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| 13 | <h1>The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms</h1> |
| 14 | <div class="contents"> |
| 15 | <dl> |
| 16 | <dt> |
| 17 | <a href="#sec1">Authors</a> |
| 18 | </dt> |
| 19 | <dd> |
| 20 | <dl> |
| 21 | <dt> |
| 22 | <a href="#sec2">William Blake</a> |
| 23 | </dt> |
| 24 | <dt> |
| 25 | <a href="#sec3">Kahlil Gibran</a> |
| 26 | </dt> |
| 27 | </dl> |
| 28 | </dd> |
| 29 | <dt> |
| 30 | <a href="#sec4">Fiction</a> |
| 31 | </dt> |
| 32 | <dd> |
| 33 | <dl> |
| 34 | <dt> |
| 35 | <a href="#sec5">General</a> |
| 36 | </dt> |
| 37 | <dd> |
| 38 | <dl> |
| 39 | <dt> |
| 40 | <a href="#sec6">Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man</a> |
| 41 | </dt> |
| 42 | </dl> |
| 43 | </dd> |
| 44 | <dt> |
| 45 | <a href="#sec7">Philosophical</a> |
| 46 | </dt> |
| 47 | <dt> |
| 48 | <a href="#sec8">Sci-Fi</a> |
| 49 | </dt> |
| 50 | <dd> |
| 51 | <dl> |
| 52 | <dt> |
| 53 | <a href="#sec9">Neal Stephenson</a> |
| 54 | </dt> |
| 55 | </dl> |
| 56 | </dd> |
| 57 | </dl> |
| 58 | </dd> |
| 59 | <dt> |
| 60 | <a href="#sec10">Non-Fiction</a> |
| 61 | </dt> |
| 62 | <dd> |
| 63 | <dl> |
| 64 | <dt> |
| 65 | <a href="#sec11">Education</a> |
| 66 | </dt> |
| 67 | <dd> |
| 68 | <dl> |
| 69 | <dt> |
| 70 | <a href="#sec12">John Taylor Gatto - Underground History of American Education</a> |
| 71 | </dt> |
| 72 | </dl> |
| 73 | </dd> |
| 74 | <dt> |
| 75 | <a href="#sec13">Philosophy</a> |
| 76 | </dt> |
| 77 | <dd> |
| 78 | <dl> |
| 79 | <dt> |
| 80 | <a href="#sec14">Chinese</a> |
| 81 | </dt> |
| 82 | <dt> |
| 83 | <a href="#sec15">Marcus Aurelius - Meditations</a> |
| 84 | </dt> |
| 85 | <dt> |
| 86 | <a href="#sec16">Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death</a> |
| 87 | </dt> |
| 88 | </dl> |
| 89 | </dd> |
| 90 | <dt> |
| 91 | <a href="#sec17">Politics</a> |
| 92 | </dt> |
| 93 | <dd> |
| 94 | <dl> |
| 95 | <dt> |
| 96 | <a href="#sec18">Thomas More - Utopia</a> |
| 97 | </dt> |
| 98 | </dl> |
| 99 | </dd> |
| 100 | <dt> |
| 101 | <a href="#sec19">Religion</a> |
| 102 | </dt> |
| 103 | <dd> |
| 104 | <dl> |
| 105 | <dt> |
| 106 | <a href="#sec20">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</a> |
| 107 | </dt> |
| 108 | </dl> |
| 109 | </dd> |
| 110 | <dt> |
| 111 | <a href="#sec21">Technical</a> |
| 112 | </dt> |
| 113 | <dd> |
| 114 | <dl> |
| 115 | <dt> |
| 116 | <a href="#sec22">C J Date - Database in Depth</a> |
| 117 | </dt> |
| 118 | <dt> |
| 119 | <a href="#sec23">Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a> |
| 120 | </dt> |
| 121 | </dl> |
| 122 | </dd> |
| 123 | </dl> |
| 124 | </dd> |
| 125 | <dt> |
| 126 | <a href="#sec24">Reports</a> |
| 127 | </dt> |
| 128 | <dd> |
| 129 | <dl> |
| 130 | <dt> |
| 131 | <a href="#sec25">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy</a> |
| 132 | </dt> |
| 133 | </dl> |
| 134 | </dd> |
| 135 | <dt> |
| 136 | <a href="#sec26">Books That I Cannot Find</a> |
| 137 | </dt> |
| 138 | <dt> |
| 139 | <a href="#sec27">Essays</a> |
| 140 | </dt> |
| 141 | <dd> |
| 142 | <dl> |
| 143 | <dt> |
| 144 | <a href="#sec28">Computing</a> |
| 145 | </dt> |
| 146 | <dd> |
| 147 | <dl> |
| 148 | <dt> |
| 149 | <a href="#sec29">Design</a> |
| 150 | </dt> |
| 151 | </dl> |
| 152 | </dd> |
| 153 | </dl> |
| 154 | </dd> |
| 155 | </dl> |
| 156 | </div> |
| 157 | |
| 158 | |
| 159 | <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><p>I enjoy classical literature and works of philosophy and politics with |
| 160 | a side of cyberpunk novels for when my brain is tired. When I was in |
| 161 | High School I read technical books for fun, but now I tend to find |
| 162 | most of them useless (thank you Internet) excepting a few really well |
| 163 | written ones (<em>L.i.s.p</em>, <em>TAOCP</em>, ...).</p> |
| 164 | |
| 165 | <p>I spend most of my time reading. A full list of things I have read |
| 166 | would be impossible to compile, but here I am collecting links and |
| 167 | small summaries of things I have read and find interesting enough to |
| 168 | mention, but not always recommend, to others.</p> |
| 169 | |
| 170 | <h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a> |
| 171 | Authors</h2> |
| 172 | |
| 173 | <h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a> |
| 174 | William Blake</h3> |
| 175 | |
| 176 | <p class="first">His poetry is the result of spending too much time etching copper |
| 177 | plates and breathing the fumes. Quite wonderful indeed.</p> |
