Sunday, September 19,
2004 at 12:22 PM
READING LIST
My Life’s An Open Book
Back to PhilosophyForum Home Page.
Back to Reading List Page.
S'io
credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s'i'odo il vero,
Senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.[1]
Loosely translated, this means if I thought
anyone would really read my comments, I would not have been so candid.
* * * *
TABLE OF CONTENTS
This document has simply gotten to be too long to open as one HTML
document. So if you are viewing this on screen in HTML format, it will be
divided into two parts: (1) Philosophy through Psychology, and (2) Science
through Travel. Please visit both, or easier still, simply download the Word or
RTF version, and view it off-line.
You should be able to go directly to the particular category in which you are interested by clicking on its Table of Contents Entry.
08 LITERATURE, DRAMA, POETRY, ETC.
This is started out
as a partial list of the books that I have read since 1989, and which I
remembered to write down. I occasionally supplement it with reviews of movies
and music.
Recently I have discovered the Teaching Company’s series of audio
lectures by
The dates in the
list are in most cases approximate, and I know that there are many items that I
never got around to memorializing, not always for good reason and often simply
because I forgot to. I intend to go back and add books I forgot to record, as
and if I remember them, and to add comments, again as time permits. Every day
or so, I recall something else worthy of mentioning, but which I had either
previously forgotten or which, having recalled, don’t have time to add to the
list. Sometimes I think life is too long; at other times, too short.
I listed the books
in an attempt to find a common interest with anyone who wishes to establish a
dialog. Also perusing the list brings back fond memories and occasionally
worthwhile thoughts, which from time to time serve as an inspiration to add to
the “comments” column.
As a partner in a
large law firm, I do not have much free time on my hands. If I had more, I
would devote it to writing, and in particular to making my comments below more
thoughtful. Please forgive the typagraphical (sic) and grammatical errors of
which there are certain to be many. If I had world enough and time I would
spend some of it proofing.
As I review the
list, I see a number of books that I have read that were worthy of note, but
which I read before 1989, when I first started making a note of a book’s title
and author when I finished reading it (on any odd piece of paper that was
handy). As my thoughts take me to any of those books, I will add them, from
time to time, undated.
Since some of the
books fit into more than one category, I have listed those books an extra time
for each extra category. That way when I look in a specific category, I will
find the book listed. If it is in more than one category, I note that fact at
the beginning of the comments section.
Because some of the works fit into more than one category, I
was forced to consider how best to handle the issue, and decided that it would
be easiest for you, but harder for me, if I simply remember to copy —comments
and all— an entry fitting more than one classification. This makes this list
look longer (and perhaps more impressive) than it really is. A better approach
would be to have a column for each category, and let you sort the table, as I sort
it from
One of the reasons
for compiling the list is so that in the future when I have more time, I can
devote it to commenting on the books that are of interest. In the meantime, I
have left most of the comments brief or blank. Later, later.
Again, the categories are
08 LITERATURE, DRAMA, POETRY, ETC.
Last year I read lots of fiction, for the first time in a
while. See 08 LITERATURE,
DRAMA, POETRY, ETC.
|
Date |
Name |
Author |
Category[2] |
Comments |
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1/01/2010 |
aaa |
aaa |
07 |
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Descartes’
