Reading
The reading list collects the works that the practice draws on — books, essays, and films that align with the doctrine of repair, the commons of pattern, and the slow craft of keeping things usable. The list is curated, not exhaustive. Each entry stands on its own; nothing here is required reading.
This is a living document. The entries below are the initial six from the information architecture §5 list; full annotations are pending — the reading list earns its place only when each entry explains why it belongs. Where the Internet Archive holds a borrowable or streamable copy, the title links there; titles without links are not yet on archive.org.
The list
- Shop Class as Soulcraft — Matthew B. Crawford. 2009. A philosopher-turned-motorcycle-mechanic’s case for the manual trades as morally and intellectually serious work.
- The Right to Repair — Aaron Perzanowski. 2022. A legal history of how manufacturers came to control post-sale ownership, and what right-to-repair movements are trying to reclaim.
- Free Software, Free Society — Richard M. Stallman. 2002. Collected essays on the four freedoms and the philosophy behind the GNU project.
- The Soul of a New Machine — Tracy Kidder. 1981. Reportage on the small Data General team that built the Eagle minicomputer through eighteen-hour days and steady burnout.
- The Gift — Lewis Hyde. 1983. An argument that art operates in a gift economy distinct from market exchange, and what is lost when commodity logic absorbs creative labor.
- The Real World of Technology — Ursula M. Franklin. 1989. Massey Lectures distinguishing “holistic” from “prescriptive” technologies and tracing how the latter reshape social relations.
How the list grows
Additions are proposed by amendment, the same way other doctrine is amended. A new entry should name why it belongs alongside the others — what practice it serves, what it asks of the reader. Entries are not removed once added; they may be marked as superseded or out of print, but the record stays.
Companion lists — /library/repair (repair resources) and /library/links (the broader commons we depend on) — sit alongside this one.