http://irregularbooks.com the word unbound Wed, 09 Mar 2011 01:34:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A few weeks ago, Susan Landau of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and author of the book Surveillance or Security? The Risks Posed by New Wiretapping Technologies, attended a congressional hearing on law enforcement's increasing surveillance powers... ironically held just after Congress voted to extend the ... http://irregularbooks.com/2011/03/08/surveillance-or-security/ Much of the most important information about the Patriot Act cannot be found in books. For example, there's the report out from the Electronic Frontier Foundation just a few weeks ago resulting from a search through a huge stack of documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. ... http://irregularbooks.com/2011/02/17/reading-the-patriot-act/ In 1953, the Garrard Publishing Company released a book entitled Far East Stories For Pleasure Reading, written by Edward Dolch, Marguerite Dolch and Beulah Jackson. In this book, a chapter called The Maker of Puppets features a tale that is remarkably like Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle. The main character ... http://irregularbooks.com/2010/03/21/indonesian-rip-van-winkle/ Irregular Parents who want to go beyond the Sandra Boynton realm of books every kid gets from Barnes and Noble can seek out a used copy of The Earth Is Good, ISBN 0590350102, written by Michael Demunn, who works with the Finger Lakes Land Trust, and Illustrated by Jim McMullan. This ... http://irregularbooks.com/2010/03/04/the-earth-is-good-is-good/ The defining line from How To Be A Bad Birdwatcher, by Simon Barnes: "Looking at birds is a key: it opens doors, and if you choose to go through them you find you enjoy life more and understand life better." As I read it, How To Be A Bad Birdwatcher isn't ... http://irregularbooks.com/2010/03/03/being-a-bad-birdwatcher/ In this video, author Max Blumenthal, who covers the Religious Right, discusses a fundamental resource for thoughtful progressives: The True Believer by Eric Hoffer. Another discussion of The True Believer: http://irregularbooks.com/2009/12/16/max-blumenthal-on-eric-hoffer/ If you're looking for something truly irregular to read, let me suggest the Ozark Howler comic book. A surfer from Santa Barbara gets sent off to the Ozark Mountains, which seems like a curse enough. Then, however, he discovers that he's inherited a curse from his father. ... http://irregularbooks.com/2009/03/12/ozark-howler/ A couple years ago, I found the web site of the Progressive Book Club, only to find that the PBC wasn't actually up and running. It was only in the planning stages. I signed up to get updates by email, but I never got any email announcing the ... http://irregularbooks.com/2009/03/02/pbc-on/ In January of 2009, religious author Clemens Sedmak will have a new book released for sale. It's called "Religious Intelligence: Developing Religious Literacy in a Secular World". Introducing the concept of the book, publicity materials state, "This book offers an exploration of religious intelligence in an era where ... http://irregularbooks.com/2008/08/11/religious-intelligent/ In the waning days of summer, as the weight of September comes near, my mind turns to the weird of the world. Here's a summertime wish list of weird books: - Exploring the Supernatural: the weird in Canadian Folklore - Weird Tales from Northern Seas - The Book of Weird - Wyllard's Weird - ... http://irregularbooks.com/2008/08/09/weird-summer-reading/