Some light reading

I appear to be entering a reading phase at the moment, recently finished Hyperspace by Michio Kaku (mind bending); John Gribbin - In search of Schrodingers Cat (very thought provoking - well the bits I understood anyway ); Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code (not bad) and Deception Point (plot signposted for 2 year olds); Just about to finish Bill Bryson - A Short History of Everything, quite good for a quick skim over a wide range of stuff, easy reading.

So just ordered : Robert Anton Wilson -Schrodingers Cat Trilogy and The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by B Greene If my brain is in any fit state I might post a review.

Also am considering posting a list of read books that I'd be willing to lend out to any intrested 'Gainers as at the moment they're just sitting in the shed using up space (no pun intended) - as long as they are returned!! :gatling:

 

Try this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...4105/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_10_2/026-6150967-9322833

It's excellent.

I'm currently reading this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...4191/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_11_1/026-6150967-9322833

Ben Watson's sort-of biography of Derek Bailey. Very entertaining, but not quite as smutty as Ben's extremely pornographic and highly amusing autobiographical novel Shitkicks and Doughballs.

-- Ian

 

Funnily enough I did look at another of his - Three roads to Quantum Gravity - or something. I'll check one out next.

Thanks
Jeff

 

Three Roads To Quantum Gravity is well worth reading, but The Life Of The Universe is something else again. Completely plausible whilst being completely bonkers. Very well written too.

-- Ian

 

Seems to sum up quantum theory quite nicely

Jeff

 

i take it you've read wilson's illuminati trillogy?

 

Err ...no. Why?? Thought about it, but I understood "Schrodingers" isn't exactly a sequel.

 

I'm reading this again, maybe this time I'll understand WTF he's talking about:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...102-8449029-3284928?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
This, however, is great fun:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...26250/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-8449029-3284928

 

Sure is, I liked that a lot.

-- Ian

 

Currently reading:

Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens of Titan
David Attenborough - Life on Air
Noel Annan - The Dons: Mentors, Eccentrics and Geniuses
Simon Schama - Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution
Jorge Luis Borges - Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings

Recently finished:

Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything
George Orwell - Down and out in Paris and London
Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
F.Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
Daniel Dennett - Consciousness Explained
Robert Hare - Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
Danny King - The Burglar Diaries
John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
Donna Tartt - The Secret History
Marvin Minsky - The Society of Mind
Paul Johnson - Intellectuals
Douglas Coupland - Life After God
Richard Dawkins - A Devil's Chaplain: Selected Writings
Douglas Hofstadter - Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Irving Chernev - Logical Chess: Move by Move

I only read half of the above just because they were going cheap in one sale or another. Can't resist fine smelling books at the best of times.

I've had that sitting on my shelf for ages. I'm hoping that it will disappear into another dimension before i have to read it.

The books are on the backburner this week now, as i'm going through a musical rebirth.

 

i'm halfway through the harry potter series

have a read of the illuminati trillogy if you like the kind of brain melting stuff that's been popping up on this thread then it's another to add to the list. (i assumed you had read it as it's the most famous of wilson's books)

 

Hmmm, I don't think it'll be quite what you expect it to be given your recent reading material, but a good, if somewhat complicated & surreal, yarn none the less.