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Although omnipresent, the web is not yet omniscient. The written codex still contains important information. This page offers an annotated bibliography of books which are recommended reading, in areas tangential to art and design, as a means to fully cultivate the human mind. If you have read something that you think should be posted here, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

J. B. JACKSON
THE NECESSITY FOR RUINS

Required reading for the Geographer and the Cultural Anthropologist in us all. A series of essays which examine the relationship between culture and the built environment.

   

JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER
THE GEOGRAPHY OF NOWHERE

A scathing review of the terrifying and valueless "no-place" referred to as suburbia. A must read for any concerned American citizen.

   

ROBERT PIRSIG
ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE

A masterpiece of philosophical literature. Easily accessible and powerfully written. Pirsig takes the reader on a delightful tour of the human mind, with a story full of clever anecdotes and tangible wisdom.

   
HERMAN HESSE
SIDDHARTHA

Every human being should read this book at least twice. It offers insight into the difficulties inherent in the necessary search for happiness and love. The positive message behind Herman Hesse's masterpiece is positively resounding.

   
HENRY MILLER
BIG SUR AND THE ORANGES OF HIERONYMOUS BOSCH

"Indeed, what baffles me more than almost anything , in human affairs, is man's ability to ignore or bypass events of happenings which do not fit into his pattern of thought, his unquesitoned logic. In this respect civilized man is just as primitive in his actions as the so-called savage. What he cannot account for he refuses to look squarely in the face."

This book is as much a rich tapesry of Henry's memories of Big Sur, as it is an outline of his philosophy of life. Big Sur becomes a rich metaphor, which Miller continuously taps into as a means to illuminate the magic and folly of the human condition.

   
TOM WOLFE
THE ELECTRIC KOOL-AID ACID TEST

A riveting micro-history of the psychedelic movement, Wolfe proves himself a master of the social and historical documentary. In writing about Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, Wolfe playfully alters writing conventions and creates a narrative style to parallel the mind-bending LSD experience. In doing so, he unwinds a story/history that is both hyper-real and almost too bizarre to be true. Can you pass the Acid Test?

   
ENDER'S GAME
ORSON SCOTT CARD

An epic tale of a future battle to save humanity from the interstellar threat from a race of insect-like beings called "Buggers." Card's brilliant imagination and thoughtful character development describes a Planet earth united against a common threat from another interstellar world, with a child genius, Ender Wiggin, being trained mentally and physically to destroy the Buggers. All the while, the limitations of the human condition are illuminated by clever interweaving of the familiar politics of intolerance on the planet Earth. Orwellian in nature, the story is at once heroic and cynical; Card never

   


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