Greg Burch's Reading List 1995 and Before

1995

and before

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Freedom and the Law, Bruno Leoni.
- As a series of lectures, this book doesn't read as well as it would have if it had been edited by the author as a book, but good discussion of libertarian legal ideas, especially the tendency of legislatures to "over-rule".
The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State, Bruce L. Benson.
- Very good discussion of privately-produced law, including interesting discussion of pre-state common law practices.
Citizens, Simon Schama.
- One of the best "literary histories" I've ever read; excellent way to fill a hole, if you haven't studied the French Revolution.
The Evolution of Desire : Strategies of Human Mating, David M. Buss
- Extremely well written and researched exploration of the evolutionary psychology of human sexuality. This book casts light on some of the deepest recesses of the human psyche with examples from the ethology of many nonhuman species and very broad research into human sexual behavior. Very Highly Recommended.
Buried Mirror, Carlos Fuentes.
- Beautiful book-length historical essay of Spain and Latin America; my most highly-recommended single book on Latin America.
A History of Warfare, John Keegan.
- Keegan takes on Clausewitz and wins: The natural history of warfare as an anthropological phenomenon in actual history; contains Keegans "taxonomy" of army-types.
The Flayed God: The Mesoamrican Mythological Tradition, Roberta H. And Peter T. Markman.
- Not particularly well edited collection of mesoamerican myths; well-illustrated.
The Hot Zone, Richard Preston.
- Entertaining semi-gonzo account of the Reston Ebola incident, its antecedents and aftermath; great airplane book.
Intoxication, Ronald K. Siegel.
- Natural history of drug use in humans and other animals; very interesting.
Society of Mind, Marvin Minsky.
- Minsky's updated Piagetean epistemology and schema for the development of AI; a must read for would-be transhumanists.
The Physics of Immortality, Frank Tipler
- Tipler's "big book" on life, the universe and everything; this is the book about the "Omega Point".
Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition and Nano, Ed Regis.
- The first book was my introduction to transhumanism as a discrete collection of ideas; In Nano, Regis does another good job of chronicling the transhumanist movement, here in a scientific biography of Eric Drexler.
Flashman (and the other Flashman novels), George McDonald Fraser.
- Some of the funniest fiction and best-researched historical fiction ever written.
- A G.M. Fraser Web Page
Master and Commander (and the rest of the Aubrey/Maturin novels), Patrick O'Brian.
- The best sea-stories ever written; great historical fiction and great literature, Aubrey and Maturin are two of the most interesting and engaging characters I've encountered.
- The Aubrey/Maturin Web!
The Forge of God, Greg Bear.
- Great end-of-the-world sci-fi novel.
A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge.
- A great example of fiction by one of the best thinkers writing science fiction today.

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