This is a (more or less) complete list of all the books I’ve read since August of 1994. I hope that some of my short reviews will be of value to someone. If not, it least it provides a little extra Web content.
Postscript (1996): With the explosion of Web sites, their is no lack of content and so the feeble justification for this document is lost. I like this small reflection on who I am and will continue to maintain it, although I am planning on seriously updating the format. Stay tuned.
Postscript (July97): The new format seems to work well, though it required a lot of scripting. Tables require attention to detail. I’m begining to add older entries based on data from my financial records.
| Book | Author | Read | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lawrence and Oppenheimer | Nuel Pharr Davis | Jul97 | A sometimes confusing but very interesting look at the public lives of E.O. Lawrence and J. Robert Oppenheimer. Lots of detail, but sometimes disorganized. |
| A Random Walk in Science | Robert L. Weber (ed.) | Jul97 | A collection of science articles and excerpts which reveal science as a human endeavor. Required reading for anyone who thinks science is all cut and dried. |
| The Crucible of Time | John Brunner | Jun97 | Episodes in the history of a world passing through the galactic plane. Progress from mere survival to technological sophistication proceeds in fits and starts. This very alien world is however so like our own, and the obvious parallels are not lost on even the casual reader. |
| Quicksand | John Brunner | Jun97 | A woman from the future appears out of nowhere, and is placed in the care of a psychiatric hospital. Our protagonist, a doctor with more problems than his patients perhaps, puzzles out the enigma she is, and when confronted with the explanation, succumbs to the temptation she represents. |
| The Whole Man | John Brunner | Jun97 | The whole man in this story is a disfigured boy who grows up to become the most powerful telepath on earth. His abilities don’t overcome his alienation bred from the years of neglect while he was growing up, but somehow he manages to find the key to his own self, and become, indeed the whole man. Excellent in general, but some details should have been more fully explored. |
| The Fountainhead | Ayn Rand | May97 | This book is both deeply moving and deeply troubling. It’s characters are inhuman in their dedication to their own idealism, which strangely is difficult to rectify with the nature of their pasts. They spring full-fledged from the mind of the author, and little excuse is made for their development. Strangely, this is not troublesome for an essentially intellectual story about struggles and identities. Though long, it is never borish. Though difficult, it is never discouraging. It is, in short, a remarkable novel, and I look forward to reading her other works. |
| China Men | Maxine Hong Kingston | May97 | Memories of her youth. Ms. Kingston’s novel is strangely alien to me. Yet how could it not be. The superstition which permeates the book, the stories of persecution uncommented upon today recommends more investigation on how the asian community in America came to be, and why the injustice they have perservered is nearly unknown outside their community. |
| The Joy Luck Club | Amy Tan | May97 | The stories of mothers and daughters, now in San Francisco, but whose roots stretch back to the China of the 1930s and 40s. Excellent vignettes, but as a collective whole the novel fails to interweave the elements in a compelling fashion. |
| Life After Television | George Gilder | May97 | Gilder seems obsessed with the convergence of technologies. In his view, the move to digital forms of broadcasting will cause the cable, telephone, television, radio and computer businesses to become essentially equivalent. My only criticism of his view is that he discounts the inertia which has kept these businesses separate for so many years. |
| King James Bible | Various | Apr97 | Various sections, especially in the old testament. The books of Genesis and Exodus, Job, Samuel 1+2, Ruth and Esther. |
| Earth in the Balance | Al Gore | Mar97 | Gore’s book is remarkably well written and researched, but fails to compel due to too broad a canvas. Besides, his ideas have failed to make a substantive impact on the Clinton administration as far as I can tell. Gore doesn’t lack vision, but his vision perhaps is politically difficult to sustain. |
| Design for a Livable Planet | John Naar | Mar97 | One of the better overviews of things you can do to save the earth. Could use an update. |
| Storm Warning, Storm Rising, Storm Breaking | Mercedes Lackey | Mar97 | An echo of the cataclysmic mage storms return to the world of Valdemar, and our heroes must strive to understand and dissipate them before they destroy the world. |
| The Black Gryphon, The White Gryphon, The Silver Gryphon | Mercedes Lackey | Feb97 | Prequels for the Valdemar series, narrating the end of the Mage Wars and the fates of the survivors. |
| Hothouse Earth: The Greenhouse Effect and Gaia | John Gribbin | Feb97 | A summary of scientific understanding of the global warming theory, circa 1990. Well written, though somewhat predictable in its political agenda. The topic has been mostly ignored lately, though clearly it should be ever more on our minds. |
| Winds of Fate, Winds of Change, Winds of Fury | Mercedes Lackey | Feb97 | More fantasy fare. Magic returns to Valdemar, and with it, war. |
| Prisoner’s Dilemma | William Poundstone | Feb97 | A look into game theory and a biography of John von Neumann. Poundstone selects his material with care and writes in a clear, clean style I particularly like. I also recommend his older book “The Recursive Universe”, which looks into Conway’s game of Life and issues involving self-replication and cellular automata. |
