My someday reading list

My someday reading list

This is meant to be an unformed list of all the books that I am desirous of reading at some point. Books that I've already bought and plan to read in the immediate future will be listed on the recently read page. There's also a page of the previous "serious" books and fiction books I've read. Any comments, suggestions, etc, should be forwarded on to me at nehrlich@alum.mit.edu

I felt like including my Amazon wish list here, so I did. See what books have piled up that I have considered buying at one point or another.


Snap to Grid, by Peter Lunenfeld
Recommended by Phil Agre on his Red-Rock-Eater mailing list.. "Snap to Grid is brilliant. Lunenfeld's aesthetic sensibility is a cleansing wind that blows away the cyber fog and reveals the contours of a critical practice of computing. His concisely written and endlessly observant book will appeal to everyone who wants to bridge the artistic and technical aspects of design."
The Creators, by Daniel Boorstin
Two MIT friends of mine recommended this book as being a summary of everything we missed by not going to a liberal arts school. Sounds like a good recommendation to me, so when I saw it at a used book store, I picked it up. Now I just need to find time to read the blasted thing.
The Last Temptation of Christ, by Nikos Kazantzakis
I thought that the movie was extremely powerful and amazing. Bird just reminded me that it was based on a book, and since books are almost always better than the movie version I look forward to reading it. Kinda ties in to King Jesus as well, eh?
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, by Julian Jaynes
A similar topic to Consciousness Explained in examining consciousness of humans. An interesting topic, and I've heard Jaynes referred to many times in net discussions so I should really read him. Bought it, haven't read it.
Consciousness Explained, by Daniel Dennett
Supposedly has a reasonable-sounding explanation for consciousness, as derived from a pattern of many streams of thought, one of which takes precedence at any one time. Sounds to me like the right track, but not quite accurate, but I want to see his arguments.
Any of many political treatises by Noam Chomsky
I know very little about Noam Chomsky, other than he is a famous linguist, and he has political books out. However, a friend of mine saw the movie Manufacturing Consent, which was either produced by or written by or something by Chomsky, and said it was really good, and recommended learning more. So now I'm curious. (summer 95) I bought the book Manufacturing Consent, co-written by Chomsky and Edward Herman. Haven't read it. Saw the movie though.
Systemantics, by John Gall
Orality and Literacy, by Walter Ong
The Logic of Writing, The Organization of Society, by Jack Goody
The Psychology of Literacy, by Sylvia Scriber and Michael Cole
Computer Privacy Handbook, by Andre Bacard
I know nothing about these books, other than they were mentioned in passing in netnews groups I read. Sounded interesting though.

Back to the Eric Nehrlich, bookworm page.

Eric Nehrlich's WWW home page / nehrlich@alum.mit.edu