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Other Good Titles |
MIND CHILDREN by Hans Moravec
Harvard, 1988. ISBN 0-674-57618-7
Machine evolution
ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA by Andrew
Hodges
Walker & Company, 2000. ISBN 0-8027-7580-2
A new edition of a great scientific biography.
MUSIC, THE BRAIN AND ECSTASY by
Robert Jourdain
Bard, 1998. ISBN 0-380-78209-X
This is the best book about music that I have read.
SCHRÖDINGER'S KITTENS by John
Gribbin
Phoenix 1996. ISBN 1-85799-402-7
Different views on non-locality.
PERFORMING RITES by Simon Frith
Oxford University Press 1998. ISBN 0-19-288060-8
How are we influenced by music?
GOING INSIDE by John McCrone
Faber and Faber, 1999. ISBN 0-571-20101-6
Consciousness explained.
THE ROAD TO SERFDOM by Friedrich August
von Hayek
Routledge 1997. (First published 1944) ISBN 0-415-06560-7
Neo-liberalism or Anti-globalization?
NO LOGO by Naomi Klein
Flamingo 2001. ISBN 0-09-179421-8
Political anti- free market.
THE CRACK: A BELFAST YEAR by Sally
Belfrage
André Deutsche, 1987. ISBN 0-385-26892-6
Sally Belfrage looking at the "Troubles" and talking to everybody on both sides
of the fence. Picking up on everything (she's good at this) gives a convincing now way of
looking at Belfast. She did the same for me with "Flowers of Emptiness" and
"Un-American Activities" which are both unforgettable books.
CHINA SHAKES THE WORLD by James Kynge
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006. ISBN 0297852299
Globalization releases 400 million Chinese from poverty.
EUROPE. A HISTORY by Norman Davies
Oxford university Press, a1996. ISBN 0-19-820171-0
A very balanced East and West history of Europe from the earliest settlements to the
E.E.C. Very highly recommended.
FACING THE EXTREME by Tzvetan Todorov
Phoenix 2000. ISBN 0-75380-950-8 (Original title; Face à l'extrême, Editions de
Seuil 1991)
A very thorough look at totalitarianism of the fascist and communist type and the survival
of humanism in almost impossible circumstances.
DOUGLAS HURD MEMOIRS by Douglas Hurd (Rt
Hon.Lord Hurd of Westwell)
Abacus, 2004. ISBN 0-349-11828-0
A beautifully written, careful, humorous and perceptive memoir from a man uniquely placed
in the Conservative administrations of Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major. He
was political adviser to Edward Heath and later Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and
Northern Ireland Secretary.
THE VICTORIANS AND ANCIENT GREECE by
Richard Jenkyns
Harvard University Press, 1980. ISBN 0-674-93687-6
An interesting and entertaining book about the Victorians distorting Ancient Greece into
their own image.
THE CLASSICAL WORLD by Robin Lane Fox
Alan Lane, 2005. ISBN 0-713-99853-9
The classical world from kingdoms to republic to empire.
DAUGHTER OF THE DESERT. THE REMARKABLE
LIFE OF GERTRUDE BELL by Georgina Howell
Macmillan, 2006. ISBN 13: 978-1-4050-4587-2
Early Arab nationalism.
EVIL. INSIDE HUMAN VIOLENCE AND
CRUELTY by Roy Baumeister
W.H.Freeman and Company, 1999.ISBN 0-7167-3567-9
As the title says.
NEVERNESS by David Zindell
Voyager/Harper Collins, 1994. ISBN 0-586-20536-5
Good science fiction.
THE MEME MACHINE by Susan Blackmore
Oxford University Press, 1999.ISBN 0-19-850365-2
A new book expanding on Dawkins idea
GUNS GERMS AND STEEL by Jared Diamond
Vintage 1998. ISBN 0-09-930278
The advantages of living on the Eurasian continent from a development perspective.
THE FUTURE AND ITS ENEMIES by
Virginia Postrel
The Free Press 1998. ISBN 0-684-82760-3
A book showing the irrelevance of the old liberal/conservative divide.
INFLUENCE The Psychology of
Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
Quill/ William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-12816-5
How the best salesmen do it.
THE ESSENCE OF CHAOS by Edward Lorenz
University of Washington Press 1993. ISBN 0-29597514-8
The discovery of order in seeming randomness.
STALIN AND HIS HANGMEN by Donald
Rayfield
Penguin Books Ltd. 2005. ISBN 0-0141003758
The tyrant and those who killed for him.
ADVENTURES OF A MATHEMATICIAN by
S.M.Ulam
University of California Press 1991. ISBN 0-520-07154-9
The scientists of Los Alamos.
THE GREAT PHYSICISTS FROM GALILEO TO
EINSTEIN by George Gamow. Original title: BIOGRAPHY OF PHYSICS Harper Brothers 1961
Dover 1988. ISBN 0-486-25767-3
Gamow as phycist and writer.
