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: (8) / Fiction
-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.
Rating: (6) / Fiction
-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: (10) / Fiction
-Rating: / 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").
Rating: / Fiction
+Rating: (9) / Fiction
Rating: / Fiction
+Rating: (8) / Fiction
-An interesting little book of aphorisms.
-Rating: / Fiction
+Fiction
+ -Former teacher and now author-activist.
Rating: / Nonfiction
+Fiction
-An interesting underground history of the American education -system. Available -online for free.
-Fiction
-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>
-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.
+Nonfiction
+ -Nonfiction
-Rating: / 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.
Nonfiction
+ -Rating: / 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.
+Nonfiction
-Rating: / Nonfiction
+Rating: (6) / Nonfiction
I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books @@ -358,112 +479,215 @@ 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:
+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.
-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.
+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.
-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.
+Rating: (10) / Fiction
+The finest of Blake's Illuminated works.
-Rating: / 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.
+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.
-Former teacher and now author-activist.
-Rating: / Nonfiction
+Rating: (9) / Nonfiction
-A partially finished extended summary
+An interesting underground history of the American education +system. Available +online for free.
--+/ Nonfiction
-
<quote> +
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) / 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").
+ + + +Rating: (9) / Fiction
+ + + + + +Rating: (7) / Fiction
+ +An interesting little book of aphorisms.
+ + + +Rating: (8) / Fiction
+ + + + + + +Rating: (10) / Fiction
+ + + + + + +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.
+ +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.
+ + + +Rating: (0) / Nonfiction
+ +Blah blah LSD blah blah Mushrooms blah blah Peytoe blah blah I'm +Aldous Huxley I'm a pretentious jerk. Don't bother.
+ + + + +Rating: (7) / Nonfiction
+ +A 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? -</quote>
+from the Mandarin disease. Are we doomed to suffer like the rest? + +
The novelist brother of William James; I've not read many (read: +
The novelist brother of William James; I've not read many (read: one) of his books, but what I did was decent.
-Rating: / Fiction
+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 @@ -472,15 +696,15 @@ more beneath.
-Rating:
+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 @@ -494,21 +718,114 @@ 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) / 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.
+ + + +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.
+ + + +Nonfiction
+ +An interesting dialectical lyric contrasting Despair and Faith.
+ + + + +Rating: (8) / Fiction
+ + + + + +Rating: (10) / Fiction
+ + + + + + +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.
+ + + + +A bit acerbic and esoteric, Nietzsche is for me a good secular -counterpart to Kierkegaard's theistic philosophy. Nietzsche's +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: / Nonfiction
+Rating: (8) / Nonfiction
A somewhat more comprehensible, if a bit less aesthetically pleasing, presentation of much of the philosophy found in Thus Spoke @@ -518,10 +835,10 @@ one wishes to understand On the Genealogy of Morals.
-Rating: / Nonfiction
+Rating: (9) / Nonfiction
On the Geneaology of Morals is a wonderful book of three polemical essays on the origin of moral/ethic valuations, and the @@ -530,12 +847,12 @@ these valuations unknowingly.
-Rating: / Nonfiction
+Rating: (7) / Nonfiction
-Ecce Homo is Nietzsche's very strange autobiography and +
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 @@ -543,6 +860,165 @@ Nietzsche explains the overall structure of his works.
+ +Rating: (10) / Fiction
+ + + + + +Fiction
+ + + + + + +Fiction
+ + + + + +Fiction
+ + + + + +Nonfiction
+ + + + + +Fiction
+ + + + + +Fiction
+ + + + + + +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.
+ + + + +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.
+ + + +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.
+ + + + +Rating: (7) / Fiction
+ + + - + December 14, 2008