Error, Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain |
Damasio, Antonio |
07 |
01.06.07Not as interesting as I had hoped. |
|
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The Origins
of Virtue |
Ridley, Matt |
07 |
06.07. I sense that there are many sophomores and even some
politically correct academicians who bristle at anything s The |
|
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Words and
Rules-The Ingredients of Language |
Pinker, Stephen |
07 |
12.06.07. Pinker is the best, and this book is one of the best of the
best. |
|
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Biology and
Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality |
Sapolsky, Robert |
07 |
06.07. This was a series of eight 30-45 minute audio lectures
presented by The Teaching Company. 01, 06. With my background, I needed no
convincing about this. I think Sartre would have profited by this series of
lectures. He would then realize that it is not necessarily true that are
decisions are totally under our “control,” whatever the hell control means. |
|
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Mapping
Human History, Genes, Race and Our Common Origin |
|
07 |
03.07. Great! See The Journey of Man, Mapping Human History, and The Seven Daughters of Eve. |
|
0707/01/04 |
The Journey
of Man |
Wells, Spencer |
07 |
03.07. Traces the history of the X-chromosome.
Hence, the title. See Mapping
Human History, Human
Natures and The Seven
Daughters of Eve. |
|
0507/01/04 |
Human
Natures |
Ehrlich, Paul R. |
07 |
03.07. See Mapping Human
History, The Journey of Man and The Seven Daughters of Eve. |
|
0407/01/04 |
The Seven
Daughters of Eve, The Science that Reveals our Genetic Ancestry |
Sykes, Bryan |
07 |
03.07. I love stuff like this, and I loved this book. It is one of the
best on the subject. See Mapping Human History, The Journey of Man and Human Natures. |
|
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Synaptic
Self, How Our Brains Become Who We Are. |
LeDoux, Joseph |
07 |
01.07. This is a fairly technical work by a renown neuroscientist. |
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Race and
Human Evolution, A Fatal Attraction |
Wolpoff, |
07 |
This book was written by a husband and wife team,
both of whom have PhDs and are practicing anthropologists or pa It remains to be seen who will prove right on the subject. The Eve people claim (rather persuasively, I might add) that Homo Sapiens have only been around for 200,000 years and that we replaced (wiped-out) all of the other members of our genus. Wolpoff and Caspari, on the other hand, argue (also persuasively) that Homo Sapiens are not even a new species, but that we are all Homo Erectus and have been evolving as a species for 2 million years. The reasons that we are all so similar is that we have been trading genes back and forth all of this time (genetic drift), thought the story is actually more complicated than that. I remember that when I was a boy the story was that we were all Cro-Magnons: Africans, Europeans, Australian Aborigines, Chinese, etc., and that we all had a common ancestor 20 to 30 thousand years ago. (Of course the preacher said that Adam and Eve, and everything else for that matter, just popped into existence 6 thousand years ago, but even as a child I never took that seriously.) 20 to 30 thousand years ago never did seem long enough to me to account for all of the diversity of humankind, but what did I know. Nowadays, even the most conservative estimates are that the 20,000 year period is about ten times too short; and others, like Wolpoff and Caspari, would increase it 100 times. Stay tuned. |
|
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The Elegant
Universe, Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate
Theory W.W. Norton & Co., 1999.
ISBN 0-393-04688-5 |
Greene, Brian |
07 |
This is a very good book on string theory. I have
to admit that I did not understand the chapter on quantum geometry, however
(!). Based on what I read, if I had to predict what
scientists will think about string theory ten years from now, I would guess
that it will turn out to be very important. It is too early to say whether
the universe is constructed in the odd way that string theory predicts, but
right now it looks to me as if the prospects are quite promising. |
|
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The Universe
That Discovered Itself |
Barrow, John D. |
07 |
This is book, published in March of 2000 by Oxford
University Press, is a retitled and revised edition of The World Within the World, published in the 1980s, and hence
already out of date. What an achievement this book is. It is wide-ranging,
perhaps too much so, but that is fine with me; I can’t get enough of JFB, so
I would personally just as soon get the rambling version as the compact
account, but that it’s a personal preference that I doubt is universal. I have the paperback edition, and since I am post
fifty, my eyes prefer a larger type-face. I was surprised by the number so
insignificant typographical errors that got past the editors (e.g., periods
where commas were obviously intended). I wouldn’t even mention this were it
not a surprise, considering the publisher. I have much more to say, but it will have to wait.
For now I will note that I am primarily interested in the Quantum mechanics (QM)can be explained to the
layperson well enough for the layperson to partially grasp the effect that QM
has on the nature of reality. However, at this stage, the explanations that
are out there differ, occasionally critically. That is why I have had to read
dozens of books in an attempt to understand what is really being said. I have
finally determined that everyone is not saying the same thing, and that is
(at least one reason) why I have been confused. The good news for me is that
I am slowly beginning to understand where the interpretations and explanations
differ and why. Part of the differences is that not even the scientific
community grasps the implications of the theory. Some members assert that is
not necessary to do so, but that of course is silly, human nature being what
it is (curious). |
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Between
Inner and Outer Space ISBN 0 19 859254 0 |
Barrow, John D. |
07 |
I have read a spate of science books so far this
year. There is so much interesting going on now, and so many good books being
written about it, that it is hard to decide what to read. I am just as happy as I could possibly be about
discovering a new author as I am about discovering John Barrow. Time is going
to force me to keep it short, but I must say that Barrow is the type of
person I have been searching for, and I am immediately going to go out and
read more by him. He is right on the money, and very witty too. Also
extremely well read (for a physicist!). I have much, much to say about this book, but will
have to force myself to remain silent for now, because I have too much to say
and too little time to say it in today. |
|
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Achilles in
the Quantum Universe: The Definitive History of Infinity. |
Morris, Richard |
07 |
When I realized that Richard Morris was the same person who wrote Time’s Arrows, Scientific Attitudes Towards Time, I bought the book and immediately began reading it. I finished in three days. In light of my expectations, based on my enthusiasm
