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1 | #title The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms |
2 | |
3 | I enjoy classical literature and works of philosophy and politics with |
4 | a side of cyberpunk novels for when my brain is tired. When I was in |
5 | High School I read technical books for fun, but now I tend to find |
6 | most of them useless (thank you Internet) excepting a few really well |
7 | written ones (*L.i.s.p*, *TAOCP*, ...). |
8 | |
9 | I spend most of my time reading. A full list of things I have read |
10 | would be impossible to compile, but here I am collecting links and |
11 | small summaries of things I have read and find interesting enough to |
12 | mention, but not always recommend, to others. |
13 | |
14 | * Authors |
15 | |
16 | ** William Blake |
17 | |
18 | His poetry is the result of spending too much time etching copper |
19 | plates and breathing the fumes. Quite wonderful indeed. |
20 | |
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21 | ** Kahlil Gibran |
22 | |
23 | Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not agree |
24 | with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but *The Madman* onward are all |
25 | rather nice. So far I've read *A Tear and a Smile* (not so good |
26 | excepting the last poem), *The Madman*, *The Prophet* (both excellent), |
27 | and *Sand and Foam* (an interesting little book of aphorisms). A few of |
28 | his works are [[http://leb.net/~mira/][online]], but I recommend scouting used book stores for |
29 | old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least) *hardcover* |
30 | versions from *Alfred A. Knopf* are in fact permabound paperbacks with a |
31 | hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to the editions from |
32 | the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more, naturally). |
33 | |
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34 | * Fiction |
35 | |
36 | ** General |
37 | |
38 | *** Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man |
39 | |
40 | <quote> |
41 | And it's his illusions about what |
42 | constitutes the real world which are |
43 | inhibiting him... |
44 | His reality, his reason, his society |
45 | ...these are what must be destroyed |
46 | </quote> |
47 | |
48 | A quotation from one of my [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter_of_the_Soul][favorite metal songs]] inspired me to grab |
49 | this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found |
50 | in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an |
51 | autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression |
52 | through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through |
53 | random chance. |
54 | |
55 | The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part |
56 | attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often |
57 | difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time. |
58 | |
59 | ** Philosophical |
60 | |
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61 | ** Sci-Fi |
62 | |
63 | *** Neal Stephenson |
64 | |
65 | **** Cryptonomicon |
66 | |
67 | I read *Cryptonomicon* when it was new, and at the time I thought it was |
68 | good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from |
69 | the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to |
70 | finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between |
71 | the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way. |
72 | |
73 | I'd still have to recommend *Snow Crash* if one wished to read only one |
74 | Stephenson novel. |
75 | |
76 | **** Snow Crash |
77 | |
78 | As one must read the *Bible* to understand English literature, so one |
79 | must read *Snow Crash* today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop |
80 | fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in |
81 | a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come |
82 | up with enganging tales. *Snow Crash* has a nice undertone of (quite |
83 | accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading |
84 | as more than mere cyberpunk fiction. |
85 | |
86 | * Non-Fiction |
87 | |
88 | ** Education |
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89 | |
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90 | *** John Taylor Gatto - [[http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm][Underground History of American Education]] |
91 | |
92 | Contained within this book (available online for free, but the printed |
93 | copy sits wonderfully on a shelf) is a detailed and seemingly well |
94 | researched history of American Education with a particular focus on |
95 | the transformation that has occured before our eyes in the last |
96 | century. I am unsure if Gatto is entirely correct and not exaggerating |
97 | anything; I have failed to find any negative criticisms, but it is not |
98 | clear to me if that is because he is entirely correct or if no one |
99 | cares enough to write a counterargument. I am in the process of |
100 | tracking down as many of his sources as possible (a good number of |
101 | them are out of print and not in the public domain yet), and will make |
102 | an attempt to verify his argument over the course of the next year |
103 | (that being 2007). |
104 | |
105 | If he is correct then every one of us has had the first eighteen years |
106 | of our lives stolen from us, and we have collectively suffered massive |
107 | intellectual damage. My intuitions tell me he is correct (which is why |
108 | I am driven to verify; I cannot trust myself because I *want* to |
109 | believe) for my individuality and intelligence were nearly stolen from |