| Philip Morrison’s Long Look at the Literature | Philip Morrison | Jan97 | This book is a selection of short reviews of a hundred or so science books which appeared in Morrison’s column in Scientific American. The curious thing is that they aren’t properly book reviews at all, but rather short essays on the topics of the books. As such they educate and inform in a disarming way. Morrison’s style is occasionally irritating however, but more often than not his erudition and insight make the reviews enjoyable for themselves. |
| Magic’s Price, Magic’s Promise, Magic’s Pawn | Mercedes Lackey | Jan97 | Almost standard fantasy trilogy. The main character is a homosexual, which is dealt with usually quite lightly though occasionally with some moralizing. Lackey’s prose invites a quick read, and I enjoyed these as much for their ease as for their story. |
| Microcosm | George Gilder | Jan97 | Gilder is very effective in his language, and has lots of interesting stories about the semiconductor industry, but I’m not sure what his thesis is. Semiconductors may very well turn out to be like the aeronautics industry, mounting costs retarding technological progress. Still, I recommend the book to those looking for a well written book about technology and business. |
| The Sachertorte Algorithm | John Shore | Dec96 | A rather old introduction to computers and programming book. Quite different from the usual approach, the author is whimsical, spending time telling stories about computers in an effort to capture his reader’s interest. Effective, though now quite dated in several respects. |
| Connections | James Burke | Dec96 | Burke’s original companion book to his PBS/BBC series. A lovely book, which takes you on a journey through time and space investigating the odd ways in which inventions have come to be. A good starting point for more serious researches into the history of science and technology. |
| The Blind Watchmaker | Richard Dawkins | Dec96 | Dawkins attempts herein to reinforce the neo-Darwinian thesis, in part in an effort to refute the tendency of modern scholars to abandon the theory. Dawkins’ style is light enough to encourage a quick read. |
| From X-Rays to Quarks | Emilio Segre | Nov96 | An excellent short history of modern high-energy physics. |
| The Magic of Numbers | Eric Temple Bell | Nov96 | A rambling look at number mysticism and pseudoscience. I have great respect for Bell, highly recommending his Development of Mathematics. This book however, failed to capture my interest, and was overly poetic in a few spots. Bell’s writing and erudition however saved the book from being a complete waste of time. |
| Adventures of a Mathematician | Stanislaw Ulam | Nov96 | An autobiography of a noted mathematician. Could have used some tightening up in a few places, but lots of good stories and anecdotes spread around to make it worthwhile. |
| A Mathematician’s Apology | Godfrey H. Hardy | Nov96 | Along with a long preface by C. P. Snow (over 1/3 of the whole book), this curiously thin work is rightfully famous and deserves greater attention. Hardy tries to analyze succinctly what it means to be a mathematician. Although he perhaps fails in arriving at a satisfactory answer, his attempt is perhaps unique and reminds us that this a question worth pursuing. |
| Murder Must Advertise | Dorothy L. Sayers | Oct96 | Lord Peter Wimsey is at it again. A death ruled accidental invites further scrutiny. The world of advertising is lightly satirized in this highly readable mystery. |
| The Intellectual and the Marketplace | George J. Stigler | Oct96 | A nobel prize winning economist proves he can essay on a variety of topics without alienating the reading public. Quite a treat actually, perhaps in some ways more approachable than Galbraith’s works, but not quite as informative. |
| From Maxwell to Microphysics | Jed Z. Buchwald | Oct96 | Overly technical for anyone but a physicist, yet an interesting investigation of the transformation of electrodynamics from a continuum theory to a microphysical theory. |
| The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance | John Hale | Oct96 | Long, at times tedious and curiously narrow in its use of examples, it nevertheless paints a broad canvas of the nature of civilization in the Renaissance. The author’s biases are sometimes too evident however. |
| The Civilization of the Middle Ages | Norman Cantor | Sep96 | Perhaps a better title would have been a religious history of the middle ages. Cantor’s knowledge is quite extensive, but I failed to learn much of value from his long narrative history. |
| The Day the Universe Changed | James Burke | Sep96 | A peripatetic journey through intellectual time, looking for moments when the ways of the world changed suddenly. A beautifully illustrated book that is well written as well. Exactly the kind of book I enjoy reading the most (actually, I enjoy books like this which don’t sidestep serious technical discussions a bit more). |
| Nuclear Renewal | Richard Rhodes | Sep96 | A short essay on the possible bright future of nuclear power. Unfortunately optimism is substituted for reality, and the book seems off mark in spite of the author’s considerable literary talents. |
| The Next One Hundred Years | Jonathan Weiner | Sep96 | A look at climactic changes. Very sweeping and inclusive, and extremely well written. Well worth the time. |
| 2 Minutes a Day for a Greener Planet | Marjorie Lamb | Aug96 | The typical what to do to save the earth book. It’s unfortunate that the many examples of this type of book all offer equal insight and ideas on the environmental question. Little is learned by reading anew. I am a bit put off now by the repetitions. |
| Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity | Sandra Postel | Aug96 | A break from Wharton and James. A ranging look at the status of water systems. Both good news and bad news. I doubt the world will wake up to this developing problem for another twenty years however. |
| Ethan Frome | Edith Wharton | Aug96 | A tale of unrequited love set in a remote New England village. The most unusual of Wharton’s books, yet still delightful in its simplicity. |
| A Mother’s Recompense | Edith Wharton | Aug96 | A mother is reunited with her daughter, only to find her soon to be engaged to her former lover. The subject is a little remote, but Wharton’s prose is as always refreshingly crisp. |
| An International Episode | Henry James | Jul96 | An English lord discovers the charms of an American woman during a trip to New York. Later, in London, they remeet, but the forces of tradition conspire in predictable ways. |
| Daisy Miller | Henry James | Aug96 | A novella about an American girl in Europe and the rules she breaks. Delightful to read, but I’m at odds as to the meaning of some of James’ books. |
| The Europeans | Henry James | Jul96 | The obverse of The American, the text is mostly comic. Perhaps this would come off better as a four-act play. |
| The American | Henry James | Jul96 | A novel of contrast, of subtle style and wit. It is not an easy read, but it is nonetheless a pleasant one. |
| The Custom of the Country | Edith Wharton | Jul96 | Delightful, but perplexing. Is it intended as a social comment or a significant farce? Perhaps I need to rethink Wharton’s aims, or perhaps her aim was simply to create a character and watch her grow and grow. |
| The Reef | Edith Wharton | Jul96 | Something of a comedy, though the humor was sometimes lost on me. Extremely well written, but tiring at points. You wish the characters would all just fess up and let the story develop from there. Instead it is a book of gradual discovery, leading to a non-conclusion. Still, quite enjoyable to read. |
| The House of Mirth | Edith Wharton | Jul96 | My estimation of Wharton’s talent is rising with each new novel I read. She has the sense of timing and attention to detail that is sadly lacking in many other books. Though a bit depressing, the House of Mirth fascinates with its characters and the social environment and conventions they must face. |
| Marooned in Realtime | Vernor Vinge | Jul96 | More elaborate than the Peace War, but somehow the alieness of the entire situation doesn’t carry itself well in prose. A detective story set in Megayear 50, with too many suspects and too few clues. |
| The Peace War | Vernor Vinge | Jul96 | Fairly good, though flawed with larger than life characters and improbable sequences of events. The basic idea is slightly novel, but not really. A tyranny calling itself the Peace Authority loses its novelty very quickly. |
| The Age of Innocence | Edith Wharton | Jul96 | Wharton’s literary style is refreshing after having spent too much time reading poor science fiction. Her timing of events is particularly apt and ironic, and I felt that her basic attack on the conventions of 1870s society was brought off well. |
| The Ringworld Throne | Larry Niven | Jul96 | Don’t bother. Let me say it again: don’t bother. One more time: avoid like the plague. All together now... |
| State of the World: 1990 | Lester R. Brown et al. | Jun96 | A collection of articles on the environmental status of the world, with an emphasis on what can be done and what is being done to improve the situation. Overly pessimistic in some parts, but gives some valuable data for considering policy issues. |
| Perpetual Motion: History of an Obsession | W.J.G. Ord-Hume | Jun96 | A collection of historical essays more than a history, investigating the colorful details of perpetual motion machines. The author emphasizes their impossibility, but only vaguely. The curiously high number of patents and devices shows that a number of people just don’t grasp the basic physics of motion. Oh well. Footnote. There was one actual perpetual motion machine in this book, a clock which derived its power from differences in air pressure from day to day. Sadly it is no longer working since the large quantity of mercury it used was removed. |
| Ideas and Information | Arno Penzias | Jun96 | Essentially a series of essays on communications and technology. Some good bits, but mostly the expected combination of praise in prose. |
| Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos | M. Mitchell Waldrop | Jun96 | A history of the Sante Fe institute revealed through investigations of particular scientists, particularly Brian Arthur and Chris Langton. A worthy read, but it neglects serious discussions of the subject IMHO. |
| AI: The Tumultuous history of the search for artificial intelligence | Daniel Crevier | Jun96 | The history of AI, conveniently all in one book, but honestly this book was a constant series of deja vu’s for me having read extensively in the area for many years. Still, a good book for those approaching the subject for the first time, which was probably the intended audience. |
| Foucault’s Pendulum | Umberto Eco | May96 | A wonderfully intricate book about the Templars and their ilk. The characters weave a tale to explain the fragmented history, only to discover their fiction is all too real. |
| Simple is Powerful | Michael Roads | May96 | A collection of short essays on the lessons of life. Not exactly self-help, but along those lines. |
| Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies | Douglas R. Hofstadter | May96 | One AI researcher’s reflections on the nature of intelligence, or more precisely, a detailed look at his efforts to make a computer creative in a limited domain. |
| American and British Technology in the Nineteenth Century | J. H. Habakkuk | May96 | An argument that labor scarcity changed the nature and rate of technological change in America in the nineteenth century. Difficult to follow at points. |
