Book List.html

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  13     <h1>A Not So Fancy Listing of Books</h1>
  14    <div class="contents">
  15 <dl>
  16 <dt>
  17 <a href="#sec1">Marcus Aurelius</a>
  18 </dt>
  19 <dd>
  20 <dl>
  21 <dt>
  22 <a href="#sec2">Meditations</a>
  23 </dt>
  24 </dl>
  25 </dd>
  26 <dt>
  27 <a href="#sec3">William Blake</a>
  28 </dt>
  29 <dd>
  30 <dl>
  31 <dt>
  32 <a href="#sec4">The Four Zoas</a>
  33 </dt>
  34 <dt>
  35 <a href="#sec5">Jerusalem</a>
  36 </dt>
  37 </dl>
  38 </dd>
  39 <dt>
  40 <a href="#sec6">John Taylor Gatto</a>
  41 </dt>
  42 <dd>
  43 <dl>
  44 <dt>
  45 <a href="#sec7">Underground History of American Education</a>
  46 </dt>
  47 </dl>
  48 </dd>
  49 <dt>
  50 <a href="#sec8">Kahlil Gibran</a>
  51 </dt>
  52 <dd>
  53 <dl>
  54 <dt>
  55 <a href="#sec9">A Tear and a Smile</a>
  56 </dt>
  57 <dt>
  58 <a href="#sec10">The Prophet</a>
  59 </dt>
  60 <dt>
  61 <a href="#sec11">Sand and Foam</a>
  62 </dt>
  63 <dt>
  64 <a href="#sec12">The Madman</a>
  65 </dt>
  66 </dl>
  67 </dd>
  68 <dt>
  69 <a href="#sec13">William James</a>
  70 </dt>
  71 <dd>
  72 <dl>
  73 <dt>
  74 <a href="#sec14">The Varieties of Religious Experience</a>
  75 </dt>
  76 <dt>
  77 <a href="#sec15">The PhD Octopus</a>
  78 </dt>
  79 </dl>
  80 </dd>
  81 <dt>
  82 <a href="#sec16">Henry James</a>
  83 </dt>
  84 <dd>
  85 <dl>
  86 <dt>
  87 <a href="#sec17">The Altar of the Dead</a>
  88 </dt>
  89 </dl>
  90 </dd>
  91 <dt>
  92 <a href="#sec18">Gregor Kiczales</a>
  93 </dt>
  94 <dd>
  95 <dl>
  96 <dt>
  97 <a href="#sec19">The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a>
  98 </dt>
  99 </dl>
 100 </dd>
 101 <dt>
 102 <a href="#sec20">Søren Kierkegaard</a>
 103 </dt>
 104 <dd>
 105 <dl>
 106 <dt>
 107 <a href="#sec21">Sickness Unto Death</a>
 108 </dt>
 109 <dt>
 110 <a href="#sec22">Either/Or</a>
 111 </dt>
 112 </dl>
 113 </dd>
 114 <dt>
 115 <a href="#sec23">Thomas More</a>
 116 </dt>
 117 <dd>
 118 <dl>
 119 <dt>
 120 <a href="#sec24">Utopia</a>
 121 </dt>
 122 </dl>
 123 </dd>
 124 <dt>
 125 <a href="#sec25">Friedrich Nietzsche</a>
 126 </dt>
 127 <dd>
 128 <dl>
 129 <dt>
 130 <a href="#sec26">Beyond Good and Evil</a>
 131 </dt>
 132 <dt>
 133 <a href="#sec27">On the Geneaology of Morals</a>
 134 </dt>
 135 <dt>
 136 <a href="#sec28">Ecce Homo</a>
 137 </dt>
 138 </dl>
 139 </dd>
 140 <dt>
 141 <a href="#sec29">Luke Rhinehardt</a>
 142 </dt>
 143 <dd>
 144 <dl>
 145 <dt>
 146 <a href="#sec30">The Dice Man</a>
 147 </dt>
 148 </dl>
 149 </dd>
 150 <dt>
 151 <a href="#sec31">Neal Stephenson</a>
 152 </dt>
 153 <dd>
 154 <dl>
 155 <dt>
 156 <a href="#sec32">Snow Crash</a>
 157 </dt>
 158 <dt>
 159 <a href="#sec33">Cryptonomicon</a>
 160 </dt>
 161 </dl>
 162 </dd>
 163 </dl>
 164 </div>
 165
 166
 167 <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
 168 Marcus Aurelius</h2>
 169
 170
 171
 172 <h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
 173 Meditations</h3>
 174
 175 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••••</span> (6) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 176
 177 <p>I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic
 178 philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books
 179 before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the
 180 collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting
 181 according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but
 182 each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A
 183 number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in
 184 my notebook to ponder further.</p>
 185
 186
 187
 188 <h2><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
 189 William Blake</h2>
 190
 191 <p class="first">Blake is my <a href="William%20Blake.html">favorite</a> of the English poets. His
 192 unique use of relief etching and watercoloring makes for very
 193 interesting Illuminated works. There is a very high quality
 194 <a href="http://blakearchive.org">complete archive of Blake's works</a> online
 195 with high resolution plate scans and full transcriptions among other
 196 things.</p>
 197
 198 <h3><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
 199 The Four Zoas</h3>
 200
 201 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 202
 203 <p>The unfinished manuscript of Blake's longest apocalypse. The
 204 Four Zoas divide from Albion and rage through the ages of dismal woe
 205 to bring about the end of the cycle of Ulro and restore the cycle of
 206 Beulah.</p>
 207
 208
 209 <h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a>
 210 Jerusalem</h3>
 211
 212 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 213
 214 <p>The finest of Blake's Illuminated works.</p>
 215
 216
 217
 218 <h2><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a>
 219 John Taylor Gatto</h2>
 220
 221 <p class="first">Former teacher and now author-activist.</p>
 222
 223 <h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a>
 224 Underground History of American Education</h3>
 225
 226 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 227
 228 <p>An interesting <em>underground</em> history of the American education
 229 system. Available
 230 <a href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/">online for free</a>.</p>
 231
 232
 233
 234 <h2><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a>
 235 Kahlil Gibran</h2>
 236
 237 <p class="first">Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not
 238 agree with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but <em>The Madman</em> onward are
 239 all rather nice. A few of his works are
 240 <a href="http://leb.net/~mira/">online</a>, but I recommend scouting used book
