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1 | (((|Alan| |Moore|) |
2 | nil |
3 | ("Watchmen" :fiction 8) |
4 | ("V for Vendetta" :fiction 10)) |
5 | ((|Neil| |Gaiman|) |
6 | nil |
7 | ("The Sandman (series)" |
8 | :fiction 10 |
9 | "Perhaps the best comic book series of all time; I would say *The |
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10 | Sandman* as a whole ranks higher than anything even Alan Moore has |
11 | written.")) |
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12 | ((|William| |Blake|) |
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13 | "Blake is my [[William Blake][favorite]] of the English poets. His |
14 | unique use of relief etching and watercoloring makes for very |
15 | interesting Illuminated works. There is a very high quality |
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16 | [[http://blakearchive.org][complete archive of Blake's works]] online |
17 | with high resolution plate scans and full transcriptions among other |
18 | things." |
19 | ("The Four Zoas" |
20 | :fiction 10 |
21 | "The unfinished manuscript of Blake's longest apocalypse. The |
22 | Four Zoas divide from Albion and rage through the ages of dismal woe |
23 | to bring about the end of the cycle of Ulro and restore the cycle of |
24 | Beulah.") |
25 | ("Jerusalem" :fiction 10 "The finest of Blake's Illuminated works.")) |
26 | ((|Kahlil| |Gibran|) |
27 | "Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not |
28 | agree with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but *The Madman* onward are |
29 | all rather nice. A few of his works are |
30 | [[http://leb.net/~mira/][online]], but I recommend scouting used book |
31 | stores for old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least) |
32 | *hardcover* versions from *Alfred A. Knopf* are in fact permabound |
33 | paperbacks with a hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to |
34 | the editions from the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more, |
35 | naturally)." |
36 | ("A Tear and a Smile" |
37 | :fiction 3 |
38 | "One of Kahlil Gibran's earlier works, I did not much like *A |
39 | Tear and a Smile* excepting the last poem (\"A Poet's Voice\").") |
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40 | ("The Prophet" :fiction 9) |
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41 | ("Sand and Foam" :fiction 7 "An interesting little book of aphorisms.") |
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42 | ("The Madman" :fiction 8)) |
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43 | ((|John| |Taylor| |Gatto|) |
44 | "Former teacher and now author-activist." |
45 | ("Underground History of American Education" |
46 | :nonfiction 9 |
47 | "An interesting *underground* history of the American education |
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48 | system. Available |
49 | [[http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/][online for free]].")) |
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50 | ((|Luke| |Rhinehardt|) |
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51 | nil |
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52 | ("The Dice Man" |
53 | :fiction 7 |
54 | "<quote> |
55 | And it's his illusions about what |
56 | constitutes the real world which are |
57 | inhibiting him... |
58 | His reality, his reason, his society |
59 | ...these are what must be destroyed |
60 | </quote> |
61 | |
62 | A quotation from one of my [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter_of_the_Soul][favorite metal songs]] inspired me to grab |
63 | this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found |
64 | in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an |
65 | autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression |
66 | through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through |
67 | random chance. |
68 | |
69 | The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part |
70 | attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often |
71 | difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.")) |
72 | ((|Neal| |Stephenson|) |
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73 | nil |
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74 | ("Snow Crash" |
75 | :fiction 9 |
76 | "As one must read the *Bible* to understand English literature, so one |
77 | must read *Snow Crash* today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop |
78 | fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in |
79 | a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come |
80 | up with enganging tales. *Snow Crash* has a nice undertone of (quite |
81 | accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading |
82 | as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.") |
83 | ("Cryptonomicon" |
84 | :fiction 8 |
85 | "I read *Cryptonomicon* when it was new, and at the time I thought it was |
86 | good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from |
87 | the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to |
88 | finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between |
89 | the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way. |
90 | |
91 | I'd still have to recommend *Snow Crash* if one wished to read only one |
92 | Stephenson novel.")) |
93 | ((|Marcus| |Aurelius|) |
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94 | nil |
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95 | ("Meditations" |
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96 | :nonfiction 4 |
97 | "At the time, I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on |