for Times Arrows, I was somewhat disappointed in this book. I am very much interested in the puzzles of the Eliatics (Zeno, et. al.) and when I saw that this book had a chapter on the puzzle of Achilles race against the tortoise, I had great expectations. In my ignorance I expected that the answer would be that once you reach the Planck length that there is no halving of the distance, and thus Achilles wins. Not so. I don’t recall that Morris told me why Achilles wins. I do remember that Bergson had a pretty good explanation in Time and Free Will, but I don’t remember what it was (!). . |
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Whose Afraid
of Schrodinger’s Cat: An A to Z Guide to all the New Science Ideas You Need
to Keep Up With the New Thinking |
Marshall, Ian |
07 |
Excellent book. I thought that the dictionary approach was bound to
fail, but it didn’t, primarily because the authors were thoroughly familiar
with the wide range of their subject. This was a sleeper that should have
gotten more public attention than I think it got. (This was a present from
Rachel.) |
|
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The Moral
Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology |
Wright, Robert |
07 |
06.07.01 See Critique in Psychology section. |
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The
Neandertal Enigma, Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins |
Shreeve, James |
07 |
Excellent. This book really surprised me. I have read much about the
Neandertal, and thought there was not much else to say on the subject. How
wrong I was. This book was first rate. Of the three or four books specifically
devoted to Neanderthals, this is the one I recommend, if you can only read
one, which is not to say that the others are not good as well. It is simply
that this book was outstanding, and as of Feb. 2001 the most up to date. It may be best for society that so much in science is the product of
political considerations, and since I want to live in a peaceful world, I try
to be tolerant of it. However, it still amazes me to see so much in the
writing of scientists that betrays a political agenda that has nothing at all
to do with whatever the underlying facts are, and one suspects that the facts
may get twisted as a result. That is why when I read Stephen Gould I am never
sure whether his findings are what they are because the facts are what they
are, or because of what he wants them to be. As a result, I read Gould for
the facts that he brings, and I dismiss his conclusions as unreliable. Not
that he is wrong; it is just that where his judgment is the test, I can’t
trust him, and so I don’t know whether he is right or not. Is the Neandertal our ancestor. Is a 200,000 year old Eve the ancestor
of all living hominids/humans. If so where do the aboriginal Australians fit
in. Or, contrary to the Eve hypothesis, did anatomically modern humans simply
co-evolve, all over the planet, more or less simultaneously, but
independently, from the widely dispersed homo erectus? The answer, appears to
be determined, in part, by your politics, with each side of the debate
accusing the other of being racists, as if ideology had anything to do with
what happened. |
|
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At The
Water’s Edge: Fish With Fingers, Whales With Legs—How Life Came Ashore and
Then Went Back to Sea |
Zimmer, Carl |
07 |
Very, very good!! This book was much better than I had expected. It
was very well researched and supported. This was the author’s first book. I
expect to see more, and will be in line to read the next ones. |
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Life: A
Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth |
Fortey, Richard |
07 |
That’s right, 4 billion. I know the Bible implies that life, indeed
the universe, is only roughly 4 thousand years ago, but that is metaphorical
time as opposed to sidereal time. |
|
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Genome: The
Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters |
Ridley, Matt |
07 |
I read this in about 24 hours. It is an easy read, and very
interesting. I agree with Ridley’s outlook on things generally, by the way. |
|
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The
Technology of Orgasm |
Maines, Rachel |
07 |
7.6. Fascinating! The insights into the female orgasm and the means of
achieving it should be well known and not controversial by now. But what was
totally unknown to me was the role that doctors played in the 19th century in
treating the problem under discussion. Also unknown were the explicit
writings of Averoes and other ancient and medieval physicians who had some
idea of the problem, and recommended a hands on treatment. We know so little about some the most important things knowable, and
so much about what is not worth knowing. |
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The Good
Rain |
Egan, Timothy |
07 |
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The Matter
Myth |
Davies, Paul and Gribbin,
John |
07 |
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The Whole
Shebang |
Ferris, Timothy |
07 |
Very good. Timothy Ferris is always first rate. |
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6 Easy
Pieces |
Feynman, Richard P. |
07 |
Feynman has the uncanny ability to render abstract concepts of physics
palpable. In a discussion of the nucleus of an atom, he begins, “Imagine you
are in the middle of a football field . . . “ |
|
05/01/2001 |
The Quark
and the Jaguar |
Gell-Mann, Murray |
07 |
This was a difficult book; written by a man who won
the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the quark. I thought I
understood much of it at the time I first read it (1996 or ’97). However, I
realized that I did not understand it well enough to give a summary if my
life depended on it. All I remembered were vague notions about decoherence or
the lack thereof, coarse and fine grained realities, and self-organization as
a phenomena. The fault, however, was clearly with the reader. I remembered enough to think that what I had read and what I was currently
reading on the subject were very different; so in the spring of 2001 I went
back and re-read the section on quantum mechanics (around 100 pages). MG-M has a penchant for using language terms differently. The “many
worlds” theory becomes the “many alternative histories of the universe.” MG-M
would not say that the worlds are “equally real” or that they represent
“parallel universes; rather, he would say instead, “many histories, all
treated alike by the theory except for their different probabilities.” Is
this a distinction with a difference? Well, that is what I am trying to
figure out. I think it is a different interpretation because it dodges the
issue of whether the alternative histories are “real” or not. And don’t tell
me that the term “real” in this context is meaningless. It is not. Of course,
since we don’t have enough information yet to know whether the alternative
histories are real or mere abstractions, it is perhaps more accurate to use
MG-M’s language. I read two books by John Gribbin, In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat and Schrodinger’s Kittens and the Search for
Reality, devoted to the one issue that I wanted to
understand. MG-M has this to say on the Schrodinger’s Cat paradox, which
tells me that the reason I was confused is that the issue is not being
explained similarly, even among physicists: The usual discussion of
Schrodinger’s cat goes on to describe alleged quantum interference between
the live and dead cat scenarios. However, the live cat has considerable
interaction with the rest of the world, through breathing, for example, and
even the dead cat interacts with the air to some extent. It doesn’t help to
the cat placed in a box, because the box will interact with the outside world
