The Young Thinkers' Society

[Z. M. Davis]

Even a staunch libertarian will have to concede that what ideas we hold is to no small degree dependent on what ideas we've come across. Reading is (or should be!) a major part of the life of any educated person, but no one does (nor should) spend all her time reading--and even if one could, one would still come nowhere near learning all that there is to be learned. It's the age-old Scacity Problem again. (It's one of those problems that annoys us but we can't imagine an existence without. Interested? Check out the economics literature!) Only this time there's an interesting twist. In the rich world during the "Information Age," it is for many of us not too great of a problem to find abundant material to study, what with Wikipedia, the blogosphere, Google, the libraries, and bookstores overpriced and not, for a start. But there's no escaping Scarcity, for everyone's time is limited. So, like any good economist, one takes trade-offs. One specializes. You read up on your pet issues and gripping novels, and neglect all else. (And why not? Can you even imagine an existence without Scarcity, anyway?) And so everyone comes to Salon with not only different ideologies--but different information. (And why not?)

It is upon these (perhaps trivial) musings, and the start of the new Scholastic Year (wherein our readings tend to track assignments rather than personal choice), that I hereby start a thread wherein everyone can post for all to see what books she read over the summer. (Define that timeframe as you will--for my list below, it's from May 28 to tonight--if my records can be trusted.)

Okay, so it's not the most gripping discussion--it's not even a discussion--but it could lead to one, and I suspect these types of threads tend to go over well on forum communities. Isn't it interesting to know what sources the other is drawing from? Or, if that doesn't strike your fancy--well, isn't it fun to brag?

We'll see, anyway. I'll start:

Books I finished (with maybe in some cases maybe a little bit of skimming, e.g., of boring paragraphs):
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (fiction)
Disappearing Act by Margaret Ball (fiction)
The Shadow Gate by Margaret Ball (fiction)
Jennifer Government by Max Barry (fiction)
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel C. Dennett (nonfiction)
Consciousness Explained by Daniel C. Dennett (nonfiction)
Freedom Evolves by Daniel C. Dennett (nonfiction)
Diaspora by Greg Egan (fiction)
Distress by Greg Egan (fiction)
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (fiction)
The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek (nonfiction)
Get to Work: a Manifesto for Women of the World by Linda R. Hirshman (nonfiction)
The Physics of Star Trek by by Lawrence M. Krauss (nonfiction)
Ayn Rand Answers edited by Robert Mayhew (nonfiction)
The Invisible Heart by Russell Roberts (fiction)
The Apartheid of Sex: a Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender by Martine Rothblatt (nonfiction)
Fire With Fire by Naomi Wolf (nonfiction)

Books I "finished" (that is, had my way with) with more than a little skipping and skimming:
Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern by Douglas R. Hofstadter (nonfiction)
Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the 21st Century edited by Wendy McElroy (nonfiction)
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (fiction; second reread)

Books I started but did not finish:
Mat, Mount, and Frame It Yourself (nonfiction)
I Will Fear No Evil by Robert A. Heinlein (crappy fiction)
A Void by Georges Perec and translated by Gilbert Adair (fiction)
The Blank Slate: the Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker (nonfiction)