Some Favorite Books

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A little bit about several of my favorite books.

Philosophy

I'm overwhelmed by philosophy as a general topic, but there are a few, slim books in the category that I cherish, and feel have made important differences in my life. That they're each available as small paperbacks may say something about my aptitude...

  • Finite and Infinite Games -- James P. Carse

    "A finite game is played for the purpose of winning.  An infinite game is played for the purpose of continuing the play."
    ...
    "Because infinite players prepare themselves to be surprised by the future, they play in complete openness.  It is not an openness as in candor, but an openness as in vulnerability.  It is not a matter of exposing one's unchanging identity, the true self that has always been, but a way of exposing one's ceaseless growth, the dynamic self that is yet to be. The infinite player does not expect to only be amused by surprise, but to be transformed by it."

    Just the notion of infinite games is puzzling to many people - it's easier to formulate finite games, just as it's often easier to take things apart than it is to create them in the first place. Those who have more than scratched the surface of open-ended creative endeavors, like design and improvisation, tend to recognize the principles, and, I think, appreciate them.

  • The Tao Te Ching -- Lao Tsu

    "1. A way can be a guide, but not a fixed path; names can be given, but not permanent labels. Nonbeing is called the beginning of heaven and earth; being is called the mother of all things. Always passionless, thereby observe the subtle; ever intent, thereby observe the apparent. These two come from the same source but differ in name; both are considered mysteries. The mystery of mysteries is the gateway of marvels."

    The Tao Te Ching is the acknowledged introduction of taoism. I particularly like Thomas Cleary's translation in The Essential Tao. It also includes a translation of The Inner Teachings of Chuang Tzu, which seems to be the other central taoist text, illuminating the discoveries in Tao Te Ching.

  • The Politics of Experience -- R.D. Laing

    "Experience used to be called the soul."
    ...
    "Science [...] means a form of knowledge adequate to its subject."
    ...
    "The seems to be no agent more effective than another person in bringing a world for onself alive, or, by a glance, a gesture, or a remark, shriveling up the reality in which one is lodged."
    ...
    "We are taught what to experience and what not to experience, as we are taught what movements to make and what sounds to emit."
    ...
    "We are afraid to approach the fathomless and bottomless groundlessness of everything."
    ...
    "For without the inner the outer loses its meaning; and without the outer, the inner loses its substance."

  • The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail – but Some Don't -- Nate Silver.

    A collection of essays that present the virtues of an approach to statistical analysis that depends on progressive refinement rather than immediate conclusion, in the form of Bayesian inference. It relates to a topic that is dear to me, and could be seen as philosophical yet I find rather pragmatic: “what is the relationship between idea and reality?” This kind of question is at the root of my essay Real Faith.

Pure Whimsy

I take great solace in ineffably warm satires of the human comedy like these:

  • Pogo -- Walt Kelly
    • Human whimsy and lackadaisical warmth expressed through anthropomorphic creatures ("gods screechers" (-: ) residing in the Okefenokee swamp. They are occasionally visited by nasty opportunists and other political animals but their whimsy is dependably impentrable.
  • Calvin and Hobbes -- Bill Watterson
    • Wit and whimsy of an untamed, precocious six year old boy, Calvin, and his stuffed tiger and steadfast friend, Hobbes.
  • archy and mehitabel (or the Wikipedia page) -- Don Marquis
    • Marquis was a journalist who published a regular column in the character of archy, a cockroach credibly having the transmigrated soul of a free verse poet (being punished probably for abuse of their poetic license in their past life) and alley cat mehitabel, not credibly having the transmigrated soul of Egyptian royalty Cleopatra. Marquis plays with the column form, the readers attention, and the character's spirits, with much glee.
    • The linked page, archy and mehitabel, includes several samples. I can't resist including a few that establish the story:
  • krazy kat -- George Herriman
    • I can't begin to convey, or even understand, how the little, haphazard world of Krazy Cat, Ignatz Mouse, and Offica Pup realize the personal wonder of the human comedy. (Herriman provided illustrations for collections of Marquis' archy and mehitabel columns. The connection is very apt.)
  • Peanuts -- Charles Schultz
    • The early years of this strip manages to gently convey how elementary school mentality pervades the adult world. Gently.

Fiction (including some young-adult and kid's books)

Harvested from a few lists of fantasy and science fiction books shared with friends...