| 178 | |
| 179 | |
| 180 | <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a> |
| 181 | Kahlil Gibran</h3> |
| 182 | |
| 183 | <p class="first">Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not agree |
| 184 | with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but <em>The Madman</em> onward are all |
| 185 | rather nice. So far I've read <em>A Tear and a Smile</em> (not so good |
| 186 | excepting the last poem), <em>The Madman</em>, <em>The Prophet</em> (both excellent), |
| 187 | and <em>Sand and Foam</em> (an interesting little book of aphorisms). A few of |
| 188 | his works are <a href="http://leb.net/~mira/">online</a>, but I recommend scouting used book stores for |
| 189 | old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least) <em>hardcover</em> |
| 190 | versions from <em>Alfred A. Knopf</em> are in fact permabound paperbacks with a |
| 191 | hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to the editions from |
| 192 | the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more, naturally).</p> |
| 193 | |
| 194 | |
| 195 | |
| 196 | <h2><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a> |
| 197 | Fiction</h2> |
| 198 | |
| 199 | <h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a> |
| 200 | General</h3> |
| 201 | |
| 202 | <h4><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a> |
| 203 | Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man</h4> |
| 204 | |
| 205 | <blockquote> |
| 206 | <p class="quoted"> |
| 207 | And it's his illusions about what |
| 208 | constitutes the real world which are |
| 209 | inhibiting him... |
| 210 | His reality, his reason, his society |
| 211 | ...these are what must be destroyed</p> |
| 212 | |
| 213 | </blockquote> |
| 214 | |
| 215 | <p>A quotation from one of my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter_of_the_Soul">favorite metal songs</a> inspired me to grab |
| 216 | this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found |
| 217 | in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an |
| 218 | autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression |
| 219 | through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through |
| 220 | random chance.</p> |
| 221 | |
| 222 | <p>The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part |
| 223 | attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often |
| 224 | difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.</p> |
| 225 | |
| 226 | |
| 227 | |
| 228 | <h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a> |
| 229 | Philosophical</h3> |
| 230 | |
| 231 | |
| 232 | <h3><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a> |
| 233 | Sci-Fi</h3> |
| 234 | |
| 235 | <h4><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a> |
| 236 | Neal Stephenson</h4> |
| 237 | |
| 238 | <h5>Cryptonomicon</h5> |
| 239 | |
| 240 | <p>I read <em>Cryptonomicon</em> when it was new, and at the time I thought it was |
| 241 | good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from |
| 242 | the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to |
| 243 | finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between |
| 244 | the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way.</p> |
| 245 | |
| 246 | <p>I'd still have to recommend <em>Snow Crash</em> if one wished to read only one |
| 247 | Stephenson novel.</p> |
| 248 | |
| 249 | |
| 250 | <h5>Snow Crash</h5> |
| 251 | |
| 252 | <p>As one must read the <em>Bible</em> to understand English literature, so one |
| 253 | must read <em>Snow Crash</em> today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop |
| 254 | fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in |
| 255 | a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come |
| 256 | up with enganging tales. <em>Snow Crash</em> has a nice undertone of (quite |
| 257 | accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading |
| 258 | as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.</p> |
| 259 | |
| 260 | |
| 261 | |
| 262 | |
| 263 | |
| 264 | <h2><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a> |
| 265 | Non-Fiction</h2> |
| 266 | |
| 267 | <h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a> |
| 268 | Education</h3> |
| 269 | |
| 270 | <h4><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a> |
| 271 | John Taylor Gatto - <a href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm">Underground History of American Education</a></h4> |
