Book List.html

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  16     <h1>A Not So Fancy Listing of Books</h1>
  17    <div class="contents">
  18 <dl>
  19 <dt>
  20 <a href="#sec1">William Blake</a>
  21 </dt>
  22 <dd>
  23 <dl>
  24 <dt>
  25 <a href="#sec2">The Four Zoas</a>
  26 </dt>
  27 <dt>
  28 <a href="#sec3">Jerusalem</a>
  29 </dt>
  30 </dl>
  31 </dd>
  32 <dt>
  33 <a href="#sec4">Kahlil Gibran</a>
  34 </dt>
  35 <dd>
  36 <dl>
  37 <dt>
  38 <a href="#sec5">A Tear and a Smile</a>
  39 </dt>
  40 <dt>
  41 <a href="#sec6">The Prophet</a>
  42 </dt>
  43 <dt>
  44 <a href="#sec7">Sand and Foam</a>
  45 </dt>
  46 <dt>
  47 <a href="#sec8">The Madman</a>
  48 </dt>
  49 </dl>
  50 </dd>
  51 <dt>
  52 <a href="#sec9">John Taylor Gatto</a>
  53 </dt>
  54 <dd>
  55 <dl>
  56 <dt>
  57 <a href="#sec10">Underground History of American Education</a>
  58 </dt>
  59 </dl>
  60 </dd>
  61 <dt>
  62 <a href="#sec11">Luke Rhinehardt</a>
  63 </dt>
  64 <dd>
  65 <dl>
  66 <dt>
  67 <a href="#sec12">The Dice Man</a>
  68 </dt>
  69 </dl>
  70 </dd>
  71 <dt>
  72 <a href="#sec13">Neal Stephenson</a>
  73 </dt>
  74 <dd>
  75 <dl>
  76 <dt>
  77 <a href="#sec14">Snow Crash</a>
  78 </dt>
  79 <dt>
  80 <a href="#sec15">Cryptonomicon</a>
  81 </dt>
  82 </dl>
  83 </dd>
  84 <dt>
  85 <a href="#sec16">Marcus Aurelius</a>
  86 </dt>
  87 <dd>
  88 <dl>
  89 <dt>
  90 <a href="#sec17">Meditations</a>
  91 </dt>
  92 </dl>
  93 </dd>
  94 <dt>
  95 <a href="#sec18">Søren Kierkegaard</a>
  96 </dt>
  97 <dd>
  98 <dl>
  99 <dt>
 100 <a href="#sec19">Sickness Unto Death</a>
 101 </dt>
 102 <dt>
 103 <a href="#sec20">Either/Or</a>
 104 </dt>
 105 </dl>
 106 </dd>
 107 <dt>
 108 <a href="#sec21">Thomas More</a>
 109 </dt>
 110 <dd>
 111 <dl>
 112 <dt>
 113 <a href="#sec22">Utopia</a>
 114 </dt>
 115 </dl>
 116 </dd>
 117 <dt>
 118 <a href="#sec23">William James</a>
 119 </dt>
 120 <dd>
 121 <dl>
 122 <dt>
 123 <a href="#sec24">The Varieties of Religious Experience</a>
 124 </dt>
 125 <dt>
 126 <a href="#sec25">The PhD Octopus</a>
 127 </dt>
 128 </dl>
 129 </dd>
 130 <dt>
 131 <a href="#sec26">Henry James</a>
 132 </dt>
 133 <dd>
 134 <dl>
 135 <dt>
 136 <a href="#sec27">The Altar of the Dead</a>
 137 </dt>
 138 </dl>
 139 </dd>
 140 <dt>
 141 <a href="#sec28">Gregor Kiczales</a>
 142 </dt>
 143 <dd>
 144 <dl>
 145 <dt>
 146 <a href="#sec29">The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a>
 147 </dt>
 148 </dl>
 149 </dd>
 150 <dt>
 151 <a href="#sec30">Friedrich Nietzsche</a>
 152 </dt>
 153 <dd>
 154 <dl>
 155 <dt>
 156 <a href="#sec31">Beyond Good and Evil</a>
 157 </dt>
 158 <dt>
 159 <a href="#sec32">On the Geneaology of Morals</a>
 160 </dt>
 161 <dt>
 162 <a href="#sec33">Ecce Homo</a>
 163 </dt>
 164 </dl>
 165 </dd>
 166 </dl>
 167 </div>
 168
 169
 170 <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
 171 William Blake</h2>
 172
 173 <p class="first">Blake is my <a href="William%20Blake.html">favorite</a> of the English poets. His
 174 unique use of relief etching and watercoloring makes for very
 175 interesting Illuminated works. There is a very high quality
 176 <a href="http://blakearchive.org">complete archive of Blake&amp;#039;s works</a> online
 177 with high resolution plate scans and full transcriptions among other
 178 things.</p>
 179
 180 <h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
 181 The Four Zoas</h3>
 182
 183 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span></span><span class="rating-bad"> / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 184
 185 <p>The unfinished manuscript of Blake&amp;#039;s longest apocalypse. The
 186 Four Zoas divide from Albion and rage through the ages of dismal woe
 187 to bring about the end of the cycle of Ulro and restore the cycle of
 188 Beulah.</p>
 189
 190
 191
 192 <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
 193 Jerusalem</h3>
 194
 195 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span></span><span class="rating-bad"> / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 196
 197 <p>The finest of Blake&amp;#039;s Illuminated works.</p>
 198
 199
 200
 201
 202 <h2><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
 203 Kahlil Gibran</h2>
 204
 205 <p class="first">Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not
 206 agree with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but <em>The Madman</em> onward are
 207 all rather nice. A few of his works are
 208 <a href="http://leb.net/~mira/">online</a>, but I recommend scouting used book
 209 stores for old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least)
 210 <em>hardcover</em> versions from <em>Alfred A. Knopf</em> are in fact permabound
 211 paperbacks with a hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to
 212 the editions from the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more,
 213 naturally).</p>
 214
 215 <h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a>
 216 A Tear and a Smile</h3>
 217
 218 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••••••</span> / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 219
 220 <p>One of Kahlil Gibran&amp;#039;s earlier works, I did not much like <em>A
 221 Tear and a Smile</em> excepting the last poem (&amp;quot;A Poet&amp;#039;s Voice&amp;quot;).</p>
 222
 223
 224
 225 <h3><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a>
 226 The Prophet</h3>
 227
 228 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 229
 230
 231
 232
 233
 234 <h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a>
 235 Sand and Foam</h3>
 236
 237 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 238
 239 <p>An interesting little book of aphorisms.</p>
 240
 241
 242
 243 <h3><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a>
