So what is everyone reading?

Buffy · #**391** (**permalink**) 07-23-2008

"I Was Told There'd Be Cake" by Sloane Crosley....although for some of it I think you really have to have spent time in Manhattan to get, and its really just "essays," its a fun and easy read....good for the beach...

as I stood there waiting for my train, I felt my understanding and empathy for my fellow New Yorkers swell like a big glowing orb of Care Bears and butterfly kisses....I smiled at people holding my same subway pole, and they smiled back...we're all just doing our best to help each other out, motivated not by karma but by a natural instinct to aid the greater whole, one stray clothing tag at a time,

Buffy

Pyrotex · #**392** (**permalink**) 07-29-2008

I found an old hardback on my shelf that I didn't know I had. John Brunner's Total Eclipse. What the hell, so I started reading it.

I had forgotten how literate Brunner was. He was an excellent writer, with a flair for words and metaphors. He was even good at characterization. And in this one, he was brilliant at MYSTERY.

Mankind has one and only one starship, capable of trucking 10 people and their supplies. After visiting a dozen disapointing star systems, they found a planet around Sigma Draconis that had ruins. An incredible techno civilization had lived there 100,000 years ago. They lived for 3,000 years and then went completely extinct. There was no war, no natural disaster.

Thirty people have been dumped on the planet to solve the mystery. What happened to the Draconians? And they don't have forever to solve it, because Earth isn't doing too well, and that one and only starship may not return.

Perhaps the reason for the Draconian extinction may help save Earth from a similar fate. And then again, maybe not!

Monomer · #**393** (**permalink**) 07-29-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyrotex

I found an old hardback on my shelf that I didn't know I had. John Brunner's Total Eclipse. What the hell, so I started reading it.

I had forgotten how literate Brunner was. He was an excellent writer, with a flair for words and metaphors. He was even good at characterization. And in this one, he was brilliant at MYSTERY.

Mankind has one and only one starship, capable of trucking 10 people and their supplies. After visiting a dozen disapointing star systems, they found a planet around Sigma Draconis that had ruins. An incredible techno civilization had lived there 100,000 years ago. They lived for 3,000 years and then went completely extinct. There was no war, no natural disaster.

Thirty people have been dumped on the planet to solve the mystery. What happened to the Draconians? And they don't have forever to solve it, because Earth isn't doing too well, and that one and only starship may not return.

Perhaps the reason for the Draconian extinction may help save Earth from a similar fate. And then again, maybe not!

That sounds interesting Pyrotex. I'm always on the lookout for a really engaging book so maybe this one will be next on the list.

I've just started reading Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 by Charles Murray.

asimon2008 · #**394** (**permalink**) 08-22-2008

I'm about to read The Lost Book of Enki for my Brit Lit class.

Jet2 · #**395** (**permalink**) 08-28-2008

[SPIN]
[SPIN]

Sheer imagination? I think it's quite fascinating.

Nitack · #**396** (**permalink**) 08-28-2008

Physics for Future Presidents
Saw it first here on the homepage as news.

So far, really digging the book. He is breaking down a lot of heavy material into scenarios and examples that anyone can understand. Just got through the terrorism part (first few chapters), now getting into the chapter i am really interested in, Energy.

Pyrotex · #**397** (**permalink**) 08-28-2008

I'm still trying to read through "Our Undiscovered Universe" -- of which I was given a free $60 copy in return for a review.

Painful. The first two chapters are more philosophy than physics, but garrishly decorated with esoteric equations, like 1 cubed divided by infinity cubed. And that equation is supposed to define the structure of the Universe.

God, this kind of pseudo-scientific babble makes my head hurt. More than that--it makes my heart hurt to realize that many of my fellow human beings want so desparately to live in a fantasy world that requires no great effort or intellect to understand. So, I plod on one page at a time. What a waste.

Buffy · #**398** (**permalink**) 08-28-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyrotex

God, this kind of pseudo-scientific babble makes my head hurt.

I've been working my way through Penrose's "Road to Reality" and although it looks intimidating (1000 pages in paperback with lots of math!), its actually quite delightful.

My daughter is starting Algebra this week, and I held up the book, holding the first 8 chapters (about 150 pages) and said to her, "you could save your time, just this part will take you all the way through the next 7 years of high school and college math..."

He *tries* to make it all simple, but of course you do need at least some memory of algebra to have it make sense. The thing I've loved the most is for those of us who've actually *taken* all this math, he's got this wonderful storyline that makes it all hang together (around complex numbers no less): that's always been one of my main complaints about the atrocious way that math has always been taught! They never tell you how all the pieces fit together!

You could even gleen from this book why $1^3=1$ , something that's apparently not obvious to the "author" of the "book" that Pyro is torturing himself by reading!

I haven't gotten to the Physics section yet, but I doubt I'll see him dividing by infinity....

No doubt there are some who, when confronted with a line of mathematical symbols, however simply presented, can see only the stern face of a parent or teacher who tried to force into them a non-comprehending parrot-like apparent competence--a duty, and a duty alone--and no hint of the magic or beauty of the subject might be allowed to come through,

Buffy