  • The Bean Trees -- Barbara Kingsolver
  • From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler -- E.L. Konigsburg
  • The Phantom Tollbooth -- Norton Juster
    • Here's an excerpt from this wonderfully playful book - a play on words, numbers, and everything in between: Phantom Tollbooth's "Official Which"
  • Cronopios and Famas --Julio Cortazar
    • I love the last section of three sections in the book, titled Cronopios and Famas. Here's an excerpt
  • The Little Prince -- Antoine St. Exupery
  • Nine Stories -- J.D. Salinger
  • The Human Comedy -- William Saroyan
  • Henry Reed Incorporated -- Keith Robertson
  • The Narnia series -- C.S. Lewis
    • The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe is the first, i think there's five or six in all.
  • Earthsea, a trilogy -- Ursula K. Leguin
    • A trilogy plus, starting with A Wizard of Earthsea
  • A Wrinkle in Time -- Madeleine L'Engle
    • and (less impressive) successors
  • The Once and Future King -- T.H. White
  • Jonathan Livingston Seagull -- Richard Bach

Science Fiction

  • William Gibson – the master of not just Cyberpunk, Gibson speculates brilliantly and provocatively about culture and arts as well as technical subjects

    • I think my favorites are the Pattern Recognition trilogy, especially the third entry Zero History. (The prior two are Pattern Recognition and Spook Country.) Unlike a lot of speculative fiction they're set in contemporary times and concerned with pragmatic questions of art and culture rather than more common extrapolation of scientific possibility (and impossibility).
    • Neuromancer, the archetypal cyberpunk novel did not just firmly establish the genre, it did it with intense style and ideas (though the Brunner books mentioned below credibly carved the niche many years before).
    • The Peripheral and Agency – more recent Gibson works that return to cyber topics like AI and climate change. I hope there is a third in the works!
    • I highly recommend all of these, and most Gibson books for that matter.

  • John Brunner:

    • The Shockwave Rider
    • Stand on Zanzibar
      • I remember being bowled over by Stand on Zanzibar in 1980, when I first read it, though I was also thrilled by The Shockwave Rider. On rereading (well, listening) to both in later days, Zanzibar's more spectacular style suffers time much worse than The Shockwave Rider. The former is dated, and I would hesitate to recommend it, while I stll am enthusiastic about the latter.

  • Frank Herbert - deep perspectives on human capability, society, and ecology, particularly the dynamics of individual versus group as an ecosystem.

    • The Dosadi Experiment (sequel to Whipping Star) -

      A combination of extremely capable people surmounting monumental challenges involving power, law, and the tension between individual and social prerogative. for me, it is a particular and abiding antidote to what i see as distortions in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

      Dosadi is one of my favorite reads, from my first read of it in the late 1970's to several rereadings, most recently in 2011.
      See Dosadi Bureau of Sabotage for a sample.

    • Dune and the first two sequels.

    • The Eyes of Heisenberg - another of my favorites, along with The Dosadi Experiment.

    • The Godmakers

  • Neil Stephenson

    • Zodiac - Non-stop and wild eco intrigue
    • Diamond Age - Unbridled and ferocious invention
    • Cryptonomicon - Computer geeks delight, though some non-geek types seem to like it, too
    • Snow Crash
    • Termination Shock -- So nice to see Stephenson still sharp and exciting, with another eco thriller, this time with full climate-change scope.

  • John Crowley:

    • little, big
    • Engine Summer

    Haunting magical realism. Engine Summer is more compact and and delivered to me (in high school) awe inspiring poetic imagination. little, big is more ambitious and sprawling, but Engine Summer will always be the gem, for me. Though I haven't reread it in a long time, I don't know that it will stand the test of time and maturity.

  • Tea With The Black Dragon and Twisting the Rope - R.A. McAvoy - elegant, amusing, and compelling fantasy.

  • Ray Bradbury - evocative and very human speculative fiction, due to character and situation depth.

    • Dandelion Wine -- As I recall, full of wonder and poetry
    • The Illustrated Man
    • The Martian Chronicles

  • Roger Zelazny - genre-spanning: swashbuckling adventure, fantasy/alternate worlds/sci-fi, detective-noir, Zelazny combines contemporary, medieval, and mythic tropes in thrilling ways.

    • Nine Princes of Amber, and several (five? six?) sequels; this is the definitive science fiction/adventure-fantasy
    • Creatures of Light and Darkness -- Zelazny took formal and playful liberties here, and for me was wildly successful. Along with Amber, I've reread and enjoyed this one over many years
    • Lord of Light

  • Isaac Asimov's all-time classic foundation trilogy: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation.

    • Asimov was the gold standard for speculative ideas, but at great cost to character development. I didn't mind that in elementary school and junior high, but have difficulty reading it now. (This is part of why I don't have complaints about the Foundation TV series. They included humanity.)

  • Arthur C Clarke:

    • The Nine Billion Names of God: Best Short Stories of Arthur C Clarke
    • 2001: A Space Odyssey
    • I need to revisit Clarke. I remember being thrilled with his stuff.

  • Keith Laumer: Dinosaur Beach

  • Gordon R Dickson: Sleepwalkers's World