 244 The Madman</h3>
 245
 246 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 247
 248
 249
 250
 251
 252
 253 <h2><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a>
 254 John Taylor Gatto</h2>
 255
 256 <p class="first">Former teacher and now author-activist.</p>
 257
 258 <h3><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a>
 259 Underground History of American Education</h3>
 260
 261 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 262
 263 <p>An interesting <em>underground</em> history of the American education
 264 system. Available
 265 <a href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/">online for free</a>.</p>
 266
 267
 268
 269
 270 <h2><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a>
 271 Luke Rhinehardt</h2>
 272
 273
 274
 275 <h3><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a>
 276 The Dice Man</h3>
 277
 278 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 279
 280 <p>&amp;lt;quote&amp;gt;
 281 And it&amp;#039;s his illusions about what
 282 constitutes the real world which are
 283 inhibiting him...
 284 His reality, his reason, his society
 285 ...these are what must be destroyed
 286 &amp;lt;/quote&amp;gt;</p>
 287
 288 <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
 289 this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found
 290 in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an
 291 autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression
 292 through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through
 293 random chance.</p>
 294
 295 <p>The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part
 296 attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often
 297 difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.</p>
 298
 299
 300
 301
 302 <h2><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a>
 303 Neal Stephenson</h2>
 304
 305
 306
 307 <h3><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a>
 308 Snow Crash</h3>
 309
 310 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 311
 312 <p>As one must read the <em>Bible</em> to understand English literature, so one
 313 must read <em>Snow Crash</em> today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop
 314 fiction this is one of the better books I&amp;#039;ve read; it was devoured in
 315 a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come
 316 up with enganging tales. <em>Snow Crash</em> has a nice undertone of (quite
 317 accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading
 318 as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.</p>
 319
 320
 321
 322 <h3><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
 323 Cryptonomicon</h3>
 324
 325 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 326
 327 <p>I read <em>Cryptonomicon</em> when it was new, and at the time I thought it was
 328 good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from
 329 the plot, but it was easy reading and didn&amp;#039;t take very long to
 330 finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between
 331 the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way.</p>
 332
 333 <p>I&amp;#039;d still have to recommend <em>Snow Crash</em> if one wished to read only one
 334 Stephenson novel.</p>
 335
 336
 337
 338
 339 <h2><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a>
 340 Marcus Aurelius</h2>
 341
 342
 343
 344 <h3><a name="sec17" id="sec17"></a>
 345 Meditations</h3>
 346
 347 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••••</span> / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 348
 349 <p>I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic
 350 philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books
 351 before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the
 352 collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting
 353 according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but
 354 each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A
 355 number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in
 356 my notebook to ponder further.</p>
 357
 358
 359
 360
 361 <h2><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a>
 362 Søren Kierkegaard</h2>
 363
 364 <p class="first">Kierkegaard was a master of style and philosophy; his writing is
 365 interesting even if one finds the theistic extentialism espoused
 366 disagreeable.</p>
 367
 368 <h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></a>
 369 Sickness Unto Death</h3>
 370
 371 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span></span><span class="rating-bad"> / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 372
 373 <p>I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after
 374 being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it
 375 was better for me to have found this one.</p>
 376
 377 <p>Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of
 378 Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends,
 379 the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is
 380 reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation
 381 forces reflection.</p>
 382
 383
 384
 385 <h3><a name="sec20" id="sec20"></a>
 386 Either/Or</h3>
 387
 388 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span></span><span class="rating-bad"> / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 389
 390 <p>Composed of two portions, <em>Either/Or</em> is a rather lengthy but
 391 rewarding read. The first book is a series of essays and a diary of a
 392 young esthetician; the second is a pair of long letters from an older
 393 ethicist friend to this esthetician. You are then left to resolve the
 394 conflict between the views.</p>
 395
 396
 397
 398
 399 <h2><a name="sec21" id="sec21"></a>
