Edited by author 03-07-2003 09:42 AM
I find that readers of http://RealityCarnival.Com are a fascinating group of people.
Let us know what you are reading now and what you would recommend we read. -- Regards, Cliff Pickover

"The Last Temptation of Christ" by Nikos Kazantzakis and "The Secret Teachings Of All Ages" by Manly P. Hall

notes from the underground by dostoyevsky
paradox of god by cliff
frankenstein mary shelley (this ones for school)

I'm currently reading:
1)The Lobotomy Club by Cliff Pickover
2)Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
3)Dreaming the Future by Cliff Pickover
4)Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan

jack kerouac - on the road
tom wolfe - hooking up. highly recommended, a series of short stories, much like his book the pump house gang, which is also a good read. Hooking up is more pertinant to my time - the digital era.

The Holographic Universe.
Anything by david Icke:)
Dune.

Currently Reading:

1. Will Self - Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys
2. Harlan Ellison - The Glass Teat
3. Cliff Pickover - The Science of God
4. Philosophy Made Simple
5. Robert R. McCammon - Speaks the Nightbird
6. Nicholson Baker - Fermata
7. Nicholson Baker - Vox
8. Rosen and Wolff - Political Thought

I'm currently reading:
Are you Dave Gorman? by Dave Gorman & Danny Wallace
Last read
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Charlie and the great glass elevator by roald dahl
the horse with my name by colin bateman
obstetric ultrasound
baggage by emily barr.
you must read:
insomnia by stephen king
airframe by michael crichton
mr wakefield's crusade by bernice rubens
zagazoo by quentin blake

gravity's rainbow for the fourth time-now on half page a day til I understand the whole damn thing.

How to Speak Dog: Master the Art of Dog-Human Communication by Stanley Coren

Does National Geographic count?

"By The Sword" Richard Cohen
"Breaking Open The Head" Daniel Pinchbeck
"Secret Teachings of All Ages" Manly P Hall
"Sounds of the South" Alan Lomax (liner notes

Pharmko/poeia - Dale Pendell
Pharmako/dynamis - Dale Pendell
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony - Roberto Colasso
The Abortion - Richard Brautigan

Still trying to get through Toynbee (more like - looking at it periodically, thinking "oh, man, I really ought to try picking that up again," looking away).

cybertheory + DMT trip:

"The Cybercultures Reader" - ed. David Bell & Barbara Kennedy
"Viroid Life: Perspectives on Nietzsche and the Transhuman Condition" -- Keith Ansll Pearson
"How We Became Posthuman" -- N. Katherine Hayles
"The Antipodes of the Mind" --Benny Shanon
"Ayahuasca" ed. Jonathan Ott
"The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age" -- Sandy Stone

I am reading several books by Anne Rice and Dean Koontz. I am also reading A History of God by Karen Armstrong and YOUR book Calculus and Pizza!

This week, I'll be mostly reading:
"Sailor Song" by Ken Kesey
"Stan and Ollie" by Simon Louvish

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Codebreaking; A History and Exploration by Rudolf Kippenhahn (translation to english by Ewald Osers.)
The Templar Revelation; Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ by Lynn Pickett and Clive Prince
Faster Than the Speed of Light, the story of a scientific speculation by Joao Magueijo
The Mystery of the Aleph by Amir D. Aczel

I completely forgot that I'm STILL working my way through Cryptorunes! Best puzzle book ever written.

proofrok

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco....incredible book...also, The Witching Hour by Anne Rice which is pure epic literature

haruki murakami unravels and reweaves many mysteries 4 me at the moment, ploughing slowly thru his list of 10 fiction books at the library... cosmopolis by don delillo was ok, underworld was much better
and the comics by anke feuchtenberger, eiland still do it 4me every time...

JAMES AXLER [DEATHLANDS] SAVAGE ARMADA TELLS THE STORY OF WHAT THE WORLD COULD BE IF WE CONTINUE THIS WAY

The Hyperion series by Dan Simmons. There's four of them, "Hyperion", "The Fall of Hyperion", "Endymion",and "The Rise of Endymion". I'm currently on the second book. Based seven hundred years in the future, in a society where two hundred worlds are connected by wormholes, it tells the story of seven pilgrims to the Timb Tombs of the non-Web-world Hyperion and the mysteries they uncover there. Teh aweseome books.

Consilience by Edward O. Wilson - Awesome read. I especially enjoy the sections on Ethics and Religion. Dr. Wilson is fascinating!

I've just finished reading VALIS by Philip K Dick. This book blew me away,it's about the nature of reality, madness, God, Jesus as the personification of living information sent to heal the world. told mostly from the view point of Horselover Fat who is part of phils skitzo mind but seems to exsist indepentently of him. i originally picked it up cos when i skimmed a page it was talking about Gnosis as the only way to salvation.

Reading the beginning. this will be a list: Odyssey, Homer; Preface to Plato, John Havelock; Ion and Meno, Plato; The Republic, Plato; Phaedrus, Plato; The tragic sense of Life, Miguel de Unamuno; The Popul Vuh, Mayan Cosmogony; Pharmakon, Derrida; Sonnet 19, John Milton; Guide for the Perplexed, Moses Maimonides; what do I recommend out of all these rather old texts: All OF THEM, TOGETHER, not at the same time, but just keep 'em laying around and, if you can, pick them up as they call out to you. Maimonides, is tough, and will take a while. I don't expect to ever finish reading it. Don't forget Aristotle Poetics, Metaphysics, Rhetoric. DUSTY Old Man!!! It's raining in Uxbekastan.

Just so you know, I wanted your readers to be aware of the below book:

   1. which will be available by October 31, 2003 on http://www.1stBooks.com
   2. and will be available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble around November 27, 2003.

It clearly explains the behind the scenes plays and provides helpful strategies on how to survive in the corporate world. Feel free to pass this information onto your supporters.


Witnessing Corporate Secrets
-------------------------------------------
By John A. Michaels
Available formats for this book:
Dust Jacket Hardcover (6x9) n/a Coming Soon!
Paperback (6x9) n/a Coming Soon!
  


About the Book:


From the voice of an insider hear the behind the scenes exchanges between first and mid-level managers. Witness their private conversations and understand the plays. Obtain a clear picture of their motives and political strategies. Observe the successful and the now experienced as they decide their own destiny. From the workplace floor, become a player at the inner negotiating table. Learn what street-smart responses, not talents, prevent individuals from being prematurely downsized and loosing their home, car or career in the process. These seemingly real life illustrations are meant as a reference guide for those entering the workplace and a survival guide for those wondering what just happened.

This book will draw you into the many challenges of the modern day workplace and suggests strategies on how to overcome. Remember, it was the creative voice of Benjamin Franklin that launched his experiment with electricity, as was Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone. Like them, original ideas and proactive strategies can illuminate the way to success. We must first train ourselves to recognize daily workplace opportunities. Other topics include “Window of Opportunity,” “Demands from Above,” “Departmental Transfers,” “Recognize the Hatchet Man,” “Workplace Friends” and “The Tactical Survival Plan”.

