Prime Reading
Preparation for work that may affect the fate of humanity
requires not just technical studies, but a broad, general background in
many fields, and certain basic skills, to provide a social,
philosophic, and historical perspective.
To place order for the book from Amazon.com, click on the A
link beside it.
Basic skills
- A Norman
Lewis, How to Read Better and Faster, New York:
Crowell, 1958, 1990.
- A Rudolf
F. Flesch, How to Write, Speak and Think More Effectively,
New York: Harper, 1960, 1994.
- A Mortimer
J. Adler & Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book,
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972, 1997.
- A William
Strunk & E.B. White, Elements of Style, New
York: Macmillan, 1979, 1995.
- A Joseph
D. Novak & D. Bob Gowin, Learning How to Learn,
New York: Cambridge, 1984.
- A Wayne
A. Wickelgren, How to Solve Problems, San
Francisco: Freeman, 1974.
- A David
R. Beasley, How to Use a Research Library, New
York: Oxford, 1988.
- A Jean
Dane, How to Use a Law Library, Sweet &
Maxwell.
- A Robert
A. Day, How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper,
Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1988.
The Classics
Read most of the works in the set, A Great
Books of the Western World, in order. See document "How to Read the Great Books of the
Western World", which also has additional works by the same
authors.
Philosophy and Religion
- A The
Comparative Study Bible, Grand Rapids: Zonderan, 1984.
- A Willis
Barnstone, The Other Bible, New York:
Harpercollins, 1984.
- A Al-Qur'an
(Koran), tr. Ahmed Ali, Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1984.
- A Bertrand
Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1945.
- A E.D.
Klemke, R. Hollinger & A.D. Kline eds, Introductory
Readings in the Philosophy of Science, Buffalo: Prometheus,
1988.
- A S.I.
Hayakawa, Language in Thought and Action, New York:
Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1978, 1991.
- A A.J.
Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, New York: Dover,
1952; Foundations of Empirical Knowledge, New York:
St. Martins, 1969.
- A Otto
Neurath (Ed.), Rudolf Carnap (Ed.), Charles F. W. Morris (Ed.), International
Encyclopedia of Unified Science, Chicago: U. Chicago Press,
1955.
- A Paul
Tillich, The Courage to Be, New Haven: Yale U.
Press, 1952.
- A D.T.
Suzuki, Manual of Zen Buddhism, New York: Grove,
1960.
History, Biography and Futurics
- A A Arnold
Toynbee, Study of History, Vol. 1-10 abr. D.C.
Somervell, New York: Oxford, 1947-57.
- A Walter
Prescott Webb, The Great Frontier, Austin: U. Tex.
Press, 1964.
- A Carl
Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, New York: Harcourt
Brace, 1954, 1989.
- Bertrand de Jouvenel, The Art of Conjecture,
New York: Basic Books, 1967.
Ecology and Arcology
- A Paul
& Anne Ehrlich, The Population Explosion,
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.
- A Donella
Meadows et al., Limits to Growth,
New York: Universe Press, 1972, 1977.
- A Garrett
De Bell ed, The New Environmental Handbook, San
Francisco: Friends of the Earth, 1980.
- A George
Dantzig & Thomas Saaty, Compact City, San
Francisco: Freeman, 1973.
- A Paolo
Soleri, Arcology: The City in the Image of Man,
Cambridge: MIT Press, 1969.
- A C.R.
Chapman & D. Morrison, Cosmic Catastrophes,
New York: Plenum, 1989.
- A E.O.
Wilson ed, Biodiversity, Washington, DC: Nat. Acad.
Press, 1988.
Government, Law and International Relations
- Clarence Streit, Atlantic
Union Now, Washington, DC: Freedom & Union,
1962.
- A Hans
J. Morgenthau, Politics among Nations, New York:
Knopf, 1967.
- A Ephraim
London ed, World of Law, New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1960.
Mathematics and Logic
- A George
Polya, How to Solve It, Princeton: Princeton U.
Press, 1945, 1988.
- A Rudolf
Carnap, Foundations of Logic and Mathematics,
Chicago: U. Chicago Press, 1939.
- Stephen C. Kleene, Mathematical Logic,
New York: John Wiley, 1967.
- A Martin
Davis, Computability and Unsolvability, New York:
Dover, 1982.
- A Paul
Halmos, Naive Set Theory, New York:
Springer-Verlag, 1974, 1987, and A
Finite-Dimensional Vector Spaces, New York:
Springer-Verlag, 1974.
- A William
R. Scott, Group Theory, Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice-Hall, 1964.
- A Saunders
MacLane & Garrett Birkhoff, Algebra, New
York: Macmillan, 1967.
- Steven A. Gaal, Point-Set Topology, New
York: Academic, 1964.
