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The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

-- Lao Tzu

This reminds me of a cautionary tale in the form of an SF novel titled Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters.

I read it back in 1972, while in high school, but remembered the "lesson" it taught about cultivating and developing "Scavenger" bacteria.

Before you applaud this discovery, you might give that book a read...

Jus' Sayin'...

• Etiquette
• Basic dressage
• Basics of weapon proficiency
• Court intrigue
• Political boundaries
• Handling petitions from the gentry
• Holding dinners

If that wouldn't get boring fast, maybe she *is* ready to be a princess. Along these lines, I found the audiobook of The Curse of Chalion to be quite enjoyable and well done (though probably not for kids), and its sequel, Paladin of Souls, won the 2004 Hugo and Nebula awards.

* "wer", adult male (survives in a few words like virile and werewolf)

(Puts on pedantic hat.) You are correct that the Germanic/Old English "were" survives in words like "werewolf" and, for Tolkien fans only, "weregild" (as in "This I will have as weregild for my father's death" from the Silmarillion).

"Virile," however, comes from the Latin "virilis" via French. They are kinda sorta related but not really.

This is a gross oversimplification as any language scholar can tell you, but a fun exercise for any English language speaker is to study the roots of common "vulgar" vs. "high-class" words and find that their roots map very closely to Latin vs. Germanic. Old English was - once the native Celts and Romano-Britons had been displaced - largely a relic of its "Germanic" (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) conquerors and the language of the people. After the Norman Conquest in 1066 (Normans "Nord-mann" being transplanted Vikings who learned French) the language of the nobility in England became French (which was based on Latin) for hundreds of years. While over time the two melded together, you can still (again, oversimplifying) in many cases tell the upper-class terms for things (derived from French/Latin) from the lower-class terms for things (derived from Old English/Germanic). For example:

• Lower-class English term: shit (viz. German scheisse); upper-class English term: excrement (viz. French excrement)
• Lower-class English term: house (viz. German haus); upper-class English term: mansion (viz. French maison)

It doesn't hold true in all cases but it is in general a pretty fascinating window into the evolution of the English language, FWIW.

I've had that accusation thrown at me recently as well. It must be a new term in the college text books that vilify people who want to work for a living.

No, it's a rather old segment from a quote from John Steinbeck: "Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."

The notion that one wants to work for a living is great. The notion that one will become a millionaire over time from working and be able to cease working is counter to your claim, actually. If we crush the millionaires into the dirt and you'll never become a millionaire from working, then what's the direct harm to you? Right, none. There might be indirect harm, but the notion that one has to protect the poor, defenseless millionaires from the mobs that will rob them of their shirt...

And of course it's all a strawman anyways to think socialism is at all about crushing millionaires into the dirt. Instead, it's in large part about realizing many economic truths: a millionaire is a relatively rich person by virtue of their relatively buying power to the average worker, that even a high tax rate on them will still leave them significantly more buying power than an average worker, and there's a lot of things that can be provided for by society with that tax revenue that will benefit people much more than that millionaire is ever guaranteed to do good on his/her own.

As far back as at least Roman times it was recognized that those with money and power were indebted to society to spend their vast fortunes to do necessary social works, and so it was common and expected that what we'd consider today as common governmental functions were carried out by the wealthy and powerful who, more often were also the political leaders as well. So, their actions of philanthropy were a necessity for cities to function because the poor could not, even with all their money combined, begin to do the things the monied could do.

Well, long ago it was also realized that those with money often eschew duty and spend their money only on their heirs or on no one. That if left to their own devices, they create dynasties that harm the people through complete domination of their lives. That the nobility or the fame of a plaque to commemorate one's effort for public good were often not nearly enough for many with money who begin to see the lack of wealth of others as a sign of their inherently subhuman status.

To lack money, then, became a sign of vice. To be poor a sign of failing. So it's little wonder people would mentally project themselves as "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" in a country that's founded on "The American Dream".

Yet just like Rome, whose great fortunes were mostly founded on expansionism and for which the dream may have worked for a time, the long-term state of any Empire or Nation is not built merely on hard work or even luck but most often on Old Money and the establishment of Dynasties that transcend the current government.

The US has been somewhat sparred this because there has been repeated examples of disruptive new industries forming in the US that originated from people who could become New Money and supplant Old Money's dominance. Certainly the mindset of the possible is part of why this is true. Yet the statistics bare out how rare those sort of radical shifts occur and the scope of their effect on people directly is very small. Indirectly, it means the factory workers in one industry can produce children that will work in factory for a technology that no one even imagined viable at the child's birth--ie, the child still ends up being a factory worker in the same sort of pay job regardless.