as well as with the cat. Thus, there is plenty of opportunity for decoherence
between coarse-grained histories in which the cat lives and coarse-grained
histories in which it dies. The live and dead cat scenarios decohere; there
is no interference between them. * * * * Suppose the quantum event
that determines the fate of the cat has already occurred, but we don’t know
what happened until we open a box contained the cat. Since the two outcomes
decohere, this situation is no different from a classical one where we open a
box inside of which the poor animal, arriving after a long airplane voyage,
may be either dead or alive, with some probability for each. Yet reams of
paper have been wasted on the supposedly weird quantum-mechanical state of
the cat, both death and alive at the same time. No real quasiclassical object
can exhibit such behavior because interaction with the rest of the universe
will lead to decoherence of the alternatives. And then there is the problem of the observer that I was having such a hard time with. I was not having a problem with the notion that reality is changed by observation, I was having (and am still having) trouble understanding what the writers mean when they talk about the role of the observer. A complex adaptive system
acting as an observer probably deserves a special name. [recall my comment
about MG-M’s penchant for changing the names of terms.] Jim Hartle and I call
it an IGUS, or information gathering and utilizing system. If the IGUS
possesses consciousness or self-awareness to a significant degree (so that it
notices itself noticing the direction of a fission track), so much the
better. But why is that necessary? Does a measurement made by an arbitrary
human being, even one of very low intelligence, really have any greater
significance than one made by a gorilla or a chimpanzee? And if not, then why
not substitute a chinchilla or a cockroach for the ape? [“Tell me, tell me,
tell me the answer”[3]!] When it comes to pruning
the branching tree of histories, perhaps a distinction should be made between
a human observer who knows something about quantum mechanics (and is
therefore aware of the origins of the tree) and one who does not. In a sense,
the difference between them is greater than that between a human ignorant of
quantum mechanics and a chinchilla. |
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Time Warps |
Gribbin, John |
07 |
? |
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In Search of
Schrodinger’s Cat |
Gribbin, John |
07 |
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The Blind
Watchmaker |
Dawkins, Richard |
07 |
1.2.7. I am a Dawkins fan, and loved this book, though why he cannot
accept his premise, and then ask why it is that evolution is part of the
universal scheme is beyond me. I have much, much more to say on this subject.
|
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The
Diversity of Life |
Wilson, Edward O. |
07 |
I recommend this highly! |
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Nature of
Time |
Ed. Flood, Raymond&
Lockwood, Michael |
07 |
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Stephen
Hawking’s Universe |
B |
07 |
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Shadows of
Forgotten Ancestors |
Sagan, Carl |
07 |
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Journey to
the Centers of the Mind |
Greenfield, Susan A. |
07 |
1.7. I was not impressed. |
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Philosophical
Scientists |
Foster, David |
07 |
7.2. This book has attracted an avalanche of criticism, some of it
rabid, some of it deserved. Nevertheless, I predict that one day reasonable
people will recognize that some sort of design must be at work. I assume that
there is a scientific reason that the hemoglobin molecule formed itself, but
event, so, I hardly thing that the mystery has been solved. After all,
evolution itself, the fact that it exists as a universal principle, is pretty
amazing and calls for some sort of explanation, even if it obviates the need
for multiple interventions by the deity. |
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Masks of the
Universe |
Harrison, Edward |
07 |
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Einstein’s
Universe |
Calder, Nigel |
07 |
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The Dragons
of |
Sagan, Carl |
07 |
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The Mind of
God |
Davies, Paul |
07 |
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Journey Out
of |
Dawkins, Richard |
07 |
7.3. |
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The Red
Limit, the Search for the Edge of the Universe |
Ferris, Timothy |
07 |
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A Brief
History of Time |
Hawking, Stephen W. |
07 |
I saw one of the editors of W. H. Norton say that this book was
overrated, and not really that good. I have read dozens of books on physics
for the layperson, and disagree. I have read it three times. Although it is
relative, I do not have time to talk about it anymore. |
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Monsters of
the Sky |
Maffei, Paolo |
07 |
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Time’s
Arrows, Scientific Attitudes Towards Time |
Morris, Richard |
07 |
This is far and away the best book on time that I have ever read. I am
surprised that this fellow is better known. What I carried away from reading this book was a notion I had never
before pondered and which I think is very profound is the issue of
instantaneous acceleration. Given the notion that the laws of gravity cause
an object to accelerate as it falls according to a precise time related
formula, at what speed is an object traveling at the moment that it is
released and allowed to fall? |
|
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Cosmic
Landscape, The |
Rowan-Robinson, Michael |
07 |
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ABCs of
Relativity |
Russell, Bertrand |
07 |
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The ABCs of
Relativity |
Russell, Bertrand |
07 |
I have read this three times. |
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The Dancing
Wu Li Masters |
Zukav, Gary |
07 |
The approach was a little too new age-ee for me. Perhaps acupuncture
would help. |
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Spontaneous
Healing |
Weil, Andrew, M.D. |
07 |
I categorize this under science with some hesitancy. A high percentage
of people are made health by the placebo (a)effect. I imagine that roughly
the same percentage will be helped by this book. |
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Schrödinger’s
Kittens and the Search for Reality |
Gribbin, John |
07 |
I recently (2002) read this book a second time. |
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Impossibility-The
Limits of Science and the Science of Limits |
Barrow, John D. |
07 |
This is not among my favorite books, but it is by my favorite author,
and like everything that Barrow has written, and that I have read, it was
worthwhile reading. |
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The Universe
in a Nutshell |
Hawking, Stephen |
07 |
07. I was somewhat surprised to find that this book made very
worthwhile reading. |
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Climbing
Mount Improbable |
Dawkins, Richard |
07 |
07. I know much more now than I did about the role played by the
various species of wasps that have a symbiotic relationship with the various
species of figs. However, this book, one of half a dozen by Dawkins that I
have read, did not otherwise add much to my understanding of the world.
Unless you are a committed Dawkins’ fan, I would read some of his other works
first: maybe The Selfish Gene, a
classic, and one of the few of his I haven’t read. |
|
|
Dawkins vs.
Gould |
Sterelny, Kim |
07 |
07. I recently heard a biologist working in the |
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The Mystery
of the Quantum World, 2nd Ed. |
Squires, Euan |
07 |
07 |
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The Ghost in
the Atom |
Davies, P.C.W and Brown,
J.R., Editors |
07 |
07. Fantastic, both in the old and new sense of the word. This book is
comprised of a series of interviews with the leading experts in the field of
quantum physics, viz.: Alain Aspect, John Bell, John Wheeler, Rudolf Peierls,
David Deutsch, John Taylor, David Bohm and Basil Hiley. It doesn’t get much
better than that. |
|
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Headache
Help |
Robbins, Lawrence, M.D. and
Land, Susan S. |
07 |
07. I need a new category called “My Psychosomatic Illnesses,” but for
now, I will just stick this in the science section. |
|
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The Fabric
of Reality |
Deutsch, David |
07 |
07. Very compelling, this book. David Deutsch is the premier expounder
of the so-called many-worlds theory of quantum mechanics. He convinced me
that the theory is plausible. In fact, it is the most logical answer to the
problems raised by the double-slit experiment. Did you know that among
preeminent physicists, most subscribe to one or another version of the
many-worlds theory, or at least Deutsch says they do. If true, this is a most
remarkable fact. I consider myself an extreme skeptic, and so I am not likely
to buy into this the wildest of all theories ever propounded seriously.
However, the theory would explain so much if correct, and I find it very
compelling no matter how weird. Of course, what we already know to be
undisputed about quantum mechanics is already so weird that the many-worlds
is hardly stranger; in fact it is a little less so. |
|
|
Einstein’s
Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists |
Wolfson, |
07 |
07. This was a series of twenty-four 30-45 minute audio lectures
presented by The Teaching Company. Wolfson is well known as a writer of
physics. I understand that he has a new book coming out that is supposed by
all accounts to be something very special. This series of lectures, while
very good, did not offer much new to me. |
|
|
aaa |
aaa |
08 |
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Tales of
Ordinary Madness |
Bukowski, Charles |
08 |
I have to say that his treatment of women is insensitive and sometimes
difficult to take. On the other hand, his treatment of all humankind is not
that much different. Bukowski is what he is. In part, he is what the world
made him. |
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The Last
Night of the Earth Poems |
Bukowski, Charles |
08 |
Poetry. Not everything Bukowski writes is good, but much of it is
great. This particular book of poems is one of his best collections, IMHO. |
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Love is a
Dog From Hell |
Bukowski, Charles |
08 |
Poetry |
|
|
Post Office |
Bukowski, Charles |
08 |
Novel. A riot. |
|
|
Burning in
Water Drowning in Flame, Selected Poems 1955-1973 |
Bukowski, Charles |
08 |
Poetry. |
|
|
War all the
Time, Poems 1981-1984 |
Bukowski, Charles |
08 |
Poetry. |
|
|
The Days Run
Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills |
Bukowski, Charles |
08 |
Poetry |
|
|
David
Copperfield |
Dickens, Chas. |
08 |
Wouldn’t it be nice to have the time to read all of Dickens’ novels.