98 | Stoic philosophy, and it was a fairly quick read (fifteen minutes a |
99 | day over the course of two weeks for me). Nowadays I've read |
100 | Epictetus, and I suggest reading his *Discourses* instead.")) |
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101 | ((|Søren| |Kierkegaard|) |
102 | "Kierkegaard was a master of style and philosophy; his writing is |
103 | interesting even if one finds the theistic extentialism espoused |
104 | disagreeable." |
105 | ("Sickness Unto Death" |
106 | :nonfiction 10 |
107 | "I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after |
108 | being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it |
109 | was better for me to have found this one. |
110 | |
111 | Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of |
112 | Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends, |
113 | the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is |
114 | reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation |
115 | forces reflection.") |
116 | ("Either/Or" |
117 | :nonfiction 10 |
118 | "Composed of two portions, *Either/Or* is a rather lengthy but |
119 | rewarding read. The first book is a series of essays and a diary of a |
120 | young esthetician; the second is a pair of long letters from an older |
121 | ethicist friend to this esthetician. You are then left to resolve the |
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122 | conflict between the views.") |
123 | ("Fear and Trembling" |
124 | :nonfiction nil |
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125 | "An interesting dialectical lyric contrasting Despair and Faith.") |
126 | ("Repetition" |
127 | :nonfiction 10 |
128 | "He who despairs of esthetic repetition gets none; he who despairs |
129 | of ethical repetition receieves the esthetic. Is it true then that no |
130 | repetition exists? Is transition all one can hope for?")) |
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131 | ((|Thomas| |More|) |
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132 | nil |
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133 | ("Utopia" |
134 | :fiction 7 |
135 | "I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but |
136 | the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the |
137 | overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so |
138 | I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick |
139 | read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system |
140 | espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a |
141 | negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European |
142 | social customs.")) |
143 | ((|William| |James|) |
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144 | nil |
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145 | ("The Varieties of Religious Experience" |
146 | :nonfiction 7 |
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147 | "[[William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience][A partially finished extended summary]]") |
148 | ("The PhD Octopus" |
149 | :nonfiction nil |
150 | "<quote> |
151 | America is thus as a nation rapidly drifting towards a state of things |
152 | in which no man of science or letters will be accounted respectable |
153 | unless some kind of badge or diploma is stamped upon him, and in which |
154 | bare personality will be a mark of outcast estate. It seems to me high |
155 | time to rouse ourselves to consciousness, and to cast a critical eye |
156 | upon this decidedly grotesque tendency. Other nations suffer terribly |
157 | from the Mandarin disease. Are we doomed to suffer like the rest? |
158 | </quote> |
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159 | |
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160 | [[William James - The PhD Octopus][Full Text]]")) |
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161 | ((|Henry| |James|) |
162 | "The novelist brother of William James; I've not read many (read: |
163 | one) of his books, but what I did was decent." |
164 | ("The Altar of the Dead" |
165 | :fiction 7 |
166 | "A short novella about a man who maintained an altar in a church |
167 | for all of his lost loved ones on the surface, but something a bit |
168 | more beneath.")) |
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169 | ((|Gregor| |Kiczales|) |
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170 | nil |
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171 | ("The Art of the Metaobject Protocol" |
172 | :nonfiction 10 |
173 | "AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with |
174 | the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first |
175 | half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a |
176 | series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations |
177 | and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for |
178 | CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general |
179 | object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly |
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180 | make mapping decisions customizable.")) |
181 | ((|Friedrich| |Nietzsche|) |
182 | "A bit acerbic and esoteric, Nietzsche is for me a good *secular* |
183 | counterpart to Kierkegaard's theistic philosophy. Nietzsche's |
184 | polemical works raise important questions for anyone who reads works |
185 | on ethics. As such it is a shame that he has gotten a bad reputation |
186 | by being read by far too many angsty teenagers who see (and relay) |
187 | only Nietzsche the asshole rather than Nietzsche the master of the |
188 | polemic." |
189 | ("Beyond Good and Evil" |