And to me that's the whole point of it. The marginal advantage in innovation in the US and economic activity vs other Western European countries doesn't begi

Morality is for the working class. If you want to succeed in a capitalist economy, it's better to be amoral.

Reminds me of a Book that has been around since the late 1970s (and still available on Amazon, I believe) :

"Why S.O.B.s Succeed And Nice Guys Fail In a Small Business"

No truer words were ever penned.

In fact, when writing physical checks to pay bills was the norm, and based on some ideas from that book, I would regularly fill-in pieces of the MICR OCR field-delimiters at the bottoms of my personal checks to delay their processing by the Federal Reserve Clearinghouse, I know it worked, because I would receive those checks back "re-striped" with new (no doubt manually-generated) OCR strips stuck on the bottoms of the check. It was usually good for a 3 to 5 business-day delay "float", while (I assume) the check got kicked-out of the automatic scanner, and routed to the "manual processing" pile. And, since my account wasn't debited until the check "cleared" this process, I avoided a non-sufficient-funds "bounce" fee, and the payor thought that I had paid "on time" (which I technically had).

I kept waiting to get a nasty letter from my bank or the Fed saying "quit it, or you're going to jail!", but I never did.

https://www.goodreads.com/book...

A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them?

Why have public relationships? Public internet relationships are a fad of fake, self-destructive behavior, like the way women dressed in the 1950's.

All of the LinkedIn requests I've ever received have been attempts to pretend that a relationship exists that is more meaningful than in reality.

Sometimes a large percentage of people do crazy things. Don't follow them. I have friends, customers, and business contacts who sometimes read and reply to only the first paragraph of an email, and don't read the rest. It's part of the nonsense of the times.

I told a dentist with a Facebook page that Facebook was showing an ad for another dental clinic on his Facebook page. The dentist just accepted the abuse.

The free open source diaspora* social network software allows privacy.

This book is about the development of Diaspora: More Awesome Than Money: Four Boys and Their Heroic Quest to Save Your Privacy from Facebook. The book is poorly written by someone with no programming experience and no interest in learning, but it does tend to show the difficulties of developing software.

Are you too happy? Is it uncomfortable being happier than everyone else? Facebook is the answer. Read Facebook use predicts declines in happiness, new study finds. Or download the scientific paper.

The first result in a Google search for 50's clothing and hairstyles says, "Ever ready to suffer for the cause of soft feminine looking Fifties styles, after the perm, we still had to roll, curl our hair." A Wikipedia article says, "One ingredient in 1950s hair spray was vinyl chloride monomer; used as an alternative to chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), it was subsequently found to be both toxic and flammable."

Avoid the craziness you see around you.

To paraphrase Joseph Heller: "Just because you are paranoid, does not mean, Putin is not after you..."

By the way I love this, it affirms my misanthropy, which puts me in excellent company. http://www.goodreads.com/quote...

Thanks, I really enjoyed that page. Although I've no need to hurt or kill anyone myself, I do hate humanity very much and stop just short of wanting to see the lot of us gone from the universe. I guess I've mellowed a bit over time.

The only thing that gives me some comfort is the hypothesis that we're collectively experiencing our adolescence as a modern species. Most can probably think back to a holy-terror kid they've known that turned out all right in the end with a bit of patience and guidance.

"As for my presumption about you: this is me giving you the benefit of the doubt. So I'm being kind here."

"supporting an asshole such as yourself. Or, are you too cowardly?!"

You are contradicting yourself, the fact you carry on this conversation with me suggest you have far deeper problems than than the average Joe blow, at a minimum I am honest, you are delusional.

Since you so obviously hate/dislike/despise/whatever me the only reason you would continue to "feed the troll" is something in you that just has to make a point, just has to have the last word, because again all that matters is your opinion.

By the way I love this, it affirms my misanthropy, which puts me in excellent company.
http://www.goodreads.com/quote...

You know what, it's worth putting the link to his quotes up as well.
https://www.goodreads.com/auth...

Your understanding of fish reproduction leaves much to be desired.

Or, and I'll go with my interpretation here, you're understanding of humor leaves much to be desired.

"I don't drink water. Fish fuck in it."

WC Fields

You people and your protestant work ethic. I just don't get it.

Neah, I'm a USSR-raised atheist, thank you very much.