Dickens was a true genius for character descriptions. His characters come
across as caricatures at the same time
as they represent clearly definable personality types that are in fact
believable. Quite a feat when you think about it. |
|
|
Crime and
Punishment |
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor |
08 |
Brilliant. Depressing at first, no doubt, but brilliant. |
|
|
The Gambler |
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor |
08 |
I love the Russian writers, and I love Dostoyevsky in particular. I
cannot begin to do him justice here, other than to say that he has tremendous
insight into the human psyche. This was a very compelling story |
|
|
Sister
Carrie |
Dreiser, Theodore |
08 |
Yet another book from the woman’s point of view. Well worth reading,
though somewhat depressing |
|
|
The Name of
the Rose |
Eco, Umberto |
08 |
An historical novel, true to its time, the 14th Century.
Eco is a professor of semiotics at the |
|
|
Foucault’s
Pendulum |
Eco, Umberto |
08 |
A great story. A great ending. Eco is a professor of semiotics at the |
|
|
Absalom,
Absalom |
Faulkner, William |
08 |
Compelling. A great story. Prose style unsurpassable. |
|
|
Collected
Stories of William Faulkner |
Faulkner, William |
08 |
Fabulous 900 page collection of outstanding short stories. I loved it.
The other day I found in a used book store the Uncollected Stories of Wm. Faulkner. Now that should prove
interesting. |
|
|
Tender is
the Night |
Fitzgerald, F. Scott |
08 |
Well now I have read it. I think that Fitzgerald just might properly
be classified as a truly great prose writer. If not, he misses the
characterization by only a hair, which say a lot in any case. |
|
|
This Side of
|
Fitzgerald, F. Scott |
08 |
It is hard to believe that this was a first novel. |
|
|
|
Fitzgerald, F. Scott |
08 |
|
|
|
Tales of the
Jazz Age |
Fitzgerald, F. Scott |
08 |
Descriptions that only a truly great artist could write. |
|
|
The Great
Gatsby |
Fitzgerald, F. Scott |
08 |
|
|
|
|
Frazier, Chas. |
08 |
A very good first novel from Chas. Frazier. |
|
|
The Return
of the Native |
Hardy, Thomas |
08 |
Superb. Wonderful prose style and a good story. |
|
|
JOB: A
Comedy of Justice |
Heinlein, Robert |
08 |
|
|
|
Women in
Love |
Lawrence, D.H. |
08 |
Excellent. Told more or less from a woman’s point of view. |
|
|
Lady
Chatterley’s Lover |
Lawrence, D.H. |
08 |
Excellent. Told more or less from a woman’s point of view. |
|
|
Sons and
Lovers |
Lawrence, D.H. |
08 |
|
|
|
|
Lewis, Sinclair |
08 |
Yet another story from the woman’s point of view. See Women in Lover, Lady Chatterley’s Lover,
Sister Carrie, Mrs. Dalloway, which I, without intending to, found myself
reading, one after another, over a three month period. |
|
|
Brush UP
Your Shakespeare |
Macrone, Michael |
08 |
Fun. |
|
|
Life of Pi |
Martel, Yann |
08 |
Magical realism. I enjoyed it, but was not as excited as most people I
know who have read it. |
|
|
Cannery Row |
Steinbeck, John |
08 |
|
|
|
Of Mice and
Men |
Steinbeck, John |
08 |
|
|
|
Fathers and
Sons |
Turgenev, Ivan |
08 |
Should be read by all fathers and all sons. |
|
|
Mrs.
Dalloway |
|
08 |
Wonderful. A day in the life story. Great writing. Great insight. |
|
|
War and
Peace |
Tolstoy, Leo |
08 |
Wonderful. A page turner. I had no problem reading it at all. The very
best part was Part II, the author’s epilogue. |
|
|
The Magus |
Fowles, John |
08 |
Andrew Disney talked me into reading this, and I am glad he did. It
would have been a better read if about 150 of the 668 pages had been omitted. |
|
|
Brutal
Imaginations |
Eady, Cornelius |
08 |
Poetry. Good contemporary poetry. More later. |
|
|
Free Will
and Determinism |
Berofsky, Bernard, Ed. |
08 |
An excellent compilation on a subject in which I am very interested,
and which a perusal of this reading list will quickly disclose |
|
|
To Repel
Ghosts |
Young, Kevin |
08 |
Poetry. Good contemporary poetry. More later. |
|
|
A
Confederacy of Dunces |
Toole, John Kennedy |
08 |
This was a Pulitzer Prize winner that the author could not get any
publishing house to accept during his lifetime. Shows what they know. A
great, rollicking tour de force. |
|
|
THE STORY OF
B |
Daniel Quinn |
08 |
02.08 Daniel Quinn is as thought provoking as he is naive. (This is
not the prequel to the Story of O.) |
|
|
Between Pictures |
Loader, Jayne |
08 |
A rollercoaster of a book. Nonstop craziness. Hilarious. Do not read
with your mouth full. Jayne Loader does with/for sex what Hunter S Thompson
does with/for drugs. See http://www.publicshelter.com/main/index.html
and http://www.publicshelter.com/wench/96/951231.html. |
|
|
Take the
Cannoli |
Vowell, Sarah |
08 |
08.05Because I loved her The Partly
Cloudy Patriot so much, I rushed out and bought Take
the Cannoli, and was glad I did. I was as good or better than the other
book of hers I had just read. |
|
|
Potshot |
Robert B. Parker |
08 |
08. |
|
|
Sifting
Through the Madness For the Word, the Line, the Way |
Bukowski, Charles |
08 |
08. I read this in two days. It is an easy read. The poetry is not
obscure. I loved it. This guy, Bukowski, was very prolific, but I can’t find
much of his stuff in the used book stores. I picked this book off the shelf
at Barnes and Noble because the title caught my eye. I flipped it open, and
liked what I saw; so, though I had never heard of Bukowski (which tells you
how out of touch I am), I bought the book, and am so glad I did. What is his poetry like? Well, it is brutal for one thing. It doesn’t
rhyme, for another (he plays without a net). It is not obscure, so the
pundits might not be impressed. But it is straight from the heart to the
typewriter and is very real. Who does he remind me of? He reminds me of the
type of character that Nick Nolte often plays, a man who drinks too much,
smokes too much, is addicted to playing the horses, has many relationships
with women, most of which are short lived and end unpleasantly. The work is
poignant and even touching in places
too. A genuine slice of one very real man’s life. The impression is of an individual struggling to keep the lid on a
potential for raging violence that is just waiting to explode, a potential
which could be realized any minute, given all the excuses the world gives us.
