What are you currently reading?

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In summary, the conversation is about what books the participants are currently reading and their thoughts on them. Some of the books mentioned include Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh, Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan, A Life of Discovery: Michael Faraday, Giant of the Scientific Revolution by James Hamilton, For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, The Roman Invasion of Britain, Chinatown: Portrait of a Closed Society, The Monster of Florence by Preston & Spezi, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Origins: Fourteen Billion Years Of Cosmic Evolution by Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith, Humanizing the Economy: Co-operatives in the Age of Capital by
  • #351
dkotschessaa said:
I think it's partly about the things you said, but there's also the experience of re-reading a book *many* years later. There were many books I read as a teenager and I really doubt I would even recognize them or see them the same way now.
I just had this experience. I re-read Gorky Park and found I felt like I had never read it before. It had been, like, 35 years.
 
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  • #352
I've re-read several books. Here's the ones that I recall re-reading, and are all certainly worth reading multiple times.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[/URL] by Douglas Adams (I don't recall re-reading the entire "trilogy" though.)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Angela's Ashes[/URL] by Frank McCourt*
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0894805959/?tag=pfamazon01-20 by George H. Scherr (not technically a novel, but incredible never-the-less).

*(If you want to "read" or "re-read" Angela's Ashes, I suggest checking out the audio-book version of this one. I'm not really into audio books, but Angela's Ashes is read/narrated by Frank McCourt himself. This book contains copious amounts of Irish humor that are totally lost if your only experience is watching the movie).
 
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  • #354
I got a kindle, and I have ADD, so I am currently reading about 900 books.

But mostly, aside from my current issue of "Analog" I am reading "La Mort d'Arthur." I have been on a medieval history bent, so wanted to read some of the associated literature. I had always heard about King Arthur, Merlin, etc. as kids stories but I did not know where they actually came from. It is extremely fun to read.

(I don't know why I'm posting this now. I still haven't had coffee.)
 
  • #355
Borek said:
There are books that can't be understood no matter how many times you try.
Can you name a few ? i will try to read them.
 
  • #356
Monsterboy said:
Can you name a few ? i will try to read them.
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
 
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  • #357
Monsterboy said:
Can you name a few ? i will try to read them.

Sorry, we don't talk about crackpottery here.
 
  • #358
WWGD said:
Sorry for a sort of "meta" question:
I have become kind of obsessive about getting the most out of a book. Anyone else feel the need to re-read books?
It seems hard at times to fully get the content and ideas from a first read alone. The first read gives you an overview of the structure of the book. Once you know the structure/layout, you can, upon a second reading more easily absorb the actual content, form issues being out of the way.

EDIT: I mean that understanding the context consumes a good chunk of attention/focus away from the actual content, ideas in the book. Anyone else see it this way?

I only reread books if it has been so long that I've forgotten the contents.

I tried writing a book. I couldn't do it because re-reading it bored me too much.

Right now I'm reading the Feynman lectures on electromagnetism.
 
  • #359
Borek said:
Sorry, we don't talk about crackpottery here.
I don't what book you are talking about but the fact the you understood that the book is crackpottery means , you did understand the book.
 
  • #360
Re-reading Symmetry and the Monster but skipping the off topic bio stuff so not to break the flow of ideas.
 
  • #361
Iron John by Robert Bly (I believe most women will hate this book, mothers, sisters, girlfriends you name it)
 
  • #362
I really liked Iron John, especially his observations on "Kitchen Work" .Just finished Joseph Conrad's "The End of the Tether" ... a sad tale .
 
  • #363
jim hardy said:
Just finished Joseph Conrad's "The End of the Tether" ... a sad tale .

I don't think he ever wrote something that doesn't count as "sad".

Or at least that's how I remember most of his stories. But then, I went through the Conrad phase 30 years ago.
 
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  • #364
The Problem of Pain by C.S Lewis. Very interesting and fill of curiosity so far. I just started and i enjoy it so far.
 
  • #365
jim hardy said:
I really liked Iron John, especially his observations on "Kitchen Work" .
didn't reach that part yet, seems interesting.
 
  • #366
Currently reading two translations of Beowulf. One is an easy prose translation and the other is a not-so-easy verse version, which is not quite old english, but not quite "new" english either.
 
  • #367
Happiness Trap
 
  • #368
Borek said:
But then, I went through the Conrad phase 30 years ago.

Me too, having a relapse...
 
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  • #369
Stumbled across a curious little book

'Emotional Intelligence' by Daniel Goleman

it caught my eye because I'm an abject social klutz, ill attuned to feelings.

First few chapters are about the 'wiring' and interaction between amygdala (primitive reactive brain) and neocortex (modern thinking brain) , and how to become aware of which is in the drivers seat. Sure hope the rest of it is as interesting.

I've already noticed Mr Cortex does better at poker than Mr Amygdala.
 
  • #370
jim hardy said:
'Emotional Intelligence' by Daniel Goleman

From what I remember Goleman's book was widely criticized as highly speculative.
 
  • #371
Borek said:
From what I remember Goleman's book was widely criticized as highly speculative.

Ahh, did you read it? What did you think ? I'd value your observation.
Richard Restak's "The Brain" has chapters on the same connection.

It's not a textbook on either psychology nor neurology, i'd rank it in the "Self Help" category .
 
  • #372
jim hardy said:
Ahh, did you read it?

No, I have only seen some summary as written by someone else. But at some point I was looking for more information on the subject and there were none - then I have learned most of thing he wrote were not supported by any research.

Which doesn't mean the idea of EI is completely invalid, I believe it is still being researched and it produces some interesting results, just not necessarily compatible with what Goleman wrote.
 