Clearly the hundreds of billionaires we have in this country couldn't possibly afford to fund this kind of utopia

The cost of the "War on Poverty", since Lyndon Johnson first waged it 50 years ago, is 22 trillion of 2012-vintage dollars. That's more than all of the Republic's actual (as in military) wars cost combined. I don't think, the hundreds of billionaires could shoulder that kind of expense. They'd need help from thousands of millionaires — and millions of the rest of us. And even that would be insufficient — you'd need to borrow money from abroad...

But whoever wants to help others work less than their spending requires, is welcome to do it. My objection is to spending tax-monies (you know, the funds collected at gunpoint) on it. For it is not only stupid, it is also un-Constitutional — according to an educated opinion of one of the document's very authors:

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”

—James Madison

. . . in some corporate-subsidized dystopian future where a plague of mega-flora and -fauna have forced us to experialize the better part of the Northeast, and they proceed to terrorize us with a video so entertaining we die in piles of our own filth before we can be pried away from our screens: remember that we were warned.

The best known standard quip about standards itself has multiple versions and attributions. How meta:

"The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from." - Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Computer Networks, 2nd ed., p. 254

"The nicest thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from." -- Ken Olsen

“The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.” -- Grace Murray Hopper

See also:

Obligatory (but who set that standard?): xkcd : Standards
Why are there so many plugs and sockets?

‘Mediocrity finds safety in standardization.’ -- Frederick Crane
‘It is not enough that X be standard, it should also be good.’ -- Rob Pike (Window Systems Should Be Transparent)
The two above can be found on the cat -v page on standards"
"Standards are like toothbrushes. Everybody wants one but nobody wants to use anybody else’s." -- Connie Morella

Might trigger a whole new arms-race where Amazon will add surveillance/guardian drones etc ... before you know it the sky will be full with things whizzing up and down, firing blue and red lasers at each other =)

Somehow makes me think of https://www.goodreads.com/book...

Perhaps the answer doesn't lie in the 3rd dimension.

One of the possible consequences of the curvature of 4th-dimensional space-time is that our universe may be a 3-dimensional surface of a 4th-dimensional hypersphere. And if the 4-dimensional universe is expanding, the 3-dimensional universe would expand too.

This model of the universe was also used in a famous sci-fi novel.

Perhaps the answer doesn't lie in the 3rd dimension.

One of the possible consequences of the curvature of 4th-dimensional space-time is that our universe may be a 3-dimensional surface of a 4th-dimensional hypersphere. And if the 4-dimensional universe is expanding, the 3-dimensional universe would expand too.

This model of the universe was also used in a famous sci-fi novel.

Little problem there, pal.

If EVERYONE did this, then there would be a scarce few idiots to join in behind dangerous, power-mad people, like the ones you mentioned.

Why? Because they would know that what that guy wanted, would lead to war, and know exactly what it is.

What REALLY contributes to those kinds of atrocities you cited, are people who think war is OK for "the right reasons".

Those people can be made to commit atrocities.

http://www.goodreads.com/quote...

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.

FTFY

I've read a lot about WW II European resistance-movements from my grandfathers library. For pure efficiency I would personally put the Danish resistance in first place.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9518712-hitler-s-savage-canary

Careful, Richard Feynman once said something very similar about computer programming:

Well, Mr. Frankel, who started this program, began to suffer from the computer disease that anybody who works with computers now knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is you *play* with them. They are so wonderful. You have these switches - if it's an even number you do this, if it's an odd number you do that - and pretty soon you can do more and more elaborate things if you are clever enough, on one machine.

After a while the whole system broke down. Frankel wasn't paying any attention; he wasn't supervising anybody. The system was going very, very slowly - while he was sitting in a room figuring out how to make one tabulator automatically print arc-tangent X, and then it would start and it would print columns and then bitsi, bitsi, bitsi, and calculate the arc-tangent automatically by integrating as it went along and make a whole table in one operation.

Absolutely useless. We *had* tables of arc-tangents. But if you've ever worked with computers, you understand the disease - the *delight* in being able to see how much you can do. But he got the disease for the first time, the poor fellow who invented the thing.

The Mitrokhin Archive was published in book form over 14 years ago. See https://www.goodreads.com/book...

It's a dense read but fascinating. Having all that in a searchable archive is worthwhile but it's not the first time this information has been revealed to the general public.

