Cappy started a new site called New Height Books.  New Height Books serves as a comprehensive collection of Romantic Realist Literature and Rational Nonfiction. The purpose is to find authors and books (explicitly Objectivist or not) that meet Ayn Rand’s definition of Romantic Realism in any branch of literature. At New Height Books both those new to Romantic Realism who are looking for titles beyond Ayn Rand, and those who, like us, canvas bookstores and libraries searching for another heroic story can find what they are looking for.

What’s really cool about this site is not just the vast database of romantic realist literature that Cappy has found, but the ability for other users to add literature/movies to the database, rate the selections and write reviews. There are tons of RSS feeds as well, so you can sign up for a specific category with your feed reader and be the first to be notified about new additions to the collection.

If you have any questions, or have suggestions for improvement, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment on this post (Cappy lurks here occasionally). Spread the word! I’d like to make this a popular site for rational minded individuals who enjoy romantic realism. Don’t be shy! Write a review or post a new book.

I started writing this post as a criticism of Google’s “Do no evil” policy (when they are clearly doing evil with their blind support of government regulation) but wrestled with myself to write something positive rather than negative.

I recently read a book that got me thinking about self-improvement. Once I am finished with this book I will be sure to post it here. This book reminded me about some books I read before I got heavily into philosophy and the effect they had on me. One of these books was called Think and Grow Rich. This book was written by Napoleon Hill who was a student of Dale Carnegie. Dale Carnegie wrote a lot of self-motivational books like How To Stop Worrying and Start Living, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and The Leader in You. All of these books had the same basic theme: the way you think effects the people you attract, and the people you attract effect the way you think. It’s a very base form of understanding how the human mind works, but I think these books truly did effect my thinking pattern from about 18 years old and on. I didn’t take full advantage of thinking positively until recently and I think that is due to my lack of understanding behind what makes positive thinking produce positive results. I forgot about what I learned from those shoebox philosophy type self-help books.

If you have been a reader of this blog for awhile, you have seen times when I am passionate about spreading my ideas, both in a positive light and a negative light. For awhile I attracted most of my readers by publishing rants and raves against those who I disagreed with. For example, you all know that I hate collectivists and am the first to point out any political policy that violates individual rights. I am fueled to write more of these rants, due to the increased feedback I get. I think the fuel of interaction with like minded individuals, and the intellectual crushing of my opponents gave me a quick and exhilarating feeling that caused me to continue down the path of publishing negative articles. Another example is my atheism and disgust of those who still believe in god. Instead of having disgust in those who choose faith over reason, I should have focused more on promoting reason rather than sticking a stick in a hornets nest of irrational people. Since then I have slowly started to be more motivated with the spread of good ideas rather than the dissemination of harsh criticisms against my opponents. This new motivation is not fueled by those who comment on my posts, but rather the extra energy and motivation I feel when I am speaking positively about my ideas, and leaving negative criticisms of others’ ideas out of the equation. I also find that more positive people begin to enter my life when I promote my good ideas. Now they certainly don’t come in the numbers that my ranting negative posts drew, but I’d rather take quality over quantity.

I think many people have a tendency to get into the bad habit of spending too much time fighting against their opponents rather than simply spreading the ideas that they think are right. The Internet has proven to be a breeding ground of angry, malicious people who are not interested in the spread of ideas. I’m not saying that it is wrong to expose your philosophical opponents for what they are, I am just saying that you will benefit more if you focus on your own ideas and let them speak for themself. If you focus on the good parts of your life (the virtues) then you will attract people who have the same positive outlook as you and you will spread your ideas much more quickly through positive, motivated people than through negative, self destructive people.

So I’m going to start to practice being more positive about my ideas, rather than negative about those who do not hold my ideas. This may not generate the buzz and comment wars that I am used to, but I am really not interested anymore in feeling so angry.