ReadingNaked

Inside the Mirror: The Life of Master Spy Robert P. Hanssen

reader — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:57:23 +0000

Fairly crappy book, perfect for wasting a bad weather day at the beach, about an interesting chapter in American spy history. This guy got pretty high up the totem pole at the FBI and gave away a wealth of information to the Soviets. According to this book, he used a lot of justifications to allow himself morally to get started. In the beginning it was all about the money, and he told himself it wasn’t serious information. If I’m to believe this book, he was also rising high simultaneously in his piety in the Catholic Church and Opus Dei, while again morally justifying his failure to follow the practices of his faith by confessing these sins. I’m sure there are better books about this topic, and I fully intend to read them, because I’m interested in how someone can get so high up, and become so arrogant as to think he can avoid detection.

Robert A. Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land

reader — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 05:00:38 +0000

This book might just change your life. Meet Valentine Michael Smith, Martian. Experience first-hand his troubles in adjusting to life on Earth. Witness the birth of a religion.

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

reader — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 13:22:45 +0000

Looking for a gift for your favorite Mensa candidate? In this Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, Douglas Hofstadter explores the connections between Godel’s mathematical works, Escher’s amazing and impossiblly self-referential artistic creations, and the compositions of J.S. Bach, bringing Lewis Carroll into the fray as well. This book will change your life, and you’ll find yourself going back to it time and time again.

The Norton Anthology of Poetry

reader — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 13:10:35 +0000

If you’re looking for a book to take to your beach vacation this summer, and were trying to decide between the latest best seller suspense thrillers, think again. They will have you coming home from vacation unenlightened, uninspired, and maybe a little bit darker and more relaxed. Take the Norton Anthology of Poetry, and you’ll come back wiser, hipper, more romantic and more inspired. With 1700 poems by 340 poets, and every major force represented, how can you go wrong?

The Lighting Thief - Rick Riordan

reader — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 02:39:39 +0000

Look, you have kids, right? They want these books, right? They’re all booked up at the library, right? Just buy them. And buy them from my link, because I was nice enough to suggest it.

The Lightning Thief (Book 1)
The Sea of Monsters (Book 2)
The Titan’s Curse (Book 3)

Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

reader — Sun, 13 May 2007 22:47:24 +0000

If this book doesn’t convert you to Bokononism and have you practicing Bokomaru in secret, you have no soul. Mr. Vonnegut, in his always straightforward narrative, explains in a deceptively simplistic manner how entirely ridiculous and necessary religion is in our society, while poking fun at mankind’s arrogant relationship with technology along the way.

Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace

reader — Sun, 13 May 2007 22:10:28 +0000

Mr. Wallace always leaves me in stitches. Friends have asked me what this book is about, and I struggle to find the words to get the message across without turning them off of it. After all, it’s a Big book. Many many pages. That alone turns a lot of folks off. What’s it about? It’s about… cinema… and twelve-stepping… and a New England tennis academy… and entertainment… and addiction… and the nature of addiction. If you’ve been around drugs and recovering people, and can find the humor in the backstory surrounding that subculture, you will suffer riotous laughter while reading this book. Every word rings true. How often have you been there, Mr. Wallace? Often enough to know, I’d imagine. Read it. If you’ve read it already, tell me what you think…