Otis Chandler's profile

232 ratings (3.98 avg)
167 reviews
195 trivia answers
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#45 top librarians
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Otis's bookshelves

read ‎(236)
currently-reading ‎(4)
to-read ‎(161)
fiction ‎(147)
wishlist ‎(72)
nonfiction ‎(63)
scifi ‎(31)
business ‎(26)
programming ‎(19)

adventure ‎(19)
fantasy ‎(17)
classics ‎(16)
thriller ‎(16)
favorites ‎(11)
history ‎(10)
africa ‎(10)
selfhelp ‎(9)
science ‎(8)

spiritual ‎(8)
biography ‎(7)
childrensbooks ‎(7)
geek ‎(6)
design ‎(5)
comics ‎(5)
ya ‎(4)
mystery ‎(3)
spy ‎(3)

to-reread ‎(3)
travel ‎(2)
coffeetable ‎(2)
didntfinish ‎(2)
surfing ‎(2)
finance ‎(1)
humor ‎(1)
memoir ‎(1)
historical-fiction ‎(1)

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Otis is currently reading

	06/09 Otis is currently reading: Free: The Future of a Radical Price (Hardcover) by Chris Anderson (Goodreads author) bookshelves: business, currently-reading, nonfiction	my rating:
	Otis said: "Got a copy at Book Expo - looks pretty good! " progress: (page 100 of 288) "Gladwell vs Anderson: the war of the economists? http://bit.ly/uPCM6" — 4 days ago, 02:22PM 1 comment
	06/05 Otis gave to: Get Back in the Box: How Being Great at What You Do Is Great for Business (Paperback) by Douglas Rushkoff bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
	progress: (page 20 of 336) "Finally got through the introduction. This book is promising a lot - I hope it delivers!" — 10/02/2008 10:18AM add a comment
	06/05 Otis is currently reading: Morgan: American Financier (Paperback) by Jean Strouse bookshelves: biography, business, currently-reading	my rating:
	progress: (page 259 of 796) "Morgan rescued and ran the Reading railroad" — 02/12/2009 09:40PM add a comment

Otis's recent updates (rss)

July 02

Otis Chandler said "yes" to attending the event: Goodreads and Young Literati Book Swap .
date: July 16, 2009 08:15PM
location: Mar Vista Branch Library , 12006 Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, The United States
description: Summer is the best time to try out new books!

Please bring books you'd like to share and leave with some brand new summer reading material. All remaining books will be donated to the Mar Vista branch. Author Lisa See will also be at the event signing her new book, Shanghai Girls here!

This swap is in partnership with Young Literati(a fund raising organization for the Los Angeles Public Library). If you are interested, you can join this members-only organization at the end...more
Otis said: Looking forward to it!

July 01

Otis added a status update:

"Only a few days left to help my friend @paulsussman win 350K from Netflix! Help vote! http://bit.ly/Cpc7a"

add a comment

Otis Chandler made a comment on Cristian's review of The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Otis wrote: "So you gonna move to Buenos Aires now? "

see all 2 comments

June 30

Otis Chandler made a comment in the group Goodreads Feedback—Hanging Menu topic:

Otis wrote: "Yes we don't test for FF2 now, as over 95% of our users are on FF3+ "

Otis Chandler made a comment in the group Goodreads Feedback—Facebook connect topic:

Otis wrote: "We are experimenting with Facebook Connect as of this evenings release. This will mean:

- You can n...more "

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Otis Chandler read and liked Banzai's review of Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics:

"This is probably as good as a physics-for-the-layman book can get. But that doesn't mean it's perfect. Far from it, in fact.

The strength of the book is Zukav's review of the history of physics. He does a good job setting up and explaining t...more This is probably as good as a physics-for-the-layman book can get. But that doesn't mean it's perfect. Far from it, in fact.

The strength of the book is Zukav's review of the history of physics. He does a good job setting up and explaining the major breakthroughs so that you, the reader, can appreciate their significance in pretty substantial ways. That's quite a feat. His clarity gets weaker as he starts to go into the weirder aspects of quantum mechanics though. At times he's so eager to jump to the scientific and philosophical ramifications of quantum mechanics that he sprints past the reader's understanding. I re-read and re-read and re-read passages until I finally saw that he had left out certain points that would have made things much more comprehensible, had he been more careful.

The biggest flaw in the book is his hippie obsession with his Wu-Li metaphor. At times it's elegant and beautiful, but more often than not it's annoying and overblown. He's too eager to yammer on about particles acting as if they were conscious, ties between quantum mechanics and telepathy, and on and on. He's not a scientist so he's free to make these leaps of imaginative fancy, but I was constantly rolling my eyes whenever he started to wax philosophic about some new wrinkle in quantum mechanics.