| 272 | |
| 273 | <p class="first">Contained within this book (available online for free, but the printed |
| 274 | copy sits wonderfully on a shelf) is a detailed and seemingly well |
| 275 | researched history of American Education with a particular focus on |
| 276 | the transformation that has occured before our eyes in the last |
| 277 | century. I am unsure if Gatto is entirely correct and not exaggerating |
| 278 | anything; I have failed to find any negative criticisms, but it is not |
| 279 | clear to me if that is because he is entirely correct or if no one |
| 280 | cares enough to write a counterargument. I am in the process of |
| 281 | tracking down as many of his sources as possible (a good number of |
| 282 | them are out of print and not in the public domain yet), and will make |
| 283 | an attempt to verify his argument over the course of the next year |
| 284 | (that being 2007).</p> |
| 285 | |
| 286 | <p>If he is correct then every one of us has had the first eighteen years |
| 287 | of our lives stolen from us, and we have collectively suffered massive |
| 288 | intellectual damage. My intuitions tell me he is correct (which is why |
| 289 | I am driven to verify; I cannot trust myself because I <em>want</em> to |
| 290 | believe) for my individuality and intelligence were nearly stolen from |
| 291 | me. The only reason I survived relatively unscathed is because I |
| 292 | became completely socially withdrawn for the last half of elementary |
| 293 | school until late in high school due to the abuse I received at the |
| 294 | hands of my peers creating a deep fear of social interaction in |
| 295 | me. The downside is that I had the confidence crushed from my soul, |
| 296 | but now that I have begun to regain it (the good that bicycling |
| 297 | enabling me to stand straight and gradual realization of my own worth |
| 298 | as a human have done) I would never trade the ability to think freely |
| 299 | for the social skills I lack.</p> |
| 300 | |
| 301 | |
| 302 | |
| 303 | <h3><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a> |
| 304 | Philosophy</h3> |
| 305 | |
| 306 | <h4><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a> |
| 307 | Chinese</h4> |
| 308 | |
| 309 | <h5>Tao Te Ching</h5> |
| 310 | |
| 311 | |
| 312 | <h5>Confucianism</h5> |
| 313 | |
| 314 | <h5>The Analects</h5> |
| 315 | |
| 316 | |
| 317 | |
| 318 | |
| 319 | <h4><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a> |
| 320 | Marcus Aurelius - Meditations</h4> |
| 321 | |
| 322 | <p class="first">I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic |
| 323 | philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books |
| 324 | before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the |
| 325 | collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting |
| 326 | according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but |
| 327 | each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A |
| 328 | number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in |
| 329 | my notebook to ponder further.</p> |
| 330 | |
| 331 | |
| 332 | <h4><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a> |
| 333 | Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death</h4> |
| 334 | |
| 335 | <p class="first">I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after |
| 336 | being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it |
| 337 | was better for me to have found this one.</p> |
| 338 | |
| 339 | <p>Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of |
| 340 | Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends, |
| 341 | the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is |
| 342 | reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation |
| 343 | forces reflection.</p> |
| 344 | |
| 345 | |
| 346 | |
| 347 | <h3><a name="sec17" id="sec17"></a> |
| 348 | Politics</h3> |
| 349 | |
| 350 | <h4><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a> |
| 351 | Thomas More - Utopia</h4> |
| 352 | |
| 353 | <p class="first">I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but |
| 354 | the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the |
| 355 | overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so |
| 356 | I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick |
| 357 | read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system |
| 358 | espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a |