- A Michel
Gondran & Michel Minoux, Graphs and Algorithms,
New York: Wiley, 1984.
- A M.M.
Rao, Probability Theory with Applications, New
York: Academic, 1984.
- A Robert
D. Luce, Games and Decisions, New York: Wiley, 1957.
- A David
E. Goldberg, Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization and
Machine Learning, Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1989.
- Trenchard More, collected papers on array theory,
Cambridge: IBM, 1978-87. Book hopefully being written.
- A Donald
Gross & Carl M. Harris, Fundamentals of Queueing
Theory, New York: Wiley, 1974.
- A Wayne
Lee, Experimental Design and Analysis, San
Francisco: Freeman, 1975.
Cybernetics and Information Theory
- A John
R. Pierce, An Introduction to Information Theory,
New York: Dover, 1980.
- A Donald
Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Menlo Park,
CA: Addison-Wesley.
- A Bernard
P. Zeigler, Theory of Modeling and Simulation, New
York: Wiley, 1976.
- A Ernest
Davis, Representations of Commonsense Knowledge,
San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 1990.
- A Patrick
Winston, Artificial Intelligence, Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley, 1984, 1992.
- A E.
Goles, Neural and Automata Networks, Boston: Kluwer
Acad., 1990.
- A Judea
Pearl, Heuristics: Intelligent Search Strategies for Computer
Problem-Solving, Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1984.
Physics, Cosmology and Electronics
- A H.A.
Lorentz, A. Einstein, H. Minkowski & H. Weyl, The
Principle of Relativity, New York: Dover, 1950.
- A Richard
Feynman, The Theory of Fundamental Processes, New
York: Addison-Wesley, 1961.
- Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Bernard Diu & Franck Lalo�,
Quantum Mechanics, A Vol.
1, A Vol.
2, New York: Wiley, 1977.
- A H.P.
Robertson & Thomas W. Noonan, Relativity and Cosmology,
Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1969.
- A C.W.
Misner, K.S. Thorne & J.A. Wheeler, Gravitation,
San Francisco: Freeman, 1973.
- Stephen W. Hawking & G.F.R. Ellis, The
Large-Scale Structure of Space-Time, New York: Cambridge,
1973.
- A M.B.
Green, J.H. Schwarz & E. Witten, Superstring Theory,
New York: Cambridge, Vol 1&2 1987, Vol 3 1990.
- A Richard
E. Sonntag, Introduction to Thermodynamics: Classical and
Statistical, New York: Wiley, 1982.
- A D.K.
Arrowsmith & C.M. Place, An Introduction to Dynamical
Systems, New York: Cambridge, 1990.
- A David
Pines, The Many-Body Problem, New York: W.A.
Benjamin, 1962.
- A Vladimir
Z. Kresin, Fundamentals of Superconductivity, New
York: Plenum, 1990.
Molecular Physics, Chemistry and Biology
- A Theodore
Buyana, Molecular Physics, New York: World
Scientific, 1992.
- Geoffrey C. Maitland et al., Intermolecular
Forces, New York: Oxford, 1981.
- Forrest Carter ed, Molecular Electronic Devices,
New York: Marcel Dekker, A I
1982, A II
1987.
- A David
L. Beveridge & William L. Jorgensen eds, Computer
Simulation of Chemical and Biomolecular Systems, New York: NY
Acad. Sci., 1986.
- A Reed
& Kirk ed, Nanostructure Physics and Fabrication,
New York: Academic, 1989.
- F.D. Warner et al., Cell
Movement, A Vol.
1, A Vol.
2, New York: Wiley-Liss, 1989.
- Heinrich, Bauer & Kuchar ed, Physics and
Technology of Submicron Structures, New York: Springer, 1988.
Technology and Space
- A K.
Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation, New York:
Anchor/Doubleday, 1986.
- A Gerard
K. O'Neill, The High Frontier, New York: Morrow,
1977, 1989.
Economics, Management, Society and Cognition
- A Everett
M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, New York: Free
Press, 1983.
- A Leo
Schneiderman, The Psychology of Social Change, New
York: Human Sci. Press, 1988.
- A Fred
Hirsch, Social Limits to Growth, Cambridge: Harvard
U. Press, 1976.
- A Paul
Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis,
Cambridge: Harvard U. Press, 1983.
- A Nicholas
Georgescu-Roegan, The Entropy Law and the Economic Process,
Cambridge: Harvard U. Press, 1971, 1978.
- A Michael
I. Posner, Foundations of Cognitive Science,
Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989.
Further Reading 1
| Further Reading 2
Looking for a book, music album, or video? Order using our
links to Amazon.com beside the item, indicated by an A,
and we get a commission on your purchase. Or if not listed or marked,
use this form to find the item you want: