What Books Are You Currently Reading?

[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.

 

[BOAS]

I am reading "The Fires Of Heaven" by Robert Jordan. Number five in his Wheel Of Time series.

Excellent in my opinion :)

 

[EngWiPy]

Just started reading The Open Society and its Enemies by Karl Popper.

 

[BobG]

Re-read Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five", wondering, if this book is consistently rated as one of the top books in recent history, why don't I remember much of it.

And the result was to remind myself why I don't remember much of it.

"Breakfast of Champions" was a seriously good book, and "God Bless You Mr Rosewater" was a good book. I just don't think any of Vonnegut's other books were really all that good and have no idea why "Slaughterhouse Five" gets such high ratings.

 

[Hornbein]

Hey people,

I believe this would be a good way to find out new(probably good ) books, so just as it says on the tin, what are you reading now?

I currently alternate between Simon Singh's Fermat's Last Theorem, and Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan. Nearly finished both so I can surely use some suggestions!

The Spirit Glass by Carol Berg. Fiction, but I quite liked it. The main character is an undercover investigator. His lies are quite clever and kept my interest.

 

[Kojack]

Edgard allan poe stories , incredible imagine power

 

[zoobyshoe]

I'm going to recommend the novels of C.J. Box to anyone looking for entertaining reading. He's written about 20. They're primarily murder mysteries, but the trappings are different than most, which is refreshing: the main character is Joe Pickett, a Montana game warden, who seems to stumble across a human murder every time he goes out to ticket unlicensed hunters or fishermen who are over their limit. The author paints a picture of an American West that I assumed had died long ago, but still exists in Montana, apparently; an underpopulated, underpoliced, expanse that is mostly still wilderness roamed by elk herds, pronghorn antelope, and people who own more acres of land than you'd think possible in the modern world. Just as in the old west, Joe encounters hard characters out to grab what they can, and fights the corrupt state bureaucracy that sees him as a do-gooder, loose canon.

Unlike many authors, C.J. Box has become a better and better author as time goes by. It's worth starting at the beginning and reading in order as his writing becomes more engrossing. I'm currently reading his latest: Badlands, and it's very hard to put down.

 

[Sophia]

E. A. Poe Sounds like a great idea, I might read him.
I am currently on book 5 of Harry Potter series. It was written for children of course, but even adults can find hidden meanings in it. I really enjoy reading it at the age of 28.
My other book is Hunger Games trilogy. I really disliked the first part. I keep reading so that I can write a very long negative review on Goodreads

 

[Silicon Waffle]

E. A. Poe Sounds like a great idea, I might read him.
I am currently on book 5 of Harry Potter series. It was written for children of course, but even adults can find hidden meanings in it. I really enjoy reading it at the age of 28.
My other book is Hunger Games trilogy. I really disliked the first part. I keep reading so that I can write a very long negative review on Goodreads

 

[Enigman]

I am currently on book 5 of Harry Potter series. It was written for children of course, but even adults can find hidden meanings in it. I really enjoy reading it at the age of 28.

When you are done try Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It may be fanfiction but it is one of the most life changing stories I have ever read. The author is an artificial intelligence theorist and uses the story adeptly to teach the reader about the scientific method, rational thinking and cognitive biases. It takes place in an alternate universe where:

Petunia married a biochemist, and Harry grew up reading science and science fiction. Then came the Hogwarts letter, and a world of intriguing new possibilities to exploit. And new friends, like Hermione Granger, and Professor McGonagall, and Professor Quirrell...

 

[Sophia]

Wow that sounds cool! Will definitely read it ☺

 

[WWGD]

When you are done try Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It may be fanfiction but it is one of the most life changing stories I have ever read. The author is an artificial intelligence theorist and uses the story adeptly to teach the reader about the scientific method, rational thinking and cognitive biases. It takes place in an alternate universe where:

But aren't magic/sorcery and alternate universes considered to be outside of the realm of the Rational , at least at this point?

 

[Enigman]

But aren't magic/sorcery and alternate universes considered to be outside of the realm of the Rational , at least at this point?

There is a certain amount of suspension of disbelief needed, yes. 'The alternate universe' just refers to an alternate storyline and isn't explicitly mentioned in the story and is perhaps poor phrasing on my part. Also the incongruity of existence of magic is one of the themes explored and Harry James Potter Evans-Verres almost immediately starts experimenting to quantify 'magic' as scientifically as possible (which includes delving into Mendelian inheritance to prove or disprove the claim mudbloods are 'inferior' and exploring why magic completely overlooks laws of conservation.) Here magic is just parts of laws of nature that no one has really delved into scientifically and just taken for granted by wizards like muggles took things falling down to Earth as granted for much of their time on Earth and as most wizards still do.

 

[WWGD]

There is a certain amount of suspension of disbelief needed, yes. 'The alternate universe' just refers to an alternate storyline and isn't explicitly mentioned in the story and is perhaps poor phrasing on my part. Also the incongruity of existence of magic is one of the themes explored and Harry James Potter Evans-Verres almost immediately starts experimenting to quantify 'magic' as scientifically as possible (which includes delving into Mendelian inheritance to prove or disprove the claim mudbloods are 'inferior' and exploring why magic completely overlooks laws of conservation.) Here magic is just parts of laws of nature that no one has really delved into scientifically and just taken for granted by wizards like muggles took things falling down to Earth as granted for much of their time on Earth and as most wizards still do.

Yes, that is a good point, there is a difference between the non-Rational, that for which there is still no scientific evidence, and the irrational, that which directly contradicts known science.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I'm reading Hitch-22

 

[JorisL]

I'm with Engiman, the fanfiction is awesome (I recently read it).
A sequel by another writer is "S1gn1f1cant D1g1t5", it's good so far (read arc 1, waiting for arc 2 to finish and grab the pdf)