John A. Michaels:


With over 15 years of corporate experience, John A. Michaels clearly describes the roles, the players and the plays in motion. Experience the drama from the inside and the outside of the Board Room. Learn the unspoken truths and strategies behind “the bottom line”. His career was founded on business information systems, system implementation, design and corporate training. Serving in various capacities from the bottom to the top has enabled him to become an effective witness. John helps us to accept that corporate politics are not personal. He is a comforter to those facing a corporate restructuring and an instructor to those seeking to survive. John explains how a firing or downsizing can be part of the plan for success.

I'm curently reading:
Martin Gardner, The Night is Large.
Also:
Hacking Matter by Wil McCarthy.

just finished:
"in the devil's garden" - stewart lee allen
"gun, with occasional music" - jonathan lethem
"things my girfriend and i have argued about" - mil
 millington
"deception point" - dan brown
"hamlet: poem unlimited" - harold bloom

in the middle of:
"angels & demons" - dan brown
"1984" - george orwell
"gould's book of fish" - richard flanagan
"hamlet" - shakespeare
"blood meridian" - cormac mccarthy
"an act of state" - william pepper
"shakespeare: the invention of the human" - harold bloom

just started:
"fortress of solitude" - jonathan lethem
"foucault's pendulum - umberto eco
"life of pi" - yann martel

I'm reading HAMLET

Edited by author 10-22-2003 07:16 PM
* Hamlet - Shakespeare (reading...)

also read last 4 months
* O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo (The Gospel According to Jesus Christ) - Jose Saramago ( a GREAT book ) http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/saramago.htm
* The Psychedelic Experience - Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner & Richard Alpert http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online...ic_experience.shtml
* Lysistrata - Aristofanes
* Candy - MianMain (http://www.mianmian.com/)
* Siddhartha - Herrmann Hesse
* High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
...

Edited by author 10-28-2003 02:57 AM
although i suspect a little deception on the behalf of some people, (or perhaps i should say a slightly different interpretation of the meaning of the question)- i'm afraid confessing to currently reading the "secrets of the top 50 bass pro's" might not exactly bathe me in a brilliant light. there's some consolation in the fact that I have either finished or almost finished a dozen or so books within the past week, yet my star quickly fades again when I realize they are overdue as I sit here typing...and the man rambled...
ok, on with it. i would consider all of the afore-mentioned library books as legitimate answers to the question, along with a few favorites that rarely waver from their honored positions near the porcelain princess...and he rambled again...

a.) "the white bone" by barbara somebody. although the premise was interesting (think watership downs with elephants) i don't feel bad that i can't remember her surname, as the book was quite possibly the worst one i've read in years. apparently i was in a morbid mindset, for i read the entire thing. in retrospect, i believe the only reason i read it in entirety is because it became a battle of wills, and i was determined to come out victorious, thereby salvaging at least a moral victory from the affair...

b.)"driving mr. albert; a trip across america with einstein's brain" -michael patterson.- this book actually made up for disturbed lady's fascination with the oestrus cycles and inner mind workings of mating elephants. what made "driving mr. albert" even better was it was not a library book at all, but a borders 2.99 discount that i picked up on a whim.
imagine a jack kerouac (without manic depression) travelling cross country either in search of, or with, albert einsteins brain. throw in the somewhat senile original brain thief who has stored the gray matter in several glass jars for the past few decades, and there you have it. not the greatest book i've read, but certainly enjoyable.

c.) "the water is wide" -pat conroy. this is no ordinary book, nor is it a library rental. it's one of my top five favorites of all time, and if you haven't read it, shame on you. thankfully, as i have a habit of doing, i've randomly read a little from it and can legitimately include it in my list.
it's a non-fictional account of the author's experiences teaching extremely sheltered and underpriveledged children on yamacraw island (lowcountry south cackalacky). it's a beautiful example of what a book should be, and i'll just leave it at that.

d.)"moneyball". i can't remember the author, but it's a new non-fict. about a radical concept in baseball; building a winning team without any recognized superstars, based in large part by drafting "numbers" beyond just batting averages. instead of relying on the age-old scouting technique of gobbling up the best athletes, the manager went with an innovative number crunching computer program that was blind to anything other than stats. although there's a little glamorization and disney scripting from time to time, it's a decent book and worth a library checkout.

e.) "positively fifth street" -james mcmanus. a library book which turned out to be a tad dissapointing. having said that, the book is worth reading just for watching a pipe dream come true...another nonfic, the author, an amateur poker player, talks his way into an assignment to cover a recent murder of a legendary casino heir. along the way, the author decides to cough up the thousands of dollars required to enter the world series of poker, which is "conveniently" being held the same time he's in vegas...the fact that he does far better than expected in the tourney, along with the sensational aspects of the murder case mad for interesting reading, but unfortunately that left the other three fourths of the book entirely up to him...you got the feeling that he couldn't decide which story to tell; his truly amazing run as an amateur in poker's most prestigious tournament, or the murder he was supposed to cover. perhaps it was his constant and suddenly violent gear shifting, but the book just stayed a little too dry and inanimate.
i doubt anyone is still reading my blathering and i'm getting tired of writing. so i'll rush thru the rest.

f.) "miracle of castel di sangro"- joe mcginis(?) nonfic meant to be a story about the improbable miracle of a small village in italy that fields a soccer team which makes it to the top level of play. ends up being an account of one man's mid-life crisis (the author's). he throws temper tantrums, becomes consumed by a sport he scarcely knew existed only years before, abandons his wife and kids, and throws some bratty temper tantrums when he realizes all isn't what he had hoped for. this would make for a great story, if it weren't for the fact there was no catharsis, no dawning of recognition on his part concerning his selfishness and irrationality, etc. etc. plus, i think he came real close to getting whacked for sticking his nose where it didn't belong, but he never pulled his head far enough out his ass to realize it...i dunno, maybe at 26 years old, the mere thought of acting so stupidly when i'm at that age turned me off, but whatever the reason, i unfortunately wound up not liking the author. and as he's writing an autobiographical digression of what i can only assume to be male p.m.s., there's little room left to politely get along.

g.)"chyrsanthemums and thorns; the untold story of modern japan" - edwin m. reingold. altough "modern" is relative, with the book being published more than ten years ago, it's quite fascinating. i haven't finished it yet, but so far i really enjoy it, especially the probing of what's gone both wrong and right for japan, the cultural changes taking place, and the superiority/inferiority split personality of the nation as a whole.

h.) "samurai arms: 1550-1615". i don't know the author. i found this book in the young adults section of the library, and it's exactly what it looked like it would be. Basically it's a colorfully illustrated oversized picture book, with really neat drawings of samurai and the various armour they wore. While not going into explicit detail, it also gives some a few interesting tidbits that you would expect it to, such as the purpose of various armour and how master swordsmen crafted swords...

s.) it feels like i'm on "s", so i can say "s" if i want... "hatreds kingdom; how saudi arabia supports the new global terrorism" - dore gold. i've only just started this, as i don't want to read it flippantly but haven't had any time lately. i won't even get into my thoughts on this matter, but i definitely think it deserves a read.