I thought that was just the proactively homicidal NSA computer from John Varley's 1984 novella, Press Enter

Yeah but by making a car that runs forever they are helping out the customer and undermining the car industry by creating fewer jobs in the future. Don't you know that our motto is to make a lot of crap, so we can keep busy making it? Everybody needs a job, and you are killing jobs if you make a quality product! You have to make crap, as a matter or honor, if you make a quality product, that's like pulling the bread out of someone's kid's mouth! Without a job you can't pay your bills! Having no bills, whoever heard of such a thing? Because there are some standard costs you can't avoid, unless you're a yeoman farmer with no property taxes, such as housing, utilities and food, and recently they are trying to shove insurance down on everyone's throat too (in the form of mandatory health insurance, when previously you could opt not to drive and not buy any form of insurance whatsoever, car insurance being the only mandatory one but only if you drive. Now they are trying to introduce a mandatory existence fee to Da Man (not even the government itself in form of some minimum tax per person, but to some private party in form of a health insurance premium)).

I personally stopped buying car insurance too, and the only insurance I will limit myself to purchase in the future is the kind that is not mandated by law, such as rental car collision, if I find the price vs. risk is a good deal for me, but I will decline anything mandatory by law, even free health insurance from my employer (which means I'll lose my job pretty soon if they offer to hire me permanently), or car insurance, especially since they started raising the bloodsucking limits required by law to double what they used to be? Why they stop there? Why not have a minimum five hundred million dollar bodily injury limit, isn't even that too low? My only problem with mandatory insurance is the price, since I am willing to purchase car insurance if they can sell me one for $0.01 (i.e. 1 cent) premium payment for 6 months for minimum coverage limits set by law. That's my free market price, and if nobody is willing to match it, the government has no business telling me to buy it. Or are they gonna get involved in insurance price control too now?

I'm waiting for the time they take me to jail over it, I want this stance of being against any mandatory purchase from a private party by law bullshit on my record. Put it there, I went to jail for not buying insurance that I did not feel was a good deal for me. The government can collect taxes, and set whatever the rates should be. That's it. Taxes are the only say they have in my financial dealings. Not ordering me how to spend my money, what to buy, what not to buy. Next they'll order me to buy tomatoes, or a smart phone, or a dvd movie, regardless of the price. If nobody is willing to sell tomatos to me for 99 cents/lb, I don't think I should have to buy it. Next they'll issue a booklet on when to sleep, how long to sleep, when to wake up, when to fuck, how long to fuck, how long to work, how long to sit on the toilet, what color to die your hair, what tattoos are appropriate, also what kind of piercings, etc, similar to Mao Tse Tung's Little Red Book instructing you how to live your life, how to be a good communist. I can't really find a good copy of it, it's been a while since I seen the booklet with the bs instructions on how to live life, but I found this link of quotes, some of them are like woah! Free speech extreme. Read only at your own risk: https://www.goodreads.com/auth...

>microbes eating plastic

You're not the only one to ask that question.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/...

I picked that book up in the 70s and the story sorta stuck with me. Worth the read.

--
BMO

Apple has always been hostile to unified look on their platform.

You do realize, of course, that you are talking about the company that literally wrote the book on good, consistent UI design, right?

The above, linked pdf copy dates from 1995 (the earliest actual copy I could find in a 2 minute search), but Apple first published their most-excellent HIG manual on or around 1985, before most slashdotters were even born.

Now, get off my lawn!

That said, cynical people rarely exercise their brains to understand the world,

Care to expound on that? Because it seems dubious - from what I can tell, even Einstein was a fairly cynical dude:

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”

Read Hellen Keller's book. She wasn't a shut in, but you could gain some ideas here.

Full Carlin quote here... http://www.goodreads.com/quote...

In that case, I invite you to read up on the Apollo space program with the Saturn rocket engines. An excellent book is https://www.goodreads.com/book.... This gets behind the engineering diffuclties and solutions. It depresses me greatly that I'll never get to see one launch first hand.

nature doesn't want anything.

Yes it does. Plastic.

I think I've read this plot in a book. http://www.goodreads.com/book/...

Whooooosh

I don't "claim to be a writer", I AM a writer and have been one for most of the last 20 years. For the last 9+ years, I've helped write and maintain thousands of pages of documentation for one of the world's most widely-used pieces of Open Source software. But apparently my jokes go straight over your head. Assuming you even have a sense of humour, which it doesn't appear that you do.

Just like with the "multiple personality" joke, which you also didn't get (and keep claiming says something different from what it does), so let me spell it out for you:

AC: I don't care about Identity theft ... I suffer [sic] of multiple personality disorder, you clod!
Me, in response to AC: I don't have multiple personality disorder, I *am* multiple personality disorder!

That's borrowed from Salvador Dalí, the Spanish artist who did weird paintings of clocks melting and suchlike. When asked whether he obtained inspiration for such pieces by using psychedelics, he replied I don't do drugs. I am drugs. It's a pretty well-known quote, actually.

