Below are the 2 most recent journal entries recorded in Patrick Mochel's LiveJournal:

Friday, August 31st, 2007
3:24 pm	The List of Books -- 2007 The following is the cumulative list of books that I have read so far in 2007, as of 31 August. There are some 35 books in the list, and another 2 dozen left that I have with me in New Zealand I have not read, most of which consist of texts on computer programming and design. After 7 months of reading 2-3 books per week when I have not been traveling, I have finally reached a point of at least temporary satiation. It is hard to continue filling my mind with ideas without putting them to use. So instead, I have been filling my days with snowboarding, guitar playing, and a wee bit of actual writing, while I’ve kept up on my reading with the NZ Herald, the closest thing I can find a daily basis to the NY Times (though still a far cry from it). There are a dozen ways I could have sorted this list, so I tried to do it in the way that would make the most sense to people reading it that have never heard of any of these books. Of all the books, the only one I couldn’t stand to read all the way through was Moore’s “Care of the Soul”, since it was not only redundant of the humanist messages of Huxley, Fromm, Feynman and Einstein, but I found the Christian overtones a bit annoying and the gentle touchy-feely style unnecessary. The first one read was “Candide”, which besides Huxley’s “Collected Essays” and Smith’s “Religions” are the only ones I’ve read before. I’ve always tried to make a point to not do that (since there are so many wonderful books out there that I will never get a chance to read), but those are three that I am sure I will find myself reading again and again the future. Although, I will need to replace “Candide” because I traded it for a couple photography magazines while traveling in January. Smith’s “Religions” is the book that I’ve read most recently. Of the list below, there are few that I would NOT recommend, and those are mostly because of personal bias rather than having found what I considered to be a poorly written book. Carnegie’s book is a bit humorous, a bit sad, and mostly useless if you take the heart the things that e.g. Fromm and the Dalai Lama say. I.e. if you are in touch with yourself and what you are doing, you can be empathic towards other people, which will -- among a slew of other benefits -- help you do better in business. Giving a recommendation is a clear display of arrogance and bias anyway, so rather than explicitly calling out those which I think every last person should read, I will instead list the authors that I will definitely be reading more of: Huxley (of course, I was already a big fan), Fromm, The Dalai Lama, Pinker, Tufte, Wilson. Each of the books that I read was excellent, and left me with the telltale feeling of having just consumed something uniquely wonderful. Feynman and Einstein were also quite interesting; their texts on physics itself are great, and though writings on humanities are of a high quality, they do pale in comparison to the authors above. And now for the exception: “Travels With Charley” is a book that every American should read. I’m not sure if anyone from outside of the U.S. would appreciate as much, but even then, it might be worth a shot. It’s a wonderful book, and helped me see the United States and her citizens in a rare sympathetic and positive light. As I compile this list, I realize that there is a distinct lack of women on it. The only explanation that I can proffer is that the books on the topics that I have collected over the last several years that have been written by women have not come to my attention, for one reason or another. I know that the daughters of several of the authors on it have been posthumously instrumental in getting the works published, though that does little for getting their names on to this insignificant list of mine. However, I am always looking for more authors and titles, and I am especially looking to expand my demographic horizons, so maybe some female authors will come to occupy my bookshelf in the near future.. Fiction Paulo Coelho The Pilgramage The Alchemist Herman Hesse -- Siddartha Aldous Huxley Point Counterpoint Brave New World Jack Kerouac -- On the Road D.H. Lawerence Lady Chatterley’s Love Women In Love Yann Martel -- The Life of Pi John Steinbeck -- Travels With Charley Neal Stephenson -- Quicksilver Voltaire -- Candide Essays Albert Einstein -- Ideas & Opinions Richard Feynman -- The Pleasure of Finding Things Out Thich Nhat Hanh -- Love In Action Aldous Huxley Collected Essays Music At Night Howard Zinn -- Original Zinn Textbooks, Etc Tor Benhardsen -- Geographic Information Systems Ralph Denyer -- The Guitar Handbook Edward Tufte -- Beautiful Evidence French in 3 Months The Fundamentals of Physics, Vols I, III Brewing Crafts Humanities and Popular Science H.H. The Dalai Lama -- The Art of Happiness Dale Carnegie -- How to Win Friends and Influence People Erich Fromm -- Man For Himself Steven Levitt -- Freakonomics Thomas Moore -- Care of the Soul Steven Pinker -- The Language Instinct John Ridgen -- Hydrogen: The Essential Element Simon Singh -- Big Bang Huston Smith -- The World’s Religions Frans de Waal -- Our Inner Ape Edward O. Wilson -- Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
7:44 pm	It's been a rainy Sunday filled with reading Albert Einstein's "Ideas and Opinions" off and on for the last 12 hours. It's quite dense, so its warranted several breaks, and after a 30 page essay called "Physics and Reality", I think it's time for me to put it down and save the last 50 pages of the book for tomorrow morning. That will, however, preclude me from starting a new book tomorrow, since I have a rule not to start a new book on the same day that I finish one. Then again, that's probably a good thing after this material, and I have a chance to work on my French and guitar. Ho hum, such are the conflicts of my life.. Anyway, the book has been quite dense, nearly as much so as Aldous Huxley is with his essays, and once I started to understand the man a bit, I've come to like it quite a bit. One of the basic themes throughout is that no field of study, science especially, is worthy of itself on its own; it must always be fortified with moral substance. I.e. the ends are not the work or the discoveries to me made, but humanity itself and the realization of the essence of each individual, in spite of the societal influences around them. On one hand, this seems like the obvious cliche that has pervaded our generation: that we must be our own independent, unique selves. But, it seems, on the other hand, that the familiarity of the that concept concept tends to disregard the subtleties of the rest: that the realization of the individual is for the purpose of bettering humanity because, regardless of the evidence to the contrary, it is known to improve given the right circumstances, even if very gradually and over a long period of time (the progress of natural and social sciences in any of the last 4 centuries is testimony to this). Second, in our day and age, it is rarely, if ever, stated that any science is done with any moral or ethical or considerations in mind. This is worthy of a long essay in itself, but suffice to say the last century's great philosophers, physicists, psychologists and spiritual leaders all seem to emphatically express this moral consideration as a necessity for any reasonable intellectual endeavor that is going to be successful and useful for humanitarian ends, which is, according to them, the only type of endeavor that brings peace of mind (and/or enlightenment and/or happiness) to the individual and to society as a whole. Why does this matter? Because I have been discouraged for years about the selfish nature of the world we live in. Must I retain the childlike qualities of selfishness and ignorance (while abandoning the equally-childlike curiosity and spontaneity) in order to succeed? The answer that these great men all say is a hearty and resounding "No!" In order to do great things, I must hold on to those things that I value most (curiosity and spontaneity) and not be persuaded by any of the mis-guided masses. To make a long story short, I was right all of these years, and I've finally found enough proof to fully realize my trouble-making and rabble-rousing potential. (1 Comment |Comment on this)