x.) can't remember the name of the book or the author, even though it's on the tip of my tongue. surprisingly, i found the book fascinating. the author, a former n.o.w. president and an outspoken lesbian, amazingly rails against the liberal left! she makes a lot of points i agree with and have been saying for years, concerning the damage being done to our country and impact it's having on our children.

z.) i saved the best for last, but again i'm drawing a blank. not very convincing i know, but it's 2:30 and i still havent gone to sleep. hence the rambling (not really, but it sounds good)...ok, i just typed "autism, dog, mystery" into google, and voila. it's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. By Mark Haddon" read this book.
it seems like it's really hard to find new decent novels lately. (unless i'm in barnes and nobles with a self alotted ten dollars and everything calls my name). small southern libraries usually show the same amount of judgement as hollywood in regards to their offerings. everything is either the same, more of the same, or the same old thing.
this book is different. it's clever, and only skips off track occasionally. concept= autistic boy, framed for killing neighbors dog. boy sets out to find real killer. hilarity and tragedy both result. the end.

also reading a devotional nightly with my wife. it's amazing how much it helps us, especially since i'm not exactly normal.

and the greatest book of all times, which I read, but not nearly enough; the bible.

good night and God bless

by the way, i would be interested in knowing what peoples favorite novels are, limit of three.

mine sound like they're culled from a high school english class, but i would be lying if i didn't name them.
1.)to kill a mockingbird.
2.)of mice and men
3.)a prayer for owen meany

" The New Great Game : Blood and Oil in Central Asia " Lutz Kleveman. < Esstenial reading if you want to understand the current crisis >

Edited by author 10-29-2003 10:44 PM
Having spent most of my childhood reading science fiction from only one source (a television show based series) I thought that maybe I should expand this year and read the great authors of science fiction. There are so many to choose from I am a child again in a candy store.

Fahrenheit 451 was recently republished with the original cover from the fifties. The human being on the cover, made from newprint, and burning with a desolate look to his posture pulled me in faster than a moth to a flame. (Sorry, had to say it).

It is to me the most facinating type of science fiction that was written by our great authors during a time when we hadn't reached space or even conceived flying to the moon. The type of science fiction that gives us a retrograde look into our own present.

Now that I am engrossed in the story of Montag, a man trying to break free from his world which enforces shallow thought and living, I wondered, how far off was Bradbury in 1953 when he wrote this book set right about in this decade.

Not far.

i am about ten pages from the end of moby dick, and i am savoring every last word. there are some slow chapters, but overall this book is wonderful and quite modern.

have you read confederacy of dunces, by john kennedy toole? it used to be quite obscure and passed around in tight literary circles, but is getting more attention as the years go by. toole (the author) commited suicide before the book was published, his mom took it to a publisher, who read it, loved it and had it published and later won the pulitzer. a great story in itself, the novel is a hoot.

I am Currently read "Dune - The Machine Crusade" by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. Doiesn't carry the weight of the original Dune books, but it's not too bad of a fluff read.

Still working on - "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson. God will I ever finish that book? LOL

finshed moby dick, wow what a great read! highly recommended, if you have a bit of patience and/or time.


also, recently read "carter beats the devil" and had a great time reading it. a fun novel, with a great cover! also recently read "the wonder boys" by chabon. good read, haven't seen the movie, but a very good and entertaining book.

and "100 years of solitude" by marquez, i read it about 10 years ago, but it's on my list of great books.

currently reading "the passion" by jeannette winterson. damn, if i was a genius and a writer i would want to write like her. intelligent without bashing you over the head with it. (unlike umberto eco). pretty damn good, interesting, entertaining, and intelligent.

All of an Instant- Richard Garfinkle.
Story of humans who find their way into the Instant, an ocean outside of time. They form tribes who each have a vision of what they could change the world to be. War ensues between all tribes.

i just got "behold the protong" by szukalski..its a wild read.
 "trafalgar " by david horvath
 "the color book of art nouveau "
 "japan..a history in art"
 "temple of splendour and light"
 "the golden pavilion"
 lots of war history books that would bore you.

"programming and metaprogramming in the human biocomputer" by john c lilly, md

Flatterland bt Ian Stewart: An updating of the mathematical classic "Flatland" by Edwin Abbot, extending the two dimensional parable to multidimensions. Extends through many areas of modern mathematics & includes the original Flatland. Must read it if you like maths and weirdness.

To Elisklov: I love Jeanette Winterson, especially "Oranges are not the only fruit". This was dramatized bt the British Broadcasting Corporation about 15 years ago and was a model of intelligent TV

  Right now, I'm reading Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" ("cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul")
  If I could pick two things and have everyone read them, they would be Arundhati Roy's "The God of Small Things"
and T.S. Eliot's poetry.
  
Favorite quote found in a work of literature to date =
"Happiness is not a potato" -- "Villette," Charlotte Bronte

Just finished Neal Stephenson's "Quicksilver." As is Stephenson's fashion, it is totally dissimilar to any of his previous works. Excellent, as expected.

about to finish Johnathan Lethem's 'The Fortress of Solitude'.

Not bad.

I'm reading Roald Dahl's "Omnibus" at the moment and it conveys a sense of perplexion on each of his conclusions, which i thoroughly enjoy. In my opinion, Dahl has a simple, yet fascinating way of weaving these short stories into valuable lessons we can learn from. He storms in like ad enigmatic Aesop with a dark side! Love it!!!

*an

I am currently reading "Empires of Light" by Jill Jonnes-the story of Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse. "Kingdom of Fear" by Hunter S. Thompson."Homeric Moments" by Eva Brann and "Marx for Beginners" by Rius. "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling.

Edited by author 03-07-2004 05:19 AM
I recommend "Empire 2.01: A Modest Proposal for a United States of the West" by Régis Debray. A very powerfully written "fictional essay" --- guaranteed to shake up a lot of your political assumptions, no matter what part of the spectrum you inhabit. Debray was a leftist hero of the 60s, friend of Che Guevara's, now a philosopher and very difficult to classify. (I confess to being the translator of this book, but this is not a "plug" because I get no royalties from this book. )

Just finished "Choke" by Chuck Palaniuk. Also just finished "Weapons of Mass Deception" about Iraq propaganda and public relations efforts. It's by those two PR watchdogs who also wrote "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You" and "Trust Us, We're Experts!" Currently I'm making my way through Disinformation's "Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magic and the Occult," which has some very interesting authors and stuff in it, and I say that not really being into the "occult" either.

Currently on the list, "Zen in the Art of Archery" by Eugen Herrigel-"Sacred Geometry" by Miranda Lundy-"Jealous Gods Chosen People" by David Leeming-"Shamanism in North America" by Norman Bancroft Hunt-"The Arabian Nights" by Bennet Cerf, trnslated by Richard Burton

Best book I've read in a long time:

Middlesex

by Jeffrey Eugenides

I don't usually believe the hype associated with Pulitzer Prize winners, but this book is phenomenal. Trust me, you'll truly enjoy this book.

In the same vein of Pulitzer Prize winners I didn't think I'd like, I just finished Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. That book is simply amazing.

One more: Check out Bill Bryson's History of Nearly Everything. You won't regret it.

