Steven Pinker, Could a computer ever be conscious?
Steven Pinker, The mystery of consciousness (optional, but relevant!)
SBCL Lisp tutorial by Gene Kim
There are many other Lisp introductions online, e.g., see Philip Fong's (FU) 4-part Lisp tutorial. But don't take too much time looking at the options -- take a hands-on approach using one of the suggested primers, working directly under alisp on the UG network.
Some good Common Lisp texts and further tutorials include Wilensky, Common LISPcraft (Norton); or Peter Seibel, Practical COMMON LISP, Apress, 2005. These are excellent texts for learning Lisp. But see also the very good text by Peter Norvig, Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming; the Indiana University Lisp Primer; the collaboratively developed Common Lisp Cookbook; and "Cliki", the Common Lisp Tutorial Wiki for some additional useful quick introductions.
Representing knowledge symbolically
Here is McDermott's discussion of natural language processing
Here are some Supplementary notes on McDermott's Ch.2 concerning language and thought.
And here is a general discussion of the meaning, significance, and methods of natural language processing
S. Vere & T. Bickmore, A Basic Agent. (Alternatively, Online Wiley version, if you have access)
Vere & Bickmore's Homer as a self-aware agent.
Daphne Liu, Self-motivated
cognitive agent framework (slides); these slides are generally sufficient for gaining an understanding of Gridworld;
for clarification of any points that are unclear, consult the supplementary reading below.
Liu & Schubert, "Toward self-motivated, cognitive, continually planning agents"; Wiley website; this is supplementary reading
McDermott (ch.2, pp. 29-39), Game playing
McDermott (ch.2, pp. 47-64), Computer vision and robotics
McDermott (ch.3, pp. 93-136) A Computational Theory of Consciousness