  • #373
Borek said:
Which doesn't mean the idea of EI is completely invalid, I believe it is still being researched and it produces some interesting results, just not necessarily compatible with what Goleman wrote.

To me EI is just a word . As a quintessential nerd i am painfully aware i lack some kind of "social awareness" that most people have . Articles on Asperger's were eye opening to me. So I'm interested in his observations.

Like Demosthenes I'm working to improve my shortcomings. That's one of the good things to come out of 20th century, we've dropped the stigma about needing to do that.
I'm not a neuroscientist, just a recovering neurotic. So to me the book is a tool . Hopefully it'll help me peel back one more layer in direction of self understanding , like Peer Gynt's onion.

The research you mention - is it hard science, like that radioactive tracer brain imaging i saw in the old PBS series? Where would i look it up ?

old jim
 
  • #374
jim hardy said:
The research you mention - is it hard science, like that radioactive tracer brain imaging i saw in the old PBS series? Where would i look it up ?

Whether psychology is a hard science is a subject open to debate :wink:

I am talking about research being published in peer reviewed journals, so it definitely is not something to blatantly ignore. I don't have any sources that I could point you to (what I know is based on articles in Polish, and even if the language was not a problem I doubt they are available on the web), but I did some quick googling and apparently wikipedia article on emotional intelligence gives some interesting leads.
 
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  • #375
I stumbled upon this book.
Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Julian James, 1976.
about the ancient brain to the modern brain, and development of consciousness, with a little bit of recap on a few historic societies to lend credence to his theory, though largely not expanded upon by present day researchers. So as new theories go ...
Shocking and thought provoking.
 
  • #376
Recently I finished the novel Colossus by D. F. Jones, upon which the movie Colossus: The Forbin Project is based. I bought it on Kindle.

For me it's a rare thing to read fiction. But I enjoy some so-called hard science fiction. This one is a very interesting novel, particularly given that it was published in 1966. I look forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy when I have more time.

It's normal to compare movies with the novel they are based on. In this case I enjoyed both.

One mysterious incident is when Colossus is teaching itself mathematics until it is way beyond Forbin, and he says Colossus is "deep into finite absolutes." This has led some people to speculate about what this means. It is just something Jones made up, or is there really such a thing in math as "finite absolutes"?
 
  • #378
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. A chilling account of a true crime, written by a master of the English language.
 
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  • #379
PetSounds said:
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. A chilling account of a true crime, written by a master of the English language.
The movie is also very good.

[June 2008] Ranked #8 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Courtroom Drama".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061809/
 
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  • #380
I just finished rereading Robert Fulghum's little book "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.(Ivy Books, 1986). It is collection of observations , anecdotes and recommendations that help wake you up from the mesmerizing drone of everyday life. Some are silly, some humorous, some insightful.
 
  • #381
THE EMPEROR OF ALL MALADIES - A Biography of cancer By Siddhartha Mukherjee

An interesting book about the history of cancer and the challenges faced by people at war with the disease(s).
 
  • #382
Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown. He kind of mixes Particle Physics with Catholic Church stuff. It almost seems he has no idea what he's talking about!
 
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  • #383
I'm reading "Getting Risk Right" by Geoffrey C. Kabat.

Here's a snip from the preface:
The modern world, the advanced technological world in which we live, is a dangerous place. Or, at least, that is the message that, with metronomic regularity, seems to jump out at us at every turn. The news media bombard us with reports of the latest threat to our health lurking in our food, air, water, and the environment, and these messages are often reinforced by regulatory agencies, activist groups, and scientists themselves. In recent years we have been encouraged to worry about deadly toxins in baby bottles, food, and cosmetics; carcinogenic radiation from power lines and cell phones; and harm from vaccines and genetically modified foods, to name just a few of the more prominent scares.

When looked at even the least bit critically, many of the scares that get high-profile attention turn out to be based on weak or erroneous findings that were hardly ready for prime time.

Excerpt From: Geoffrey C. Kabat. “Getting Risk Right.” Columbia University Press, 2016-11-22.
 
  • #384
"Isaac Newton" by James Gleick.

Biography of the greatest physicist of all time. Gleick is a wonderful author as well, I duly recommend his books "Genius" on Richard Feynman and "Chaos" on the history of nonlinear dynamics.
 
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  • #385
I am reading Problem Solving and Artificial Intelligence by Jean-Louis Laurière. He was "ancien professeur d’informatique de l’Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI)."
 
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<h2>1. What is the book about?</h2><p>The book I am currently reading is about the history and development of artificial intelligence.</p><h2>2. Who is the author?</h2><p>The author of the book is John Smith, a renowned computer scientist and AI expert.</p><h2>3. What inspired you to read this book?</h2><p>I have always been interested in the field of artificial intelligence and wanted to learn more about its origins and current advancements.</p><h2>4. What have you learned from the book so far?</h2><p>So far, I have learned about the early pioneers of AI and their contributions, as well as the different branches of AI and their applications.</p><h2>5. Would you recommend this book to others?</h2><p>Yes, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about the history and current state of artificial intelligence.</p>

1. What is the book about?

The book I am currently reading is about the history and development of artificial intelligence.

2. Who is the author?

The author of the book is John Smith, a renowned computer scientist and AI expert.

3. What inspired you to read this book?

I have always been interested in the field of artificial intelligence and wanted to learn more about its origins and current advancements.

4. What have you learned from the book so far?

So far, I have learned about the early pioneers of AI and their contributions, as well as the different branches of AI and their applications.

5. Would you recommend this book to others?

Yes, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about the history and current state of artificial intelligence.

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