books of interest



'cat reading in the bookshelf' - carol ailles

i read a lot - as these who aren't new to this page might be aware - and i don't put most it anywhere, since a lot of it is thrillers and horror i read for entertainment; largely non-remarkable, and out of the other titles i've tried, mainly classic literature and non-fiction, not all are particularly worth mentioning. i put some popscience and the distinguished fiction prose titles that influenced me somehow here, and a brief history of my engagement with philosophy here. i've put these finished in the past and there i was reading currently there. i also have reading journals for some of them.

i am a perfectionist, however, and more importantly an autist, and so i've found that when i change my mind quite a lot and add new titles, put off some others, impulsively start reading a book i didn't plan, et cetera. it generated mess on these pages, mess i intend to clean up now via creating this page, which will contain all i'm planning to start or have started, and i will only take them off here and move them to the other pages when i'm done with them. it may also motivate me to finish the ones i've already started faster, and wil allow the other pages about my reading pursuits to be free of constant editing, and so on.

i need to say, i'm too flippant with fiction - i.e. i take on new ones impulsively or decide not to read something after a few pages if i didn't like it - and i finish it too quickly, so i'll not put fiction on this list. even when it comes to classic literature, my fiction tends to be impulse purchases. thus, thus will be a 'wishlist' (or 'has-but-can't-motivate-self-to-start' list, or 'has-and-started-but-took-a-break-and-can't-motivate-self-again list, depending on the specific case) for non-fiction. i may also add commentary, if i feel like it, or more general goals (i.e. topics or authors rather than specific books), if i haven't yet decided on a particular titles or looked deeper into something yet. it's for myself to store all the plans in one place too.

so, what's on my wishlist (or in-progress)?

philosophy:
  • foucault, "madness and civilisation" (in progress)
  • marcuse, "psychoanalysis, politics, utopia" (in progress)
  • schopenhauer, "on the freedom of human will"
  • schopenhauer, "the world as will and representation"
  • nietzsche, "the antichrist"
  • nietzsche, "the dawn of day"
  • merleau-ponty, "the phenomenology of perception"
  • bataille, "erotism: death and sensuality"

    • i want to read wittgenstein and baudrillard, but i haven't chosen what yet.

    i am also interested in starting to read some political theory, but i haven't completed a list yet - beyond marcuse here - when i do talk to my more political friends about it and figure the 'must read' i will probably add a separate list for these; i know i would like to try some marx and debord in that area.

    humanities:
  • grunberger, "a social history of the third reich"
  • sigmund, "the third reich and sexuality"
  • snyder, "black earth (the holocaust as history and warning)"

    • i'm onto the nazis again, but i also have been reminded of my napoleon bonaparte and my caesar/roman empire phases (i've had both as a teenager) and now i want to scream, it motivates me more to finish the books i have to read right now because i can't wait to buy something about the romans and a good modern biography of napoleon, also since the old one i've read as a teen - and put a thousand homemade bookmarks into - was several decades old. on top of that, i'm getting into wine tasting lately (yes, i'm becoming that insufferable), so i want something about the most acknowledged vineyards and otherwise a good introduction into it. i would also want something more about history of medicine, particularly psychiatry. i imagine, thus, that my focus will be somewhere in these areas.

    popscience:
  • pearl, "causality"
  • wilson, "sociobiology"
  • hawking, "a short history of time"
  • pinker, "the language instinct"
  • sapolsky, "determined (life without free will)"
  • sapolsky, "why zebras don't get ulcers"
  • blackmore, "the meme machine"
  • langman, "embryology"
  • lieberman, "exercised"
  • dennett, "consciousnesss explained"
  • dennet, "from bacteria to bach and back"

    • continued pursuit of sociobiology as well as evolutionary biology, though i also will probably take interest in biology, chemistry and biochemistry otherwise - these are often impulse purchases. i also episodically take interest in physics, although i don't tend to get very deep into it on account of not having the right preparation, so it's more of a casual interest; and statistics, which i do have a thing of and which additionally will be useful in my future research activity. i also want to read more sexology after reading and enjoying bailey, recently it's become a great autistic interest of mine.

    overall, i think i might have male autism.

    trace your footsteps home...