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES by Charles
Darwin
Penguin Classics 1985. First published by John Murray 1859. ISBN 0-14-043205-1
The greatest world changing idea and very readable as well.
THE LOPSIDED APE by Michael
C.Corballis
Oxford University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-19-508352-0
The evolution of the capacity for adaption itself.
WHY BIG FIERCE ANIMALS ARE RARE by
Paul Colinvaux
Princeton University Press, 1978. ISBN 0-691-02364-6
The dynamic balance of living systems.
HOW MONKEYS SEE THE WORLD by Dorothy
L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth
University of Chicago Press 1992. ISBN 0-226-10246-7
Long term research on one of our nearest relatives
RICH DAD POOR DAD by Robert T.
Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter
Warner Books 2000. ISBN 0-446-67745-0
A U.S. bestseller that explains how to make money.
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MR KURTZ by Michela
Wrong
Fourth Estate 2000. ISBN 1-84115-421-0
Six years Africa correspondent Michela Wrong writes about the Congo and Mobutu Sese Seko.
THE EXILE - SEX, DRUGS AND LIBEL IN THE
NEW RUSSIA by Mark Ames and Matt Taibbi
Grove Press 2000. ISBN 0-8021-3652-4
The eXile magazine covered the "loans for shares" auctions that created the new
Russian oligarchy.
ON THE GENEALOGY OF MORALS by Friedrich
Nietzsche
Vintage, 1989. ISBN 0-679-72462-1
The morality of the champion of anti-culture.
THE SECRET WAR by Brian Johnson.
Arrow 1978. ISBN 0-09-920790-7
A good account of the WWII science/technology arms race.The section on radar is especially
good.
THE MOUNTAIN PEOPLE by Colin
M.Turnbull
Touchstone 1987. ISBN 0-671-64098-4
Is culture a luxury? This is a look at life without it.
THE END OF TIME Faith and Fear in the
Shadow of the Millenium by Damian Thompson
University Press of New England 1996. ISBN 0-87451-849-0
A fascinating look at religious style prophecy.
COSMIC TRIGGER VOL I by Robert Anton
Wilson
New Falcon Publications 1997.(Originally And/Or Press 1977).ISBN 1-56184-003-3
A guidebook to hopeless New Age mysticism.
MOONCHILD by Aleister Crowley
Samuel Weiser, 1994. (Originally Mandrake Press 1929). ISBN 0-87728-147-5
A novel from the chief magician. A strange person but a good writer.
THE WAY OF ZEN by Alan Watts
Arkana Penguin 1990. (Originally Pantheon 1957). ISBN 0-14-019255-7
An interesting guide.
FREE TO CHOOSE by Milton and Rose
Friedman
Secker and Warburg, 1980. ISBN 436-16486-8
The dominant free competitive world view.
THE ROBBER BARONS by Matthew
Josephson.
Harvest/Harcourt Brace 1995. Originally published in 1934. ISBN 0-15-676790-2
The best account of raw American capitalism.
THE ALCHEMY OF FINANCE by George Soros
John Wiley & Sons 1987. ISBN 0-471-04206-4
Soros shows that economic disequilibrium has positive aswell as negative aspects.
THE RISE AND DECLINE OF NATIONS by
Mancur Olson
Yale University Press 1992. ISBN 0-300-02307-3
An interesting sociological angle on economics.
ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand
Signet New American Library, 1996. (First
published 1957) ISBN 0-451-19114-5
A very convincing look (in novel form) at the destructive effects of hard line
marxism/socialism in an imaginary American People's Republic. The alternative of an
industrial nobility is not so persuasive.
TRUTH OF THE STOCK TAPE by W.D.Gann
Lambert-Gann Publishing.Originally published 1923. ISBN 0-93909312-X.
Gann was a financial analyst before and after the 1929 Crash.
MADE IN AMERICA by Sam Walton and John
Huey
Doubleday, 1992. ISBN 0-385-42615-1
Flexibility, learning and adaption in business. Also an good story.
WHAT DO YOU SAY AFTER YOU SAY HELLO? by
Eric Berne
Corgi,1993. ISBN 0-552-09806-X
Psychology that works drawn from a lifetimes experience.
THE ELECTRIC KOOL-AID ACID TEST by Tom
Wolfe
Black Swan, 1995. ISBN 0-552-99366-2
A close up view of 1960's cultural change with Ken Kesey and the Pranksters.
THE ODYSSEY by Homer (translator
E.V.Rieu)
Originally 750-700 B.C.(!). Penguin Classics (U.S.)1992. ISBN Unknown.
Mortals, Heroes and Gods.
THE VICTORIANS by A.N.Wilson
Hutchinson, 2002. ISBN 0-09-179421-8
An enjoyable romp through 19th Century Great Britian
only partly spoiled by Wilson's political line.