Hoovers Book Page
Books
Since I read "Ishmael" by Dan Quinn (and his other books, of course) I
haven't bothered with much other literature; this book has changed my
life and the way I view our culture, and even more importantly, the
human place in the community of life. Throughout my life I have
been in and out of various religions and philosophies so I can safely
claim I've stood on "each side of the fence". Taoism, Zen, Bhuddism,
Atheism up to born-again Christian ("hah", I can hear you say, "you
weren't truely born again if you went back from that!" ;-), I've had
it all.
The notion conveyed in Quinn's books is closest to a very early
Taoism in my opinion which might be due to the fact that Taoism itself
is very very old, just like man, so is probably not as "tainted" in
its concepts as most other taker religions like Christianity, Islam,
Hinduism and what not.
This does not imply that Dan's books are about religion; only
marginally in fact. If you're interested of a first glimpse into his
ideas I'd recommend you check the website at Ishmael.org or this
document.
Recommended Readings
On the "meaning of life"
- "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn
- "The selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins
- "The Story of B" by Daniel Quinn
- "My Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn
- "Beyond Civilization" by Daniel Quinn
Science fiction
- "Cryptonomicon" and most other stuff written by Neal Stephenson (such as "Snow Crash" and "The Diamond Age")
- Anything by Niven and Pournelle (too bad the latter is such an
ignorant windows head, but he used to write
excellent novels ;-)
- The "Rama" series by Arthur C. Clarke
- "Dune" by Frank Herbert (of course)
Science (not Fiction)
- The Feynman Lectures on Physics
- "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan (also an excellent TV series)
- "Choosing and using a 20CM SCT" by Rob Molise
- "Die schönsten Himmelsobjekte" by Hans Vehrenberg
Motor Sports
- "Life in the fast Lane" by Steve Matchett
- "Going faster" by Paul Lopez
- "Drive to win" by Carol Smith
- "Grand Prix" by Rainer Schlegelmilch
Other
- "Lord of the Rings" by Tolkien (in fact, anything by Tolkien ;-)
Drivel by yours truly
This is (or will be rather) a compilation of various articles I have
written in response to articles on USENET and other web-based bulletin
boards. As they are mostly off topic for the forum in question, I have
decided to put my replies on the web instead and simply post the URL's
as to not waste everybody elses bandwith.
Some of this material is reproduced without permission from various
authors, so if you have a problem with any of this please let me know.