BTW, don't think I didn't notice how you went searching through my posting history to dig that up and try to twist it into "evidence" that I suffer from MPD. Which I do not now, nor have I ever.

But--since we're on the subject--MPD has certainly impacted my life, and if you had any idea just how much (and you were something like a normal person capable of empathy), you'd be able to see that (a) being able to joke about it now is actually a pretty big deal for me, and (b) when I say that I've dealt with toy surprises in my breakfast cereal that are scarier than you, I'm not really joking.

In any case, that's just one example of your many mischaracterisations of me (and others).

But that's to be expected since you're a stalker, a bully, a liar, and a coward.

Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness:

News flash: NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO LIVE IN HE SAME PLACE. If a company is located in the city, some employees will commute in from the suburbs. If a company is located in the suburbs, some employees will commute from their homes in the city.

What's the problem? Did this guy just discover "you can't please all the people all the time"? If so, he's about 150 years behind the curve.

I live in New York, where it was also about -5F yesterday.

...and in LA, it's 72.

Are you referring to the rambling of this guy?

You are observing the direct results of the politics of class warfare, class hatred, and class exploitation.

One group of people is protesting a second group of people because the second group of people is slightly wealthier than the first group. The first group of people is told by their political leaders that the second group of people became wealthier by, somehow, stealing from the first group. That they were able to get a bit richer, in their lifes, by cheating and robbing their way to the top. And that's unfair. So, if you give them (their political leaders) your vote, they will even the playing ground. We will raise their taxes sky-high, and make the evil rich pay for your housing, your food, and your health care.

But, until that happens, protesting, and going after them is just a way to get even with them in the short term.

But, of course it never happens. The Democrat party has been promising the 99% that they'll make the rich pay their fair share, in exchange for their votes, for as long as I can remember. Although the Democrat party has come and gone, in power, but they have held their proportionate share of political and American leadership over time. Yet, the richer are still richer, the poorer are still poorer, and the richest eight out of ten politicians in Washington are Democrats.

And until people understand how Robert Heinlein was unintentionally right, this will never change.

Slashdot is now an exclusive club.

Yeah? Then call me Woody Allen

David's Sling, a novel by Marc Stiegler, is about the first "information age" weapons systems. These are autonomous robotic weapons that use algorithms to decide which targets to hit, and the algorithms are designed to take out enemy communications and decision-making. The weapons would try to identify important comm relays and take them out, and would analyze comm traffic to decide who is giving orders and take them out.

The book was written before the fall of the Soviet Union, and the big finale of the book involves a massive Soviet invasion of Europe and the automated weapons save the day.

Unlike some portrayals of technology, this book covers project planning, testing, and plausible software development. It contains tense scenes of QA testing, where the team makes sure their hardware designs are adequate and that their software mostly works. (They can remote-update the software but of course not the hardware.)

Mostly they left the weapons autonomous, but there was a memorable scene where a robot was having trouble whether to kill someone, and the humans overrode the robot and had it leave the guy alone. (The guy was injured, and lying there but moving a little bit, and the robot was not sure whether the guy was already killed or should be killed again. Hmm, now that I think about it, this seems rather implausible, but it was a nifty scene in the book.)

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3064877-david-s-sling

P.S. I bought the book when it first came out, and there was an ad for a forthcoming hypertext edition that never came out. I think it was never actually made, but I wish it had been.

I'll mod myself off topic, but thank you for posting this summary and comment. I've looked into series and will plan to buy them. I also agree that time travel can be a good tool to help in moving a plot along or setting a good story. Science Fiction is not always about the science, but how science effects the characters. According to the Parent, we should not have FTL, beam weapons, aliens, or the rest of the milieu that makes up the world of SciFi. Me, I can take a reasonable suspension of belief (Helix, by Eric Brown comes to mind) if a good tale is told.