| A Short History of Twentieth Century Technology | Trevor I. Williams | May96 | Not quite Time-Life, but not quite Gibbons either. |
| The Codebreakers | David Kahn | May96 | A detailed history of cryptography, with exceptional technical detail and a narrative flair. Excellent, but perhaps too long for all but enthusiasts. |
| The Rocket and the Reich | Michael J. Neufeld | May96 | A recent look into the creation of the rocket research facility Peenemunde and its accomplishments. |
| Profiles of the Future | Arthur C. Clarke | Apr96 | An exploration of what the future may hold for us, from one of the more insiteful science fiction writers. Written around 1960, it is sufficiently dated to be occasionally amusing. |
| RCA | Robert Sobel | Apr96 | Essentially a biography of David Sarnoff, but focusing on RCA and its accomplishments (and setbacks) up to the 1970s. Sobel meets his usual literary standards, though the book is not likely to gather any stylistic awards. |
| Hitler’s Spies | David Kahn | Apr96 | A comprehensive survey of the intricate structure of the German intelligence services, and their effectiveness. The author concludes that German intelligence was fairly poor. Even when it was good, the reports were often ignored by the strategists. |
| The Making of the Atomic Bomb | Richard Rhodes | Apr96 | Very detailed look at the early history of fission and the engineering efforts of the Americans. It understandably won the Pulitzer prize. |
| The Tenth Dimension | Jeremy Bernstein | Mar96 | A short history of particle physics. Quite readable and hard to put down. Bernstein’s style is sufficiently breezy to make the subject approachable. |
| In the Servitude of Power | Jean-Claude Debeir, Jean-Paul Deleage and Daniel Hemery | Mar96 | A historical look at the function of energy systems throughout history. Covers the twentieth century in greatest depth, but it is the only book I’ve come across so far which discusses some of the energy crises of the middle ages and earlier. |
| Josiah Willard Gibbs | Lynde Phelps Wheeler | Mar96 | A biography (not especially scientific) of J. Willard Gibbs, one of the first of the great American physicists. |
| The Political Economy of World Energy | John G. Clark | Mar96 | A fairly recent work on the aspects of world energy structures. These works are patterned and predictable, but occasionally I find the statistical nugget to savor. |
| Grammatical Man | Jeremy Campbell | Mar96 | An extended essay on information theory, especially with respect to the human genome. Unfortunately the details are completely ignored, and the reader is served a plate of “gee wiz isn’t all this stuff happening neat”. The competent reader would be best served by other less popular works. |
| Good Work | E. F. Schumacher | Feb96 | A collection of speeches and writings on making work meaningful and fulfilling. Somewhat disappointing, in that it is forthright but not forthcoming. |
| Three Degrees above Zero | Jeremy Bernstein | Feb96 | Essays on Bell labs. Some interesting stories. The human component of science is shown in its full element. |
| Global Security | Daniel Yergin (ed.) | Feb96 | A collection of essays about the varied responses to future energy crises. Unfortunately, it appears the lessons pointed out in the book are rapidly being lost on today’s policy makers. Not to mention the ordinary citizen. Cars are becoming bigger, oil supplies tighter, US dependency on foreign oil more absolute. What the world needs is another oil shock, since the Gulf war seems to have had the same effect as the Suez crisis of the 1950s: none. |
| The Calculating Passion of Ada Byron | Joan Baum | Feb96 | An exploration of the importance of Ada Byron on Babbage’s engines. Almost completely lacking in technical details, although it includes a summary of her one (and only) article on the subject. Read the original instead and come to your own conclusions, although the historical context provided is helpful. |
| Money: Whence it came and where it went | John Kenneth Galbraith | Feb96 | An attempt to explain the monetary system (historically). Succeeds admirably, although the notion that money is more of an abstraction than a system is somewhat distressing. Stable monetary policies mask the underlying illusion, but clearly any monetary system can undergo rapid deterioration. The Federal Reserve is held by the author to be an institution of profound historical ineptness when it comes to managing the money supply. They always act too late or too early, usually too timidly, with the result of exacerbating an already bad situation. |
| Revolution in Miniature: the history and impact of semiconductor electronics | Ernst Braun and Stuart McDonald | Feb96 | Required reading for anyone who wants to begin to understand some of the dynamics driving the rapid technological progress in the semiconductor industry. Unfortunately the book ends around 1980, and the possible constraints to future developments have been overcome (we are well below the one micron sizes then considered to be the end of the line). Perhaps there was a third edition? |
| Electricity from sunlight : the future of photovoltaics | Christopher Flavin | Jan96 | How energy problems may be solved using photovoltaics. It foresaw a large market in the late 1990s, but that has yet to materialize because of technological progress in conventional energy generation. Still, the PV industry is growing steadily and will likely take off after the turn of the century when costs start to be competitive with other forms of energy. |
