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September 04
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Joe
is currently reading:
The End of Time (Hardcover)
by Julian B. Barbour
bookshelves:
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Joe
gave
to:
The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics (The Latin America Readers)
by Robin Kirk
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Joe said:
"A pretty good survey of Peruvian history and culture. The pre-Inca history and story of the Inca period was very good and gave me an excellent background, but I felt very underinformed about anything past the conquest. Part of this was my not finishi...more
A pretty good survey of Peruvian history and culture. The pre-Inca history and story of the Inca period was very good and gave me an excellent background, but I felt very underinformed about anything past the conquest. Part of this was my not finishing the book by the time we left (oops, so take this review with a grain of salt), but the organization beyond the conquest made it hard to get what I needed.
There were interesting passages from major political speeches by such important figures as Fujimori and Guzman, but even with the little introductory paragraph that every piece in the book had, I felt many of them lacked context.
Also, it looked like someone read through the final version of the book and said "Crap! You guys forgot to talk about women!" So, they added a feminist historian to collect a few pieces and scatter them through the book. I'm not saying those aren't important (at least not openly), but they felt forced in.
If you're heading to Peru this is a good survey, but if you're really interested in Peruvian history, culture, politics, literature, etc. there are probably much better and less choppy sources....less
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July 17
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Joe
marked as to-read:
Explosion in a Cathedral (Paperback)
by Alejo Carpentier
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
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Joe
marked as to-read:
Hallucinations: or, The Ill-Fated Peregrinations of Fray Servando (Paperback)
by Reinaldo Arenas
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
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Joe
gave
to:
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat: Quantum Physics And Reality (Paperback)
by John Gribbin
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my rating:
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Joe said:
"I'm reading this again after a few years so that when I give it to my girlfriend to read and EXPAND HER MIND I will be able to help guide her through it. So far, it has been a great intro to quantum mechanics. It's supposed to be for the layman, and ...more
I'm reading this again after a few years so that when I give it to my girlfriend to read and EXPAND HER MIND I will be able to help guide her through it. So far, it has been a great intro to quantum mechanics. It's supposed to be for the layman, and it appears fairly basic, but I have some background, so it's hard for me to judge that.
EDIT:
Well, it wasn't as good as I remember it. Maybe it was the passage of time and the advancement of science, maybe it was my own further studies in the field, maybe it was own growth and change in preferences, or maybe I just things didn't notice the first time. Don't get me wrong; it's still good, and I don't regret having read through it, but Gribbin is certainly not the best writer out there on these subjects. I would recommend Brian Greene, but he always wants to throw a plug in for the wonders of string theory and how it will solve EVERY SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM EVER; IT WILL EVEN CURE CANCER AND OBESITY!!!! Even so, Greene's description of the basic science is unparalleled. If you want an introduction on these matters read the opening two-thirds of either of his books (The Elegant Universe or The Fabric of the Cosmos).
As for Gribbin, he has trouble pacing and keeping his writing consistent. He'll meander aimlessly and point out important subjects he'll describe later. Worst, his level of detail and required scientific background is horribly inconsistent. From a relatively simple, easy to follow, and well-suited for the layman explanation of the structure of the atom to his absurdly obtuse description of the most important experiment to confirm the predictions of quantum mechanics, he leaves the reader fighting to piece together his point.
The book does show its age at parts but his amazement at PCs and LASERs does not change the fact that they are awesome and stem from the study of quantum mechanics. A larger flaw is his matter-of-fact presentation of certain controversial theories as "yeah, that's the way it is; don't bother investigating further."
This book does have a lot of good information and does explain some aspects of quantum mechanics very well for someone with little experience, but he kind of unravels at the end....less
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May 31
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Joe
gave
to:
The Fabric of the Cosmos (Space, time, and the texture of reality)
by Brian Greene
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my rating:
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Joe said:
"Excellent look into the questions still surrounding space and time. It begins with an overview of the progress made in the last century to determine what space and time really are. It then explains some of the recent theories to explain how and why t...more
Excellent look into the questions still surrounding space and time. It begins with an overview of the progress made in the last century to determine what space and time really are. It then explains some of the recent theories to explain how and why there is space. I know this sounds quite boring, but when you think about the fact that no one can explain why space has dimensions or matter has mass, two of the most basic and intuitive concepts in human experience, you can understand why the proposed theories may be quite illuminating or at least surprising. I don't think this is a very good starting point for people interested in delving into the largest and most important questions about the universe, its creation, and its composition, but with a little prior knowledge of relativity and quantum mechanics, it's incredibly fascinating....less
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