 241 stores for old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least)
 242 <em>hardcover</em> versions from <em>Alfred A. Knopf</em> are in fact permabound
 243 paperbacks with a hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to
 244 the editions from the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more,
 245 naturally).</p>
 246
 247 <h3><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a>
 248 A Tear and a Smile</h3>
 249
 250 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••••••</span> (3) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 251
 252 <p>One of Kahlil Gibran's earlier works, I did not much like <em>A
 253 Tear and a Smile</em> excepting the last poem (&quot;A Poet's Voice&quot;).</p>
 254
 255
 256 <h3><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a>
 257 The Prophet</h3>
 258
 259 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 260
 261
 262
 263
 264 <h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a>
 265 Sand and Foam</h3>
 266
 267 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 268
 269 <p>An interesting little book of aphorisms.</p>
 270
 271
 272 <h3><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a>
 273 The Madman</h3>
 274
 275 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> (8) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 276
 277
 278
 279
 280
 281 <h2><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a>
 282 William James</h2>
 283
 284
 285
 286 <h3><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a>
 287 The Varieties of Religious Experience</h3>
 288
 289 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 290
 291 <p><a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20Varieties%20of%20Religious%20Experience.html">A partially finished extended summary</a></p>
 292
 293
 294 <h3><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
 295 The PhD Octopus</h3>
 296
 297 <p><em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 298
 299 <blockquote>
 300 <p class="quoted">
 301 America is thus as a nation rapidly drifting towards a state of things
 302 in which no man of science or letters will be accounted respectable
 303 unless some kind of badge or diploma is stamped upon him, and in which
 304 bare personality will be a mark of outcast estate.  It seems to me high
 305 time to rouse ourselves to consciousness, and to cast a critical eye
 306 upon this decidedly grotesque tendency.  Other nations suffer terribly
 307 from the Mandarin disease.  Are we doomed to suffer like the rest?</p>
 308
 309 </blockquote>
 310
 311 <p><a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20PhD%20Octopus.html">Full Text</a></p>
 312
 313
 314
 315 <h2><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a>
 316 Henry James</h2>
 317
 318 <p class="first">The novelist brother of William James; I've not read many (read:
 319 one) of his books, but what I did was decent.</p>
 320
 321 <h3><a name="sec17" id="sec17"></a>
 322 The Altar of the Dead</h3>
 323
 324 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 325
 326 <p>A short novella about a man who maintained an altar in a church
 327 for all of his lost loved ones on the surface, but something a bit
 328 more beneath.</p>
 329
 330
 331
 332 <h2><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a>
 333 Gregor Kiczales</h2>
 334
 335
 336
 337 <h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></a>
 338 The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</h3>
 339
 340 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 341
 342 <p>AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with
 343 the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first
 344 half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a
 345 series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations
 346 and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for
 347 CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general
 348 object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly
 349 make mapping decisions customizable.</p>
 350
 351
 352
 353 <h2><a name="sec20" id="sec20"></a>
 354 Søren Kierkegaard</h2>
 355
 356 <p class="first">Kierkegaard was a master of style and philosophy; his writing is
 357 interesting even if one finds the theistic extentialism espoused
 358 disagreeable.</p>
 359
 360 <h3><a name="sec21" id="sec21"></a>
 361 Sickness Unto Death</h3>
 362
 363 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 364
 365 <p>I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after
 366 being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it
 367 was better for me to have found this one.</p>
 368
 369 <p>Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of
 370 Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends,
 371 the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is
 372 reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation
 373 forces reflection.</p>
 374
 375
 376 <h3><a name="sec22" id="sec22"></a>
 377 Either/Or</h3>
 378
 379 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••••</span> (10) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 380
 381 <p>Composed of two portions, <em>Either/Or</em> is a rather lengthy but
 382 rewarding read. The first book is a series of essays and a diary of a
 383 young esthetician; the second is a pair of long letters from an older
 384 ethicist friend to this esthetician. You are then left to resolve the
 385 conflict between the views.</p>
 386
 387
 388
 389 <h2><a name="sec23" id="sec23"></a>
 390 Thomas More</h2>
 391
 392
 393
 394 <h3><a name="sec24" id="sec24"></a>
 395 Utopia</h3>
 396
