I know that part of the world, and it rings true in World Made by Hand. This makes the changes involved in society all the more real to me. Well worth reading: what it says is that, dark though the years ahead might be, it will not be all bad.

I am a huge fan of Roger Angell's writing on baseball (and have blogged on same). It's a pity he is winding down — I'd have loved to have seen the 1990s in the same detail as in his other books.

Interesting concept, the idea of milder forms of the major DSM4 psychological illnesses, but the authors are big believers in better living through pharmaceuticals.

I've been following Florida's "Creative Class Exchange" blog for a while now and have read his other works on the creative class.

One of my top three influences, philosophically.

The first of four books on how evil is perceived. Careful reading of this volume rewards the reader with a better understanding of how much society has changed: it is thoroughly in the Spenglerian view of civilizations as self-contained thought patterns.

The second part of Russell's series of four books on the personification of evil. Few people realize just how dualistic Christianity was at its core (and how this keeps coming back into the West, which was not dualistic).

The third part of Russell's quadrology on evolving ideas of evil. Careful reading shows how many mediaeval antecedents are a part of modern society.

Russell's four part series on the evolution of the idea of the devil is a satisfactory look at how much we need to find an external adversary rather than face ourselves.

Capital! The look backward and forward through geologic time helped make the big picture even clearer.