Here's a short list of 32 book's I've read that really affected how I look at the world (with links to Goodreads):

0) The Dancers at the End of Time Trilogy by Michael Moorcock - A literary dandy of a series. Short, sweet, funny and eternally optimistic. Stays with you.
1) The Illuminatus! Trilogy By Robert Shae and Robert Anton Wilson. - Truly hilarious - the literary equivalent of taking LSD. Once you've read it you'll never see the world in the same way again. This book invented the Illuminati conspiracy myth as we know it today.
2, 3, 4, 5) Hyperion / The Fall of Hyperion / Endymion, The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons - Heavy, difficult, big-idea science fiction / space opera set in a deeply religious future. The end made me cry. (Also check out Drood by Simmons. It's creepy and great.)
6) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem - a moving and beautiful critique of the scientific process - also made me cry. (read any Lem you come across, it's all great)
7) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon- a monster of a book - took me 3 years to read - but worth every bit of it. Affects how you perceive the world. (Also worth reading the companion so you can see what you missed the first time around)
8) Accelerando by Charles Stross - Truly a book for our times. Read any Stross, it's all pretty good.
9) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - funny, trippy satire of the soviet era and religion.
10) The Sacred Book of the Werewolf - Funny, especially if you've read The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov but ultimately this is a book about the nature of perception and reality.
11, 12, 13) American Tabloid / The Cold Six Thousand / Blood's a Rover - James Ellroy. - Shocking, funny, tense, amazing. You'll never look at US politics in the same way again. Very few sentences longer than about 4 sentences unless it's dialogue, newspaper extracts or wiretap transcripts.
14, 15, 16) The Baroque Cycle by Neil Stephenson - Terrific fun nerd core historical adventure that reveals the history of money and science. Then go read all of Stephenson's other books, especially Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Anathem.
17) The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - scary because it's true and increasingly relevant. You'll look twice at train carriages after reading this.
18) Any / all of the Culture books by Iain M Banks, but especially Surface Detail.
19 and 20) The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton - pure fun space opera.
21)

Here's a short list of 32 book's I've read that really affected how I look at the world (with links to Goodreads):

0) The Dancers at the End of Time Trilogy by Michael Moorcock - A literary dandy of a series. Short, sweet, funny and eternally optimistic. Stays with you.
1) The Illuminatus! Trilogy By Robert Shae and Robert Anton Wilson. - Truly hilarious - the literary equivalent of taking LSD. Once you've read it you'll never see the world in the same way again. This book invented the Illuminati conspiracy myth as we know it today.
2, 3, 4, 5) Hyperion / The Fall of Hyperion / Endymion, The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons - Heavy, difficult, big-idea science fiction / space opera set in a deeply religious future. The end made me cry. (Also check out Drood by Simmons. It's creepy and great.)
6) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem - a moving and beautiful critique of the scientific process - also made me cry. (read any Lem you come across, it's all great)
7) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon- a monster of a book - took me 3 years to read - but worth every bit of it. Affects how you perceive the world. (Also worth reading the companion so you can see what you missed the first time around)
8) Accelerando by Charles Stross - Truly a book for our times. Read any Stross, it's all pretty good.
9) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - funny, trippy satire of the soviet era and religion.
10) The Sacred Book of the Werewolf - Funny, especially if you've read The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov but ultimately this is a book about the nature of perception and reality.
11, 12, 13) American Tabloid / The Cold Six Thousand / Blood's a Rover - James Ellroy. - Shocking, funny, tense, amazing. You'll never look at US politics in the same way again. Very few sentences longer than about 4 sentences unless it's dialogue, newspaper extracts or wiretap transcripts.
14, 15, 16) The Baroque Cycle by Neil Stephenson - Terrific fun nerd core historical adventure that reveals the history of money and science. Then go read all of Stephenson's other books, especially Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Anathem.
17) The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - scary because it's true and increasingly relevant. You'll look twice at train carriages after reading this.
18) Any / all of the Culture books by Iain M Banks, but especially Surface Detail.
19 and 20) The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton - pure fun space opera.
21)

Here's a short list of 32 book's I've read that really affected how I look at the world (with links to Goodreads):

0) The Dancers at the End of Time Trilogy by Michael Moorcock - A literary dandy of a series. Short, sweet, funny and eternally optimistic. Stays with you.
1) The Illuminatus! Trilogy By Robert Shae and Robert Anton Wilson. - Truly hilarious - the literary equivalent of taking LSD. Once you've read it you'll never see the world in the same way again. This book invented the Illuminati conspiracy myth as we know it today.
2, 3, 4, 5) Hyperion / The Fall of Hyperion / Endymion, The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons - Heavy, difficult, big-idea science fiction / space opera set in a deeply religious future. The end made me cry. (Also check out Drood by Simmons. It's creepy and great.)
6) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem - a moving and beautiful critique of the scientific process - also made me cry. (read any Lem you come across, it's all great)
7) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon- a monster of a book - took me 3 years to read - but worth every bit of it. Affects how you perceive the world. (Also worth reading the companion so you can see what you missed the first time around)
8) Accelerando by Charles Stross - Truly a book for our times. Read any Stross, it's all pretty good.
9) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - funny, trippy satire of the soviet era and religion.
10) The Sacred Book of the Werewolf - Funny, especially if you've read The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov but ultimately this is a book about the nature of perception and reality.
11, 12, 13) American Tabloid / The Cold Six Thousand / Blood's a Rover - James Ellroy. - Shocking, funny, tense, amazing. You'll never look at US politics in the same way again. Very few sentences longer than about 4 sentences unless it's dialogue, newspaper extracts or wiretap transcripts.
14, 15, 16) The Baroque Cycle by Neil Stephenson - Terrific fun nerd core historical adventure that reveals the history of money and science. Then go read all of Stephenson's other books, especially Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Anathem.
17) The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - scary because it's true and increasingly relevant. You'll look twice at train carriages after reading this.
18) Any / all of the Culture books by Iain M Banks, but especially Surface Detail.
19 and 20) The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton - pure fun space opera.
21)