| Energy and Environment: the policy challenge | John Byrne and Daniel Rich (eds.) | Jan96 | A collection of essays on the lingering problems of energy and environment. Collections like this are becoming rarer as the idea that plentiful energy supplies are a manifest destiny gains favor again. Another energy shock would do much to increase awareness of how little has changed since the 1970s. Apparently the gulf war had the opposite effect. |
| High-tech society: The story of the information technology | Tom Forester | Jan96 | A future vision book, emphasizing how advances in communications will change our world. Insightful, but now a bit dated. Interesting to see where the author’s foresight was led astray. |
| Stillwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945 | Barbara Tuchman | Jan96 | The career of Army officer Joseph Stillwell in China, and how it reflects on the implementation of American policy objectives in that region. |
| Neuromancer | William Gibson | Jan96 | Reads like a carbon copy of Count Zero, or I should say the other way around, but I read Count Zero first. I strongly suggest reading only one book by Gibson, any more would be redundant. |
| A History of Pi | Petr Beckmann | Jan96 | If you can ignore the frequent Soviet bashing in the book, there is some useful info on pi. Very interesting recent developments are missing, however. A Scientific American article on Ramanujan I believe explains the basics of the AGM method, which has been used recently to compute several billion digits of pi. |
| The Bible and the Sword | Barbara Tuchman | Jan96 | How the national consciousness of Britain since the middle ages required the Balfour declaration making Palestine a home for the Jews again. As always, Tuchman’s attention to detail makes the arguments compelling and the conclusions believable. |
| The Proud Tower | Barbara Tuchman | Jan96 | The collapse of the 19th century into war, viewed as a natural progression from the movements in the European society at the time; anarchism, the Dreyfus case, and rising nationalism figure prominently. |
| The Computer Establishment | Katharine Davis Fishman | Dec95 | A long discursive examination of IBM and the dwarfs, written around 1980 and now completely dated. Intriguing though to consider how much has changed since this survey was written. |
| In the Rings of Saturn | Joe Sherman | Dec95 | The history (and prehistory) of Saturn corp., written with a characteristic concern for the community of Spring Hill, TN. I’m considering recommending it to a friend who owns the car to deflate some of the hype. |
| The Maxwellians | Bruce J. Hunt | Dec95 | The development of electromagnetic theory after Maxwell, emphasizing the contributions of Heaviside, Fitzgerald, Hertz, and others. Gives a view of the troubles early theorists had explaining phenomena. |
| The Zimmerman Telegram | Barbara Tuchman | Dec95 | Or, how the US got involved in the Great War. A detailed look at the diplomacy of neutrality and the events which led to its failure. |
| British History 1815-1939, A Concise History of Britain, 1707-1975 | W. D. Hussey, W. A. Speck | Dec95 | A look at British political history, especially in the nineteenth century. One gets the impression the creation of the empire was a fortuitous accident. |
| New Deals: The Chrysler Revival and the American System | Robert Reich and John D. Donahue | Dec95 | An analysis of the Chrysler bailout. More detail than anyone really ought to know, but the first couple chapters outline the essential story, which has already faded from most people’s memory. |
| Never complain, Never explain | Victor Lasky | Nov95 | A biography of Henry Ford II. Boring and insipid, perhaps by design. |
| Comeback: The Fall and Rise of the American Automobile Industry | Paul J. Ingrassia and Joseph B. White | Nov95 | A look at the developments in the auto industry from the early 1980s to 1993. The authors claim the Big Three are well positioned now to compete against Japan, but the argument is hardly compelling. Interesting insights on an industry that while not neglected by the press, is certainly misconstrued by it. |
| Internal Combustion Engines | Constantine Arcoumanis (ed.) | Nov95 | Modern review of engine technology and its future. |
| Energy Future | Robert B. Stobaugh and Daniel Yergin (eds.) | Nov95 | Essays on the array of choices facing the US after the oil shocks of the 1970s. Balanced and convincingly presented. |
| The Hidden Persuaders | Vance Packard | Nov95 | How advertisers target their products using motivation research and depth techniques. Alarming outlook for the future, especially since the book first appeared in the late 1950s. |
| The Philips Stirling Engine | C. M. Hargraves | Nov95 | A history of the Stirling heat engine, especially the ones developed by Philips from the 1930s through the 1980s. This novel engine should be in greater use, but institutional and technological barriers exist. |
| Internal Fire | C. Lyle Cummins, Jr. | Nov95 | A history of the internal combustion engine, up to about 1900. The importance of patents and patent litigation is central to the story. |
| Power of Steam | Asa Briggs | Nov95 | Pictorial pseudo-history of the application of steam as a prime mover. A little wanting in prose, but lots of pictures. |
| Car Wars | Robert Sobel | Nov95 | A competent history of automobile competition in America, with an emphasis on how Japan was able to overtake America in her own market. |
| The Waste Makers | Vance Packard | Nov95 | A famous book from the 1960s about how Americans were (and still are) being prodded to consume ever increasing amounts of goods. The question of the values of such a society are addressed, but the fascinating aspect of the book is its examples of blatant obsolescence in order to maintain sales. |
| Discarding the Throwaway Society | John Young | Nov95 | A quick look at waste in our society and ways we can reduce it. Regrettably the easy lessons are still lost on America. |
| Energy Aftermath | Thomas H. Lee | Nov95 | A post-embargo look at the state of the world energy markets. |