 397 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 398
 399 <p>I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but
 400 the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the
 401 overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so
 402 I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick
 403 read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system
 404 espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a
 405 negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European
 406 social customs.</p>
 407
 408
 409
 410 <h2><a name="sec25" id="sec25"></a>
 411 Friedrich Nietzsche</h2>
 412
 413 <p class="first">A bit acerbic and esoteric, Nietzsche is for me a good <em>secular</em>
 414 counterpart to Kierkegaard's theistic philosophy. Nietzsche's
 415 polemical works raise important questions for anyone who reads works
 416 on ethics. As such it is a shame that he has gotten a bad reputation
 417 by being read by far too many angsty teenagers who see (and relay)
 418 only Nietzsche the asshole rather than Nietzsche the master of the
 419 polemic.</p>
 420
 421 <h3><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a>
 422 Beyond Good and Evil</h3>
 423
 424 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> (8) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 425
 426 <p>A somewhat more comprehensible, if a bit less aesthetically
 427 pleasing, presentation of much of the philosophy found in <em>Thus Spoke
 428 Zarathustra</em> in the negative form. The final chapters are very
 429 important (not to detract from the value of the rest of the work) if
 430 one wishes to understand <em>On the Genealogy of Morals</em>.</p>
 431
 432
 433 <h3><a name="sec27" id="sec27"></a>
 434 On the Geneaology of Morals</h3>
 435
 436 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 437
 438 <p><em>On the Geneaology of Morals</em> is a wonderful book of three
 439 polemical essays on the origin of moral/ethic valuations, and the
 440 blindness of modern philosphers whose very thinking is tainted by
 441 these valuations unknowingly.</p>
 442
 443
 444 <h3><a name="sec28" id="sec28"></a>
 445 Ecce Homo</h3>
 446
 447 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Nonfiction</em></p>
 448
 449 <p><em>Ecce Homo</em> is Nietzsche's very strange autobiography and
 450 explanation of his own works. At points it is clear that it could have
 451 used a bit more editing (prevented by Nietzsche ... falling into a
 452 catatonic state and all), but is still a very useful book to read as
 453 Nietzsche explains the overall structure of his works.</p>
 454
 455
 456
 457 <h2><a name="sec29" id="sec29"></a>
 458 Luke Rhinehardt</h2>
 459
 460
 461
 462 <h3><a name="sec30" id="sec30"></a>
 463 The Dice Man</h3>
 464
 465 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•••</span> (7) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 466
 467 <blockquote>
 468 <p class="quoted">
 469 And it's his illusions about what
 470 constitutes the real world which are
 471 inhibiting him...
 472 His reality, his reason, his society
 473 ...these are what must be destroyed</p>
 474
 475 </blockquote>
 476
 477 <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
 478 this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found
 479 in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an
 480 autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression
 481 through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through
 482 random chance.</p>
 483
 484 <p>The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part
 485 attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often
 486 difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.</p>
 487
 488
 489
 490 <h2><a name="sec31" id="sec31"></a>
 491 Neal Stephenson</h2>
 492
 493
 494
 495 <h3><a name="sec32" id="sec32"></a>
 496 Snow Crash</h3>
 497
 498 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">•••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">•</span> (9) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 499
 500 <p>As one must read the <em>Bible</em> to understand English literature, so one
 501 must read <em>Snow Crash</em> today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop
 502 fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in
 503 a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come
 504 up with enganging tales. <em>Snow Crash</em> has a nice undertone of (quite
 505 accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading
 506 as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.</p>
 507
 508
 509 <h3><a name="sec33" id="sec33"></a>
 510 Cryptonomicon</h3>
 511
 512 <p><em>Rating:</em> <span class="rating-good">••••••••</span><span class="rating-bad">••</span> (8) / <em>Fiction</em></p>
 513
 514 <p>I read <em>Cryptonomicon</em> when it was new, and at the time I thought it was
 515 good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from
 516 the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to
 517 finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between
 518 the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way.</p>
 519
 520 <p>I'd still have to recommend <em>Snow Crash</em> if one wished to read only one
 521 Stephenson novel.</p>
 522
 523
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 551 <p class="cke-footer">                                 So play today
 552                   Go make your hay beneath a warm sun shining
 553       But bear in mind one day you'll find the silver cloud's dark lining
 554 </p>
 555 <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
 556     September 23, 2008</p>
 557   </body>
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