2001-2003

You can buy any of these books from by just clicking on the titles

In 2001 I let my regular updates of my reading pages lapse. On this page I'm dumping all the books from that period as I catch up entering titles i read during the almost three years.

China's Imperial Past, Charles O. Hucker

• This is an older book i read long, long ago and picked up to re-read. It's a very good single-volume overview of Chinese history from the first dysnasties through the end of the Qing. RECOMMENDED.

The Golden Age and The Phoenix Exultant, John C. Wright

• The first two books in an excellent trilogy of science fiction novels dealing with the far future. Wright does a superb job of envisioning a wide spectrum of life augmented by technology, from unaltered "standard" humans through group minds, completely synthetic beings, etc. These are must-reads for people thinking about how humanity may be tranformed by coming technologies. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Fallen Dragon, Peter F. Hamilton

• Hamilton continues his work as a solid current craftsman of the current revival of "hard" science fiction with a classic Starship Troopers-style yarn of policing an interstellar commercial empire. The economics really don't make much sense (as they don't in most such stories, since moving matter between stars isn't likely to ever pay).

Strike Eagle: Flying the F-15E In the Gulf War, William L. Smallwood

• Well-written account of the two squadrons of F-15Es that were rushed into combat in the First Gulf War -- the plane had just been moved into active service in the late 80s before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

Streetlife China, Michael Dutton

• A McLuhan-esque collection of textual snapshots from life in China in the early to middle 1990s. Not a must-read for the newcomer to China studies, this book is nevertheless an interesting historical sidelight from a China in rapid transition.

Coming Out of the Woods, Wallace Kaufman

• This is a very well written personal account of Kaufman's attempt to live his principles as an environmentalist. Over the course of the story, Kaufman writes how his attitude toward nature and its relationship to humanity evolved through his personal experiences with trying to develop an "ecologically sound" settlement. This is a companion to Kaufman's superb book, No Turning Back: Dismantling the Fantasies of Environmental Thinking, one of the most compelling works about the stupidity of the mainstream environmentalist movement, written by a former insider and someone with impeccable "environmentalist credentials." RECOMMENDED.

The Mystery of Capital, Hernando De Soto

• This is the book that has caused such a stir in circles concerned with "development economics" -- and with very justifiably good case. De Soto's emperical work in his native Peru and in many other developing countries demonstrates with great clarity that basic property rights and the rule of law is the sina qua non of effective development. De Soto offers realistic, practical prescriptions for building property rights systems based on the grass-roots reality of how common people actually hold and develop property. Very HIGHLY RECOMENDED.

Priciples for a Free Society, Rchard A. Epstein

• Somewhat poorly edited (this book seems to be a compilation of lectures and notes), nevertheless a worthwhile discussion of reconciling liberty and community. For legal theorists, the critique of positivist jurisprudence found in this book is very good. Recommended for the student of legal theory.

Genesis, Poul Anderson

• An SF veteran 's view of the interaction of humanity and its descendants. Pretty good.

Transcension, Damien Broderick

• Friend and Australian futurist Damien Broderick's good yarn about a world in which Amish-like people who reject advanced technology are depicted as the accidental hosts of a young girl from the "developed world." This serves as a platform for Damien to explore issues we'll be facing very soon. oh yeah, and a very neat ending. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

The Culture of Hope, Frederick Turner

Very interesting book by a very interesting writer. Turner's a poet, but this extended essay lays out his ideas on culture in general and, in particular, his critique of and rebuttal to the corrosive nonsense of postmodernism. Very insightful, even though I ultimately differ from Turner in his discussion of "spiritual" matters at the end of the book. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law, Randy E. Barnett

• Well-argued discussion of the benefits of polycentric, open-ended legal systems. RECOMMENDED.

Relgion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought, Pascal Boyer

• This book expresses many ideas I had devloped independently over years of thinking about religion, explaining how humans have evolved a propensity to believe in human-like, personal supernatural beings, despite the absence of evidence for their existence. It's an example of the fruitful cross-disciplinary application of evolutionary theory that is transforming areas formerly considered to be solely within the regime of the "humanities." However, there's plenty more work o be done on this subject. RECOMMENDED.

Ventus, Karl Schroeder

• Well-written science fiction story that postulates an intelligent terraforming project gone awry. RECOMMENDED.

Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl

• Both a personal memoir by an Auschwitz survivor and a work of moral philosophy, this little gem of a book is a classic from the mid-20th century that offers as much to the secular humanist (i.e. me) as it does to someone with religious belief with its emphasis on the core essentials of human dignity in the face of the mindless cruelty of the Nazis. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Atheism: a Philosophical Justification, Michael Martin

• A work of technical philosophy (read: dry and academic) that addresses the classic arguments for the existence or moral necessity of supernatural beings or all kinds, especially deities. Nothing really new here, but a good reference for the most rigorous forms of the arguments of reason and logic against superstition and faith.

The Raven: a Biography of Sam Houston, Marquis James

• This older work is somewhat hagiographical and uses an outdated voice, but is distinguished by having been based in part on interviews with people who knew Houston in his later years. Sam Houston is a subject well worth studying -- he's one of those characters that would not be credible in fiction for the great diversity of his life's experiences. Recommended.

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