d3481cd6 |
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 |
84a39f8c |
10 | Sandman* as a whole ranks higher than anything even Alan Moore has |
ba5275a0 |
11 | written.") |
12 | ("Good Omens" |
13 | :fiction 8 |
14 | "A friend of a friend decided one evening that I needed to read |
15 | so-called *normal people books*, and so she lent me *Good Omens*. It |
16 | was an enjoyable read and unearthed vague memories of comic book |
17 | magazines I read when I was small and the name *Sandman*; thus through |
5510a619 |
18 | one book I found something far greater.") |
19 | ("American Gods" |
20 | :fiction 6 |
21 | "Entertaining, but the end was a bit much rushed.")) |
d3481cd6 |
22 | ((|William| |Blake|) |
8725b57e |
23 | "Blake is my [[William Blake][favorite]] of the English poets. His |
24 | unique use of relief etching and watercoloring makes for very |
25 | interesting Illuminated works. There is a very high quality |
874f8ca9 |
26 | [[http://blakearchive.org][complete archive of Blake's works]] online |
27 | with high resolution plate scans and full transcriptions among other |
28 | things." |
29 | ("The Four Zoas" |
30 | :fiction 10 |
31 | "The unfinished manuscript of Blake's longest apocalypse. The |
32 | Four Zoas divide from Albion and rage through the ages of dismal woe |
33 | to bring about the end of the cycle of Ulro and restore the cycle of |
34 | Beulah.") |
35 | ("Jerusalem" :fiction 10 "The finest of Blake's Illuminated works.")) |
36 | ((|Kahlil| |Gibran|) |
37 | "Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not |
38 | agree with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but *The Madman* onward are |
39 | all rather nice. A few of his works are |
40 | [[http://leb.net/~mira/][online]], but I recommend scouting used book |
41 | stores for old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least) |
42 | *hardcover* versions from *Alfred A. Knopf* are in fact permabound |
43 | paperbacks with a hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to |
44 | the editions from the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more, |
45 | naturally)." |
46 | ("A Tear and a Smile" |
47 | :fiction 3 |
48 | "One of Kahlil Gibran's earlier works, I did not much like *A |
49 | Tear and a Smile* excepting the last poem (\"A Poet's Voice\").") |
e1fe71cb |
50 | ("The Prophet" :fiction 9) |
874f8ca9 |
51 | ("Sand and Foam" :fiction 7 "An interesting little book of aphorisms.") |
e1fe71cb |
52 | ("The Madman" :fiction 8)) |
874f8ca9 |
53 | ((|John| |Taylor| |Gatto|) |
54 | "Former teacher and now author-activist." |
55 | ("Underground History of American Education" |
56 | :nonfiction 9 |
57 | "An interesting *underground* history of the American education |
8c288476 |
58 | system. Available |
59 | [[http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/][online for free]].")) |
874f8ca9 |
60 | ((|Luke| |Rhinehardt|) |
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61 | nil |
874f8ca9 |
62 | ("The Dice Man" |
63 | :fiction 7 |
64 | "<quote> |
65 | And it's his illusions about what |
66 | constitutes the real world which are |
67 | inhibiting him... |
68 | His reality, his reason, his society |
69 | ...these are what must be destroyed |
70 | </quote> |
71 | |
72 | A quotation from one of my [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter_of_the_Soul][favorite metal songs]] inspired me to grab |
73 | this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found |
74 | in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an |
75 | autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression |
76 | through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through |
77 | random chance. |
78 | |
79 | The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part |
80 | attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often |
81 | difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.")) |
82 | ((|Neal| |Stephenson|) |
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83 | nil |
874f8ca9 |
84 | ("Snow Crash" |
85 | :fiction 9 |
86 | "As one must read the *Bible* to understand English literature, so one |
87 | must read *Snow Crash* today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop |
88 | fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in |
89 | a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come |
90 | up with enganging tales. *Snow Crash* has a nice undertone of (quite |
91 | accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading |
92 | as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.") |
93 | ("Cryptonomicon" |
94 | :fiction 8 |
95 | "I read *Cryptonomicon* when it was new, and at the time I thought it was |
96 | good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from |
97 | the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to |
98 | finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between |
99 | the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way. |
100 | |