110 | me. The only reason I survived relatively unscathed is because I |
111 | became completely socially withdrawn for the last half of elementary |
112 | school until late in high school due to the abuse I received at the |
113 | hands of my peers creating a deep fear of social interaction in |
114 | me. The downside is that I had the confidence crushed from my soul, |
115 | but now that I have begun to regain it (the good that bicycling |
116 | enabling me to stand straight and gradual realization of my own worth |
117 | as a human have done) I would never trade the ability to think freely |
118 | for the social skills I lack. |
119 | |
120 | ** Philosophy |
121 | |
122 | *** Chinese |
123 | |
124 | **** Tao Te Ching |
125 | |
126 | **** Confucianism |
127 | |
128 | ***** The Analects |
129 | |
130 | *** Marcus Aurelius - Meditations |
131 | |
132 | I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic |
133 | philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books |
134 | before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the |
135 | collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting |
136 | according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but |
137 | each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A |
138 | number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in |
139 | my notebook to ponder further. |
140 | |
141 | *** Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death |
142 | |
143 | I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after |
144 | being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it |
145 | was better for me to have found this one. |
146 | |
147 | Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of |
148 | Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends, |
149 | the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is |
150 | reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation |
151 | forces reflection. |
152 | |
153 | ** Politics |
154 | |
155 | *** Thomas More - Utopia |
156 | |
157 | I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but |
158 | the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the |
159 | overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so |
160 | I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick |
161 | read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system |
162 | espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a |
163 | negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European |
164 | social customs. |
165 | |
166 | ** Religion |
167 | |
168 | *** [[William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience]] |
169 | |
170 | |
171 | ** Technical |
172 | |
173 | *** C J Date - Database in Depth |
174 | |
175 | This was a complete waste of time. The author rants on for 180 pages |
176 | and presents the information in a disorderly and shallow manner. It |
177 | could be rewritten in about fifty pages and contain the same amount of |
178 | information if it were organized properly and the off topic commentary |
179 | were minimized. |
180 | |
181 | *** Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol |
182 | |
183 | AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with |
184 | the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first |
185 | half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a |
186 | series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations |
187 | and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for |
188 | CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general |
189 | object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly |
190 | make mapping decisions customizable. |
191 | |
192 | |
193 | * Reports |
194 | |
195 | ** [[http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006483.pdf][2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy]] |
196 | |
197 | A depressing view of American literacy rates. Literacy skills |
198 | decreased across almost every population segment in the US between |
199 | 1993 and 2003; a mere 31% of college graduates are considered |
200 | proficient in quantitative literacy (defined as being able to do |
201 | things as terribly complicated as comparing two editorials). |
202 | |
203 | |
204 | * Books That I Cannot Find |
205 | |
206 | If you know anyone who has copies I'd appreciate an email. I'm willing |
207 | to buy books for a reasonable cost, and for ones that are more than 25 |
208 | years old and out of print I am not opposed to *piracy* (no one is |
209 | making money from them, and I feel that long copyrights are unethical |
210 | and therefore feel no pangs of moral guilt). |
211 | |
212 | - *Crystallizing Public Opinion* by Edward Bernays |
213 | - A supposed classic in the field of public relations. Curiosity |
214 | demands that I read the writings of the father of the field to |
215 | better understand the way the international media works. |
216 | - Another example of out of print books clearly having a market, |
217 | but no publisher due to copyright (used copies go for nearly a |
218 | thousand dollars in poor condition and hit five thousand or so |
219 | for ones in good shape). |
220 | |
221 | * Essays |
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222 | |
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223 | ** Computing |
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224 | |
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225 | *** Design |
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226 | |
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227 | **** [[http://deadhobosociety.com/index.php/Essays/ESSAY12][Confucianism and Technical Standards]] |