Well guilt persuaded me to throw out a quick and nasty diary. I just havent managed to finish the more weighty ones that are in the works. part of it was an "I've never managed to get one together before" anxiety so hopefully the more lightweight one will release the blockage so the others can come out in the next couple of days.

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.

In search of the first civilisations by Michael Wood is a great primer on ancient times.

Dancing : Fear and Desire by Stavros Stavrou Karayanni.
Ostensibly a book about greek dance it is a wide ranging treatise on greek religious and political history and international relations. How the presentation of art matters in terms of how a culture understands itself and how art is changed to reflect changes in cultural presentation.

Holy Blood and the Holy Grail / Messianic legacy : Although you need to ignore all of the stuff about two thousand year old conspiracies, everything about the politics around the creation of the Bible and the persecution of the Cathars is fascinating.

keep to the Fen Causeway

Oh dear.  Institutions actually exist in order to make all the of the knowledge in the world available to you.  Research libraries.  You don't need or want one in your home.  

I suggest you focus on the things which truly interest you and go to town.  Lack of discrimination in subject areas will present a serious problem for visitors to your home: how to judge you according to your books!  I see a lot of personal libraries in my line of work.  Take the man who fanatically collected 19th Century children's books and limited editions of raunchy French tales.  Ew.  

Personal libraries are as individual as the people who have them.  If you need to learn how to sail, you go to the library you pay taxes or tuition for.  If you become a sailor and find you like it, you begin acquiring books that nurture and reflect your passion for it.  Then people will say, "Oh, that ceebs, he has a nautical streak in him, that one."  But a few how to books on sailing and people will think goodness knows what about you.  Maybe you had a weird gift-giving seadog uncle or short-lived affair with a sailor. Who knows?  

A library should be cultivated like a garden.  What to plant?  Well, what do you like to consume?

You see, there is a difference between reading a book for information and acquiring it for all eternity.  I dare say most of us here will read about anything we can get our hands on.  But what to own?  We all have lines we draw for that.  Something I think everyone should have?  Grrr.  That's one of the things I absolutely despise about religion.  The idea that like it or not, everyone should have a Bible or Koran, for reference's sake at the least.  uhg.

Ok, all that said, you do have a copy of Leaves of Grass, right? ;)  

"This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."

Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know

an A to Z of war crimes, what is and isn't illegal and how those laws havew been applied in the real world.

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.

is a sort of library list of personal sets of recommendations for introducing/advanced books on topics - I already have made some recommends here and there on ET concerning earth sciences topics, mostly ranging to the "popular science" sort. If the responses here are numerous, perhaps they could be collected as a set of different inputs, put in a spreadsheet and make it available on the ET website for future reference.

Unfortunately, I had to leave most of my collection in the Netherlands so I'll have to google around for author and correct titles.

Two then, by head.

"Annals of the Former World - John McPhee
A masterpiece, but unfortunately heavily focussed on the geology in the USA - interesting as it is!

Snowball Earth - Gabrielle Walker
An okay but slightly uncritical book detailing the theory that the earth was wholly covered in ice once - although there have  recently been published strong indications this cannot be the case. "Slushball" Earth (the earth largely covered by ice but with some open water) remains standing.

I'm going to stifle myself and only recommend one book A Concise Introduction to Logic by Hurley.

Yes, it's a text book.  And the price of the most recent edition will gag a goat.  but if you really want to learn the fundamentals of Logic this is it.  Also, Logic really doesn't change on a yearly basis so buy an older edition, I bought a brand-spanking new copy of the sixth edition for a buck.  

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

I think that anyone concerned about key issues of our times -- e.g., global warming -- should have several books on the shelf re this subject.

Two, perhaps:

• End of Nature:  Bill McKibben.  From 1990 but well written ...

• Something by Amory Lovins -- perhaps Natural Capitalism ...

These are two items both worth reading ...

Blogging regularly at Get Energy Smart. NOW!!!

Nigel Barley.. all his books.. from the first to the last one.. It is all I look for ina library... or anywhere I go... If they are there.. it is a worthy palce.. if not... I run away.

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

I'm with poemless on the book issue.

Do you really want to be crushed by the weight of your books?

However, I nominate Karl Polanyi's Great Transformation

The book's much cheaper on the American site though.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

I'm on a simplify stage, where I think of getting rid of books that I never look at.  Having internet, I can find any information I want and I can always use the public library.

Before crossing the pond I gave away a lot of books and even what I kept is too much.  I will keep reference books, textbooks and few others that have really made an impact.  They take too much space and are a pain to clean.

Let's hope everything gets digitalized.

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. --Charu Saxena.