A list of books I have found of fundamental interest as a human being is at the bottom of this page. Here is a list of websites and persons of interest for those following this one.
Rory Deon, writer extraordinaire, cover designer, general web, technology, and publishing guru. You can find Rory at deon.ca.
Federation of American Scientists. In particular, Stephen Aftergood, who writes Secrecy News. You can find the FAS here.
Noam Chomsky. Linguist, social commentator, political analyst, and more. In particular this article and this one, on the American decline, and who will (and who will not) share in it.
Eusebius Clay. This pointer is to his author page on Amazon.com. In his own words, “Eusebius Clay was an English major with a concentration in creative writing. He studied abroad in England at St.Peter’s College, Oxford University. There he analyzed the major works of William Shakespeare. He is now working on his first novel, “The Ukrainian Game.” He lives in Baltimore, Maryland. In his limited spare time, he likes to train for endurance sports, read about philosophy, and play the classical guitar.”
In my words, Clay is a fine author of considerable talent, receiving my first five star rating as a Kindle Book Review team member. The book‘s title is, “Dread in Madrid”.
Books: (Disclaimer: I have no personal and no financial interest in any of these books nor in their publishers. I do recommend each of these volumes if the topic touches you.)
- Kill the Messengers, Mark Bourrie, Patrick Crean Editions (Harper-Collins); ISBN 978-1-44343-104-0. This hardcover book is of immediate relevance to all Canadians; other English speakers will find the parallels and differences to, say the USA and to the UK, fascinating. The book documents, in considerable detail, how the Canadian central government of Stephen Harper is ruining our freedom, our democracy, and our right to know. A must-read for every Canadian resident.
- Quantum Reality, Nick Herbert. Anchor Books (Doubleday); ISBN 0-385-23569-0. This paperback does a decent job of explaining quantum mechanics, and how even the experts don’t exactly agree on precisely what it means.
- The Lucifer Effect, Understanding How Good People Turn Evil; Philip Zimbardo; Random House; ISBN 978-1-4000-6411-3. The creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment covers this and many other experiences and experiments, including his being asked to view videotapes from Abu Ghraib, and give expert testimony.
- Information Feudalism, Who Owns the Knowledge Economy; Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite. ISBN 1-56584-804-7. This book explains how the head of Pfizer, with the head of IBM, started in 1995 and by 2005 with hundreds of US firms effectively turned the entire free trade negotiations into protection of copyright and patent. One outcome is, African countries agreed to prosecute anyone who provided AIDS medicine without paying the standard fee. India’s offer to produce it at cost (less than $4 a month) was squashed. (It nets about $1300 a month now, everywhere.) This is a must-read to understand how it is that an IPad makes Apple twice as much as the entire production cost for all of its suppliers.The New Press.
- The Great Unravelling, Losing our Way in the New Century; Paul Krugman, Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times. Norton. ISBN 0-393-05850-6
- Getting to Yes; Fisher, Ury, and Patton; from the Harvard Negotiation Project. ISBN 0-14-015735-2
- The Ropes to Skip and the Ropes to Know; Studies in Organizational Behavior; R. Richard Ritti, G. Ray Funkhouser; ISBN 0-88244-122-1
- What is Life; Cambridge University Press; Erwin Schroedinger. ISBN 0-521-42708-8 This is the personal philosophy of the man who wrote the famous Wave Equation of Quantum Mechanics.
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces; Princeton / Bollingen Paperbacks; Joseph Campbell. ISBN 0-691-01784-0. This book explains the commonality (and variations) of many myths held and recounted by many peoples over many ages. It is an enjoyable way to gain an insight into other religions and beliefs. It is also an excellent back-of-mind thing to have if you write stories. What makes a story, or myth, memorable? What power keeps a myth alive? Campbell has written many books; the four volume set The Masks of God is a deeper look into religion. The Hero book is a quicker read and a chance to see how much you like this author.