I'm reading High Priest, Quantum Genes by Michael Hayes. Just published - an amazing tour of the universe and something called the Hermetic Code, which Hayes says is the code that explains all creation and evolution. So far it's great.

I'm back and forth between two books right now.

"Angkor and the Khmer Civilation" by Michael D. Coe. Coe's a comparative anthropologist, I guess you would call him. It's an easy read about a part of the world that I don't know much about.

"Brook Trout" by Nick Karas. A natural and cultural history of brook trout that suffers from poor proofreading (it seems like just about every page has at least one misspelled word). If you can get past the discussions of "brrok" trout, it has some interesting information.

Edited by author 06-14-2004 04:31 PM
a friend just loaned me al franken's "lies and the lying liars who tell them". funny and just what i needed right about now.

also, dr. pivo is a cool name. pivo is czech for beer.

"Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon

"Iron John" by Robert Bly
"The Meloncholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories" by Tim Burton
"The First Book of Investing" 2nd Ed. by Samuel Case
"Scrodinger's Cat" (again), by Robert Anton Wilson
"Book of Lies" (again) Aliester Crowley

D. Adams, Young Zaphod Plays it Safe;
I. Kosovel, Magic and Metamorphoses of the Spirit (in Slovenian);
T.C. Laurent, A Privileged Life;
I.Hargittai, T.C. Laurent (Eds.), Symmetry(http://www.portlandpress.com/pcs/books/pro...?product=1855781492)
W. Veit, Island (in German)(http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3493...028-3374319-7431727)

And of course as anyone else who wants to define him/her/itself as a human:
C.A. Pickover, Surfing Through Hyperspace (http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/fourthb.html)

House of leaves by Mark Z Danielewski. The best book ever.

This is must read information for anyone who thinks they have an open mind and is free online

You will never see things the same again after reading it

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/manipulation/index.htm

Edited by author 09-13-2004 02:13 PM
I Am Alive and You Are Dead: The Strange Life and Times of Philip K. Dick
by Emmanuel Carrere, Timothy Bent (Translator).

Usually read 3-5 books, now:
Nag Hammadi Library
Jung - Man and his symbols
R.A. Wilson - Prometheus Rising
Lee Sannella - Kundalini Experience

Worse Than Watergate by John Dean. Not for the recreational reader or folks with high blood pressure.

Phantoms in the Brain - Ramachandran
All about how neural circuits work to provide illusions, and his *very* trick experiments with simple tools (mirrors, rubber hands, etc.) to tease apart how the brain is wired. My favorite story: woman with stroke, would not admit could not understand that her left hand was paralyzed until he poured ice water in her left ear -odd, but true- and he explains how the brain wiring makes it work.

POKER WITHOUT CARDS

read this book while you
can.

Life After Death:History of the After Life in Western Religion-Alan F Segal Holographic Universe-Michael Talbot New American Bible-Various Poplorica-Martin J Smith & Patrick J Kiger

Edited by author 10-21-2004 10:47 PM
Crossing the Rubicon - Michael Ruppert. A long but engaging look at the decline of the American Empire, the foreknowledge of the WTC attacks by Cheney, the dwindling supplies of oil (Peak Oil) and the wars and economic colapse that will follow. Scary but a must read.

Less Than One by Joseph Brodsky, The Essential Rumi translated by Coleman Barks, The Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East by Baird T. Spalding, Captured By The
Indians: 15 firsthabnd accounts, 1750-1870 edited by Frederick Drimmer.....Waking The Poet: Acquiring the deep seated crafts usually called 'talents' by Gene Fowler....and Tertium Organum: A key to the enigmas of the world by P.D. Ouspensky

Am enjoying each, no dogs here.

The Night Manager by John LeCarre---- a reread really
Benjamin Franklin--Walter Isaacs--ol' Ben was a pretty randy fellow apparently

"Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century" by Greil Marcus; "Subculture: The Meaning of Style" by Dick Hebidge; "Fatu-Hiva" by Thor Heyerdahl

Am trying to read Paradise Lost, but the footnates keep interrupting. Did I spell interrupting right?

Am wading through "The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath" by Ronald Hayman. Egad, what a death besotted life she led. She dug herself a deep rut straight through to suicide and and babbled and whined all the way. I really cannot fault her husband, Poet Laureate of England Ted Hughes, for seeking solace in other women. I much prefer Anne Sexton's death poetry and her short, abrupt means of departure.

"LIFE IS A BANQUET, AND MOST POOR FOOLS ARE STARVING." Auntie Mame

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Currently reading:

The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life by Armand M. Nicholi Jr.,
The South Beach Diet by Arthur Agatston (for my New Year's resolution diet);
Next in the queue is Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter by Thomas Cahill

the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

Poor Things- Alasdair Gray
Kiln People- David Brin

also, the origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind- julian jaynes. well-written, interesting, out of date

Baudolino by Umberto Eco

DaVinci Decoded by Michael J Gelb--Knights of Darkness by Dr. Haha Lung--Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition by B.R. Burg--Truth, Knowledge or Just Plain Bull by Bernard M Putten--13:The Story of the World's Most Popular Superstion by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer--Maya Cosmogenesis by John Major Jenkins

The Ancestral Mind: Reclaim the Power

Fortean Times #193 and Patrick Harpur's Daimonic Reality

I highly recommend two books by Stuart Kauffman 'At Home in the Universe' and 'Investigations'.

In which he suggests that the evolution of intelligent life is virtually inevitable.

If you are interested in getting a flavour of these books, read his essay which can be found at the Edge site where they are currently providing a large number of answers (120)to the question: "WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?"
 
Link to Kauffman's essay at http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_6.html#kauffman

And The Edge Annual Question—2005 at
http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_print.html

Phil Summerfield
phil@pencaet.com

I'm currently reading "The Making of the New Spirituality" by James Herrick. I recently finished Ayn Rand's "The New Left" and Yann Martel's "Life of Pi." I'd recommend them both. I wouldn't recommend Herrick.

Edited by author 02-10-2005 10:38 PM
"Gods and Heros in Art" by Lucia Impelluso features one page descriptions of Greek gods and various paintings of these gods doing their most memorable deeds. There certainly were many more gods to choose from then and they interacted with humans regularly, although many God/Human sexual contacts are described as rape. From Apollo to Psyche to Satyrs to Vulcan, gimme that old time religion. These gods could show up in your backyard at any moment. Whatever happened to them? Are they grouching about in the old god's home somewhere?

"One River," by Wade Davis. On of the best books I've read in a long time. It's about the adventures of Richard Schultes, the famous Harvard Ethnobotonist who travelled the Amazon in Colombia during the 40's. I learned a lot from this book. It helps that Davis is a great writer telling some fascinating tales. Must read.

Just finished "Dune: The Battle of Corrin" last weke and finishing "Lamb" by Christopher Moore, which is one the funniest books I've read since "HitchHikers's Guide".

survivor by chuck pallahniuk I'm reading it slow, because his new book haunted doesn't come otu until next month. I think it's been more humorous, and intentionally so, than his other books I've read. I recommend any book he's written. not every one will learn something, but the majority of readers should be entertained

I am reading "The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time" (Harper Collins 2005) by John Kelly who has a graduate degree in history. This is a most fascinating look into the world of the 14th century and the black plague and its effect on civilization at the time.