| 359 | negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European |
| 360 | social customs.</p> |
| 361 | |
| 362 | |
| 363 | |
| 364 | <h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></a> |
| 365 | Religion</h3> |
| 366 | |
| 367 | <h4><a name="sec20" id="sec20"></a> |
| 368 | <a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20Varieties%20of%20Religious%20Experience.html">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</a></h4> |
| 369 | |
| 370 | |
| 371 | |
| 372 | |
| 373 | <h3><a name="sec21" id="sec21"></a> |
| 374 | Technical</h3> |
| 375 | |
| 376 | <h4><a name="sec22" id="sec22"></a> |
| 377 | C J Date - Database in Depth</h4> |
| 378 | |
| 379 | <p class="first">This was a complete waste of time. The author rants on for 180 pages |
| 380 | and presents the information in a disorderly and shallow manner. It |
| 381 | could be rewritten in about fifty pages and contain the same amount of |
| 382 | information if it were organized properly and the off topic commentary |
| 383 | were minimized.</p> |
| 384 | |
| 385 | |
| 386 | <h4><a name="sec23" id="sec23"></a> |
| 387 | Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</h4> |
| 388 | |
| 389 | <p class="first">AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with |
| 390 | the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first |
| 391 | half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a |
| 392 | series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations |
| 393 | and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for |
| 394 | CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general |
| 395 | object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly |
| 396 | make mapping decisions customizable.</p> |
| 397 | |
| 398 | |
| 399 | |
| 400 | |
| 401 | |
| 402 | <h2><a name="sec24" id="sec24"></a> |
| 403 | Reports</h2> |
| 404 | |
| 405 | <h3><a name="sec25" id="sec25"></a> |
| 406 | <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006483.pdf">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy</a></h3> |
| 407 | |
| 408 | <p class="first">A depressing view of American literacy rates. Literacy skills |
| 409 | decreased across almost every population segment in the US between |
| 410 | 1993 and 2003; a mere 31% of college graduates are considered |
| 411 | proficient in quantitative literacy (defined as being able to do |
| 412 | things as terribly complicated as comparing two editorials).</p> |
| 413 | |
| 414 | |
| 415 | |
| 416 | |
| 417 | <h2><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a> |
| 418 | Books That I Cannot Find</h2> |
| 419 | |
| 420 | <p class="first">If you know anyone who has copies I'd appreciate an email. I'm willing |
| 421 | to buy books for a reasonable cost, and for ones that are more than 25 |
| 422 | years old and out of print I am not opposed to <em>piracy</em> (no one is |
| 423 | making money from them, and I feel that long copyrights are unethical |
| 424 | and therefore feel no pangs of moral guilt).</p> |
| 425 | |
| 426 | <ul> |
| 427 | <li><em>Crystallizing Public Opinion</em> by Edward Bernays |
| 428 | |
| 429 | <ul> |
| 430 | <li>A supposed classic in the field of public relations. Curiosity |
| 431 | demands that I read the writings of the father of the field to |
| 432 | better understand the way the international media works.</li> |
| 433 | <li>Another example of out of print books clearly having a market, |
| 434 | but no publisher due to copyright (used copies go for nearly a |
| 435 | thousand dollars in poor condition and hit five thousand or so |
| 436 | for ones in good shape).</li> |
| 437 | </ul></li> |
| 438 | </ul> |
| 439 | |
| 440 | |
| 441 | <h2><a name="sec27" id="sec27"></a> |
| 442 | Essays</h2> |
| 443 | |
| 444 | <h3><a name="sec28" id="sec28"></a> |
| 445 | Computing</h3> |
| 446 | |
| 447 | <h4><a name="sec29" id="sec29"></a> |
| 448 | Design</h4> |
| 449 | |
| 450 | <h5><a href="http://deadhobosociety.com/index.php/Essays/ESSAY12">Confucianism and Technical Standards</a></h5> |
| 451 | |
| 452 | |
| 453 | |
| 454 | |
| 455 | |
| 456 | <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse ends here --> |
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| 481 | |
| 482 | <p class="cke-footer">Mike: I WAS NOT MICROWAVED. |
| 483 | </p> |
| 484 | <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified: |
| 485 | July 29, 2008</p> |
| 486 | </body> |
| 487 | </html> |