What Book Are You Reading? Issue.8

[Fifty]

I'm reading "Adventures of a Mathematician" By Stanislaw Ulam. So far I'm finding it far better than the much more famous Feynman books. A nice bit of autobiography... and I got it for free!

A funny passage, where Ulam is trying to explain how intelligent John Von Neumann was in every subject, by talking about his prescient comments in the time immediately before the breakout of WW2:

"He saw Russia as the chief antagonist to Nazi Germany. Believing that the French army was strong, I asked, ''What about France?'' ''Oh! France won't matter,'' he replied. It was really very prophetic."

 

[Krazula]

Satan und Ischariot

 

[The Last Conformist]

I'm rereading Nils Uddenberg's Idéer om livet ("Ideas about life"), a history of biology.

 

[Arwon]

About a half dozen books about 19th century Spain, Spanish liberalism and Franz Kafka.

 

[downtown]

The Genius: How Bill Walsh Reinvented Football and Created an NFL Dynasty, by David Harris. I eat up good football books -- e.g., The Blind Side, When Pride Still Mattered -- and this one's pretty good. It's a biography where even if you know what's going to happen, you still want to read about it.
.

I heard that new Bill Walsh book was awesome. I don't think I understood how smart a guy he really was.

I just finished Hunter Thompson's Better Than Sex and Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country, and am now looking for something else to read. I wonder if my library has the new Walsh book....

 

[I'm Cleo!]

I heard that new Bill Walsh book was awesome. I don't think I understood how smart a guy he really was.

It's pretty remarkable. He employed the first "sports psychologist," sociology Professor Harry Edwards of Cal-Berkeley, and Edwards talks about how intelligent Walsh was. He taught classes at Stanford business school. Some Stanford players interviewed said that a problem they had was that they considered themselves more intelligent than their coaches; they said that with Walsh, however, you immediately understood that he knew more about football than you did, and they trusted him because of it.

The book itself is good, but I've been skimming over the game recaps lately, since the book closes with stuff that I remember.

Cleo

 

[Arwon]

I'd recommend any of Bryson's books really. He's a very funny man.

 

[AngryPinkMoose]

"Rackkety Tam" by Brian Jaquches. Then Im going to read "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" by Philip K. Dick.

 

[Supr49er]

The Black Ice by Michael Connelly.

 

[Grisu]

A Feast of Crows ( A Song of Fire and Ice IV) - George R. R. Martin

 

[GoodSarmatian]

A Feast of Crows ( A Song of Fire and Ice IV) - George R. R. Martin

The weakest in the series, but not bad at all. I really wish A Dance wih Dragons comes soon.

 

[Grisu]

The weakest in the series, but not bad at all. I really wish A Dance wih Dragons comes soon.

I'm not too far into it yet, so far I liked A Storm of Swords best

oh yeah, and it sucks that I'll have to wait quite some time after I'm finished with this one

 

[Martacus]

Not really a book, but I'm currently reading "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan" by H.S.Thompson; an article in the back of my copy of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Also included is "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" which I have read several times and find pretty amusing.

I'm also having another go at The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I never really read it when it was assigned reading in high school; I didn't really get into it and simply went along with the daily class discussions. But I've decided to give it another try. Heck, it worked for Pride and Prejudice.

 

[Red Door]

Hamlet - William Shakespeare. Our teacher gave up on The Aeneid real quickly for some reason.

 

[Azale]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick and The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh

 

[Ansar]

The Worldly Philosophers

 

[Dachs]

The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh

Why is it that all histories of Nazi Germany feel the need to be ginormously long? Shirer's and this one especially, they're a pain to lug around.

I'm rereading the Shahnameh, because I was reminded of it by a fellow forumer.

 

[Julian Delphiki]

Why is it that all histories of Nazi Germany feel the need to be ginormously long? Shirer's and this one especially, they're a pain to lug around.

Those books complement each other nicely.. what do you suggest should have been left out to make them more reader-friendly?

 

[Shylock]

Ulysses by James Joyce.

I've long ago abandoned any hope of delineating a plot and just enjoy the prose.

 

[Firstlady]

Stephenie Meyer's Twilight yet again so I can compare and contrast it to the movie.