The other thing that grates is that he thinks the book is very funny. He even writes in the introduction that he's amazed and so pleased with how funny the book is, that it is, in fact, funnier than he is in real life. Mr. Zukav? It's not funny. His humor is cloying and totally unnecessary.

Still, if you're interested in the history of physics--from Newton to Einstein to the birth of quantum mechanics--this is the book to read. But oddly enough, I'd recommend that you read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as a primer to this book. Zen covers a lot of the difficult philosophical underpinnings that Zukav has integrated into his book. And Zen is a better introduction to those ideas.

This summer, apparently, will be the summer of physics. I've figured out a logical progression:

0. (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)
1. The Dancing Wu Li Masters (history of physics + good discussion of Einstein + good intro to quantum mechanics)
2. A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking (deeper discussion of Einstein's space-time + intro to quantum gravitation)
3. The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene (superstring theory of quantum gravity)

To some degree each of the three physics books cover the same ground, but Zukav excels at surveying the history of physics and at describing Einstein's three important contributions. His intro to quantum mechanics is good enough, but that will be covered in more detail later.

Hawking rushes through the history of physics so you really need Zukav as a primer. But Hawking then goes much deeper into the implications of general relativity's space-time. I'm halfway through it now and it's pointing towards a unification of general relativity with quantum mechanics (aka quantum gravitation).

I began reading Brian Greene's book but realized that Zukav and Hawking really must come first. Greene also surveys the history of physics but does so briefly. His discussions of general relativity also aren't as robust as Zukav or Hawking's. And since string theory is the "final" theory, it really should come last anyway.(less) "

3 comments

June 29

Otis Chandler made a comment in the group Goodreads Author Outreach Project—Tweets for Terry Pratchett - Monday, June 29 topic:

Otis wrote: "I tweeted it!

BTW: You can also see stats here: http://bit.ly/info/kIyBJ "

June 26

Otis Chandler made a comment in the group Goodreads Feedback—Facebook topic:

Otis wrote: "Laurel: You should be seeing book covers in your profile updates. If not, check the settings for the...more "

More of Otis's books…

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Otis's favorite authors

J.R.R. Tolkien
author of
The Hobbi...

Frank Herbert
author of
Dune

Alexandre Dumas
author of
The Count...

Douglas Adams
author of
The Hitch...

Bryce Courtenay
author of
The Power...

Ayn Rand
author of
The Fount...

More of Otis's favorite authors...

Otis's favorite quotes

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
— Theodore Roosevelt

tags: inspirational, politics, presidential

633 people liked it

"Even in the face of massive competition, don’t think about the competition. Literally don’t think about them. Every time you’re in a meeting and you’re tempted to talk about a competitor, replace that thought with one about user feedback or surveys. Just think about the customer."
— Mike McCue

tags: business, competition

1 person liked it

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
— Douglas Adams (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe)

tags: humor, scifi

2,603 people liked it

"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see."
— Arthur Schopenhauer

tags: inspirational, talent

673 people liked it

"There are no ordinary moments."
— Dan Millman (Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives)

tags: philosophy, wisdom

48 people liked it

More of Otis's favorite quotes…

Otis's groups (recent posts)

Goodreads Feedback — 2081 members — last activity 37 minutes ago
This is a place to give feedback about Goodreads. Feature ideas, bugs, or any other suggestion for improvement. The Goodreads staff monitors this gr...more

Goodreads Librarians — 2939 members — last activity 17 minutes ago
A place where members can work together to improve the Goodreads book catalog.

Activities include combining editions, fixing book and auth...more

Quotable Quotes — 330 members — last activity 1 day ago, 02:08AM
I'd love to create a database of sorts filled with everyone's favorite quotes from books. Come share your favorites!

GoodReads 2.0 - UI and Design Refreshment — 81 members — last activity 4 days ago, 03:55PM
This past year, Otis (Mr. Goodreads) developed and added a ton of new features to GoodReads. Most of which were created thanks to the suggestions of t...more

Goodreads Inc Book Club — 10 members — last activity 14 days ago, 12:11PM
Book club for the employees of Goodreads. We're still a little disorganized at this point!

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events Otis is attending

Goodreads and Young Literati Book Swap
Book swap, July 16, 2009 08:15PM
Mar Vista Branch Library , 12006 Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, The United States
Summer is the best time to try out new books! Please bring books you'd like t...more

Current reply: yes change your reply »

Book Club Meeting
Author appearance, July 23, 2009 06:30PM
Big Dean's Cafe, 1615 Ocean Front, Santa Monica, The United States
http://www.bigdeansoceanfrontcafe.com/
I'm going to suggest four novels, but PLEASE do not feel pressured to read these...more

Current reply: maybe change your reply »

Goodreads and Book Soup Book Swap!
Book swap, August 15, 2009 01:00PM
Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, The United States
http://www.booksoup.com
Come join Goodreads and Book Soup for another fun Book Swap! Bring in all th...more

Current reply: yes change your reply »

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