CDR: Re: Reading list

[Alan Olsen]

On Thu, 19 Oct 2000, Tim May wrote:

> 
> To expand on this point:
> 
> At 10:58 AM -0700 10/19/00, Tim May wrote:
> >
> >Indeed. We used to have the reasonable expectation that nearly 
> >everyone on the list had some familiarity with the "classics." For 
> >example, Friedman's "Machinery of Freedom," Hazlitt's "Economics in 
> >One Lesson," Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom," Vinge's "True Names," 
> >Card's "Ender's Game," Rand's "Atlas Shrugged," Brunner's "Shockwave 
> >Rider," and maybe even some of the writings of Spooner, Benson, Von 
> >Mises, Tannehill, Hospers, and Rothbard. These works helped to 
> >establish a common vocabulary, a common set of core concepts.
> >
> >Not that everyone was a libertarian, let alone a Libertarian. But 
> >the core concepts were known, and those who didn't know about them 
> >were motivated to go off and look them up. We had fewer folks 
> >arguing for socialism in those days.
> 
> 
> The point is not that people must be indoctrinated into the correct 
> ideology, but that these and similar books captured the Zeitgeist of 
> our times vis-a-vis cyberspace, the collapse of borders, the 
> internationalization of commerce, etc. Throw in "Moore's law and the 
> geodesic network" if your initials are the same as Heinlein's.
> 
> It's not important that everyone read _every_ one of these books. But 
> it _is_ important that they read and internalize at least _some_ of 
> them.


I find those lists useful because i find that a number of them I have not
read.  I prefer recomendations from sources that might share my interests
than those that might be just a paid shill for a the book publishing
company. (Like, say, the New York Times Best Seller List(tm).)

Not all of us have the free time to research interesting book, or the
exposure to the same sources.  The lists are helpful. 


I also recommend a list of books that piss people off while reading.
Things like "The ICSA Guide to Cryptography". (The most pro-GAK crypto
book I have ever read. I keep it as a reminder of which libraries and
products to avoid.)

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