Here's a short list of 32 book's I've read that really affected how I look at the world (with links to Goodreads):

0) The Dancers at the End of Time Trilogy by Michael Moorcock - A literary dandy of a series. Short, sweet, funny and eternally optimistic. Stays with you.
1) The Illuminatus! Trilogy By Robert Shae and Robert Anton Wilson. - Truly hilarious - the literary equivalent of taking LSD. Once you've read it you'll never see the world in the same way again. This book invented the Illuminati conspiracy myth as we know it today.
2, 3, 4, 5) Hyperion / The Fall of Hyperion / Endymion, The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons - Heavy, difficult, big-idea science fiction / space opera set in a deeply religious future. The end made me cry. (Also check out Drood by Simmons. It's creepy and great.)
6) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem - a moving and beautiful critique of the scientific process - also made me cry. (read any Lem you come across, it's all great)
7) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon- a monster of a book - took me 3 years to read - but worth every bit of it. Affects how you perceive the world. (Also worth reading the companion so you can see what you missed the first time around)
8) Accelerando by Charles Stross - Truly a book for our times. Read any Stross, it's all pretty good.
9) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - funny, trippy satire of the soviet era and religion.
10) The Sacred Book of the Werewolf - Funny, especially if you've read The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov but ultimately this is a book about the nature of perception and reality.
11, 12, 13) American Tabloid / The Cold Six Thousand / Blood's a Rover - James Ellroy. - Shocking, funny, tense, amazing. You'll never look at US politics in the same way again. Very few sentences longer than about 4 sentences unless it's dialogue, newspaper extracts or wiretap transcripts.
14, 15, 16) The Baroque Cycle by Neil Stephenson - Terrific fun nerd core historical adventure that reveals the history of money and science. Then go read all of Stephenson's other books, especially Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Anathem.
17) The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - scary because it's true and increasingly relevant. You'll look twice at train carriages after reading this.
18) Any / all of the Culture books by Iain M Banks, but especially Surface Detail.
19 and 20) The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton - pure fun space opera.
21)

Here's a short list of 32 book's I've read that really affected how I look at the world (with links to Goodreads):

0) The Dancers at the End of Time Trilogy by Michael Moorcock - A literary dandy of a series. Short, sweet, funny and eternally optimistic. Stays with you.
1) The Illuminatus! Trilogy By Robert Shae and Robert Anton Wilson. - Truly hilarious - the literary equivalent of taking LSD. Once you've read it you'll never see the world in the same way again. This book invented the Illuminati conspiracy myth as we know it today.
2, 3, 4, 5) Hyperion / The Fall of Hyperion / Endymion, The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons - Heavy, difficult, big-idea science fiction / space opera set in a deeply religious future. The end made me cry. (Also check out Drood by Simmons. It's creepy and great.)
6) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem - a moving and beautiful critique of the scientific process - also made me cry. (read any Lem you come across, it's all great)
7) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon- a monster of a book - took me 3 years to read - but worth every bit of it. Affects how you perceive the world. (Also worth reading the companion so you can see what you missed the first time around)
8) Accelerando by Charles Stross - Truly a book for our times. Read any Stross, it's all pretty good.
9) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - funny, trippy satire of the soviet era and religion.
10) The Sacred Book of the Werewolf - Funny, especially if you've read The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov but ultimately this is a book about the nature of perception and reality.
11, 12, 13) American Tabloid / The Cold Six Thousand / Blood's a Rover - James Ellroy. - Shocking, funny, tense, amazing. You'll never look at US politics in the same way again. Very few sentences longer than about 4 sentences unless it's dialogue, newspaper extracts or wiretap transcripts.
14, 15, 16) The Baroque Cycle by Neil Stephenson - Terrific fun nerd core historical adventure that reveals the history of money and science. Then go read all of Stephenson's other books, especially Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Anathem.
17) The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - scary because it's true and increasingly relevant. You'll look twice at train carriages after reading this.
18) Any / all of the Culture books by Iain M Banks, but especially Surface Detail.
19 and 20) The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton - pure fun space opera.
21)