 400 Thomas More</h2>
 401
 402
 403
 404 <h3><a name="sec22" id="sec22"></a>
 405 Utopia</h3>
 406
 407 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 408
 409 <p>I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but
 410 the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the
 411 overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so
 412 I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick
 413 read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system
 414 espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a
 415 negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European
 416 social customs.</p>
 417
 418
 419
 420
 421 <h2><a name="sec23" id="sec23"></a>
 422 William James</h2>
 423
 424
 425
 426 <h3><a name="sec24" id="sec24"></a>
 427 The Varieties of Religious Experience</h3>
 428
 429 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 430
 431 <p><a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20Varieties%20of%20Religious%20Experience.html">A partially finished extended summary</a></p>
 432
 433
 434
 435 <h3><a name="sec25" id="sec25"></a>
 436 The PhD Octopus</h3>
 437
 438 <blockquote>
 439 <p class="quoted">/ <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 440 </blockquote>
 441
 442 <p>&amp;lt;quote&amp;gt;
 443 America is thus as a nation rapidly drifting towards a state of things
 444 in which no man of science or letters will be accounted respectable
 445 unless some kind of badge or diploma is stamped upon him, and in which
 446 bare personality will be a mark of outcast estate.  It seems to me high
 447 time to rouse ourselves to consciousness, and to cast a critical eye
 448 upon this decidedly grotesque tendency.  Other nations suffer terribly
 449 from the Mandarin disease.  Are we doomed to suffer like the rest?
 450 &amp;lt;/quote&amp;gt;</p>
 451
 452 <p><a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20PhD%20Octopus.html">Full Text</a></p>
 453
 454
 455
 456
 457 <h2><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a>
 458 Henry James</h2>
 459
 460 <p class="first">The novelist brother of William James; I&amp;#039;ve not read many (read:
 461 one) of his books, but what I did was decent.</p>
 462
 463 <h3><a name="sec27" id="sec27"></a>
 464 The Altar of the Dead</h3>
 465
 466 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 467
 468 <p>A short novella about a man who maintained an altar in a church
 469 for all of his lost loved ones on the surface, but something a bit
 470 more beneath.</p>
 471
 472
 473
 474
 475 <h2><a name="sec28" id="sec28"></a>
 476 Gregor Kiczales</h2>
 477
 478
 479
 480 <h3><a name="sec29" id="sec29"></a>
 481 The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</h3>
 482
 483 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span></span><span class="rating-bad"> / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 484
 485 <p>AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with
 486 the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first
 487 half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a
 488 series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations
 489 and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for
 490 CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general
 491 object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly
 492 make mapping decisions customizable.</p>
 493
 494
 495
 496
 497 <h2><a name="sec30" id="sec30"></a>
 498 Friedrich Nietzsche</h2>
 499
 500 <p class="first">A bit acerbic and esoteric, Nietzsche is for me a good <em>secular</em>
 501 counterpart to Kierkegaard&amp;#039;s theistic philosophy. Nietzsche&amp;#039;s
 502 polemical works raise important questions for anyone who reads works
 503 on ethics. As such it is a shame that he has gotten a bad reputation
 504 by being read by far too many angsty teenagers who see (and relay)
 505 only Nietzsche the asshole rather than Nietzsche the master of the
 506 polemic.</p>
 507
 508 <h3><a name="sec31" id="sec31"></a>
 509 Beyond Good and Evil</h3>
 510
 511 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 512
 513 <p>A somewhat more comprehensible, if a bit less aesthetically
 514 pleasing, presentation of much of the philosophy found in <em>Thus Spoke
 515 Zarathustra</em> in the negative form. The final chapters are very
 516 important (not to detract from the value of the rest of the work) if
 517 one wishes to understand <em>On the Genealogy of Morals</em>.</p>
 518
 519
 520
 521 <h3><a name="sec32" id="sec32"></a>
 522 On the Geneaology of Morals</h3>
 523
 524 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 525
 526 <p><em>On the Geneaology of Morals</em> is a wonderful book of three
 527 polemical essays on the origin of moral/ethic valuations, and the
 528 blindness of modern philosphers whose very thinking is tainted by
 529 these valuations unknowingly.</p>
 530
 531
 532
 533 <h3><a name="sec33" id="sec33"></a>
 534 Ecce Homo</h3>
 535
 536 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 537
 538 <p><em>Ecce Homo</em> is Nietzsche&amp;#039;s very strange autobiography and
 539 explanation of his own works. At points it is clear that it could have
 540 used a bit more editing (prevented by Nietzsche ... falling into a
 541 catatonic state and all), but is still a very useful book to read as
 542 Nietzsche explains the overall structure of his works.</p>
 543
 544
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 571
 572 <p class="cke-footer">Jessie: i stuck the phone antenna up the dogs nose and he ignored me
 573 </p>
 574 <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
 575     September 28, 2008</p>
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