Books that Aaron Swartz read, loved and hated

I don&#x27;t think my intense fascination with Aaron&#x27;s life will ever fade away.<p>Sometime back, I thought of reading through his entire blog and came across his year-end reading lists wherein he would list anywhere from 70-140 books read in that particular year.<p>Because all these books were linked to books.theinfo.org (which is not alive), I decided to put it into a shelf where I could add them to my reading list and access them directly.<p>This is my very small attempt at spreading the sheer magic of Aaron&#x27;s curiosity.<p>Currently, I have been able to add books from 2006, 06, 08 and 10. Its a work-in-progress.

Is MIT&#x27;s recent disobedience award a tacit apology to Aaron, unrelated, or a cynical attempt to change perception about MIT? One would expect Aaron to posthumously receive the first award if the intent were sincere.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.media.mit.edu&#x2F;disobedience&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.media.mit.edu&#x2F;disobedience&#x2F;</a>

Is this another cynical list of books that is reaping clicks for Amazon Affiliate bucks?

I read Chomsky&#x27;s Understanding Power on Aaron&#x27;s recommendation [1]. I found it equally transformative.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aaronsw.com&#x2F;weblog&#x2F;epiphany" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aaronsw.com&#x2F;weblog&#x2F;epiphany</a>

Google Cache version: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;webcache.googleusercontent.com&#x2F;search?q=cache:http:&#x2F;&#x2F;shelfjoy.com&#x2F;shelfjoy&#x2F;all-the-books-aaron-swartz-loved-hated-wrote-and-blogged-about" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;webcache.googleusercontent.com&#x2F;search?q=cache:http:&#x2F;&#x2F;...</a>

I recently read Infinite Jest, and while I loved all the micro-essays and commentary, prose, and most of the characters&#x27; stories, the ending was a big &quot;WTF.&quot;<p>So I Googled &#x27;Infinite Jest Ending&quot; to try and figure it out. Lo and behold, Aaron Swartz had written one of the best theories I was able to find, and while he&#x27;s making a few assumptions about DFW&#x27;s intent, it does help close the loop a bit.<p>Lots of spoilers, so I don&#x27;t recommend reading this if you plan on reading the book anytime soon:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aaronsw.com&#x2F;weblog&#x2F;ijend" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aaronsw.com&#x2F;weblog&#x2F;ijend</a>

It is interesting how someone who read so much can have so few, if any, books in common with me (who reads around 50-70% as much as Swartz does in a year). There&#x27;s really a ton of books out there for everyone :-)

Really disappointed to see this flagged.

I always wanted something like this. Just love the website.Awesome design and the site is well made. :)

I have written a script to compile all his blog posts into a .mobi ebook if anyone is interested<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;tienthanh8490&#x2F;aaronsw" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;tienthanh8490&#x2F;aaronsw</a>