Nancy Hicks Maynard, a former policy reporter for The New York Times and former co-publisher of The Oakland Tribune, is a new media maven.
Living Without a Goal, by James A. Ogilvy. "This book offers a way of thinking about how we go forward in an uncertain world. For instance, rather than having big G-goals, we should have little-g goals."
First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton, by David Maraniss. "I try to read all the books on the administration that's in power. I find it important to have a perspective between elections on the administration and on politicians, and to have a way of calibrating in my own mind."
Pedro Meyer's groundbreaking I Photograph to Remember CD-ROM inspired many traditional photographers, such as Rick Smolan, to explore the digital medium. Meyer's latest CD-ROM, Truths and Fictions (see Wired 3.08, page 145), looks at the art's ethical and artistic implications.
The Adventures of Maqroll: Four Novellas, by Alvaro Mutis. "Have you ever listened to the song of the crickets underneath a mango tree as the strong humid smell of the surrounding vegetation inundates your senses? That is how I feel when I read literature like this."
When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals, by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy. "I found the authors' questioning of the reasoning used by the scientific community a healthy approach. Such skepticism is what we need as we move forward with our technologies and creative projects in the digital domain."
Digital biologist Tom Ray applied evolution, self-replication, and genetics to computers - and created a digital organism. See "Viruses Are Good for You" (Wired 3.02, page 126).
The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston. "I was intrigued by its theme of the origin of new human viruses from tropical rainforests. I believe that the expanding human population is making itself a target, and we will see more new viruses switch to human hosts in the near future."
The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson. "I enjoyed the idea of nanotechnological science fiction. This was much better than Snow Crash."
The New Read-Aloud Handbook, by Jim Trelease. "The main theme of this book is that the greatest correlation with literacy is being read aloud to as a child. This may seem old-fashioned in the digital age, but I am not ready to abandon the book."
Crypto-martyr Phil Zimmermann, creator of the widely used Pretty Good Privacy encryption program, is a hero to Net users but a criminal to the US government. (See "Cypher Wars" Wired 2.11, page 129.)
You Just Don't Understand, by Deborah Tannen. "Because she is a socio-linguist, she tends to view differences as rooted in sociology rather than biology. I think of these as more biologically derived, but her descriptions of these differences are right on target."
The Blind Watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins. "This book and the others in his insightful trilogy have probably had the most impact on my scientific worldview."
STREET CRED
Tales of TinseltownBig Brother Calling
A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief
A Day in the Life of Teen Chat
REAdME On the bookshelves of the digerati
