Book suggestion
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They don't have Science of the Discworld in Jordan? Do they have any Pratchet books at all? Science of the Discworld 1 & 2 are excellent, as interesting for the science content as for the discworld filler content. Another good read if you get the chance is the Tao of Physics[^]. I read it a while back, and highly recommend it to anyone that is interested in both philosophy and science (fields I believe shouldn't be too deeply separated).
I bought several locally, but they don't have everything. I could order specific books through the bookstore but that would mean I'd have to pay near 100% the book's worth :sigh:
ZaoWuYa wrote:
fields I believe shouldn't be too deeply separated
I'm a firm believer that all scientists are philosophers.
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Why won't the worm just leave me be?
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I'm at the book store perusing for a book and I see Iain Banks "The Algebraist" which IIRC is a good read. Is my memory failing in that respect? Any book suggestions?
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Why won't the worm just leave me be?
I just ordered Spin[^]. I've only heard words of praise of it and I'm sure I won't be disappointed. Recently I've finished the first 2 tomes of the brilliant Mars trilogy[^]. Well, it's brilliant and undoubtedly a masterpiece, but it's slow-paced, too detailed at times and very looooooong. I guess that's what hard science fiction is. I would not recommend it if you want a thrill-packed page turner.
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Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
The Algebraist
I had Matter by Iain Banks on my wishlist with my local book seller. I've added The Algebraist and will order both next month. This month it's a reread of Greg Bear's Anvil of Stars.
Anvil of Stars? Must have been good? I have it on my list next to read. Start it next week I think, maybe later this week. Cool!! Couple of other Greg Bear books were good(Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children), but not so much that I ran after more of his titles. On another note I am reading a book that really surprises me! It's a Piers Anthony book "Key to Havoc". I know Piers Anthony has a history of crap, stupid plots and thin writing, but this one is quite different so far. Lush and full and surprisingly exciting plot! I love it at about 40% through! I didn't think I would ever say that about a Piers Anthony book. Now a good Sci-fi type book that hinges nicely into todays science (and folds some Roger Penrose in that you mention (In a cool way too)), is "Humans", by Robert J. Sawyer. Its an Excellent read and stands up technically as well.
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:-D I ended up not buying something new but finally spotted Chapterhouse Dune :) Now, my Dune series (by Frank Herbert at least) is complete. Next time, I'll be better prepared, I'll review several books before I head to the bookstore, the problem would be, I'm not sure the bookstore would have those books. This is Jordan, a pathetically small market for avid readers like me.
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Why won't the worm just leave me be?
If you like Dune type stuff. Try the recently finished "Saga of the Seven Suns" by Kevin J. Anderson. He had a big hand in a lot of the Dune 'suffix' books. The series is one on the best galactic opera books I have ever read (short of Peter Hamilton's epic Commonwealth Saga, published in two halves, Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained).
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Anvil of Stars? Must have been good? I have it on my list next to read. Start it next week I think, maybe later this week. Cool!! Couple of other Greg Bear books were good(Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children), but not so much that I ran after more of his titles. On another note I am reading a book that really surprises me! It's a Piers Anthony book "Key to Havoc". I know Piers Anthony has a history of crap, stupid plots and thin writing, but this one is quite different so far. Lush and full and surprisingly exciting plot! I love it at about 40% through! I didn't think I would ever say that about a Piers Anthony book. Now a good Sci-fi type book that hinges nicely into todays science (and folds some Roger Penrose in that you mention (In a cool way too)), is "Humans", by Robert J. Sawyer. Its an Excellent read and stands up technically as well.
Brian W King wrote:
Anvil of Stars? Must have been good?
I don't remember much about it, but I had just read Eon and Eternity, and I was really primed for more Greg Bear. Many years later, I happened onto Forge of God, prequel to Anvil, and as luck would have it, a friend was busy reading Anvil, and we swapped last week. They are quite separate stories, in that the Forge is the reason behind Anvil, but you really can read them in any order.
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I'm at the book store perusing for a book and I see Iain Banks "The Algebraist" which IIRC is a good read. Is my memory failing in that respect? Any book suggestions?
If the post was helpful, please vote!
Why won't the worm just leave me be?
