-(((|William| |Blake|)
+(((|Alan| |Moore|)
+ nil
+ ("Watchmen" :fiction 8)
+ ("V for Vendetta" :fiction 10))
+ ((|Neil| |Gaiman|)
+ nil
+ ("The Sandman (series)"
+ :fiction 10
+ "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"
+ :fiction 8
+ "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"
+ :fiction 6
+ "Entertaining, but the end was a bit much rushed."))
+ ((|William| |Blake|)
"Blake is my [[William Blake][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
:fiction 3
"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" :fiction 9 "")
+ ("The Prophet" :fiction 9)
("Sand and Foam" :fiction 7 "An interesting little book of aphorisms.")
- ("The Madman" :fiction 8 ""))
+ ("The Madman" :fiction 8))
((|John| |Taylor| |Gatto|)
"Former teacher and now author-activist."
("Underground History of American Education"
:nonfiction 9
"An interesting *underground* history of the American education
-system."))
+system. Available
+[[http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/][online for free]]."))
((|Luke| |Rhinehardt|)
- ""
+ nil
("The Dice Man"
:fiction 7
"<quote>
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|)
- ""
+ nil
("Snow Crash"
:fiction 9
"As one must read the *Bible* to understand English literature, so one
I'd still have to recommend *Snow Crash* if one wished to read only one
Stephenson novel."))
((|Marcus| |Aurelius|)
- ""
+ nil
("Meditations"
- :nonfiction 6
- "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."))
+ :nonfiction 4
+ "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."))
((|Søren| |Kierkegaard|)
"Kierkegaard was a master of style and philosophy; his writing is
interesting even if one finds the theistic extentialism espoused
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."))
+conflict between the views.")
+ ("Fear and Trembling"
+ :nonfiction nil
+ "An interesting dialectical lyric contrasting Despair and Faith.")
+ ("Repetition"
+ :nonfiction 10
+ "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"
+ :nonfiction 7
+ "...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. "))
((|Thomas| |More|)
- ""
+ nil
("Utopia"
:fiction 7
"I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but
negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European
social customs."))
((|William| |James|)
- ""
+ nil
("The Varieties of Religious Experience"
:nonfiction 7
- "[[William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience][A partially finished extended summary]]"))
+ "[[William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience][A partially finished extended summary]]")
+ ("The PhD Octopus"
+ :nonfiction nil
+ "<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>
+
+[[William James - The PhD Octopus][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"
+ :fiction 7
+ "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|)
- ""
+ nil
("The Art of the Metaobject Protocol"
:nonfiction 10
"AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with
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.")))
\ No newline at end of file
+make mapping decisions customizable."))
+ ((|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"
+ :fiction 8
+ "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"
+ :nonfiction 8
+ "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"
+ :nonfiction 9
+ "*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"
+ :nonfiction 7
+ "*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."))
+ ((|Aristotle|)
+ nil
+ ("Ethics"
+ :nonfiction nil)
+ ("Categories"
+ :nonfiction nil)
+ ("Poetics"
+ :nonfiction nil)
+;;; ("Prior Analytics"
+;;; :nonfiction nil
+;;; "*Prior Analytics* is essential reading if one wishes to understand
+;;; [[Term Logic][traditional logic]]. Given that traditional logic is
+;;; used by most philosophers prior to the mid-1800s it is a *bit*
+;;; important. Luckily *Prior Analytics* is
+;;; [[http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/a8pra/index.html][available online for free]] and is fairly short.")
+ ("Rhetoric"
+ :nonfiction nil))
+ ((|Aristophanes|)
+ nil
+ ("The Frogs" :fiction nil)
+ ("The Clouds" :fiction nil)
+ ("Ecclesiazusae" :fiction nil))
+ ((|Plato|)
+ nil
+ ("Symposium" :fiction nil)
+ ("Euthyphro" :fiction nil)
+ ("Apology" :nonfiction nil)
+ ("Crito" :fiction nil)
+ ("Phaedo" :nonfiction 10)
+ ("Protagoras" :fiction nil))
+ ((|Aeschylus|)
+ nil
+ ("Oresteia":fiction 10)
+ ("Prometheus Bound" :fiction 9)
+ ("The Persians" :fiction 8))
+ ((|Homer|)
+ nil
+ ("The Odyssey" :fiction 10))
+ ((|George| |Orwell|)
+ nil
+ ("1984" :fiction 10)
+ ("Animal Farm" :fiction nil))
+ ((|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"
+ :nonfiction 0
+ "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"
+ :nonfiction 0
+ "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"
+ :fiction 7
+ "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."))
+ ((|Douglas| |Adams|)
+ nil
+ ("Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (collected)" :fiction 8)
+ ("The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" :fiction 6))
+ ((|H.G.| |Wells|)
+ nil
+ ("The Island of Dr Moreau" :fiction 7))
+ ((|JRR| |Tolkien|)
+ nil
+ ("The Lord of the Rings" :fiction 9)
+ ("The Silmarillion" :fiction 10)
+ ("The Lost Tales" :fiction 7))
+ ((|Bjarne| |Stroustrup|)
+ nil
+ ("The C++ Programming Language (3rd edition)"
+ :nonfiction nil
+ "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."))
+ ((|Confucius|)
+ nil
+ ("Analects" :nonfiction nil))
+ ((|Mencius|)
+ nil
+ ("Mencius" :nonfiction nil))
+ ((|Walter| |Miller|)
+ nil
+ ("A Canticle for Leibowitz" :fiction 10))
+ ((|David| |Lamkins|)
+ nil
+ ("Successful Lisp"
+ :nonfiction 8
+ "After learning Scheme, I read *Successful Lisp* and was able to
+pick up Common Lisp fairly easily."))
+ ((|John| |Allison|)
+ "The author of the rather amazing [[http://scarygoround.com][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 nil)
+ ("Blame the Sky" :fiction nil)
+ ("Skellington" :fiction nil)
+ ("The Retribution Index" :fiction nil)
+ ("Great Aches" :fiction nil)
+ ("Ahoy Hoy!" :fiction nil)
+ ("Heavy Metal Hearts and Flowers" :fiction nil)
+ ("Ghosts" :fiction nil))
+ ((|Mike| |Carey|)
+ nil
+ ("Lucifer (series)"
+ :fiction 6
+ "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."))
+ ((|Anonymous|)
+ nil
+ ("Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz" :fiction nil))
+ ((|Alisa| |Kwitney|)
+ nil
+ ("Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold" :fiction 8))
+ ((|John| |Milton|)
+ nil
+ ("Paradise Lost" :fiction 10))
+ ((|Yevgeny| |Zamyatin|)
+ nil
+ ("We" :fiction))
+ ((|Kurt| |Vonnegut|)
+ nil
+ ("Cat's Cradle"
+ :fiction 9
+ "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."))
+ ((|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"
+ :nonfiction 10
+ "e-cash MP5K-SD Adriatic Bellcore Lon Horiuchi 9705 Samford Road
+jihad New World Order AVN FTS2000 ANZUS subversive SAPO PET Armani"))
+ ((|Edgar| |Allan| |Poe|)
+ "ULTRAGOTHIK"
+ ("Tales of Mystery and Suspense"
+ :fiction 6
+ "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."))
+ ((|Albert| |Camus|)
+ nil
+ ("The Plague" :fiction)))
+
+
HCoop / clinton / website / src / unknownlamer.org.git / blobdiff