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My Reading List
Here is a listing of some of the non-sleazy books I have read recently. The most recent stuff I have read is near the top of the list.
- Plowing the Dark by Richard Powers (4/5)
- Yet another Richard Powers book for me. Like most of his bost, there's a heavy science aspect. This time he dealt with virtual reality and combine two stories into one. The first follows the creation of a V.R. Cave in Seattle, the second (told in second person like an old Infocom game!) describes the reality of being a hostage in Lebanon. Not until the last chapters of the book do you feel the two stories connect.
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein (5/5)
- Knowing one of my all-time-favorite directors, Peter Jackson (Dead Alive, Bad Taste, and Meet the Feebles), was going to be directing the movie, I made sure to read the book before I saw the film. It may just be my geeky side, but I really enjoyed the book. I was expecting characters with lots of apostrophes in their names and all that D&D crap, but, aside from the crap elf-poetry, it's more down toned down.
- Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand (4/5)
- A collection of essays by Ms. Rand and others (including Alan Greenspan). The theme here is a moral defense of capitalism.
- The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (3/5)
- The classic analysis of statesmanship and power written during the Renaissance. Although it has it's moments, much of the work is lost on me due to the numerous references to events contemporary to Machiavelli and my lack of historical knowledge about the period.
- Albrect Dürer by Jane Hutchison (3/5)
- A nice little biography of Dürer, perhaps the greatest graphic artist of all-time. Based mostly on his journal entries, the book fizzles-out and becomes a bit dull during the final third of the book, but for the most part was interesting and very informative.
- Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (4/5)
- A very entertaining, albeit shallow, read. It's the first novel that I've read in its entirety over the web via Classic Book Shelf
- Cycle of Fire by Hal Clement (2/5)
- Cheesy "hard-science" science fiction. More or less a book for pre-teenage boys.
- The Goldbug Variations by Richard Powers (5/5)
- I really liked this book despite my tendency to skim the hardcore genetics passages.
- Hating Whitey and other Progressive Causes by David Horowitz (4/5)
- Horowitz as politically incorrect and poignant as ever.
- The Western Intellectual Tradition by J. Bronowski and Bruce Mazlish (3.5/5)
- The history of Western thought. A good overview of philosophy and science.
- Designing Web Usability by Jakob Neilson (4/5)
- The guy web designers love to hate, probably because in the end he's right.
- Operation Wandering Soul by Richard Powers (3/5)
- My least favorite Richard Powers novel so far.