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1 | #title The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms |
2 | |
3 | I enjoy classical literature and works of philosophy and politics with |
4 | a side of cyberpunk novels for when my brain is tired. When I was in |
5 | High School I read technical books for fun, but now I tend to find |
6 | most of them useless (thank you Internet) excepting a few really well |
7 | written ones (*L.i.s.p*, *TAOCP*, ...). |
8 | |
9 | I spend most of my time reading. A full list of things I have read |
10 | would be impossible to compile, but here I am collecting links and |
11 | small summaries of things I have read and find interesting enough to |
12 | mention, but not always recommend, to others. |
13 | |
14 | * Authors |
15 | |
16 | ** William Blake |
17 | |
18 | His poetry is the result of spending too much time etching copper |
19 | plates and breathing the fumes. Quite wonderful indeed. |
20 | |
21 | * Fiction |
22 | |
23 | ** General |
24 | |
25 | *** Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man |
26 | |
27 | <quote> |
28 | And it's his illusions about what |
29 | constitutes the real world which are |
30 | inhibiting him... |
31 | His reality, his reason, his society |
32 | ...these are what must be destroyed |
33 | </quote> |
34 | |
35 | A quotation from one of my [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter_of_the_Soul][favorite metal songs]] inspired me to grab |
36 | this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found |
37 | in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an |
38 | autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression |
39 | through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through |
40 | random chance. |
41 | |
42 | The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part |
43 | attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often |
44 | difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time. |
45 | |
46 | ** Philosophical |
47 | |
48 | *** Khalil Gibran - The Prophet |
49 | |
50 | |
51 | ** Sci-Fi |
52 | |
53 | *** Neal Stephenson |
54 | |
55 | **** Cryptonomicon |
56 | |
57 | I read *Cryptonomicon* when it was new, and at the time I thought it was |
58 | good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from |
59 | the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to |
60 | finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between |
61 | the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way. |
62 | |
63 | I'd still have to recommend *Snow Crash* if one wished to read only one |
64 | Stephenson novel. |
65 | |
66 | **** Snow Crash |
67 | |
68 | As one must read the *Bible* to understand English literature, so one |
69 | must read *Snow Crash* today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop |
70 | fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in |
71 | a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come |
72 | up with enganging tales. *Snow Crash* has a nice undertone of (quite |
73 | accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading |
74 | as more than mere cyberpunk fiction. |
75 | |
76 | * Non-Fiction |
77 | |
78 | ** Education |
79 | *** John Taylor Gatto - [[http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm][Underground History of American Education]] |
80 | |
81 | Contained within this book (available online for free, but the printed |
82 | copy sits wonderfully on a shelf) is a detailed and seemingly well |
83 | researched history of American Education with a particular focus on |
84 | the transformation that has occured before our eyes in the last |
85 | century. I am unsure if Gatto is entirely correct and not exaggerating |
86 | anything; I have failed to find any negative criticisms, but it is not |
87 | clear to me if that is because he is entirely correct or if no one |
88 | cares enough to write a counterargument. I am in the process of |
89 | tracking down as many of his sources as possible (a good number of |
90 | them are out of print and not in the public domain yet), and will make |
91 | an attempt to verify his argument over the course of the next year |
92 | (that being 2007). |
93 | |
94 | If he is correct then every one of us has had the first eighteen years |
95 | of our lives stolen from us, and we have collectively suffered massive |
96 | intellectual damage. My intuitions tell me he is correct (which is why |
97 | I am driven to verify; I cannot trust myself because I *want* to |
98 | believe) for my individuality and intelligence were nearly stolen from |
99 | me. The only reason I survived relatively unscathed is because I |
100 | became completely socially withdrawn for the last half of elementary |
101 | school until late in high school due to the abuse I received at the |
102 | hands of my peers creating a deep fear of social interaction in |
103 | me. The downside is that I had the confidence crushed from my soul, |
104 | but now that I have begun to regain it (the good that bicycling |
105 | enabling me to stand straight and gradual realization of my own worth |
106 | as a human have done) I would never trade the ability to think freely |
107 | for the social skills I lack. |
108 | |
109 | ** Philosophy |
110 | |
111 | *** Chinese |
112 | |
113 | **** Tao Te Ching |
114 | |
115 | **** Confucianism |
116 | |
117 | ***** The Analects |
118 | |
119 | *** Marcus Aurelius - Meditations |
120 | |
121 | I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic |
122 | philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books |
123 | before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the |
124 | collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting |
125 | according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but |
126 | each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A |
127 | number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in |
128 | my notebook to ponder further. |
129 | |
130 | *** Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death |
131 | |
132 | I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after |
133 | being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it |
134 | was better for me to have found this one. |
135 | |
136 | Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of |
137 | Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends, |
138 | the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is |
139 | reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation |
140 | forces reflection. |
141 | |
142 | ** Politics |
143 | |
144 | *** Thomas More - Utopia |
145 | |
146 | I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but |
147 | the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the |
148 | overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so |
149 | I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick |
150 | read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system |
151 | espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a |
152 | negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European |
153 | social customs. |
154 | |
155 | ** Religion |
156 | |
157 | *** [[William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience]] |
158 | |
159 | |
160 | ** Technical |
161 | |
162 | *** C J Date - Database in Depth |
163 | |
164 | This was a complete waste of time. The author rants on for 180 pages |
165 | and presents the information in a disorderly and shallow manner. It |
166 | could be rewritten in about fifty pages and contain the same amount of |
167 | information if it were organized properly and the off topic commentary |
168 | were minimized. |
169 | |
170 | *** Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol |
171 | |
172 | AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with |
173 | the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first |
174 | half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a |
175 | series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations |
176 | and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for |
177 | CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general |
178 | object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly |
179 | make mapping decisions customizable. |
180 | |
181 | |
182 | * Reports |
183 | |
184 | ** [[http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006483.pdf][2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy]] |
185 | |
186 | A depressing view of American literacy rates. Literacy skills |
187 | decreased across almost every population segment in the US between |
188 | 1993 and 2003; a mere 31% of college graduates are considered |
189 | proficient in quantitative literacy (defined as being able to do |
190 | things as terribly complicated as comparing two editorials). |
191 | |
192 | |
193 | * Books That I Cannot Find |
194 | |
195 | If you know anyone who has copies I'd appreciate an email. I'm willing |
196 | to buy books for a reasonable cost, and for ones that are more than 25 |
197 | years old and out of print I am not opposed to *piracy* (no one is |
198 | making money from them, and I feel that long copyrights are unethical |
199 | and therefore feel no pangs of moral guilt). |
200 | |
201 | - *Crystallizing Public Opinion* by Edward Bernays |
202 | - A supposed classic in the field of public relations. Curiosity |
203 | demands that I read the writings of the father of the field to |
204 | better understand the way the international media works. |
205 | - Another example of out of print books clearly having a market, |
206 | but no publisher due to copyright (used copies go for nearly a |
207 | thousand dollars in poor condition and hit five thousand or so |
208 | for ones in good shape). |
209 | |
210 | * Essays |
211 | ** Computing |
212 | *** Design |
213 | **** [[http://deadhobosociety.com/index.php/Essays/ESSAY12][Confucianism and Technical Standards]] |