Hello, Mustafa, Salaam Aleikum, I'm delighted to see you launch a thread like this, and find the responses fascinating : confirms my high opinions of the literacy of many CPians. My most recent reads are both by Gregory Maguire : Wicked, and StepSister. Wicked uses as its "sub-text" the "Wizard of Oz" story, by Frank Baum, of the "Wicked Witch of the West," and StepSister is based, loosely, on the Cinderella story. Both books, imho, are fairly "western culture bound." Personally I found Stepsister the more compelling of the two, but in both books I found a degree of craftsmanship in the language and structure that was delightful. Technically, both books can be considered an example of "euhemerization" in that they construct somewhat "plausible" stories from "mythic" sub-text. As a writer, myself, this is a very fascinating and compelling technique for me. The other recent read was "The March" by E. L. Doctorow who is already high on my list of "literary gods" for Ragtime and The Book of Daniel. The March is set in the American Civil War as Sherman's Army having burned Atlanta goes west, then turns towards east towards Savannah. I am from the south myself (Florida), both parents were from Georgia, and I find it remarkable that Doctorow, a New Yorker, descendant of immigrant Ashkenazi Jews, can write so perfectly about details familiar to me from boyhood, like the sound of rain falling on saw palmetto leaves. And how perfectly he can capture Black Slave pidgin' English dialect and southern dialects. For me, with humility, I find "The March" now my favorite of all of Doctorow's books I have read. The other excellent recent read was "Baudolino" by Umberto Eco. This, for me, was a return to the Eco I was "mesmerized" by in "In the Name of the Rose" : playful, kinky, informed by history, delighting in language. I have to admit that I "bounced off" both Foucault's Pendulum and The Island of the Day Before by Eco. Told from the point of view of a "deformed" man who becomes kind of court jester to Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor.-Set in Italy, Paris, and finally, what was then called "Constantinople." Happy reading ! best, Bill
"Many : not conversant with mathematical studies, imagine that because it [the Analytical Engine] is to give results in numerical notation, its processes must consequently be arithmetical, numerical, rather than algebraical and analytical. This is an error. The engine can arrange and combine numerical quantities as if they were letters or any other
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:-D I ended up not buying something new but finally spotted Chapterhouse Dune :) Now, my Dune series (by Frank Herbert at least) is complete. Next time, I'll be better prepared, I'll review several books before I head to the bookstore, the problem would be, I'm not sure the bookstore would have those books. This is Jordan, a pathetically small market for avid readers like me.
If the post was helpful, please vote!
Why won't the worm just leave me be?
-
I'm at the book store perusing for a book and I see Iain Banks "The Algebraist" which IIRC is a good read. Is my memory failing in that respect? Any book suggestions?
If the post was helpful, please vote!
Why won't the worm just leave me be?
As of right now, Bruce Schechter's bio of Paul Erdos "MY BRAIN IS OPEN" can be had for $3 used from Amazon - knock-on-wood, I've never had a bad experience with Amazon Marketplace booksellers. I've always wished I were smarter, so I like to read bios like this. Poundstone's "Prisoner's Dilemma" is also good - I'm never going to be John VonNeuman but I can dream...
pg--az
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I'm at the book store perusing for a book and I see Iain Banks "The Algebraist" which IIRC is a good read. Is my memory failing in that respect? Any book suggestions?
If the post was helpful, please vote!
Why won't the worm just leave me be?
I've purchased and read two by Iain Banks in the last six months, Player of Games and Consider Phlebas, both of which are novels of his Culture universe. They won't be my last books of his, either. I haven't read The Algebraist yet but I expect I will get there.
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I'm at the book store perusing for a book and I see Iain Banks "The Algebraist" which IIRC is a good read. Is my memory failing in that respect? Any book suggestions?
If the post was helpful, please vote!
Why won't the worm just leave me be?
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Quantum Theology by Ó Murchú, Diarmuid. Great read. This book really put to words things I couldn't
trshively wrote:
Quantum Theology by Ó Murchú, Diarmuid.
Every now and then I google-up (( hameroff penrose microtubules )) - of course the top hit is always quantumconsciousness.org. ( I noticed that Penrose's name came up in the Amazon-Editorial-Review of your book, although I have not actually read your book ). Anyway the idea that within each neuron is oodles of quantum-microtubule-computing power, and then the neurons connect via "dial-up-speed" - I find that intuitively appealing, although the actual equations are beyond me. I mean your subjective perception of consciousness is let's say "way beyond Aero-Glass", in other words it's intuitively obvious that some orders-of-magnitude are needed in terms of computing power, to explain how you reliably recognize faces in milliseconds etc. Just recently I saw Nova's special on Monarch butterflies, how they captured some in Kansas and released them near Washington, D.C., and after a brief due-South vector the butterflies reoriented towards their usual destination in Mexico. Magnetism, celestial navigation, whatever - it's somewhat amazing in a bird-brain, however a BUTTERFLY-brain being able to navigate way-outside it's normal-landmark-range, that's another call for the quantum-microtubule kind of computing power. So in summary most-everyone's brain is chock-full of computing power, which spends most of its time trying to sort itself out - when the neurons do get configured nicely, you've got a Daniel Tammet etc.
pg--az
modified on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 4:51 AM
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I'm at the book store perusing for a book and I see Iain Banks "The Algebraist" which IIRC is a good read. Is my memory failing in that respect? Any book suggestions?
If the post was helpful, please vote!
Why won't the worm just leave me be?