An idea whose time has come. And gone.
Your Fast Track to Consecration!
There is a lot of free stuff here. There are jokes and humor, games, and open source software. But the biggest free attraction is the library of free online books.
The library of free online books includes many different kinds of literature: you can read novels online, or short stories, or poetry, or sermons and spirituality, not to mention other creative works. The literature touches on religion and faith, nature and technology, wit and wisdom, and a lot else besides. This is a place where you can read whole books online, and you are invited to read as much as you like!
About: About the author Jonathan Hayward, and this site, which is his pride and joy. Includes a list of What's New?
Book Store: You are welcome to read as much online as you want, but you might also like to curl up with a hardcover book.
Why not read a little more about The Christmas Tales, A Cord of Seven Strands, Firestorm 2034, Hayward's Unabridged Dictionary, The Sign of the Grail, The Steel Orb, or Yonder?
Did I mention you can download FREE eBooks?
Et Cetera: A motley collection of art, games, humor, open source software, web services, and other miscellaneous works.
A Library of Free Online Books to Read: This collection includes Eastern Orthodox Christian theology, philosophy, and literature. It is by far the largest section of this website, and possibly the most interesting!
The library collection includes smaller sections of articles, assorted creations, journals, miscellaneous nonfiction, novels, Orthodox humor, Orthodox spirituality, satire, short stories, and Socratic dialogue. If you're looking for a place to explore, why not begin with one of these links?
The Minstrel's Song: The Christian role playing game.
Site Map: A map of this site. Broken down by subject.
The crowning jewel of this site is A Library of Free Online Books to Read. If you're looking for a place to start, why not start there?
Taking a second look at some of what I wrote
Dear Reader,
Years back, when I was a math grad student, I wrote a short essay entitled, Why study mathematics? The basic thought was connected with the general education math class I was taking, and it is not really an article for why to specialize in mathematics through intensive study, but why a more basic knowledge of math can be a valuable part of liberal arts education. Much like how I taught my class, I did not speak favorably of memorizing formulas—pejoratively called "mindless symbol manipulation" by mathematicians—but spoke of the beauty of the abstractions, the joy of puzzles and problem solving, and even spoke of mathematics as a form of weight lifting for the mind: if you can do math, I said, you can do almost anything. I was sincere in these words, and I believe my obscure little piece captures something that a lot of math students and faculty sensed even if they did not explain their assumption. Since then, there are some things I would say differently. Not exactly that I was incorrect in what I said, but I worked hard to climb a ladder that was leaning against the wrong building.
One famous author in software development, who wrote a big book about "software engineering", had said, "What gets measured gets improved," and began to express second thoughts about his gung-ho enthusiasm for measurement. He didn't exactly take back his words of, "What gets measured gets improved," but he said that the most important things to understand are rarely things that are easy or obvious to measure: the mantra "What gets measured gets improved," is a mantra to ruthlessly optimize things that often are less important than you might think. His second thoughts went further: the words "software" and "engineering" have been joined at the hip, but however hard software developers have tried to claim to be engineers, what they do is very different from engineering: it's an apples and oranges comparison.
I would pretty well stand by the statement that if you can deal with the abstraction in math, you can deal with the abstraction in anything: whether chemistry, analytic philosophy, engineering, or sales, there isn't much out there that will call for more abstract thinking than you learn in math. But to pick sales, for instance, not many people fail in sales because they can't handle the deep abstraction. Sales calls for social graces, the ability to handle rejection, and real persistence, and while you may really and truly learn persistence in math, I sincerely doubt that mathematical training is a sort of industrial strength preparation for social graces and dealing with rejection. And even in engineering, social graces matter more than you might think; it's been said that being good at math gets you in the door, but social influence and effectiveness are what make a real superstar. I would still stand by a statement that if you can handle the abstraction in math, you can probably handle the abstraction in anything else. But I'm somewhat more wary of implying that if you have a mathematical mind, you just have an advantage for everything life may throw at you. That's simply not true.
Read more of An Author's Musing Memoirs: Retrospective Reflections, Retracings, and Retractions, posted Tuesday 19 January, 2010, Theophany.