| Sex, Drink, and Fast Cars | Stephen Bayley | Nov95 | A collection of articles about the evolution of automobile as a cultural object. |
| Empowering development: The New Energy Equation | Nicholas Lenssen | Oct95 | Options for energy use in the developing world. |
| Building on Success: The Age of Energy Efficiency | Christopher Flavin and Durning | Oct95 | Efficiency as a source of future energy, i.e. negawatts. |
| Progress in solar energy technologies and applications | American Solar Society | Oct95 | A status report (1994) on solar technology. Optimistic in outlook, but full of useful facts on trends and technologies. They claim PV costs are currently at around $.30/kwh, which is only about a factor of five higher than fossil fuel generated electricity. |
| Belinda | Anne Rampling (Anne Rice) | Oct95 | Sort of a proto-novel for Lasher I think. My friend Janet says it is smut, but opinions vary. |
| Mornings on Horseback | David McCullough | Oct95 | Young Teddy Roosevelt’s environment and its effect on the character and aspirations of a memorable president. |
| The Second World War | Martin Gilbert | Oct95 | An exhaustive review of the history of the second world war. Lacks a thesis unfortunately, and devolves into a pedantic retelling of the events, with an emphasis on German atrocities. |
| Coping with Abundance: Energy and Environment in Industrial America | Martin Melosi | Oct95 | History of energy in America to around 1980. Concise yet compelling review of the problems of coping with an abundance of energy. Only for a very brief time has this not been the case. |
| Powering the Future: Blueprint for a Sustainable Electricity Industry | Christopher Flavin and Lenssen | Sep95 | A review of recent developments in the electric industry, and the potential for drastic changes in the organization of the existing system. |
| Beyond the Petroleum Age: Designing a solar economy | Christopher Flavin and Lenssen | Sep95 | Short term and long term outlook for solar, wind and biomass energy. Competitiveness with fossil fuels is either achieved (wind, solar thermal) or soon to be achieved (solar photovoltaic). |
| The Ultimate Entrepreneur: the story of Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corporation | Glenn Rifkin and George Harrar | Sep95 | A history of DEC. Variable in quality, but overall a good read. |
| IBM: The making of the common view | Michael Killen | Sep95 | The creation of SAA at IBM. Now a footnote (barely) in the history of computing, this book was probably never worth reading. |
| Computers, Inc.: Japan’s challenge to IBM | Marie Anchordoguy | Sep95 | A look at how Japan nurtured its computer industry in the 1960s and 70s to compete with IBM. |
| Energy in the 1980s | Sep95 | Check title. | |
| The Macintosh Reader, Insanely Great | Doug Clapp, Steven Levy | Sep95 | Anecdotes about the Apple Macintosh |
| Prospects for Energy in America (1980), Energy and Conservation (1989) | Eric F. Oatman (ed.) Robert E. Levy (ed.) | Aug95 | Collections of articles on energy resources and policy. |
| Building IBM | Emerson Pugh | Aug95 | A history of IBM, but disappointing, since the book basically has no coverage of events after about 1970. Pughs other two books on IBM computers are more technically rewarding and offer substantially the same same story. |
| Inventors and Discoverers | (ed.) | Aug95 | A National Geographic book. Long on pictures, short on text. |
| The Guns of August | Barbara Tuchman | Aug95 | Early days of WWI. Well written and argued. |
| The Hammer and the Cross | Harry Harrison | Aug95 | Alternate history of the England, in which the Vikings establish a toehold by using military inventions such as the crossbow. |
| Remaking History | Kim Stanley Robinson | Jul95 | Alternate history tales and collected fiction. |
| A Journey through Economic Time | John Kenneth Galbraith | Jul95 | Economic history from the 1920’s to today, from someone who was there. |
| The Celestine Prophecy | James Redfield | Jul95 | Enlightenment packaged for mass consumption. Thinly veiled story simply lays down a philosophy. |
| Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel | Frances and Joseph Gies | Jul95 | An overview of technological development during the middle ages. Dispels the notion that it was a time lacking in innovation. |
| In Search of Environmental Excellence | Bruce Piasecki | Jul95 | Claims to be a balanced viewpoint, but clearly sides with the environmentalists across the board. Some useful info, though. |
| Count Zero | William Gibson | Jul95 | My first cyberpunk book. I was expecting something else, but I was not disappointed. |
| Sideshow | Sherri S. Tepper | Jul95 | Not too bad. Unconventional premise, which made for interesting reading. |
| The Gate to Women’s Country | Sherri S. Tepper | Jun95 | OK, I’m convinced. Sherri Tepper is a mediocre writer. Still, this was the best book of hers by far of the three I have read. |
| The Origins of War | Donald Kagan | Jun95 | An analysis of the causes of various wars, and why we should expect them to be a recurrent theme for some time to come. |
| The Book of the Mad | Tanith Lee | Jun95 | Fourth in a series of books. Her prose is perfect for this kind of novel, which might be called erotic horror. |
| The Macintosh Way | Guy Kawasaki | Jun95 | How to sell a product, based on the evangelism model used to promote the Apple Macintosh. Alternatively, why Guy is such a great guy. Seriously, a little heavy on the self-promotional aspects. |
| The Te of Piglet | Benjamin Hoff | May95 | A sequel to the Tao of Pooh. The publishers must have made him write it, since this book was awful. |
| The Discoverers | Daniel J. Boorstin | May95 | Peripatetic exploration of the history of discovery, more concerned with the poetic than the important, which suggests that the definitive history of science and technology I have been searching for is still undiscovered. |
