Good Books
Alexander, Christopher. The Timeless Way of Building. The Oregon Experiment. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. The order of life on earth matches the order of shamayim. Therefore, form that is functional and/or beautiful is a Revelation of immanent Divinity. Therefore, the profound Way of G!d's Creation consists in patterns observable (and applicable) at all levels of all things. It's awfully nice to see an architect understand this. These books are the greatest midrash available in visual language, which is important.
Brand, Stewart. The Whole Earth Catalog, etc. I think Stewart Brand loves tools and building (and list-making!) as much as I do. The Whole Earth Catalog was the counterculture manifesto in a bygone era, but it was also the definition of a new old medium, the humanity-farmer's hypertext almanac, upon which Mishkaneering will depend heavily.
Brand, Stewart. How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built. The beginnings of a language for describing the organic and co-evolutionary life of our dwelling-structures. They're alive! Alive!
The Integral Urban House: Self-Reliant Living In the City. Long out of print, and much sought-after in used book stores (I didn't seek it, I just got lucky), the Farallones Institute published this as an encyclopedia of practical and scientifically-sound information for the inner-urban homesteader, based on their pioneering Integral Urban House project in Berkeley.
MacLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media. Marshall MacLuhan understood how we (could) use tools to build dwelling. His work guides us to assess the proper way of using any tool, and its suitability to the task at hand. While we geek ourselves out on tools, new and old, it couldn't be more important to remember this step.
McDonough, William, and Michael Braungart. Cradle to Cradle. Putting industrialism and environmentalism each in their place. It's not what you expect. No, it is much more imaginative, and delightful.
Plain. A pure medium by and for purists. You can't find Plain on the Internet, or anywhere else electronic. Plain people (Amish, conservative Quakers, etc.) take their choice of tools as seriously as they take their commitment to a communal life in dwelling with G!d. They understand the mechanics, and the soul, of our old technologies (like a mill, or a bucket, or a magazine) better than anyone.
Strassfeld, Michael. The Jewish Catalog: A Do-It-Yourself Kit. R' Strassfeld and family and friends compiled the first adaptation of the Whole Earth Catalog to Jewish life and worship, and launched countless Jews into a crunchy self-possession that we should still hold as a religious ideal.
Schachter-Shalomi, R' Zalman Meshullam. Spiritual Intimacy: A Study of Counseling in Hasidism. Wrapped In a Holy Flame: Teachings and Tales of the Hasidic Masters. R' Zalman's work helps us to see the central social and theological innovations of Chassidic culture, and how they may figure in building a deeply integrated Jewish community.
Winkler, R' Gershon. The Place Where You Are Standing Is Holy: A Jewish Theology on Human Relationships. Community is about relationship. Place is about relationship. It's essential to Mishkaneering to have a language for describing and honoring human relationship, from a theological basis that recognizes how all of our relationships consist in a relationship with Divinity.