"Fear and Loathing in America" Hunter S Thompson, "Stan Lee & the Rise & Fall of the American Comic Book" Jordan Raphael & Tom Spurgeon, "Dante's Inferno" Sandow Birk & Marcus Sanders, "The New Age-History of a Movement" Nevill Drury

Lyall Watson's impressionistic "Jacobson's Organ"

Ernest G. McClain's osmium-like "The Myth of Invariance: The Origin of the Gods, Mathematics and Music from the Rg Veda to Plato" (gadzooks)

"Guilty Pleasures," Donald Barthelme

"The Alphabetic Labyrinth," Johanna Drucker

The original da vinci code, Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum

"Tao Te Ching" (translated)
"The Tao of Physics"
"The Physics of Consciousness"

HP Lovecraft: Everything but "The dream jouney to unknown Kadeth" espically

Carlos Castenda: "the art of dreaming"

Picking up: Robin Hobb : "Soldiers son series"

Am reading again "Lost Horizon" by James Hilton. I first read this book in my middle teens, and am enjoying it even more 60 years later. I wish I could find a place like Shangi-La where people have all the time in the world to indulge in knowledge, reading, music, art and good conversations. Almost all of my friends are in a trance in front of their televisions. No one reads or converses, or plays an instrument, or plays chess, backgammon. Shangri-La....if someone would found such a colony high in the Rocky Mountains, I should be the first to move there....

Death to Dust. What happens to dead bodies?

I finished "Human Technology" by Dr. Il Chi Lee last month. It detatils techniques for feeling Energy(ki), and pratcticing traditional oriental healing arts to help maintain health. It also looks into the nature of enlightenment, and how it relates to the indivdual and society.

Atlantis Found, by Clive Cussler

Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith

Lost City, by Clive Cussler

dhalgren, samuel delaney
falling out of cars, jeff noon

kafka on the shore, by haruki murakami
tales of protection, by erik fosnes hansen

Just finished "A Language Older than Words" a recent work by Derrick Jensen. One of the greatest autobiographical essays I've ever read. Whether you agree with all the author's conclusions or not, you won't be the same after reading this book. Courageous, honest, vulnerable, and superbly written. How to describe it? In a nutshell: an all-out assault on "civilization" ...

Just finished "INTO THE WILD" by Jon Krakauer, the TRUE story of an educated, intelligent young man from a well-to-do family who gave away his savings to charity, abandoned his car, burned the rest of his cash and possessions and wandered and hobo-ed around the country working at various menial jobs. He greatly admired Thoreau, Tolstoy and Jack London, and his ultimate goal was to rough it in Alaska living off the land. Four months after hitchhiking to Alaska and staking his camp in the wilderness in an old abandoned bus used by hunters, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. He had apparently starved to death. A strange, terrifying tale of a stubborn young man who died of his idealism and naivete....

www.americancarnevil.com
I haven't read it yet, but it looks good. It doesn't come out until January and everyone I know is talking about it. It's fiction about a U.S. Marshal hunting down paranormal stuff or something like that. American Carnevil
Tim

I am half way through "PSYCHIC SELF DEFENSE" by Dion Fortune, a new age classic that is a facinating peek into secret occult societies and psychology from the early 20th century.

I'm reading "The Alphabet Versus the Goddess : The Conflict Between Word and Image" by Leonard Shlain. Also, "The Cosmic Serpent - DNA and the Origins of Knowledge" by Jeremy Narby. IMO, The "Cosmic Serpent" is particularly a must-read.

I'm currently reading "One River" by Wade Davis and "Sex, Drugs, Einstein and Elves" by Cliff Pickover. Both are excellent

"Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice," by Mark Plotkin. Another ethnobotonist inspired by Schultes, who explores the NorthEast Amazon in Surinam. Wonderful stories of how the indigenous tribes use plants to heal and live. Also, "Spiritual Enlightenment - The Damnedest Thing," by Jed McKenna. One of the better "spiritual" books I've read on a LONG while. He pretty much bitch slaps the spiritual materialism and traditional fluffery that keeps readers from the truth. Worth the read!!

The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav. Quantum physics for the layman. Very interesting, but can be tiring. I'm not all the way through it.

Currently reading...
"The sense of being stared at and other aspects of the extended mind" by Rubert sheldrake.

Ishmael: An adventure of the mind and spirit, and also The Story of B by Daniel Quinn.

Blue Latitudes : Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before
by Tony Horwitz

Edited by author 01-13-2006 09:00 AM
Infinite Love Is The Only Truth, Everything Else Is Just An Illusion, by David Icke. http://www.davidicke.com/

Edited by author 01-13-2006 09:09 AM
I'm reading The Dark Clan by Harun Yahya. It's about the moral degeneration in the world. It is free for download along with hundreds of other books by Harun Yahya at: http://www.harunyahya.com/m_book.php
Also free audio books at: http://www.harunyahya.com/m_audio.php

I'm presently re-reading what is arguably the finest science fiction story of all time,the Dune series by Frank Herbert is the Icon of its genre.the mature easily understood storyline of the characters blended with a complex and well detailed universe is skillfully written,credible and intelligent. I am personally in awe of the mind that conceived this story, Dune ranks as one of the greatest literary concepts of science fiction that i've ever read.

"The Winter King" - by Bernard Cornwell.
It's vol. 1 in a 3 part series.
A fictional, new look at the Arturian lore.
(Lancelot may not have been as sashing as we thought...)

I am currently reading Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey... this is yancey's tribute to thirteen individuals of inspiration. (Martin Luther King Jr., G.K Chesterton, Dr. Paul Brand, Dr. Robert Coles, Leo Tolstoy, Feodor Dostoevsky, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. C. Everett Koop, John Donne, Annie Dillard, Frederick Buechner, Shusaku Endo and Henri Nouwen)

I am currently reading "What God Wants" by Neale Donald Walsch. It is such a clear and concise outline of the nature(s) of the universe. It has really helped me to see and utilize my own creative power. I truly believe you could have a Mormon and and Atheist both read it and they would agree with everything!!! Another book that I am trying to finish is "Vibrational Medicine". -Shows how science has led us to the properties of healing and spirituality that we have experienced for thousands of years....

The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, PKD: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings, Our Posthuman Future by Fukuyama, Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. Wilhelm Reich, Psychoanalyst and Radical Naturalist by Robert S. Corrington. The Complete Books of Charles Fort (slowly).

A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead by dennis mcnally....full of fascinating stories of the dead, the pranksters, the deadheads, drugs, songs and all kinds of weirdness.
I discovered it while browsing the shelves of our local public library, after picking out an armful of books for my six-month old, while waiting for the book checker-outer to return from the restroom.

Right now I'm reading BLINK by Malcolm Gladwell.
It's about why some people are brilliant decision makers and how they follow their instints and win.
A COURSE IN MIRACLES is my daily read and has been for years.