| The Thresher Disaster | John Bentley | May95 | Events surrounding the loss of the USS Thresher. I was hoping the book would talk somewhat about the design of nuclear subs, but basically was an exercise in finger pointing and frustration. |
| Grass | Sherri S. Tepper | May95 | Better than “A Plague of Angels,” but still somewhat lacking. Has great moments, but somehow doesn’t hold together well. |
| The Forge of God | Greg Bear | May95 | Reminiscent of Brin’s Earth, though written poorly, IMHO. Don’t waste your time. |
| Portraits in History | David McCullough | May95 | Brief historical sketches collected from various early writings. A good followup to his other books. |
| Engineering in History | Richard Kirby | May95 | Dated look at engineering’s relentless progress. |
| The Tao of Pooh | Benjamin Hoff | Apr95 | Taoism is the essence of Winnie the Pooh, if you didn’t know. You will know after reading this book. A must read, if only for the humor of the comparison. |
| The Path Between the Seas | David McCullough | Apr95 | The building of the Panama canal. Not a book about engineering so much as about people. |
| They All Laughed | Ira Flatow | Apr95 | Invention stories that must be read to be believed. |
| The Great Bridge | David McCullough | Apr95 | The building of the Brooklyn Bridge. Well written and fascinating reading. The character of the 19th century is distinctly different than that of today. |
| Environmental Politics and Policy | W. Rosenbaum | Apr95 | A review of American environmental policies and there near future possibilities. Clearly written and interesting. |
| Hollywood vs. America | Michael Medved | Apr95 | Actually, I never finished this book. It became clear after twenty pages that Medved had established his biases, and further reading would be a waste of time. Not to say I entirely disagree with him, but that it isn’t interesting enough to read about. |
| A Short History of Financial Euphoria | John Kenneth Galbraith | Apr95 | Tulipmania to the 1987 Crash. Argues that reasons usually given for any particular debacle are usually wrong. A desire to believe that the unreasonable is reasonable: therein lies the essence of all historical instances of financial disaster. |
| The Energy People: A History of PSE & G | Conniff | Apr95 | Propaganda from PSE & G. Some useful historical info, however. |
| Small is Beautiful | E. F. Schumacher | Mar/Apr 95 | Appropriate technology as the cure for the third world, and other economic opinions. This was a big book at the time, since it was published just as the first energy crisis occured. In retrospect, the book itself is a little wanting. |
| The Mote in God’s Eye | Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle | Mar95 | Average science fiction fare about first contact. |
| Energy, Politics and Public Policy (2nd ed.) | W. Rosenbaum | Mar95 | A short overview of energy policy issues, arguing that the energy policy of the United States makes little sense considering the known facts. |
| The Status Seekers | Vance Packard | Mar95 | Class systems in 1950s America. The institutions of class may have since been dismantled, but the notion of class persists to this day. |
| EarthRight | H. Patricia Hynes | Mar95 | Environmental book focusing on global warming, ozone depletion, toxic waste, etc. A little thin in spite of its length IMHO. |
| The Recycler’s Handbook | The EarthWorks Group | Mar95 | A follow-up to 50 Simple Things You Can do to Save the Earth. Generally helpful ideas. |
| The Prize | Daniel Yergin | Mar95 | A history of the oil industry, and therefore, of modern civilization. Highly recommended. Also read ``The Seven Sisters’’ for another in-depth look at the oil industry. |
| Artificial Life: The Quest for New Creation | Stephen Levy | Feb95 | A-life presented through interviews with major figures in the field. Typical Levy-style book. Think Hackers, but in an academic environment. |
| Rubbish, the archaeology of garbage | William L. Rathje | Feb95 | Garbologists suggest there is no garbage crisis per se, and that much of the effort of environmentalists is targeted at the wrong kinds of trash. A definite read. |
| The Mirror of Her Dreams | Stephen Donaldson | Feb95 | In the tradition of the Thomas Covenant series. Good fantasy writing from a noted fantasy author (his Thomas Covenant books are excellent). |
| The Hunger for More | Laurence Shames | Feb95 | The ethics of money and its failure in the eighties. Well written and argued, but all but ignored by the society it criticized. |
| The Voices of Heaven | Frederich Pohl | Feb95 | Forgettable. |
| The Witching Hour, Lasher, Taltos | Anne Rice | Jan95 | Tales of the Mayfair Witches. Captivating reading. |
| Father, Son & Co. | Tom Watson, Jr. | Jan95 | Recollections of his father and his life at IBM. Not very interesting. |
| Oathbound, Oathbreakers | Mercedes Lackey | Jan95 | Typical Mercedes Lackey fantasy novels. |
| Moebius and his Band | Fauvel, Flood, and Wilson | Dec94 | German science in the nineteenth century. Short essays. |
| Accidental Empires | Robert Cringely | Dec94 | Anecdotes about the computer industry. Mostly irreverent. |
| Saving the Planet | Brown, Flavin, & Postel | Dec94 | Worldwatch Institute environmental assessment report. Or propaganda. Conclusions are still compelling |
| A Life of One’s Own | Joan Dash | Nov/Dec94 | Short biographies of Margaret Sanger, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Maria Goeppert Mayer. |
| Language Maven Strikes Again | William Safire | Nov94 | Etymological ruminations by NY Times columnist. Politically slanted, but interesting nonetheless. |
| Silicon Dreams | Robert Lucky | Oct94 | Bell labs director waxes (and wanes) on information technology. Good read for information neophytes. |
