Ken's Reading List

I love books and love to talk about them. If you see something here you would like to chat about email me! (Actualy if you wind up here following a link in a search engine, let me know, too!)

If you happen to be looking for a book which you can't find at your local, independent bookstore:

Try Powell's first. An increadible used bookstore, Online!

If Powell's can't help you, or you would prefer a new edition, try Amazon.com A online, vitual bookstore with a tremendous catalogue! Click on the Order Book link to purchase the book from Amazon.com or Powell's.

Recent reads I have enjoyed:

Some books I have recently read that may be worth checking out:

• Adam, Eve, and the Serpent by Elaine Pagels Order from Amazon Order from Powell's
• The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels Order from Amazon Order from Powell's
• Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco Order from Amazon Order from Powell's
• Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie Order from Amazon Order from Powell's
  Strange magic at the moment of birth of the nations of Pakistan and India.
• In the Absence of the Sacred by Jerry Mander Order from Amazon Order from Powell's
  Mander pushes his points too hard. However this hodgepodge book contains a lot of wisdom and asks some hard questions which challenge the technologist in me. Is technology realy neutral? What is the nature of corporations?
• Design for Living, Eichler Homes by Jerry Ditto Order from Amazon Order from Powell's
  I had a love-hate relationship with my own Eichler while I lived there. Now that I have moved on, I miss it deeply: 1160 Sesame.
• The Road Ahead by Bill Gates
• Gates by Stephen Manes
• Fuzzy Thinking by Bart Kosko
• Home, A Short History of an Idea by Witold Rybczynski
• The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels Order from Amazon Order from Powell's
  At last a description of how early Christianity got to be the way it is.
• Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling by Greg LeMond
• Four Arguments For the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander
  Maybe the medium is the message.
• Laws of Spirit by Dan Millman
• The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
  This simple book almost saved my marriage. Almost.
• Biography of God by Jack Miles
  This book explores many of the questions I had about the Torah when I read it in its original archaic hebrew as a child.
• Spokesongs: Bicycle Adventures on Three Continents by Willie Weir
  I attened one of Willie's talks. Wonderfull. Maybe one day I will have the courage to journey.
• Spiritwalker: Messages from the Future by Hank Wesselman
• Time out of joint by Philip K. Dick
  An old friend gave me this to read. It has been a long time since I have had so much paranoid fun.
• The Five Senses by F. Gonzales-Crussi
  Musings on the five senses in a magical/erotic way.
• The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco Order from Amazon Order from Powell's
  More great Eco, but perhaps a little more obtuse.
• The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie Order from Amazon Order from Powell's
  A wonderfull book, but a book that left me with a heavy heart as every character sped out of control to their ultimate doom.
• The Mystic Quest: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism by David Ariel Order from Amazon Order from Powell's

Some favorites:

• The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky
  Short essays which build on each other and explore the way the mind may work. I give this book to new parents.
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Garcia Marquez
  Utter magic.

Clock Making:

Lately I have been interested in clock making:

• Small Woodworking Projects (The Best of Fine Woodworking) by Dick Burrows (Editor) Order from Amazon
• My Own Right Time: An Exploration of Clockwork Design by Philip Woodward Order from Amazon Order from Powell's

Technical Audio books:

• Auditory Scene Analysis : Perceptual Organization of Sound by Albert Bregman Order from Amazon Order from Powell's Order the accompanying CD from Amazon
• Music, Cognition and Computerized sound: An Introduction to Psychoacoustics by Perry Cook Order from Amazon Order from Powell's
• The Nature of Mathematical Modeling by Neil Gershenfeld Order from Amazon
• When Things Start to Think by Neil Gershenfeld Order from Amazon

Image synthesis books:

• Texturing and Modeling : A procedural approach 2nd Edition by Ken Perlin et al Order from Amazon
• The Digital Darkroom by Gerard Holtzmann; Unfortunately this book is out of print.

Robotics books:

• Stiquito: Advanced Experiments With a Simple and Inexpensive Robot by James Conrad, Jonathan Mills Order from Amazon

Seattle books:

• Seattle Sidewalk Offline Restaurante Guide: A Comprehensive Guide to Seattle Dinning by Kathleen Flinn Order from Amazon
  As handy as seattlesidewalk.com is when I am next to a computer this book is great when I am driving around with my cellphone trying to book last minute reservations. Keep one in your glove compartment!

Programming books:

• Jamsa's C/C++ Programmer's Bible: The Ultimate Guide to C/C++ Programming by Kris Jamsa Order from Amazon

Yoga books recommended by my teachers:

• Yoga: The Iyengar Way by Silva and Mira Mehta Order from Amazon
  This was my first yoga book. It is easy to read and includes nice photographs.
• Light on Yoga by B. K. S. Iyengar Order from Amazon
  This is the now classic text on Yoga. It is not the easiest to read, but it includes many invaluable details on each posture and includes many extreemely advanced asanas with photographs.
• Essence of Yoga : Reflections on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Bernard Bouanchaud Order from Amazon
  There are many translations of Patanjali's Yoga sutras, some by great practitioners like BKS Iyengar, others are very spiritual or analytic. This translation is deep and was recemmended to me as a good place to start! but it includes many invaluable details on each posture and includes many extreemely advanced asanas with photographs.

More later...

Maybe we could start an online discussion about some of these books. In general I don't read books I think I will agree with. Rather I read to challenge my own ideas. Nothing I like better than reading an interesting book then discussing it with folk. Let me know what you think about these books, and maybe I will find a way to get comments added online!

Books Music	Enter keywords...