What are you reading?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

What books are you reading now?

 

Doesn't matter what kind, what subject, whatever. It'll just be fun to see what everyone's reading. I'd certainly like to get more reading material in.

 

I'll start: I'm currently starting The Blind Watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins, as I'm currently writing a report discussing evolution and I spotted it in the library while doing research.

[Xittenn]

I am finally starting to read my Physical Chemistry book I bought six months ago... It covers quantum entanglement and analogue quantum computing, quite excited!

 

Physical Chemistry

Engel & Reid

[A Tripolation]

I'm trying to get through T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" (as a challenge) and for my for-fun-reading, I started on Clive Barker's The Thief of Always. Next on my list is The Venetian Betrayal, and I so just chose it because of its title.

 

IRC Edit:

I hate you Capn.

Mute that.

Edited November 17, 2009 by A Tripolation

[devrimci_kürt]

Elif Şafak

Aşk (The Forty Rules of Love)

[Klaynos]

Some slightly dull fiction book... and A Treatise on electricity and magnetism by James Clerk Maxwell, it's quite interesting if a little odd "whatever electricity turns out to be" is probably my favorite quote.

[ajb]

Some slightly dull fiction book... and A Treatise on electricity and magnetism by James Clerk Maxwell, it's quite interesting if a little odd "whatever electricity turns out to be" is probably my favorite quote.

 

There was a first edition in the mathematics library at Manchester. When they moved buildings some physics books got left behind and were free for the taking. Someone has the copy.

 

I imagine it is quite a hard book to read, given our developments since including mathematical notation.

[ydoaPs]

What books are you reading now?

 

Doesn't matter what kind, what subject, whatever. It'll just be fun to see what everyone's reading. I'd certainly like to get more reading material in.

 

I'll start: I'm currently starting The Blind Watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins, as I'm currently writing a report discussing evolution and I spotted it in the library while doing research.

 

Awesome book. I tried to buy The Greatest Show on Earth, but the Barnes & Noble here doesn't carry it.

[chitrangda]

I'm finially done with "Two states" n started "lost symbols".will soon start a book on Robotics, but still confused on which one to take as it will be the first time i'll be reading a book on that topic. so any suggestion??

[DJBruce]

Currently I am reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, A Divine Comedy: Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Excursions in Number Theory by Stanley Ogilvy.

 

After I finish one of these I will probably move on the The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli or The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows by Gabor Boritt.

 

By the way can anyone suggest any other number theory books?

[Lifeson]

Medical Virology by Fenner and White. The first edition. Found it in the college library and saw that it hadn't been checked out in 13 years probably has something to do with the lack of a medical program on campus...

[iNow]

Awesome book. I tried to buy The Greatest Show on Earth, but the Barnes & Noble here doesn't carry it.

That's ridiculous. Are you sure they weren't just out of stock?

[bascule]

I've begun reading (for the second time, because I didn't finish it the first time) The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.

 

This book is one of the progenators of the whole idea of "steampunk", and posits an alternate past in which Charles Babbage managed to bring on the computer revolution in the 19th century through the use of "engines", mechanical computers.

[Dr Fell]

literature of the ancient egyptians by Wallis Budge & from fetish to god by Wallis Budge, the first is used to reference the second

[bascule]

I've finished The Difference Engine, which was, well... a good read, albeit strange.

 

I'm now reading The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson, my second Stephenson book after Snow Crash. It's a story about how the advent of molecular nanotechnology will affect the word, sort of like a fictional future based on Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation.

[AzurePhoenix]

The Ashes of Worlds by Kevin J. Anderson (sci-fi...ish), BloodFever by Karen Moning (Fantasy) and The Selfish Gene by Dawkins. And the next in the line up are We by Eugene Zamiatin, whatever other Dawkins catches my eye, and some Sherlock Holmes.

 

That's ridiculous. Are you sure they weren't just out of stock?

I know my store carried it, but it sold out quick

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I'm now reading The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson, my second Stephenson book after Snow Crash. It's a story about how the advent of molecular nanotechnology will affect the word, sort of like a fictional future based on Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation.

 

Take a look at Cryptonomicon as well. It's my favorite Stephenson, ahead of Snow Crash and Anathem (which suffered from terminal weirdness).

 

Curiously, my reading is now the New Oxford Annotated Bible, as I picked it up for a philosophy of religion course next semester and decided to finish up the New Testament while I'm off school.

[AzurePhoenix]

Ooh while you're at it you should give the Book of Mormon a shot. I've only gotten through a third so far, but it is an experience

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Sounds like fun.

 

So, in a surprise turn of events involving a free gift from a credit union the recipient did not want, and thus passed on, I now have a Kindle. There are quite a few public-domain books available for free for Kindle, so I'm now building up a reading list:

 

• The Communist Manifesto, because this is college and I should be rebellious.
  
• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, because this is college and I should be engaged in deep thought.
  
• Leviathan, because this is college and I have to read it for Philosophy of Religion next semester.
  
• On the Origin of Species, because this is college and I should be well-versed in the fundamentals of many fields.
  

 

Who knows if I'll actually read all that. I'll at least glance at them. Hey, it's free!

[bascule]

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, because this is college and I should be engaged in deep thought.

 

Oh my, when I tried to read that it broke my brain.

[zombieSquirrel]

I just finished reading "Mad Science" by Theodore Gray. Good book for someone like me, full of different science related projects that he did, and it comes with pictures of them. I'm also starting on "The Road To Reality". They were both Christmas gifts.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

bascule: I'm expecting to have the same happen to me. But hey, it's free. If you have any other philosophical books you might recommend I'll see if I can get them.

 

I'm in college. I'm supposed to break my brain occasionally.

[toastywombel]

Got two new books for Christmas, one seems rather lame and hopefully you guys know what one it is:

 

Googled: The end of the world as we know it by Ken Auletta

How Google has changed over the last decade, and how it's innovations have changed the way media works.

 

Inside Steve's Brain: Expanded edition by Leander Kahney

A look inside the mind of Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple.

[iNow]

Googled: The end of the world as we know it by Ken Auletta

How Google has changed over the last decade, and how it's innovations have changed the way media works.

This is supposed to be really good. The author was on Charlie Rose last month (they re-aired it the other night, too). He impressed me quite a lot. Let us know what you think.

 

 

Note: You can watch the interview here: http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/125

[toastywombel]

This is supposed to be really good. The author was on Charlie Rose last month (they re-aired it the other night, too). He impressed me quite a lot. Let us know what you think.

 

 

Note: You can watch the interview here: http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/125

 

Yeah that is the book I am really interested in, first I am reading the second though. However, I am at chapter 3 and so far it has been a hundred page ass-kissing of Steve Jobs.

[NeedfulThings]

I'm currently reading Les Miserables, Catch-22, and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

I'm also planning on starting Crime and Punishment once I finish at least one of the pre-mentioned books.