| How to Make War | James Dunnigan | Oct94 | A bit dated, but still an insightful overview of forces and capabilities of armed forces around the world. Suitable for use for modeling the outcomes of various hypothetical conflicts, though not by any stretch a wargame. |
| The Robber Bride | Margaret Atwood | Oct94 | What can I say? Read this book. You won’t regret it. |
| Mirror Dance | Lois McMaster Bujold | Oct94 | Easy reading. All of her books on Vorkosigan are good, especially the first two chronologically (Shards of Honor, Barrayar). |
| Infinite in all Directions; Disturbing the Universe | Freeman Dyson | Oct94 | Two popular works by an eminent mathematical physicist. |
| The March of Folly | Barbara Tuchman | Sep94 | Wars and how folly is involved in their causes and/or execution. |
| A Distant Mirror | Barbara Tuchman | Sep94 | An historian’s viewpoint on the 14th century. Very readable, though somewhat too long. |
| Arrows of the Queen, Arrows Flight, Arrows Fall | Mercedes Lackey | Aug94 | Epic fantasy material. Better than average. |
| Earth | David Brin | Aug94 | An epic without a cause. Tedious at times, but usually worth struggling through. |
| Time of the Dark; The Walls of Air | Barbara Hambly | Aug94 | Good fantasy material. Must finish this series. |
| Ethan of Athos | Lois McMaster Bujold | Aug94 | More Miles Vorkosigan. Fluff reading. |
| Book | Author | Read | Comments |
| The Wounded Land, The One Tree, White Gold Wielder | Stephen R. Donaldson | Aug92 | The second chronicles of Thomas Covenant retraces much of the ground of the first chronicles, but this in no way diminishes their importance and character. |
| Lord Foul’s Bane, The Illearth War, The Power that Preserves | Stephen R. Donaldson | Jul92 | The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant I remember having a very powerful effect on me when I read it, but now some five years later I’m not sure how to capture that effect in words. The books challenge all conventions of fantasy fiction, and yet, they do so in a way which recommends them as the purest form of fantasy writing. |
| Woyceck | G. Buechner | Spr87 | |
| La Ronde | A. Schnitzler | Spr87 | |
| Tonio Krueger | Thomas Mann | Spr87 | |
| Death in Venice | Thomas Mann | Spr87 | |
| Spring Awakening | Frank Wedekind | Spr87 | A disturbing play about adolescent sexual activity, abortion, and perhaps the paralysis of the spirit. Quite controversial when originally written. |
| The Metamorphosis | Franz Kafka | Spr87 | |
| The Penal Colony | Franz Kafka | Spr87 | |
| Steppenwolf | Hermann Hesse | Spr87 | The beast within man. |
| Mother Courage | Bertholt Brecht | Spr87 | |
| Cat and Mouse | Gunter Grass | Spr87 | |
| The New Sufferings of Young Werther | Max Plenzdorf | Spr87 | |
| The Visit | Friedrich Duerrenmatt | Spr87 | |
| And Man in the Holocene | Max Frisch | Spr87 | |
| Short Letter, Long Farewell | Peter Handke | Spr87 | |
| The Devil and the Good Lord | Jean-Paul Sartre | ?? | |
| Queen of Spades, The Captain’s Daughter | Aleksandr Pushkin | Oct87 | Short stories. |
| Hero of our Time | Mikhail Lermontov | Oct87 | |
| Terrible Vengeance, Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt, Nevsky Prospect, The Nose, The Overcoat, The Portrait | Nikolai Gogol | Oct87 | Short stories. I wrote one of my papers for the class on a comparison of Nevsky Prospect and James Joyce’s Araby. Gogol fascinated me almost as much as Joyce. |
| Dead Souls | Nikolai Gogol | Oct87 | |
| The Singers, Bezhin Meadow, Living Relics, Mumu, Assya, First Love | Ivan Turgenev | Nov87 | Short stories. Turgenev I recall most impressed me of the writers we read in this term of the class. |
| Fathers and Sons | Ivan Turgenev | Nov87 | |
| Spring Torrents, Clara Milich, Knock...Knock...Knock... | Ivan Tugenev | Dec87 | Short stories. Clara Milich I recall was particularly moving. |
| Paradise Lost | John Milton | Jan88 | The epic tale of Lucifer’s fall and his corruption of humanity. Milton’s poem is tremendously powerful in its imagery. |
| The Prelude | William Wordsworth | Jan88 | A long epic poem in the tradition of Milton. I don’t recall much of this now (1996). |
| Ulysses | James Joyce | Feb88 | My second attempt at reading Ulysses. I am still captivated by its intricate complexities and attention to detail. |
| The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon | Boris Pilnyak | Spr88 | |
| Salt, My First Goose | Isaac Babel | Spr88 | |
| We, The Cave | Evgeny Zamayatin | Spr88 | We is one of a number of dystopia books from the 1920s. It is often compared with 1984. |
| The Heart of a Dog | Mikhail Bulgakov | Spr88 | |
| Envy | Yury Oleshin | Spr88 | |
| Dr. Zhivago | Boris Pasternak | Spr88 | A sophisticated and moving story. |
| Martrena’s House, Incident at Krechetorka Station, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch | Alexandr Solzhenitzyn | Spr88 | Poignant short stories and novellas. |
| Misc Short stories | Varlum Shalamov | Spr88 | Need more info on this.. |
| Anna Karenina | Leo Tolstoy | Jan88 | This is a long novel, but the reader will be rewarded by the effort it requires. |
| The Death of Ivan Ilych, Father Sergius, The Kreutzer Sonata, Alyosha the Pot | Leo Toltoy | Jan88 | Short stories. |
| The Confession, Marriage in Ten or Fifteen Years, The House with the Manse, Three Years, Ward Six, A Dull Story, The Name Day, In the Ravine, The Peasants | Anton Chekhov | Feb88 | Short Stories |
| The Seagull, The Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard | Anton Chekhov | Feb88 | Plays. |
| The Primer of Love, Chang’s Dreams, Long Ago, Mitya’s Love, Sunstroke, The Caucasus, Visiting Cards, The Riverside Tavern, A Cold Autumn | Ivan Bunin | Mar88 | Short Stories |
Last modified: July 20th, 1997
Kevin Chase