Man can I relate to that, notwithstanding, or perhaps because of, my Babbitt
like existence. Great book. |
|
|
The Partly
Cloudy Patriot |
Vowell, Sarah |
08 |
08.05I saw Sarah Vowell on CSPAN-II’s Book TV, and immediately
recognized her voice. She is one of the people associated with that
remarkable program on public radio called This
American Life, which every time I just happen to hear it —always by accident,
because I only listen to radio while in the car, which is stupid and a shame,
since this program ought to be sought out and listened to regularly— I am
impressed to the point of being thrilled that such good artistry is alive and
well in America. So naturally, I was intrigued enough to listened to her one
hour lecture touting her new book, and being quite satisfied that my extreme
prejudice in her favor (on account of hearing her on This American Life) was not misplaced, I immediately went out and
bought half a dozen copies, one for myself, and five for my family and
friends. The book is hilarious. It is serious and satirical and ironic and
insightful and full of fun. |
|
|
Two Many
Women |
Stout, Rex |
08 |
08. |
|
|
The Red Box |
Stout, Rex |
08 |
08. Okay, so when I really want to relax, I read a Nero Wolfe or a
Spenser mystery. I have my foibles, like everyone else. |
|
|
Love is a
Racket |
Ridley, John |
08 |
08. A good hard-edged thriller, set in |
|
|
3 by
Flannery O’Connor |
O’Connor, Flannery |
08 |
08. Wise Blood, A Good Man is
Hard to Find and The Violent Bear
it Away. Well, now I can say I have read her, and, as a Southerner, it
was about time. I have had this paperback on my self since my days as an
English major at the |
|
|
Ulysses |
Joyce, James |
08 |
08
Absolutely, hands down, the best novel I have ever read. I read it twice and
actually listened to an unabridged authorized recording once. I bought a
number of books to help me interpret and understand the novel, but I never
read them, though one day I will, most likely, and then read the novel again.
I had picked up the book two or three I recall one passage one
of the most beautiful and most difficult in the book, which took place late
at night around a hospital I think, where there were a number of words being
used the meaning of which I could only guess at by their cognates. I even got
out the big Webster’s, and didn’t find them there, though I did find words of
apparently similar derivation. I decided that Joyce was playing with me,
which he was; and that the words were made up (which they were not). On
reading the book the second |
|
|
The Odyssey |
Homer. Translated by George
Herbert Palmer |
08 |
08.02 |
|
|
The
Wasteland & The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock |
Eliot, T.S. |
08 |
I finished memorizing both poems by my 50th birthday. No I am not
autistic, but the process of memorizing poetry and reciting it to one’s self
is related, I think, to what some autistic people do to shut out the noise of
world for a while by obsessing on something to distract. I have much more to say on the subject of Eliot’s poetry and the
benefits of occasionally memorizing a poem, but not now. |
|
|
Poetic Forms |
|
08 |
|
|
|
The Language
Instinct, How the Mind Creates Language |
Pinker, Steven |
08 |
12.06.08. With This book is first-rate in every sense of the word. His sense of the
world —how else do I describe what it is that brings a person’s judgment into
wide ranging accord with the way (I think) the world really is, rather than
into accord with what is temporarily popularly thought to be the correct
ideological way of seeing things— is about as complete as one could hope,
given the limitations of our knowledge and abilities. When I read an author whom I find to be particularly brilliant, such
as I find Pinker to be based on this one encounter, I typically search out
more books he or she has written. I have already done that in this case, and
cannot wait to read more. |
|
|
In the Teeth
of the Evidence |
Sayers, Dorothy L. |
08 |
This was a collection of short stories. I read about 2/3rds of it, and
that a waste of time. I have read a good deal of Sayers in my day, and used
to enjoy Lord Peter, but not this book, which was largely about Montague Egg.
