X-Git-Url: http://git.hcoop.net/clinton/website/site/unknownlamer.org.git/blobdiff_plain/54a817d40de68ad0c76bfca353b28f8c1b4a36b2..2eca3a7b9c255fd29c54a6075085bff1bcf00f5d:/Book%20List.html diff --git a/Book List.html b/Book List.html index d268ab0..6ffacdb 100644 --- a/Book List.html +++ b/Book List.html @@ -7,159 +7,453 @@ - - +
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+ + + + + + (8) / FictionRating:
+ + + + + + + (6) / FictionRating:
+ + + + + + (10) / FictionRating:
+ + + + + + (9) / FictionRating:
+ + + + + + + (8) / FictionThe 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.
+ +Fiction
+ + + + + +Fiction
+ + + + + +Fiction
+ + + + + +Fiction
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+ + + + + + +Nonfiction
+ + + + + +Nonfiction
+ + + + + +Nonfiction
+ + + + + +Nonfiction
+ + + + + + +Rating:
+ + (4) / NonfictionAt 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.
+ + + + +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.
+ +Rating:
+ + (10) / FictionThe 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.
+ + + +Rating:
+ + (10) / FictionThe finest of Blake's Illuminated works.
+ + + + +Rating:
+ + (6) / FictionOf 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.
+ + + + +Nonfiction
+ + + + + + +Rating:
+ + (10) / FictionPerhaps 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.
+ + + +Rating:
+ + (8) / FictionA 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.
+ + + + +Former teacher and now author-activist.
+ +Rating:
+ + (9) / NonfictionAn interesting underground history of the American education +system. Available +online for free.
+ + + + +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).
+ +Rating:
+ + (3) / FictionOne of Kahlil Gibran's earlier works, I did not much like A +Tear and a Smile excepting the last poem ("A Poet's Voice").
+ + + +Rating:
+ + + + + + (9) / FictionRating:
+ + (7) / FictionAn interesting little book of aphorisms.
+ + + +Rating:
+ + + + + + + (8) / FictionRating:
+ + + + + + + (10) / FictionPerhaps the most overrated modern writer. Other people have written +everything he has to write better and many years before he got around +to it.
+ +Rating:
+ + (0) / NonfictionHuxley 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.
+ + + +Rating:
+ + (0) / NonfictionBlah blah LSD blah blah Mushrooms blah blah Peyote blah blah I'm +Aldous Huxley I'm a pretentious jerk. Don't bother.
+ + + + +Rating:
+ + (7) / NonfictionA partially finished extended summary
+ + + +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?
+ +
The novelist brother of William James; I've not read many (read: +one) of his books, but what I did was decent.
+ +Rating:
+ + (7) / FictionA 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.
+ + + + +Rating:
+ + (10) / NonfictionAMOP 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.
+ + + + +Kierkegaard was a master of style and philosophy; his writing is +interesting even if one finds the theistic extentialism espoused +disagreeable.
+ +Rating:
+ + (10) / NonfictionI 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.
+ + + +Rating:
+ + (10) / NonfictionComposed 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.
+ + + +Nonfiction
+ +An interesting dialectical lyric contrasting Despair and Faith.
+ + + +Rating:
+ + (10) / NonfictionHe 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?
+ + + + +Rating:
+ + + + + + + (8) / FictionRating:
+ + (8) / NonfictionAfter learning Scheme, I read Successful Lisp and was able to +pick up Common Lisp fairly easily.
+ -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.
-Rating:
+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.
+Nonfiction
-Rating:
-The finest of Blake's Illuminated works.
-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).
-Rating:
+ / FictionOne of Kahlil Gibran's earlier works, I did not much like A -Tear and a Smile excepting the last poem ("A Poet's Voice").
+Rating:
- (10) / FictionRating:
+ / FictionRating:
+ / FictionRating:
- (8) / FictionAn interesting little book of aphorisms.
-Rating:
+ / FictionRating:
- (10) / FictionFormer teacher and now author-activist.
+Rating:
- / NonfictionAn interesting underground history of the American education -system. Available -online for free.
+Rating:
+ (7) / FictionI 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.
-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.
-Rating:
+ / Fiction<quote> -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 -</quote>
+Rating:
- (8) / NonfictionA 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.
+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.
-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.
+Rating:
- (9) / NonfictionOn 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.
-Rating:
+ / FictionRating:
- (7) / NonfictionAs 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.
+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.
-Rating:
+ / FictionI 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.
+Rating:
- (10) / FictionRating:
+ / NonfictionFiction
-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.
-Kierkegaard was a master of style and philosophy; his writing is -interesting even if one finds the theistic extentialism espoused -disagreeable.
+Rating:
-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.
+Fiction
-Rating:
-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.
+Fiction
-Nonfiction
-Rating:
- / FictionI 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.
+Fiction
-Rating:
- / NonfictionA partially finished extended summary
+Rating:
- (10) / NonfictionFiction
+ + + + + + +Rating:
(7) / Fiction--/ Nonfiction
++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
+
<quote> -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? -</quote>
+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.
-The novelist brother of William James; I've not read many (read: -one) of his books, but what I did was decent.
-Rating:
+ / FictionA 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.
+Rating:
+ + (9) / FictionAs 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.
+Rating:
+ (8) / FictionI 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.
-Rating:
-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.
+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.
+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.
-Rating:
- / NonfictionA 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.
+Rating:
- / NonfictionOn the Geneaology of Morals 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.
+Rating:
- (9) / FictionRating:
- / NonfictionEcce 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.
+ +Rating:
+ + + + + + (10) / FictionRating:
+ + + + + + + (7) / FictionRating:
@@ -547,31 +1434,34 @@ Nietzsche explains the overall structure of his works. (7) / Fiction - + May 9, 2019