101 | I'd still have to recommend *Snow Crash* if one wished to read only one |
102 | Stephenson novel.")) |
103 | ((|Marcus| |Aurelius|) |
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104 | nil |
874f8ca9 |
105 | ("Meditations" |
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106 | :nonfiction 4 |
107 | "At the time, I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on |
108 | Stoic philosophy, and it was a fairly quick read (fifteen minutes a |
109 | day over the course of two weeks for me). Nowadays I've read |
110 | Epictetus, and I suggest reading his *Discourses* instead.")) |
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111 | ((|Søren| |Kierkegaard|) |
112 | "Kierkegaard was a master of style and philosophy; his writing is |
113 | interesting even if one finds the theistic extentialism espoused |
114 | disagreeable." |
115 | ("Sickness Unto Death" |
116 | :nonfiction 10 |
117 | "I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after |
118 | being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it |
119 | was better for me to have found this one. |
120 | |
121 | Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of |
122 | Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends, |
123 | the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is |
124 | reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation |
125 | forces reflection.") |
126 | ("Either/Or" |
127 | :nonfiction 10 |
128 | "Composed of two portions, *Either/Or* is a rather lengthy but |
129 | rewarding read. The first book is a series of essays and a diary of a |
130 | young esthetician; the second is a pair of long letters from an older |
131 | ethicist friend to this esthetician. You are then left to resolve the |
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132 | conflict between the views.") |
133 | ("Fear and Trembling" |
134 | :nonfiction nil |
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135 | "An interesting dialectical lyric contrasting Despair and Faith.") |
136 | ("Repetition" |
137 | :nonfiction 10 |
138 | "He who despairs of esthetic repetition gets none; he who despairs |
139 | of ethical repetition receieves the esthetic. Is it true then that no |
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140 | repetition exists? Is transition all one can hope for?") |
141 | ("The Concept of Anxiety" |
142 | :nonfiction 7 |
143 | "...Very clearly an early work of Kierkegaard. It is rather formal |
144 | and difficult to get through. I'd recommend reading a lot of other |
145 | Kierkegaard before this. ")) |
874f8ca9 |
146 | ((|Thomas| |More|) |
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147 | nil |
874f8ca9 |
148 | ("Utopia" |
149 | :fiction 7 |
150 | "I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but |
151 | the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the |
152 | overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so |
153 | I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick |
154 | read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system |
155 | espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a |
156 | negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European |
157 | social customs.")) |
158 | ((|William| |James|) |
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159 | nil |
874f8ca9 |
160 | ("The Varieties of Religious Experience" |
161 | :nonfiction 7 |
de5d3f07 |
162 | "[[William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience][A partially finished extended summary]]") |
163 | ("The PhD Octopus" |
164 | :nonfiction nil |
165 | "<quote> |
166 | America is thus as a nation rapidly drifting towards a state of things |
167 | in which no man of science or letters will be accounted respectable |
168 | unless some kind of badge or diploma is stamped upon him, and in which |
169 | bare personality will be a mark of outcast estate. It seems to me high |
170 | time to rouse ourselves to consciousness, and to cast a critical eye |
171 | upon this decidedly grotesque tendency. Other nations suffer terribly |
172 | from the Mandarin disease. Are we doomed to suffer like the rest? |
173 | </quote> |
0e14b2a8 |
174 | |
de5d3f07 |
175 | [[William James - The PhD Octopus][Full Text]]")) |
c5a0e228 |
176 | ((|Henry| |James|) |
177 | "The novelist brother of William James; I've not read many (read: |
178 | one) of his books, but what I did was decent." |
179 | ("The Altar of the Dead" |
180 | :fiction 7 |
181 | "A short novella about a man who maintained an altar in a church |
182 | for all of his lost loved ones on the surface, but something a bit |
183 | more beneath.")) |
874f8ca9 |
184 | ((|Gregor| |Kiczales|) |
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185 | nil |
874f8ca9 |
186 | ("The Art of the Metaobject Protocol" |
187 | :nonfiction 10 |
188 | "AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with |
189 | the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first |
