Brett's Books

Short Subjects

and/or
Skip-Skimmed Stuff

The Gospel of Wealth
by Andrew Carnegie

It is no longer questionable that great sums bequeathed oftener work more for the injury than for the good of the recipient.
It is well to remember that it requires the exercise of not less ability than that which acquired the wealth to use it so as to be really beneficial to the community.
By taxing estates heavily at death the state marks its condemnation of the selfish millionaire's unworthy life.
It were better for mankind that the millions of the rich were thrown in to the sea than so spent as to encourage the slothful, the drunken, the unworthy.
The really valuable men of the race never [require assistance].
In alms-giving more injury is probably done by rewarding vice than by relieving virtue.
"The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced."

That's a lot of quotes. But it was written in 1889 by Andrew Carnegie, who died in 1919. So, I think I am safe in using them. Besides, I don't need quotes to summarize the essay:
See? Simple.


And from there, I will leave you with my standard stream-of-conciousness (and, oh, so insightful) running remarks:
In the end, though, this was one of those good reads: well worth the time.

Topology
The Rubber Sheet Geometry
Exploring Mathematics on Your Own


Pokemon
Trading Card Game
Evolutions
Collector's Album

Killing Fantasy Trading Card Games One Expansion Pack At A Time
Charmander -> Charmeleon -> Charizard -> Mega Charizard

A Unix* Primer


Pooh's Little Instruction Book


Literature Games


Game of Thrones
George R.R. Martin

I spent ten minutes with the book, which was, perhaps, twenty less than I had expected. To me it is just a book... and not much more. Having come across a free copy, I had thought to read a chapter, but I shall not do, even, that: this having more to do with my being unable to locate a key chapter, as much as anything else. It is very much a He Said, She Said (conversation filled novel). Whereas, I very much want an explanation for it all. But I doubt there shall ever be one.

Don't take it too personally, Mr Martin. Today, I am quite literally going through the books that I thought I might one day read (or read parts of). But realize that, now, I will not. The stack having grown far too large, if nothing else.

How To Take Over Teh Wurld

A LOLCAT Guide 2 Winning

{At this remove, I can no longer remember if 'Teh' is my misspelling or theirs.}

UNIX® System V

User's Reference Manual
1986 AT&T

The Unix System

SR Bourne
© Bell Telephone Laboratories Incorporated

I got through the 3rd Chapter, but stopped before the 4th. I do believe my computer reading heyday is over. Also, just in case you don't recognize the author's name, he's the one who wrote the BASH Shell (a.k.a. the Bourne Again Shell).

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I haven't started recording my reactions to digital books, yet. I don't know that I will. Any project like this changes the experience. And it's useful to keep on sampling a wide range of experiences.

Ha! I lie. The first entry on this page was digital. But I think that was the only one. This, really, is supposed to be a hard-copy reading exercise.

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