Random Thoughts
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Indexed

Recommended Reading

While I like my work to stand on its own, I am so indebted to those who led me to wherever I am, and those who seem to say things I agree with better then I ever will. Links to web sites will open in a new window; books must be borrowed, purchased or stolen. They will open away from your computer...

The Mind's Eye
composed and arranged by Douglas R. Hofstadter & Daniel C. Dennett, 1981, ISBN 0-553-34584

A collection of thought provoking essays, primarily about consciousness and the questions it raises.

Refusing To Be a Man
by John Stoltenberg, 1989, ISBN (invalid) 0-04-520104-3

Essays on sex and justice. I found this to be a remarkable read in my late twenties.

Maps of the Mind
Charles Hampden-Turner, 1981, ISBN 0-02-076870-2

"images of humanity in the abstract are no substitute for real people"

The Origin of Species
by Charles Darwin

Apart from being one of the great leaps of modern understanding of biology, this owrk also stands as a wonderful example of how a scientific work should present itself - written to the common educated person, and addressing the major arguments and criticisms against it as gathered by the author during the writing.

Relativity (A Popular Exposition)
by Albert Einstein, 1916 or so, ISBN 0-517-025302

It all starts out so simply, anyone could have figured it out. Then it gets complicated and very strange. A revolution in our understanding of very large, very small, and very fast things. Oh yeah, and that whole "light" thing, too...!

How we confuse symbols and things
by Paul Lutus

Paul is the creator of the program I use to create and edit my web sites (Arachnophilia); he also has several well written thought provoking essays on his site. I chose this one to link to because it so clearly expresses a deeper, fundamental reason for many of the things I whine about on my site.

Letters at 3 AM (Reports on Endarkenment)
by Michael Ventura, 1993, ISBN 0-88214-361-1, some essays available online, thanks to the Austin Chronicle

I first encountered Michael's column in a subscription to L.A. Weekly given to me by my brother. It became a "must read before doing anything else" when the paper arrived in my mailbox. Mr. Ventura is a wonderful, insightful, imaginative, playful and profound writer. He looks deep inside himself to seek the answers to his own and society's troubles, and the results are always worth reading.

We've Had 100 Years of Psychoanalysis
(and the World Is Getting Worse)

Michael Ventura and James Hillman, 1992, ISBN 0-06-250661-7

Another highly recommended book, presented as an actual dialogue between the two authors.

typos? comments? mail me here

© Huw Powell
humanthoughts.org

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