Pharmako/Gnosis - Plant Teachers and the Poison Path Vol.3 by Dale Pendell
published by Mercury House, San Francisco. 2006
For anyone who's read McKenna,Leary,Jonathan Ott,Shulgin,Wasson or even Alan Watts here's Dale Pendell; Poet,Alchemist,Philosopher and psychonaut extraordinaire.
Volume 1,"Pharmako/Poeia",published back in 1995, was an immediate classic in the psychedelic community and included an introduction by friend and mentor Gary Snyder. Turns out Pendell was also a friend and something of a disciple to Norman O. Brown! His writing ranges from the personal to the poetic through philosophy, history, science,and well,you name it. Pendell's a real "plant person" (his phrase) and his trilogy leads us through his experiments with and reflections on a series of psychotropic plants and extractions all grouped according to his new system of classification based on Louis Lewin's work (I think).

Here's a taste from Vol. 1:

"Neither animals nor people have consciousness. It is plants that have consciousness. Animals get consciousness by eating plants.

(plant's voice):
 
We like to walk around sometimes, and to see new places.
We like some of those animal things, like mating.
Sometimes we get curious
     to see what it is like to program computers."

Volume 3, which so many of us have been patiently awaiting this long
decade, deals more closely with the "hallucinogenic" plants.

Get Pendell!

Just finshed "Sex, Drugs, Einstein, & Elves" by Cliff Pickover, and started on a book by Osho - not that good so I won't even name it. Before that - Gift by Hafiz, Freakonomics by Steven. D. Levitt, Blink by Malcom Gladwell, God's Debris by Scott Adams; all great books.

I am reading two books right now. The Human Stain by Philip Roth and The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney. They are both good.

Sms kontrolny

Almost done 'Sex, Drugs, Einstein & Elves', just getting started on 'Entangled Minds' by Dean Radin. Both are inducing a pleasant mind dialation, or if you prefer... embiggening =P

These were the latest that I enjoyed:

Popco- one of the best in a long time. Cryptonology,marketing,trends.

The Tipping Point - kind of dry but very informative.

Zodiac - any book by Neal Stephenson is worth a shot.

The Schopenhauer cure - philosophy and group dynamics - very cool read.

Warning..Michael Anthony ( Kielas ) of San Piere, Indiana, late of South Bend, Indiana, and trying to locate in the Valpo. area..

This man (sic) has in the past attempted to hire Chris Partidge to murder one Dianna Uphuas.
Purjuried himself in court.
Embellabled money for Cat Desing, and Human Spirits Uniting.
Has failed to pay his employees.
Has housed and harboured known crimnals at Lomax Station, who were hiding from the law.
His website is bougus, www.Beautifulwoodclosets.com , all the photos are from a Dell Web Photo Delvopment Page. For a true view of workshop go to, www.faithfabric,com and then to the campgound photos.
He has partnered three companies with his parters declaring BK after is departure.
Has had sex with a female employee.
Has tried to sell a property for 1.2 million that is worth little.
Is a drunk.
He is very hard to find, screens all of his calls.
In the past 5 years has /or is attemping to sue three womam (Eliabeth Mazziano, Catlin Hale, and Dianna Uphaus) all in different courts, He only has legal issues with woman. Has been sued and committed purjury.
If intered in name sates place , please conntact me.

Hitching rides with buddha. By Will Ferguson. A travel story about a Canadian who hitchhikes through Japan.

The Lucid View by Aeolus Kephas

Edited by author 06-16-2006 01:04 AM
Sinister Forces, Book 2 by Peter Levenda
She by H. Rider Haggard
Shadow At The Bottom Of The World by Thomas Ligotti
The Dick Gibson Show by Stanley Elkin

The Presence Process, by Michael Brown. Stirs things up and out.

2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, by Daniel Pinchbeck. Fascinating, even riveting.

Truely,this has got to be the no.1 web site.My mind is still overwhelmed with all this.I"m presently reading BEYOND THE INDIGO CHILDREN.What a fasinating read.This is the kind of science i really enjoy reading.Right now,i can"t even think.Have a great 4th of july.Saggis07@yahoo.com

Breaking Open the Head: a Psychedelic Journey into the heart of Contemporary Shamanism -- Daniel Pinchbeck
2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl -- Daniel Pinchbeck

masks of god (series), joseph campbell- nice job...
blood meridian, cormac mcCarthy- reads like a fantastic and bloody myth
the name of the rose, umberto eco- just starting
augie march, bellow- next book

Edited by author 08-08-2006 07:50 AM
The Emperor's New Mind - Roger Penrose

Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition - Ed Regis

Practical Pacifism - Andrew Fiala

From Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century - F. David Peat

LSD, the problem-solving psychedelic - Peter G. Stafford, B. H. Golight

Prime Numbers: The Most Mysterious Figures in Math - David Wells

Encyclopedia of Psychedelics - Peter Stafford

Because I can never seem to read just one book at a time, right now I'm reading: The Genesis Race by Will Hart (theory that humans have extraterrestrial DNA); The New Conspiracy Reader by the editors of Paranoia magazine (you just never know...); Mega Creativity by Andrei G. Aleinikov, Ph.D. (5 Steps to thinking like a genius...not sure how I feel about this one yet...almost like reading a text book your college professor wrote); and Chindi by Jack McDevitt (science fiction, 1 of 2; apparently it was named one of the best sci fi novels of the year by the Washington Post Book World...I'm having a hard to keeping all the characters straight, and it's taking a while to get where it's going.

Just read great book...EAT PRAY LOVE by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Great writer and great story of her journeys in Italy, India, and Bali.

I'm reading Feeding Frenzy (for the second time)by Will Self. Yes that is his real name.

traveldealz.net the best site for cheap airline tickets
pimpedlayout.com free myspace templates tools

At the moment I am just now finishing up Zechariah Sitchin's "The 12th Planet" And I just recentally bought The Edgar Cayce Companion book and

I'm reading, contemplating, constellating, imagining now on books from Lee Smolin, Trouble with Physics, Itzhak Bentov's theory on Kundalini, Dane Rudhyar's Magic of Tone...and Roger Penrose's Road to Reality,...

A.

...while also contemplating the so called intellecttual prowess and creativity, (what is intellect really?) on the attitude toward suggestibility and diffusive processes in visual cortex cross-induction in terms of what William Calvin proposes under a 0.5 mm hexagonal firing pattern entrainment of his finiding and others on neural symphony...amazing?

A.

as I see it right now, it's not much about reading rather the ability to imagine, analyze and to come forward with a new synthesis of what you read on any subject...this would be quite a creative process to interact with a book as the materialized work of some author...I don't think
our brain/mind holarchy or hierarchy would gain or thrive that much from passive visual scanning...same would go for the degree of being influenced by some work...I'd rather maintain my independence from being told of whys and whats...Trains of thoughts goes on,

A.

Edited by author 10-06-2006 02:36 AM
Books I'm reading are shown in my library here: http://www.librarything.com/profile.php?view=Dickison

Tags for my books are here (the larger the tag, the more I have on that topic): http://www.librarything.com/tagcloud.php?view=Dickison

Here is the actual library (you can sort on columns and display covers by selecting the appropriate button): http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=Dickison

i'm reading Pegasus Descending by James Lee Burke
a gifted poetic, cop story writer, writes beautifully poetic language that is wrought with violence. and he does it all very well.