Here's a short list of 32 book's I've read that really affected how I look at the world (with links to Goodreads):

0) The Dancers at the End of Time Trilogy by Michael Moorcock - A literary dandy of a series. Short, sweet, funny and eternally optimistic. Stays with you.
1) The Illuminatus! Trilogy By Robert Shae and Robert Anton Wilson. - Truly hilarious - the literary equivalent of taking LSD. Once you've read it you'll never see the world in the same way again. This book invented the Illuminati conspiracy myth as we know it today.
2, 3, 4, 5) Hyperion / The Fall of Hyperion / Endymion, The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons - Heavy, difficult, big-idea science fiction / space opera set in a deeply religious future. The end made me cry. (Also check out Drood by Simmons. It's creepy and great.)
6) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem - a moving and beautiful critique of the scientific process - also made me cry. (read any Lem you come across, it's all great)
7) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon- a monster of a book - took me 3 years to read - but worth every bit of it. Affects how you perceive the world. (Also worth reading the companion so you can see what you missed the first time around)
8) Accelerando by Charles Stross - Truly a book for our times. Read any Stross, it's all pretty good.
9) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - funny, trippy satire of the soviet era and religion.
10) The Sacred Book of the Werewolf - Funny, especially if you've read The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov but ultimately this is a book about the nature of perception and reality.
11, 12, 13) American Tabloid / The Cold Six Thousand / Blood's a Rover - James Ellroy. - Shocking, funny, tense, amazing. You'll never look at US politics in the same way again. Very few sentences longer than about 4 sentences unless it's dialogue, newspaper extracts or wiretap transcripts.
14, 15, 16) The Baroque Cycle by Neil Stephenson - Terrific fun nerd core historical adventure that reveals the history of money and science. Then go read all of Stephenson's other books, especially Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Anathem.
17) The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - scary because it's true and increasingly relevant. You'll look twice at train carriages after reading this.
18) Any / all of the Culture books by Iain M Banks, but especially Surface Detail.
19 and 20) The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton - pure fun space opera.
21)

Here's a short list of 32 book's I've read that really affected how I look at the world (with links to Goodreads):

0) The Dancers at the End of Time Trilogy by Michael Moorcock - A literary dandy of a series. Short, sweet, funny and eternally optimistic. Stays with you.
1) The Illuminatus! Trilogy By Robert Shae and Robert Anton Wilson. - Truly hilarious - the literary equivalent of taking LSD. Once you've read it you'll never see the world in the same way again. This book invented the Illuminati conspiracy myth as we know it today.
2, 3, 4, 5) Hyperion / The Fall of Hyperion / Endymion, The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons - Heavy, difficult, big-idea science fiction / space opera set in a deeply religious future. The end made me cry. (Also check out Drood by Simmons. It's creepy and great.)
6) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem - a moving and beautiful critique of the scientific process - also made me cry. (read any Lem you come across, it's all great)
7) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon- a monster of a book - took me 3 years to read - but worth every bit of it. Affects how you perceive the world. (Also worth reading the companion so you can see what you missed the first time around)
8) Accelerando by Charles Stross - Truly a book for our times. Read any Stross, it's all pretty good.
9) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - funny, trippy satire of the soviet era and religion.
10) The Sacred Book of the Werewolf - Funny, especially if you've read The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov but ultimately this is a book about the nature of perception and reality.
11, 12, 13) American Tabloid / The Cold Six Thousand / Blood's a Rover - James Ellroy. - Shocking, funny, tense, amazing. You'll never look at US politics in the same way again. Very few sentences longer than about 4 sentences unless it's dialogue, newspaper extracts or wiretap transcripts.
14, 15, 16) The Baroque Cycle by Neil Stephenson - Terrific fun nerd core historical adventure that reveals the history of money and science. Then go read all of Stephenson's other books, especially Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Anathem.
17) The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - scary because it's true and increasingly relevant. You'll look twice at train carriages after reading this.
18) Any / all of the Culture books by Iain M Banks, but especially Surface Detail.
19 and 20) The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton - pure fun space opera.
21)