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6 <title>The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms
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13 <h1>The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms
</h1>
14 <div class=
"contents">
17 <a href=
"#sec1">Authors
</a>
22 <a href=
"#sec2">William Blake
</a>
25 <a href=
"#sec3">Kahlil Gibran
</a>
30 <a href=
"#sec4">Fiction
</a>
35 <a href=
"#sec5">General
</a>
40 <a href=
"#sec6">Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man
</a>
45 <a href=
"#sec7">Philosophical
</a>
48 <a href=
"#sec8">Sci-Fi
</a>
53 <a href=
"#sec9">Neal Stephenson
</a>
60 <a href=
"#sec10">Non-Fiction
</a>
65 <a href=
"#sec11">Education
</a>
70 <a href=
"#sec12">John Taylor Gatto - Underground History of American Education
</a>
75 <a href=
"#sec13">Philosophy
</a>
80 <a href=
"#sec14">Chinese
</a>
83 <a href=
"#sec15">Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
</a>
86 <a href=
"#sec16">Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death
</a>
91 <a href=
"#sec17">Politics
</a>
96 <a href=
"#sec18">Thomas More - Utopia
</a>
101 <a href=
"#sec19">Religion
</a>
106 <a href=
"#sec20">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience
</a>
111 <a href=
"#sec21">Technical
</a>
116 <a href=
"#sec22">C J Date - Database in Depth
</a>
119 <a href=
"#sec23">Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol
</a>
126 <a href=
"#sec24">Reports
</a>
131 <a href=
"#sec25">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy
</a>
136 <a href=
"#sec26">Books That I Cannot Find
</a>
139 <a href=
"#sec27">Essays
</a>
144 <a href=
"#sec28">Computing
</a>
149 <a href=
"#sec29">Design
</a>
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>
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>
170 <h2><a name=
"sec1" id=
"sec1"></a>
173 <h3><a name=
"sec2" id=
"sec2"></a>
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>
180 <h3><a name=
"sec3" id=
"sec3"></a>
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>
196 <h2><a name=
"sec4" id=
"sec4"></a>
199 <h3><a name=
"sec5" id=
"sec5"></a>
202 <h4><a name=
"sec6" id=
"sec6"></a>
203 Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man
</h4>
207 And it's his illusions about what
208 constitutes the real world which are
210 His reality, his reason, his society
211 ...these are what must be destroyed
</p>
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
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>
228 <h3><a name=
"sec7" id=
"sec7"></a>
232 <h3><a name=
"sec8" id=
"sec8"></a>
235 <h4><a name=
"sec9" id=
"sec9"></a>
238 <h5>Cryptonomicon
</h5>
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>
246 <p>I'd still have to recommend
<em>Snow Crash
</em> if one wished to read only one
247 Stephenson novel.
</p>
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>
264 <h2><a name=
"sec10" id=
"sec10"></a>
267 <h3><a name=
"sec11" id=
"sec11"></a>
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>
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>
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>
303 <h3><a name=
"sec13" id=
"sec13"></a>
306 <h4><a name=
"sec14" id=
"sec14"></a>
309 <h5>Tao Te Ching
</h5>
312 <h5>Confucianism
</h5>
314 <h5>The Analects
</h5>
319 <h4><a name=
"sec15" id=
"sec15"></a>
320 Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
</h4>
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>
332 <h4><a name=
"sec16" id=
"sec16"></a>
333 Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death
</h4>
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>
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>
347 <h3><a name=
"sec17" id=
"sec17"></a>
350 <h4><a name=
"sec18" id=
"sec18"></a>
351 Thomas More - Utopia
</h4>
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
364 <h3><a name=
"sec19" id=
"sec19"></a>
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>
373 <h3><a name=
"sec21" id=
"sec21"></a>
376 <h4><a name=
"sec22" id=
"sec22"></a>
377 C J Date - Database in Depth
</h4>
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
386 <h4><a name=
"sec23" id=
"sec23"></a>
387 Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol
</h4>
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>
402 <h2><a name=
"sec24" id=
"sec24"></a>
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>
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>
417 <h2><a name=
"sec26" id=
"sec26"></a>
418 Books That I Cannot Find
</h2>
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>
427 <li><em>Crystallizing Public Opinion
</em> by Edward Bernays
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>
441 <h2><a name=
"sec27" id=
"sec27"></a>
444 <h3><a name=
"sec28" id=
"sec28"></a>
447 <h4><a name=
"sec29" id=
"sec29"></a>
450 <h5><a href=
"http://deadhobosociety.com/index.php/Essays/ESSAY12">Confucianism and Technical Standards
</a></h5>
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