190 | half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a |
191 | series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations |
192 | and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for |
193 | CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general |
194 | object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly |
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195 | make mapping decisions customizable.")) |
196 | ((|Friedrich| |Nietzsche|) |
197 | "A bit acerbic and esoteric, Nietzsche is for me a good *secular* |
198 | counterpart to Kierkegaard's theistic philosophy. Nietzsche's |
199 | polemical works raise important questions for anyone who reads works |
200 | on ethics. As such it is a shame that he has gotten a bad reputation |
201 | by being read by far too many angsty teenagers who see (and relay) |
202 | only Nietzsche the asshole rather than Nietzsche the master of the |
203 | polemic." |
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204 | ("Thus Spoke Zarathustra" |
205 | :fiction 8 |
206 | "A masterpiece of indirect communication depsite the occasional |
207 | flaw and overly dramatic passage. Certainly a book worth reading many |
208 | times over the course of one's life.") |
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209 | ("Beyond Good and Evil" |
210 | :nonfiction 8 |
211 | "A somewhat more comprehensible, if a bit less aesthetically |
212 | pleasing, presentation of much of the philosophy found in *Thus Spoke |
c87c941a |
213 | Zarathustra* in the negative form. The final chapters are very |
214 | important (not to detract from the value of the rest of the work) if |
215 | one wishes to understand *On the Genealogy of Morals*.") |
a8701f2f |
216 | ("On the Geneaology of Morals" |
217 | :nonfiction 9 |
218 | "*On the Geneaology of Morals* is a wonderful book of three |
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219 | polemical essays on the origin of moral/ethical valuations, and the |
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220 | blindness of modern philosphers whose very thinking is tainted by |
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221 | these valuations unknowingly.") |
222 | ("Ecce Homo" |
223 | :nonfiction 7 |
224 | "*Ecce Homo* is Nietzsche's very strange autobiography and |
225 | explanation of his own works. At points it is clear that it could have |
226 | used a bit more editing (prevented by Nietzsche ... falling into a |
227 | catatonic state and all), but is still a very useful book to read as |
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228 | Nietzsche explains the overall structure of his works.")) |
229 | ((|Aristotle|) |
230 | nil |
231 | ("Ethics" |
232 | :nonfiction nil) |
233 | ("Categories" |
234 | :nonfiction nil) |
235 | ("Poetics" |
236 | :nonfiction nil) |
237 | ;;; ("Prior Analytics" |
238 | ;;; :nonfiction nil |
239 | ;;; "*Prior Analytics* is essential reading if one wishes to understand |
240 | ;;; [[Term Logic][traditional logic]]. Given that traditional logic is |
241 | ;;; used by most philosophers prior to the mid-1800s it is a *bit* |
242 | ;;; important. Luckily *Prior Analytics* is |
243 | ;;; [[http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/a8pra/index.html][available online for free]] and is fairly short.") |
244 | ("Rhetoric" |
245 | :nonfiction nil)) |
246 | ((|Aristophanes|) |
247 | nil |
248 | ("The Frogs" :fiction nil) |
249 | ("The Clouds" :fiction nil) |
250 | ("Ecclesiazusae" :fiction nil)) |
251 | ((|Plato|) |
252 | nil |
253 | ("Symposium" :fiction nil) |
254 | ("Euthyphro" :fiction nil) |
255 | ("Apology" :nonfiction nil) |
256 | ("Crito" :fiction nil) |
9241fdb3 |
257 | ("Phaedo" :nonfiction 10) |
38147217 |
258 | ("Protagoras" :fiction nil)) |
259 | ((|Aeschylus|) |
260 | nil |
261 | ("Oresteia":fiction 10) |
262 | ("Prometheus Bound" :fiction 9) |
263 | ("The Persians" :fiction 8)) |
264 | ((|Homer|) |
265 | nil |
266 | ("The Odyssey" :fiction 10)) |
267 | ((|George| |Orwell|) |
268 | nil |
269 | ("1984" :fiction 10) |
270 | ("Animal Farm" :fiction nil)) |
271 | ((|Aldous| |Huxley|) |
272 | "Perhaps the most overrated modern writer. Other people have written |
273 | everything he has to write better and many years before he got around |
274 | to it." |
275 | ("The Doors of Perception" |
276 | :nonfiction 0 |
277 | "Huxley stains the name of Blake by naming this horrible |
278 | pseudo-scientific and pseudo-poetic essay after a line from *The |
279 | Marriage of Heaven and Hell*. Subjectivity and objectivity are |
280 | incommensurable; his attempt and being subjectively objective is |
281 | utterly worthless.") |
282 | ("Heaven and Hell" |
283 | :nonfiction 0 |
ba5275a0 |
284 | "Blah blah LSD blah blah Mushrooms blah blah Peyote blah blah I'm |
0981b81e |
285 | Aldous Huxley I'm a pretentious jerk. Don't bother.") |
286 | ("Brave New World" |
287 | :fiction 7 |
288 | "A nice light read; the story is obvious and by the hundreth page |
