What are you currently reading?

[diogenesNY]

Just finishing _North Korea: State of Paranoia_ by Paul French

http://search.library.duke.edu/search?id=DUKE006073285

and just starting _ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror_ by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan

http://search.library.duke.edu/search?id=DUKE006506913

The former is scholarly and a bit dry/specialized, but one of the few well researched (as well as can be) overviews of the dynastic succession of the three Kims, how DPRK came to be and how it evolved to where it is and some speculation as to where it is going. There is so little well sourced information on the subject that this is a very desirable resource, and Paul French is one of the relatively few credible scholars on the subject.

Just starting the latter, but looks good. In depth and well researched, as opposed to several other books on the subject that seemed like editorials. I have read a number of primary sources on the subject and the whole mess is something that seems to be almost all completely misreported by the western (and other) media.

That's my light summer reading, so far. :)

diogenesNY

 

[Tobias Funke]

Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians by Jeffrey Burton Russell. About how and why the Flat Earth myth (ie, the modern myth that educated people believed the Earth was flat until around 1500) came to be, and why it continues.

Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam. Pretty good, but includes multiple letters from too many people (208 letters from 125 people).

 

[chloeangelique]

I'm currently reading "The Name of the Star" because I'm now planning to study abroad and this book might help me know the adventures I can get by studying abroad and the diversity of things that I could learn from the people I would be dealing to. And at this point of time, I'm learning something from this book. To those who have the same situations as me, this book is also for you! :)

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Finally getting around to reading Neuromancer

Nice review here
https://unclenecro.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/book-review-neuromancer/

 

[zoobyshoe]

Night Frost by R.D. Wingfield. Quirky British police procedural from 1992. Slovenly and disrespectful Detective Inspector Jack Frost finds three separate murder victims, all in one shift. Apparently the book is part of a series. This one's entertaining enough that I may check out the rest.

 

[QuantumCurt]

I'm currently reading Neutrino Oscillations: Present Status and Future Plans, which covers all of the major findings in the field of neutrino oscillation as of 2008. It starts with a general introduction of neutrino oscillation phenomenology, and follows up with the findings from Super-K, SNO, KamLAND, K2K, MINOS, LSND and Karmen, MiniBooNE, OPERA, T2K, NO$\nu$A, Double Chooz, and Daya Bay.

I'm interning at Fermilab this summer, and I'll be working with NuMI and MiniBooNE, so I'm trying to get as much information on the general field as I can. I'm also reading through the various Fermilab Rookie Books on several of the projects associated with the ones I'll be working on.

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

... The medium whereby a message is delivered restricts you to understanding the message within certain parameters, and so, to understand it, you have to absorb the medium. Thus, people end up writing like Conan-Doyle.

For a different angle on a similar concept, Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death argues that only certain types of media are effective at truthfully conveying complex messages. Television, according to him, is a device solely meant to entertain, and even programs with the greatest of intentions will stray from discussion towards entertainment by the necessity of views powering the program, and views only visiting fun shows.

Of course, the written word gains the most merit, as the author has time for serious contemplation, can address an unknown and multifaceted audience at once, and has time to formulate and guide a reader through abstractions that would be lost in fifteen second quips on the TV or radio.

The dire implications of this attachment to entertainment, I think, can be inferred fairly readily.

 

[Dotini]

I'm currently reading Moon Lander, by Thomas J Kelly. It's the inside story of the development of the Apollo lunar module by the guy responsible for designing and building it at Grumman on Long Island, NY.

 

[jesssmart]

Celine Roberts "No one wants you" . Involving book.

 

[WWGD]

The World Outside your Head, by Matt Crawford. Kind of involved, about setting a policy for allotting attention in todays (data-)noisy world.

 

[Enigman]

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.
It is a story about a cathedral being built in the 12th century and the people and politics involved.
Highly engrossing.

 

[gleem]

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.
It is a story about a cathedral being built in the 12th century and the people and politics involved.
Highly engrossing.

I think you will also be pleased with its sequel 'World Without End" .

 

[Enigman]

It is sitting on my desk waiting for its turn, but the size intimidates me.

 

[TheDemx27]

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

 

[lisab]

The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson.

I'm finding it so disturbing. It's written well, that's not the issue. It's about living in North Korea, if you want to stretch the meaning of "living". I know it's just fiction but the depiction of life in North Korean is just really dark. I want to believe 100% fiction...but I don't think it is.

 

[thankz]

liquid gold by joseph castellano

the story of liquid crystal displays, $$$

 

[EverGreen1231]

Haven't long finished "Guns of the South" by Harry Turtledove and a debut novel "a land more kind than home" by Wiley Cash.

Right now, I'm not reading much of anything accept IEEE papers.

 

[EverGreen1231]

The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson.

I'm finding it so disturbing. It's written well, that's not the issue. It's about living in North Korea, if you want to stretch the meaning of "living". I know it's just fiction but the depiction of life in North Korean is just really dark. I want to believe 100% fiction...but I don't think it is.

Nothing in fiction is 100% fiction. In fact, it imitates the real thing far more accurately than any would like to acknowledge...IMO

 

[Astronuc]

Had to wait for my car to get serviced, so I checked out the local B&N, found and started reading:

A Curious History of Mathematics, The Big Ideas from Primitive Numbers to Chaos Theory, Joel Levy, Metro Books, 2013
30-Second Math, Richard Brown, Metro Books, 2012
The Intriguing Story of the Elements, Jack Challoner, Metro Books, 2012

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Barnes & Noble, 2003
The Quartet, Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1788-1789, Joseph J. Ellis, Alfred A. Knopf, 2015

Success or Failure, Judging America's Presidents from Washington to Obama, Whitman Publishing, 2013

All interesting.

 

[zoobyshoe]

A Curious History of Mathematics, The Big Ideas from Primitive Numbers to Chaos Theory, Joel Levy, Metro Books, 2013

I like the title. I'll keep my eye open for it.

 

[wattsAndSquats]

Genome by Matt Ridley

The tagline says it all: "The Autobiography Of A Species In 23 Chapters"

Each chapter is dedicated to exploring one particular gene on the chromosome with the corresponding chapter number (23 chromosomes, 23 chapters) and how that gene has impacted our history, intelligence, morality, fate etc.

It's very fun for a nonfiction book. One chapter detailed the hunt for the gene who's mutation is responsible for Huntington's disease; very dramatic and action packed. Another chapter explored free will, and the immutability of genetic influence very prosefully.

All around fun, informative read.

 

[diogenesNY]

Just finished reading _The interstellar age : inside the forty-year Voyager mission_ by Jim Bell

http://search.library.duke.edu/search?id=DUKE006502117

A compelling book, with a glimpse into many of the personalities behind the mission and its ongoing history. Lots of very interesting details on the science aspects that were not all that widely covered in the popular press. A great deal of historical perspective on the previous and subsequent missions as well.

Very timely with the New Horizons mission finally giving us up-close-and-personal visuals of Pluto.

Highly recommended.

diogenesNY

 

[thankz]

currently reading,

crystal fire, the birth of the information age. about the invention of the transistor.

 

[thankz]

currently reading,

the chip: how two americans invented the microchip & launched a revolution.

 

[BobG]

Just recently finished "The Martian".

This is a very good story. Lots of suspense and hard to put down.

For the most part, it's scientifically accurate, but I had a few issues with the performance of their rocket ships. Have to leave Mars immediately because the high winds are threatening to tip the rocket over? And a launch in winds that high is going to go well? Plus other issues that I don't want to talk about because they would be serious spoilers. Not exactly Sandra Bullock performing an out of plane rendezvous with a fire extinguisher degree of silliness, but enough to make me sigh, "Really?"

It should still be a great movie when it comes out.

I'm currently reading "The Boys in the Boat". Pretty cool true story about a competitive rowing team.

 

[PopeAtom]

I just finished Ashlee Vance book on Elon Musk. It was really inspiring and i would recommend it for any engineers who are looking to move into entrepreneurship.

 

[Enigman]

Reading Dracula. The writing style sucks.

 

[Borek]

Speaking about the sucking writing style: yesterday I have finished reading "The Elephant's Journey".

 

[thankz]

where wizards stay up late: the origins of the internet.

 

[vsgarciaaleman]

Currently reading Capitães da Areia. Seems good so far.

 

[epenguin]

A part of my reading is in a way unplanned - unlike the more 'deliberate' e-books I buy online having read the reviews - when I'm in London which is only a part of the time I wander into secondhand and charity bookshops and buy very cheap books even if I'm not going to have time to read them, because unlike new online I think I won't find it again. So I have a fair number of yet unread ones. I wish everybody would go away.

Anyway the one I last got through is "The Terror" by Graeme Fife 2004 (about the French Revolutionary Terror). Sort of true history that makes your blood boil, like that of the Holocaust, Great Purges, or Gulags. Also for how the Terror was proclaimed and exalted (rather than defended, since it was hardly attacked or openly criticised ). I have read numbers of histories of the Revolution over the years; they have a large caste of characters that one then forgets then revises on next reading and slowly sink in, so I caught up with some old acquaintances and reminded self of which was which between Hébert, Hanriot and Hérault de Séchelles etc. The men who got rid of Robespierre and ended the terror included some who had been worse terrorists even than he (the decimations in the provinces were just as or more ghastly than those in Paris but generally get less attention) and who did it for fear the mincing machine was turning against them. They prospered under Napoleon and even the restored Monarchy. A pretty insightful and critically researched history, this book.

The book I'm reading now is bang up to date - '1914' by Malcolm Brown, publ. 2014. Of course the anniversary of the outbreak of WW1 has seen a plethora of (good) books. The caste of characters is even larger. Again I have read other histories so there is the same revisitation and revision, but a lot is new. Mainly British perspective. This is a publication associated with the Imperial War Museum, which must have the vastest archive on the subject in the world. The politics are covered informatively but so far it is mostly about the experiences of civilians and the (in the UK all volunteer in 1914) joiners-up to the armed forces, based on the extensive IWM archives. Critical examination of things calling for it - how well do the filmed clips of cheering crowds at outbreak we have all seen represent real state of the populations' feelings? So far I've read a large section on something you might never have considered - if you were a civilian working or holidaying in working or holidaying in what became enemy country just before and after the rather sudden outbreak, what could you/ did you do and how successfully? Or if you ran into an enemy cruiser at sea? Lots of individual stories quoted from original letters , diaries, and reminiscences.

Ah History! I would really like to know and retain everything that ever happened! Well I could skip detail of a few things - say the early Church Fathers. I have forgotten more than I have read , must brush up. If only everybody would go away!

 

[Astronuc]

Just started reading, The Quartet, by Joseph J. Ellis. Very interesting narrative of what Ellis considers the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789. The quartet consists of George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.

In the first chapter, there is a discussion of the Dickinson Draft of the Articles of Confederation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dickinson_(Pennsylvania_and_Delaware)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/contcong_07-12-76.asp
http://digitalhistory.hsp.org/pafrm/doc/draft-articles-confederation-john-dickinson-june-1776

I see much the same strains in political circles and among the body politic these days.

 

[skad]

Just started reading. Birth of a theorem by Cedric Villani. What is mathematics by Courant.

 

[Enigman]

Shada
A Doctor Who novel based on one of the lost Tom Baker episodes written by Douglas Adams and novelized by Gareth Roberts.

 

[thankz]

done reading iWoz, now it's masters of the game.