' Books Ron Read

Books Ron Read


Favourite books

Read a short list of my favourite books and authors, or visit Powell's, where I maintain a more detailed bookshelf of favourites, available for purchase.

Books read, by year

The index is a little skimpy so far, but I have records going back almost 20 years, so I'll be putting them up bit by bit.

If you click on a book title in the index, it will sometimes take you to a page where you can buy the book, although sometimes I have linked to an information page, in the case of books that aren't generally available. Similarly, if you click on an author's name, the link will take you to a page where you can buy books by that author.

Although I have had to be creative with books that are not readily available (such as self-published or small-press books, or books in Esperanto), usually the purchasing links will point to the online home of the brick-and-mortar Powell's City of Books, in Portland, Oregon.

Note of May 2003: After creating many purchasing links for individual books and seeing little return, I have discontinued the practice of creating such links, at least temporarily. However, since I am still a Powell's affiliate, you can still support this family of websites by using the search form at the bottom of the page to buy books. When you buy a book from Powell's that you have found through my pages, I will receive 10% of the purchase price. The money I receive will go toward improving this site and my other websites.

Why Powell's?

There are many affiliate programs out there on the Web. You may be wondering why I chose to become a Powell's affiliate rather than, say, an Amazon affiliate (and maybe you're also wondering why you should buy from Powell's rather than other booksellers on the web).

 

Stop typing amazon.com.
Start typing noamazon.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
  1. First, I rejected Amazon immediately because of their despicable One-Click web patent. The Free Software Foundation has the story of the boycott, and noamazon.com is another good clearinghouse for information about it.

  2. I rejected Barnes & Noble because their brick-and-mortar stores are the Walmart of bookstores; they move into a neighbourhood and muscle out all the booksellers that were peacefully doing business there for years, leaving only themselves with their huge piles of discounted bestsellers. Yecch. (Furthermore, a year or two ago, they tried to buy Ingram, the largest book distributor in the U.S. They were fortunately slammed by antitrust legislation, but they still have monopoly aspirations and are, therefore, evil.)


  3. I rejected Borders for similar reasons.


  4. I considered Booksense.com, a hub of independent booksellers that are fighting back against the mega-chains. You might want to check them out on general principle. Close examination of their policies, however, convinced me they could not deliver books in a timely way; ordering from them is little better than ordering a book directly at a local bookstore, and you know how long that takes. Not a good use of the Web at all.


  5. Finally, my clever and wonderful wife Marty (who edited this and didn't take that part out) suggested Powell's. I wasn't sure that they had an affiliate program, but they do, and it's great. Powell's offers 10% commission on the sale price, the best I've seen by far (comparable programs from Amazon and the like run in the 5 to 7% range). They don't restrict whether you can link to other businesses on the same page, either (most other affiliate programs do). That shows me they respect their affiliates; I find the other way of doing things abominably restrictive.

    Best of all, I can thoroughly endorse Powell's as an institution. It's one of the wonders of the modern literary world: a four-story bookstore that takes up an entire city block in Portland, Oregon. The largest new-and-used bookstore in the world, they have almost every book you could ever want to read (although I have stumped them a few times). Their stock has the same order of magnitude as that of Amazon or any other major online bookseller, but you can browse it in person. I have been there many times, and it is a must-visit for book lovers coming to the Pacific Northwest.

Why did I make this page?

I started these pages at the suggestion of author and Net pundit Richard Seltzer. Like him, I've kept a list of almost every book I've read for most of my life. People tell me I have interesting taste in reading material, where "interesting" is sometimes pronounced "er, interesting". Perhaps if you enjoy my other pages, you'll enjoy a tour of the places my reading takes me. Pick up some of the books yourself and come along. Drop me a line if you enjoy my recommendations and let's talk.

What if legislators who passed unconstitutional laws were fined or imprisoned? Think about it.

Ron's Info-Closet

I am a CREW Signatory.

Ron Hale-Evans rwhe@ludism.org