I'm reading "Out of Control" by Kevin Kelly, and "Narcissus and Goldman" by Hermann Hesse.

Thou Art That; Joseph Campbell

Bentley Little is my current fav.

Consciousness: A User's Guide

...just finished "DMT: The Spirit Molecule." Yes, it's a bit late to have read it, but I've been out of the loop on that sort of thing, what with parenthood and all.
...I have to say that, initially, I was excited and fascinated. You know...The first legitimate psychedelic research in decades? But that quickly gave way to disappointment and concern. Yes, it's fun to consider parallel universes, aliens and the cosmic alphabet -- all within sight just by flicking the old DMT switch, as it were. But I seriously doubt the FDA, DEA will continue giving the nod to such research (regardless of its stated aims) if its practitioners capitalize on what they learn by splashing about in esoteric, New Age backwaters.

- Sex, drugs, Einstein, & Elves (Pickover)
- Pontiac Review #2 - De Ridder Registraties (Peter Pontiac)
- Encyclopaedia Psychedelica issues 1-15 (zippy zines, not a book)
- The Frontal Lobes Supercharge (Neil Slade)

A Fascinating book, 'Between Death and Life' by Delores Cannon. Best spiritual book I've come across....NOT RELIGIOUS!

Also The Reconnection by Dr Eric Pearl....excellent!

I'm reading Sex, Drugs, Einstein and Elves... and I'm referencing it in a blog about CASINO ROYALE I'm writing over on Bright Lights Film Journal, Bright Lights After Dark.

I'm also reading William Gibson's ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES

May God help us all... in the future. (Criswell)

I just finished reading every e-book thus far released by Cory Doctorow. I began with Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom, then A Place So Foreign & 8 More, followed by Someone Comes To Town, Someone Leaves Town, and finally Eastern Standarn Tribe. The guy can write a good science fiction story, and I'm eager to read more. Check out http://www.craphound.com/ for free electronic versions of the texts.

G. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, J. Chilton Pearce's Evolution's End, and M. Merleau-Ponty's Course Notes from the College de France (Nature).

Cosmic Trigger- Robert Anton Wilson
Cartoon History of the Modern world Vol. 1- Gonick

I have read several of R.A.W's Books and find Cliff Pickover to be just as interesting and mind expanding. The entire cartoon history of the world series is fun, Gonick pulls no punches and presents history in a unique way without being dry.

I just finished reading Reality Is What You Can Get Away With by Robert Anton Wilson, and it was great. It is a must read for sure, very funny and gives you a lot of information.

I'm reading B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on Life, along with Amy Tan's Saving FIsh from Drowing...and the Hobbit...

Actually I'm studying.. Light on Life, it gets a bit heavy at times, so when I need a break I read the Hobbit...Saving Fish From drowing... is a little slow at times...but that's OK, because I'm not in a hurry....

I'm reading Drawing Blood, by Poppy Z. Brite, and William Burrough's thoughts about cats.

Just finished Sex, Drugs, Einstein and Elves. Great book!
Overdosed America, by John Abramson, M.D.
Descartes' Error, by Antonio R. Damasio (a re-read)
and on the lighter side, Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress, by Susan Jane Gilman.

Currently: Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, Dr. Kary Mullis, The Razor's Edge, Somerset Maughm, and Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. I would highly recommend The Sorcer's Apprentice by Tarim Shaw (?), and Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (and his fabulous Travels in Hyperreality). Also Pico Iyer's Video Night in Kathmandu...that is all I can come up with this late in the evening with absinthe in hand.

The cure for everything is salt water - Sweat, Tears, or the Sea...

Not a book but I love the quote.

I'm rereading The Turning Point by Capra. It's a good primer for understanding what's going on in the world and why. I just finished Chaos, Creativity, and Consciousness by McKenna, Sheldrake, and Abraham which is a very interesting book. I believe that many topics covered by books should utilize multimedia presentations as video and audio seem to convey information more thoroughly than the written word alone. Maybe include a weblink to the presentations that help illuminate the ideas trying to be conveyed in the book.

Join my free newsletter please, go to www.timothynoonan.com and sign up. I am currently reading The Tipping Point, Tales of the Unexpected (for film research), and Law of Success in 16 Lessons.Peace!

Dear GJD:
Good idea: is this because people process visually, kinesthetically and through sound? It would have the most impact in a multimedia presentation for sure. It is a way to perhaps explore the books of the future, work on that.

Top reading: Undoing yourself with energised meditation - Chris Hyatt
Prometheus Rising - R A Wilson

I've recently made -- more or less -- a survey of Chuck Palahniuk's books: Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, Choke, Survivor, and I'm currently reading Haunted.

Edited by author 07-11-2007 02:17 PM
Posting about what I just finished reading...

The Gene Wolfe series 'Shadow of the Torturer' and it's additional volume 'The Urth of the New Sun'.

I think that people need to escape sometimes, we shouldn't always have to feel that we're reading for social status or for some weird concept of immediate educational betterment. Serious books are pleasing enough, but every now and then a little of the old classic sci-fi draws us out of the current age of helplessness and back into a time when technology wasn't the enemy and our future was one of hope instead of just a blindly rushing new dark age.

They're good books.
Read 'em!

"Upside Down" by Eduardo Galeano is notable!

The Anthropocentric Approach to Computing and Reactive Machines by Stoyan O. Kableshkov -- surprisingly, copyright 1983.
Begins:
It is logical to assume that the future belongs to a more human-like computer philosophy. Therefore the Functional Model provides a solid base for an alternative to the procedural machine. There are several reasons to prefer the label 'anthropocentric' to the less general 'functional'.

As would be expected from someone who can speak four languages and think in three, the english of this book has an unusual and interesting style.

Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich as related to and edited by Solomon Volkov.
A view from the inside of the USSR by someone who lived through the terror of communist dictatorship.

"Finding Darwin's God," by Ken Miller.

Excellent book about the intersections of evolution and religion, without denying either evolution or religious belief in the slightest. Only work of its kind I've ever found - everything else goes soft one way or the other.

I'm reading Pier Giorgio di Cicco's the Municipal Mind: Manifestos for the Creative City (Mansfield Press, 2007). Di Cicco, the Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto, challenges us to invigorate the "urban motive", beyond amenities, conveniences and obvious revitalizing, to get at the real reason people live together, because if they don't have a real reason, they won't have community. The cohering of citizen stake-holders, groups, interests is crucual to livable cities and communities. To Di Cicco, the city’s vitality is measured not in the plans and accountings which impose structure and quantify value but in the spontaneous, authentic eruptions of creativity that give expression to joy. In the creative city, art happens not because it has been programmed but because it cannot help itself. And, averring that “this book is not about what can be done better, but what we cannot do without”, it is into this breach that Di Cicco launches his manifestos, prescriptions for the rehabilitation of a “civic aesthetic” that recognizes “the desire of the citizen for elements one no longer dares to ask for – conviviality, joy, delight in wonder, the shared forum of imagining and play, of unreserved laughter and serenity .... [and] all the playful and ecstatic registers that justify city life, without which the city becomes a place of business, or indentured servitude.”

