One Small Shelf

There's a bookcase in our livingroom, a rather small one (the bookcase), another small one in the master bedroom, 4 solid walls (excepting the door and a window) floor to ceiling of book cases in my office upstairs and 2 solid walls of bookcases in my wife's office downstairs, 2 solid walls of bookcases in the guestroom/library. Anyways, this list is the contents of the top shelf in the bookcase in the livingroom.

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Age of Reason
Authors: Thomas Paine
Boolean Algebra and Its Applications (Dover Books on Mathematics)
Authors: J. Eldon Whitesitt
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) by Example
Authors: Steve Callihan
DNS and BIND, Fourth Edition
Authors: Paul Albitz, Cricket Liu
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Authors: Lynne Truss
Egyptian Gods and Goddesses: The Mythology and Beliefs of Ancient Egypt
Authors: Clive Barrett
Fat Cats and Running Dogs
Authors: Vijay Prashad, Vijay Prashad
Foxfire (1 through 11)
Authors: ELIOT WIGGINTON
Getting Results for Dummies
Authors: Mark H. McCormack
High-Tech Heretic : Reflections of a Computer Contrarian
Authors: Clifford Stoll
How to Cheat in Photoshop : The art of creating photorealistic montages
Authors: Steve Caplin
Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Corporate Creativity
Authors: John Kao
JavaScript : The Definitive Guide (Nutshell Handbook)
Authors: David Flanagan
JavaScript Application Cookbook
Authors: Jerry Bradenbaugh
JavaScript Pocket Reference
Authors: David Flanagan
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
Authors: Al Franken
Life and Energy: Non Fiction 1962
Authors: Isaac Asimov
Linksys Networks: The Official Guide, Second Edition
Authors: Kathy Ivens
Linux Install and Configuration Little Black Book: The Must-Have Troubleshooting Guide to Installing and Configuring Linux
Authors: Dee-Ann LeBlanc, Isaac-Hajime Yates
Network+ Exam Cram
Authors: Scott Reeves, Kalinda Reeves
Networking Complete
Authors: Sybex, Sybex Inc.
PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition
Authors: Rasmus Lerdorf
Perl 5 Pocket Reference
Authors: Johan Vromans
Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
Authors: Gore Vidal
Profiles of the Future
Authors: Arthur C. Clarke
Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution
Authors: Glyn Moody
Rescuing Prometheus: Four Monumental Projects That Changed the Modern World
Authors: THOMAS P. HUGHES
SQL for Dummies
Authors: Allen G. Taylor
Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes
Authors: Ben Forta
The Cathedral & the Bazaar
Authors: Eric S. Raymond
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction
Authors: the writers of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart
The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla (The Lost Science Series)
Authors: Nikola Tesla, David H. Childress
The Federalist Papers
Authors: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, Clinton Rossiter, Charles R. Kesler
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
Authors: H.W. BRANDS
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Authors: Mitch Albom
The Photoshop 7 Wow! Book
Authors: Jack Davis
The Pinball Effect : How Renaissance Water Gardens Made Carburetor Possible - and Other Journeys
Authors: James Burke
The Soul of a New Machine
Authors: TRACY KIDDER
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
Authors: Thomas L. Friedman
Theory I: The Methodology for Success
Authors: Clifford I. Sears
Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals
Authors: Niall Ferguson Picador
When Religion Becomes Evil
Authors: Charles Kimball
When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden: What the Government Should Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism
Authors: Bill Maher
Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
Authors: Spencer Johnson
Working With Active Server Pages
Authors: Michael Corning, Steve Elfanbaum, David Melnick

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And no, I have a life and didn't just type these in - I pulled the list out of a database I keep.
They are on the shelf not because they are important, quite the reverse, they are on the shelf because I'm too lazy to move them back to the offices and update the database.
With all these books, I wouldn't have a life without the database.

When I was young my father told me to buy a tool every payday, after I filled 3 tool boxes with stuff I never used, I turned to books.
When the power goes out, the cable doesn't work, the ISP goes down, I've got all sorts of stuff at my fingertips everything from Ice Age art to setting bones, from interfacing microprocessors to castrating goats.
I've read them all at least once (with the exception of those that are pure reference like the thesaurus) and a short list of them I make sure I re-read at least once a year (the bible every other year, it's just not that good a read).
I don't have the full contents of each one in my head, just the jest of most of them, that's all I need in most cases, after all I can always go back to the book - I own it.

There should be something on this list -someone- visiting this blog has read, this one small shelf.