289 | the ending is clear, but it provided a bit of a break from heavier |
290 | reading for me. I must say that anyone who has read *Brave New World* |
291 | and does not despise modern society has the intellectual capacity of |
292 | an *Epsilon*. *1984* is perhaps easily misread, but *Brave New World* |
293 | is very clear with its message and is a bit like being smacked upside |
294 | the head with a hammer.")) |
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295 | ((|Douglas| |Adams|) |
296 | nil |
297 | ("Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (collected)" :fiction 8) |
298 | ("The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" :fiction 6)) |
299 | ((|H.G.| |Wells|) |
300 | nil |
9241fdb3 |
301 | ("The Island of Dr Moreau" :fiction 7)) |
302 | ((|JRR| |Tolkien|) |
303 | nil |
304 | ("The Lord of the Rings" :fiction 9) |
305 | ("The Silmarillion" :fiction 10) |
306 | ("The Lost Tales" :fiction 7)) |
307 | ((|Bjarne| |Stroustrup|) |
308 | nil |
309 | ("The C++ Programming Language (3rd edition)" |
310 | :nonfiction nil |
311 | "Once upon a time I was fifteen and I read this book. It was more |
312 | or less what taught me how to write programs just large enough to do |
313 | useful things, and so shall forever be remembered by me. A year and a |
314 | half later I stumbled upon a little language called Scheme and fell |
315 | down the rabbit hole.")) |
316 | ((|Confucius|) |
317 | nil |
318 | ("Analects" :nonfiction nil)) |
319 | ((|Mencius|) |
320 | nil |
321 | ("Mencius" :nonfiction nil)) |
322 | ((|Walter| |Miller|) |
323 | nil |
324 | ("A Canticle for Leibowitz" :fiction 10)) |
325 | ((|David| |Lamkins|) |
338c039f |
326 | nil |
327 | ("Successful Lisp" |
4aa6c876 |
328 | :nonfiction 8 |
329 | "After learning Scheme, I read *Successful Lisp* and was able to |
338c039f |
330 | pick up Common Lisp fairly easily.")) |
9241fdb3 |
331 | ((|John| |Allison|) |
338c039f |
332 | "The author of the rather amazing [[http://scarygoround.com][Scary Go Round]]. |
9241fdb3 |
333 | I highly recommend procuring the printed collections; the printing |
334 | quality is superb (full color on glossy paper), and the long story |
335 | arcs are much easier to read." |
d95bc162 |
336 | ("Looks, Brains and Everything" :fiction nil) |
337 | ("Blame the Sky" :fiction nil) |
338 | ("Skellington" :fiction nil) |
339 | ("The Retribution Index" :fiction nil) |
340 | ("Great Aches" :fiction nil) |
341 | ("Ahoy Hoy!" :fiction nil) |
342 | ("Heavy Metal Hearts and Flowers" :fiction nil) |
338c039f |
343 | ("Ghosts" :fiction nil)) |
344 | ((|Mike| |Carey|) |
345 | nil |
346 | ("Lucifer (series)" |
347 | :fiction 6 |
348 | "Of the *Sandman* spinoffs, *Lucifer* stands out as the best for |
349 | the first half, but then the writer appears to take on far too great a |
350 | task, and, with the introduction of some disagreeable character |
351 | relations, fails to execute the story as well as it could have |
352 | been. Still, it was worth reading to the end even though most of the |
353 | stories after issue 35 or so were merely ok. If you like Kierkegaard I |
354 | suggest issues 2, 3, and 62--they show the form of the incommensurable |
355 | relation of the single individual to the absolute perfectly.")) |
356 | ((|Anonymous|) |
357 | nil |
358 | ("Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz" :fiction nil)) |
359 | ((|Alisa| |Kwitney|) |
360 | nil |
064cb94b |
361 | ("Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold" :fiction 8)) |
362 | ((|John| |Milton|) |
363 | nil |
364 | ("Paradise Lost" :fiction 10)) |
365 | ((|Yevgeny| |Zamyatin|) |
366 | nil |
dcd550fb |
367 | ("We" :fiction)) |
368 | ((|Kurt| |Vonnegut|) |
369 | nil |
370 | ("Cat's Cradle" |
371 | :fiction 9 |
372 | "There are few books that I have started to read before sleeping |
373 | and found myself watching the sun rise after finishing. *Cat's Cradle* |
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374 | is definitely required nerd reading.")) |
375 | ((|Robert| |Anton| |Wilson|) |
376 | "Or rather, Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea (but my book script |
377 | updating thing doesn't do multiple authors" |
378 | ("The Illuminatus! Trilogy" |
379 | :nonfiction 10 |
380 | "e-cash MP5K-SD Adriatic Bellcore Lon Horiuchi 9705 Samford Road |
381 | jihad New World Order AVN FTS2000 ANZUS subversive SAPO PET Armani")) |
382 | ((|Edgar| |Allan| |Poe|) |
383 | "ULTRAGOTHIK" |
cad4d8a7 |
384 | ("Tales of Mystery and Suspense" |
5510a619 |
385 | :fiction 6 |
386 | "This is when I learned that I still don't really like late 1800s |
387 | American literature all that much. Some of the tales were worth |
1aeb4325 |
388 | reading, but most of it was not in a style I like all that much.")) |
389 | ((|Albert| |Camus|) |
390 | nil |
391 | ("The Plague" :fiction))) |
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392 | |
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393 | |