190 | :nonfiction 8 |
191 | "A somewhat more comprehensible, if a bit less aesthetically |
192 | pleasing, presentation of much of the philosophy found in *Thus Spoke |
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193 | Zarathustra* in the negative form. The final chapters are very |
194 | important (not to detract from the value of the rest of the work) if |
195 | one wishes to understand *On the Genealogy of Morals*.") |
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196 | ("On the Geneaology of Morals" |
197 | :nonfiction 9 |
198 | "*On the Geneaology of Morals* is a wonderful book of three |
199 | polemical essays on the origin of moral/ethic valuations, and the |
200 | blindness of modern philosphers whose very thinking is tainted by |
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201 | these valuations unknowingly.") |
202 | ("Ecce Homo" |
203 | :nonfiction 7 |
204 | "*Ecce Homo* is Nietzsche's very strange autobiography and |
205 | explanation of his own works. At points it is clear that it could have |
206 | used a bit more editing (prevented by Nietzsche ... falling into a |
207 | catatonic state and all), but is still a very useful book to read as |
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208 | Nietzsche explains the overall structure of his works.")) |
209 | ((|Aristotle|) |
210 | nil |
211 | ("Ethics" |
212 | :nonfiction nil) |
213 | ("Categories" |
214 | :nonfiction nil) |
215 | ("Poetics" |
216 | :nonfiction nil) |
217 | ;;; ("Prior Analytics" |
218 | ;;; :nonfiction nil |
219 | ;;; "*Prior Analytics* is essential reading if one wishes to understand |
220 | ;;; [[Term Logic][traditional logic]]. Given that traditional logic is |
221 | ;;; used by most philosophers prior to the mid-1800s it is a *bit* |
222 | ;;; important. Luckily *Prior Analytics* is |
223 | ;;; [[http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/a8pra/index.html][available online for free]] and is fairly short.") |
224 | ("Rhetoric" |
225 | :nonfiction nil)) |
226 | ((|Aristophanes|) |
227 | nil |
228 | ("The Frogs" :fiction nil) |
229 | ("The Clouds" :fiction nil) |
230 | ("Ecclesiazusae" :fiction nil)) |
231 | ((|Plato|) |
232 | nil |
233 | ("Symposium" :fiction nil) |
234 | ("Euthyphro" :fiction nil) |
235 | ("Apology" :nonfiction nil) |
236 | ("Crito" :fiction nil) |
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237 | ("Phaedo" :nonfiction 10) |
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238 | ("Protagoras" :fiction nil)) |
239 | ((|Aeschylus|) |
240 | nil |
241 | ("Oresteia":fiction 10) |
242 | ("Prometheus Bound" :fiction 9) |
243 | ("The Persians" :fiction 8)) |
244 | ((|Homer|) |
245 | nil |
246 | ("The Odyssey" :fiction 10)) |
247 | ((|George| |Orwell|) |
248 | nil |
249 | ("1984" :fiction 10) |
250 | ("Animal Farm" :fiction nil)) |
251 | ((|Aldous| |Huxley|) |
252 | "Perhaps the most overrated modern writer. Other people have written |
253 | everything he has to write better and many years before he got around |
254 | to it." |
255 | ("The Doors of Perception" |
256 | :nonfiction 0 |
257 | "Huxley stains the name of Blake by naming this horrible |
258 | pseudo-scientific and pseudo-poetic essay after a line from *The |
259 | Marriage of Heaven and Hell*. Subjectivity and objectivity are |
260 | incommensurable; his attempt and being subjectively objective is |
261 | utterly worthless.") |
262 | ("Heaven and Hell" |
263 | :nonfiction 0 |
264 | "Blah blah LSD blah blah Mushrooms blah blah Peytoe blah blah I'm |
265 | Aldous Huxley I'm a pretentious jerk. Don't bother.")) |
266 | ((|Douglas| |Adams|) |
267 | nil |
268 | ("Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (collected)" :fiction 8) |
269 | ("The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" :fiction 6)) |
270 | ((|H.G.| |Wells|) |
271 | nil |
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272 | ("The Island of Dr Moreau" :fiction 7)) |
273 | ((|JRR| |Tolkien|) |
274 | nil |
275 | ("The Lord of the Rings" :fiction 9) |
276 | ("The Silmarillion" :fiction 10) |
277 | ("The Lost Tales" :fiction 7)) |
278 | ((|Bjarne| |Stroustrup|) |
279 | nil |
280 | ("The C++ Programming Language (3rd edition)" |
281 | :nonfiction nil |
282 | "Once upon a time I was fifteen and I read this book. It was more |
283 | or less what taught me how to write programs just large enough to do |
284 | useful things, and so shall forever be remembered by me. A year and a |
285 | half later I stumbled upon a little language called Scheme and fell |
286 | down the rabbit hole.")) |
287 | ((|Confucius|) |
288 | nil |
289 | ("Analects" :nonfiction nil)) |
290 | ((|Mencius|) |
291 | nil |
292 | ("Mencius" :nonfiction nil)) |
293 | ((|Walter| |Miller|) |
294 | nil |
295 | ("A Canticle for Leibowitz" :fiction 10)) |
296 | ((|David| |Lamkins|) |
297 | ("Successful Lisp" |
298 | :nonfiction 8 |
299 | "After learning Scheme, I read *Successful Lisp* and was able to |
300 | pick up Common Lisp fairly easily.")) |
301 | ((|John| |Allison|) |
302 | "The author of the rather amazing [[http://scarygoround.com][ScaryGo Round]. |
303 | I highly recommend procuring the printed collections; the printing |
304 | quality is superb (full color on glossy paper), and the long story |
305 | arcs are much easier to read." |
306 | (("Looks, Brains and Everything" :fiction nil) |
307 | ("Blame the Sky" :fiction nil) |
308 | ("Skellington" :fiction nil) |
309 | ("The Retribution Index" :fiction nil) |
310 | ("Great Aches" :fiction nil) |
311 | ("Ahoy Hoy!" :fiction nil) |
312 | ("Heavy Metal Hearts and Flowers" :fiction nil) |
313 | ("Ghosts" :fiction nil)))) |
314 | |