|
|
|
Looking
Backward |
Bellamy, Edward |
08 |
05.8.1. This is a noble but misguided work. I am interested in utopian
literature, and that is why I sought it out to read. |
|
|
Babbitt |
Lewis, Sinclair |
08 |
8.1 I did not realize that someone had written a book about me before
I was born. The jacket to my copy of the book said that it was about one of the
most unlikable characters ever. However, I think that this book is better
understood as being a book about the superficiality of the American
bourgeoisie, than as a denigration of George Babbitt individually, who
probably had a good will, which is all either Kant or I demand. I had a
certain sympathy for old Georgie, and see him as not all that different from
most people I know, myself included. In fact I would go so far as to say he
is better than most. I don’t like the world that created Babbitt, and I think
it more proper to read the book as being about that world than as being about
one misguided individual living in it, particularly if one realizes, as one
should, that Babbitt is neither unique nor evil. |
|
|
Mr. Sammler’s
Planet |
Bellow, Saul |
08 |
It was good to read Bellow again after all these years. I had had this
book on my shelf unread since college, and although in those days I read
three or four Bellow novels, I had not read this one. |
|
|
Elements of
Poetry |
Scholes, Robert |
08 |
|
|
|
Hamlet |
Shakespeare |
08 |
|
|
10//01/2000 |
To the
Lighthouse |
|
08 |
|
|
|
The
Fountainhead |
Rand, Ayn |
08 |
1.8. I found this book to be very thought provoking and irritating. I
think |
|
|
|
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
Mortal
Stakes |
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
Ceremony |
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
The Godwulf
Manuscript |
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
Starmaker |
Stapleton, Olaf |
08 |
08.01. Truly great and classic science fiction, written when? I can’t
remember. In the 20s I think; certainly not much later. I read another book
of his a long |
|
|
Lonesome
Dove |
McMurtry, Larry |
08 |
|
|
|
Love Letters |
A.R. Guerney (Sp?) |
08 |
|
|
|
A Hot Wind
Blows |
Rogers, Deborah Lawrence |
08 |
Although the plot was worth the read, the imagery was what impressed
me. I thought it brilliant at times. The author is a multi-talented artist of
exceptional ability in many fields, a virtual polymath, widely read, and with
wide-ranging interests. She’s a pretty good graphic artist too. As an author,
poetry is her strongest suit. I have the occasion to read some of it, and was
very moved. I hope she will write more poetry someday. |
|
|
Mahabharata |
Buck, Translated by |
08 |
2.8 |
|
|
I Claudius |
Graves, Robert |
08 |
4.8. |
|
|
Murder in
E-Minor |
Goldsborough, Robert |
08 |
|
|
|
People of
Darkness |
Hillerman, Tony |
08 |
|
|
|
A Catskill
Eagle |
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
Thin Air |
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
Walking
Shadow |
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
Looking For
Rachel Wallace |
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
Paper Doll |
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
Taming A
Seahorse |
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
Chance |
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
Pale Kings
and Princes |
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
The |
Barker, Pat |
08 |
3.8. The author, a woman, writes this book from a man’s perspective.
Since the man is gay, perhaps the job was made easier. |
|
|
Nostromo |
Conrad, Joseph |
08 |
Wonderful. |
|
|
Pastime |
Parker, Robert B. |
08 |
|
|
|
Over My Dead
Body |
Stout, Rex |
08 |
|
|
|
Murder in
the Cathedral |
T.S. Elliott |
08 |
|
|
|
The High
Window |
Chandler, Raymond |
08 |
|
|
|
Death Times
Three |
Stout, Rex |
08 |
|
|
|
Milkwood |
Thomas, Dylan |
08 |
We saw this at TCU w/ the Ohendowskis |
|
|
Farewell My
Lovely |
Chandler, Raymond |
08 |
|
|
|
The |
Hillerman, Tony |
08 |
|
|
|
Snow Falling
on Cedars |
Guterson, David |
08 |
|
|
|
|
Watson, Larry |
08 |
|
|
|
Curtains for
Three |
Stout, Rex |
08 |
|
|
|
A Thief of
Time |
Hillerman, Tony |
08 |
|
|
|
The Dark
Wind |
Hillerman, Tony |
08 |
|
|
|
A Family
Affair |
Stout, Rex |
08 |
|
|
|
Please Pass
the Guilt |
Stout, Rex |
08 |
|
|
|
Red Badge of
Courage |
Crane, Stephen |
08 |
I now know why this used to be required reading in high school. |
|
|
Watership
Down |
Adams, Richard |
08 |
Delightful |
|
|
The
Immoralist |
Gide, Andre |
08 |
|
|
|
Gambit |
Stout, Rex |
08 |
|
|
|
Riders of
the Purple Sage |
Grey, Zane |
08 |
Not popular in |
|
|
Rumpole on
Trial |
Mortimer, John |
08 |