I would recommend The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle to any and everyone.

Graham Hancock - Supernatural and Daniel Pinchbeck - 2012.
I'd also recommend Life After Death by Deepak Chopra and Far Journies by Robert Monroe.

"Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion" by Jeffery Kripal. I've never been to Esalen but have always heard about it, especially growing up and living in northern California. This book explain how influential Esalen was in seeding the culture with "new" ideas, from Alan Watts and Timothy Leary to Fritz Perls and his encounter groups, to Fritjof Capra and the uniting of science and spirit, etc. Sort of a think tank for the counterculture.

Tracy Kidder - Soul of a New Machine
Won the Pulitzer in '82 I believe. Not the best writer in the world (or more accurately doesn't seem to have had the best editor in the world), so I'm still a little put off that it won a Pulitzer, but the subject matter at the time must have been especially compelling.
It's ostensibly about the process of building a cutting-edge computer, but it's really about the intimate relationship between the engineers and the machine. Since I'm reading this in connection with a class about cyborgs and cybernetics in art, this really drives home the idea that we've all been cyborgs ever since we became dependent on fire, and that the mere fact that humans designed and built a machine makes that machine (any machine) a stupendously intricate cyborg with functional components that reach through time and space back to the childhoods of engineers and arguably beyond to encompass the whole of human experience and the whole of the universe.

Edited by author 10-26-2007 04:17 PM
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A Heinlein. Excellent tale of the unfettered potential of humanity, using the vehicle of a man born on Mars seeing Earth from a naive perspective. Some great characters (especially Jubal who reminded me of Robert Anton Wilson at times) and some great language such as the humble 'I am but an egg'. I was interested to find that this book was the origin of the term to 'grok'. Packed with intriguing concepts such as being 'water brothers'. Parallels with the saviour archetype and an interesting take on the paranormal... Truely deserving of it's cult status and a highly enjoyable read.

For all of the literature geeks out there I highly recommend Jasper Foorde. His imagination seems to have no bounds. From his pulp fiction-like Nursery Crimes to the Thursday Next series. If you are well-read you will enjoy all of the inside humor.

2012. the return of quetzalcouatl...

this book looks at the idea of a conciousness shift in 2012... and things that may be linked to that.

Sex, Drugs, Einstein and Elves
it's the reason i'm here

"Not by Fire but by Ice" A different view (why I like this site) on what is really happening to the weather.

"Accelerondo" by Charles Stross. Heady book about a future where constant access to ever increasing computing power creates "post humanity" and digitized conciousness allows space travel and reintegration of various "selves".

dolores cannon's 'the convoluted universe 1,2,3
doris lessings's "shikasta" & "the sirian experiments"

I feel like a dope next to you guys...I just finished the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyers. My 14 year old female students recommended them to me. Lots of sexual tension, but no actual sex. Very addictive books. What can I say? I teach middle school.

Edited by author 06-23-2008 07:23 AM
I am reading...

Archaeologies of Consciousness
Essays in Experimental Prehistory
by Gyrus

and bloody brilliant it is too
you should (all) read it too

Edited by author 06-26-2008 04:51 AM
i want to know that quantity of poision did golden cobra contain

I am reading
books by Robert Anton Wilson
books by Roger Penrose

I am re-reading "Christine", by Stephen King. My husband found a copy of it at the county dump, and I used to read all of King back when I was in my teens, when "Christine" came out. I forgot what a good writer he is.

Edited by author 10-21-2008 01:12 AM
Four Major Plays - Aristophanes... caricatures of Grecian life.

The Tao of Meditation - Tsung Hwa. Jou... meditation techniques and a practical guide to the fourth (or fifth) dimension... what? - i say fifth because one eye shows two dimensions; two eyes show three... what do three eyes show? think fibonacci...

Carlos Castaneda - The Power of Silence... while I sometimes doubt the timeline and authenticity of reported events, Castaneda's books are nevertheless an intriguing port into the world of cosmic spirituality

The book I'm reading now is called "Failed God" Fractured Myth in a Fragile World.
by John A Rush

"Does the "Politics of Truth" cloud our understanding of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam?"

Great Book...

Edited by author 07-03-2009 03:19 PM
Currently reading;
Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist Edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp
A Vector Space Approach To Geometry by Melvin Hausner
Year's Best SF 14 Edited by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer

Read 25 books last year.

My three favorite books are;
Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
First Circle by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The Laws Of Thought by George Boole

I am currently reading three:
Modern and Modernism-The Sovereignty of the Artist 1885-1925-by Frederick Karl. While focused mainly on literature, this explores the growth of Modernism and Avant Garde movements. Equal parts literary and cultural criticism.
Jean-Christophe-by Romain Rolland-The story, both internal and external, of a musician who led an idyllic childhood (for an artist anyway), being beaten daily by an alcoholic father. He runs off to Paris to meet his (you fill in the blank).
Course in General Linguistics-Ferdinand de Saussure-Along with Pierce, this is one of the building blocks in the foundation of semiotics. A bit thick in places, but if you are interested in language (which everyone should be since language is now reality) it is well worth the read.

A few others you should check out-
Sleepwalkers-Hermann Broch
Mysteries-Knut Hamsun
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler-Italo Calvino-Quite simply, one of the best books ever written.
For you mathematicians and physicists out there, Flatland by Edwinn Abbot

Always remember, reading will take you further afield than any other endeavor, yet it is a dying art. Do the world a favor and turn someone on to reading.

Currently I am reading Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell, Richard Dawkin's Ancestor's Tale and Cormac McArthy's The Orchard Keeper.

"planet of slums" by Mike Davis- exaustively researched about the explosive rise in slums with industrialization of the globe, economics, ecology, politics of slums are discussed. Davis deserves a nobel in my opinion- the reality of truth about slums is horrifying.

I'm currently reading two books by the same author, and it's a great experience read them alternately, viewing two opposite sides of the same realty. They are "History of Beauty" and "On Ugliness", both by Umberto Eco, both Hardcover, both translated by Alastair McEwen.

I'm currently reading:Portugal's Golden Years, The life and Times of Prince Henry "The Navigator"

This is a great book. If you are interested in the history of Portugal, or just wanting to read a great book this is it.

Edited by author 11-08-2009 02:34 PM
I am currently reading "The Praise of Folly" by Desiderius Erasmus. As personable as Augustine while remaining as entertaining as Voltaire. Fun and insightful in it's criticisms of 16th century society, many of which are still relavent today.

Also recommended:
"Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond. Clever theories pertaining to the question, "Why did certain cultures/civilizations expand and succeed while others were squashed?" Though biased, like all written analysis of history, I learned about cultures I would not have otherwise and obtained food for thought regarding the role that social need plays in the success of inventions.

"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell annalizes the cultural phenomenon that occurs when a particular idea, fad, or product suddenly and unexpectedly catch on in mainstream society. The case studies presented are enthralling and the structure presented by Gladwell finds order in the seemingly chaotic worlds of fashion, crime, the spread of STDs, even addiction. Deffinatley worth the day or so that it will take to read.