiction

+ +

Once upon a time I was fifteen and I read this book. It was more +or less what taught me how to write programs just large enough to do +useful things, and so shall forever be remembered by me. A year and a +half later I stumbled upon a little language called Scheme and fell +down the rabbit hole.

+ + + + +

+JRR Tolkien

+ + + +

+The Lord of the Rings

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (9) / Fiction

+ + + + + +

+The Silmarillion

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Fiction

+ + + + + +

+The Lost Tales

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (7) / Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Kurt Vonnegut

+ + + +

+Cat's Cradle

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (9) / Fiction

+ +

There are few books that I have started to read before sleeping +and found myself watching the sun rise after finishing. Cat's Cradle +is definitely required nerd reading.

+ + + + +

+H.G. Wells

+ + + +

+The Island of Dr Moreau

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (7) / Fiction

+ + + + + + +

+Robert Anton Wilson

+ +

Or rather, Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea (but my book script +updating thing doesn't do multiple authors

+ +

+The Illuminatus! Trilogy

+ +

Rating: •••••••••• (10) / Nonfiction

+ +

e-cash MP5K-SD Adriatic Bellcore Lon Horiuchi 9705 Samford Road +jihad New World Order AVN FTS2000 ANZUS subversive SAPO PET Armani

+ + + + +

+Yevgeny Zamyatin

+ + + +

+We

+ +

Fiction

+ + + + + +

+ + Valid XHTML 1.0! + + [ Viewable With Any Browser
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