Oh jeez, this'll be tough. I'll start by saying that Tom Robbins "Still Life with Woodpecker" inspired me in the post-undergraduate world greatly. http://www.amazon.com/Still-Life-Woodpecker-Tom-Robbins/dp/0... (http://www.amazon.com/Still-Life-Woodpecker-Tom-Robbins/dp/0553348973) Leaving college with such powerful to convictions of social evolution, scientific pragmatism, and the power of Art as a mental practice left me with some hard facets of reality to contend with. This is the struggle of one of the the main characters, Leigh-Cheri. She is a wide eyed idealist who is thoroughly disenfranchised with the way the systems in the world abuse and exploit people. She meets a mad-bomber outlaw named Woodpecker, a revolutionary with bordering mythical aspirations. Their affair is a wild journey of growth as characters and citizens, not of a royal bloodline or America, but of Earth and the ideas, and actions, which make this world a vibrantly beautiful place. Most important book of the year for me, with close runners up: "The Nature of Code" by Daniel Shiffman. Excellent book on simulation of the natural, chaotic world in the Processing programming language.…
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