Peter Smith's Blog, page 36

Publication day!

Beginning Mathematical Logic is now available as a paperback, ISBN 1916906338. I’d hoped to get it finished well before the end of 2021; but these are strange times, when spirits can droop and concentration levels plunge. Still, I’ve made it to the finishing line.

I can quietly update the PDF and the text of the printed paperback if and when I hear about typos or minor thinkos. So do let me know about anything you notice. And it’s the very nature of the enterprise that the Guide will no doubt someday need revising, and I’ll no doubt start an addendum webpage in the interim: so suggestions for more substantial future improvements will still be very welcome.

The paperback is only available from Amazon. But as I’ve explained before, using their basic-level print-on-demand service (without the potential for expanded distribution to bookshops) keeps the price to a rock-bottom minimum, £4.99/$5.99. Amazon refuseniks still can download the PDF!

I might be raising a glass this evening …

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Category Theory, without too many tears?

So, I’ve pressed the “publish this” button on the Amazon KDP system for Beginning Mathematical Logic, and will let the world know when it gets through the review process and goes live.

And for my next Big Red Logic Book? A few years back I put together some notes on category theory (running to almost 300 pages). And despite their very rackety half-baked form, they are downloaded startlingly often — almost a thousand times in January.  Ye gods! So it’s decision time. Do I let them continue to stand as they are, despite their unsatisfactory, unfinished, form? Or do I try to make them more respectable, and round them out into a more polished book form?

On the one hand, I’m really pretty embarrassed to leave the notes online in their current state. On the other hand, having putting the work in earlier, I’m reluctant to trash them. Which leaves the remaining option, of getting down to more work and and making a better fist of it. So here goes …

I think I’ll take it in three phases. First, go through the current version, correcting all the typos and thinkos I’ve been told about, improving the presentation wherever I can, to make a better version of the existing  material. Second, get back to doing quite a lot more reading and rereading in category theory, so I can round out the existing material e.g. with more examples, more applications, and additional closely related ideas at the same level. Then third, decide which further topics (if any) I should add at the end to make a more satisfying book (though given the current length, I wouldn’t want the book to extend its reach very far into new territory).

That should all take quite a while, but (I hope) not too many tears. Watch this space for occasional updates.

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Elisabeth Brauss, Scarlatti, for as long as the music sounds

She was asked in an interview about her most memorable concert experience. And Elisabeth Brauss responded “It’s always a few notes, a phrase, a shared moment on stage, during which you know why you’re doing it all, at least as long as the music sounds … That can happen in every concert.”

But it must, I think, have been more than a few notes that were memorable for her last Monday at Wigmore Hall, more than a phrase. The opening pieces alone were a wonder and a delight. Elisabeth started with a sequence of Scarlatti sonatas, beautifully chosen to make (as it were) an emotionally satisfying meta-sonata. And she played with such sensitively controlled phrasing, bringing out the depths particularly of the second B minor sonata, true to the music, so individual yet without a moment’s self-indulgence. The audience knew that they were listening to something very special. My very hard-to-please piano-teacher sister was “blown away”. And the way Elisabeth herself responded at the end of sequence and then smilingly took the applause before she settled to compose herself before launching into the Mozart, rather suggested that the shared Scarlatti which she been evidently been so wrapped up in would be as memorable for her as for her audience. Just outstanding, as long as the music sounded.

But see and hear for yourself, on YouTube for some weeks.

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William Morris

When we had our loft extension built a couple of years ago, we had to have the hallways (re)decorated from top to bottom; and so the shabby old William Morris wallpaper needed to be replaced. And because some of the spaces are narrow and potentially dark, we went for a very pale version of Morris’s Poppy. Perhaps we played over-safe; but it is still a delight.

I have always been interested in and hugely admired William Morris. And my Christmas present to myself was this quite beautifully produced book, edited by Anna Mason, and published by the V&A last year to mark the 125th anniversary of his death. There are consistently interesting essays on the man (as a designer, writer, political activist, conservationist), and on the art (from the early painting to the Kelmscott Press, via the furniture, tapestry, wallpaper and more). The many, many illustrations are just terrific. So this is a joy, and very warmly recommended.

 

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The revised Study Guide: a final, final draft!

I was trying to write a piece about why Elisabeth Brauss’s playing is so extraordinary, but rather failing. So I must return instead to a more familiar theme here (which regular readers will be as tired of as I am!). But with many thanks to those who e-mailed in last-minute comments and corrections, I’ve one last time gone through a complete version of Beginning Mathematical Logic: A Study Guide, making many corrections. You can download a final, final, draft version here (all x + 184 pages of it). I hope you like the wise addition to the very last page …

There are no major changes since the previous online version, but there’s been a fair amount of minor tinkering at the level of changing punctuation, adding a very few more footnotes, etc. It made a remarkable difference having a printed proof copy in book form to work from: all kinds of minor glitches hit the eye in a way they don’t onscreen or even in a stack of print-out.

So the plan is that I send off to get another proof copy for a final typographical check. And then, all being well, we are good to go, and there should be another Big Red Logic Book to buy by the end of next week. Start saving your pennies.

And if you’ve been meaning to let me know about some error you spotted in a previous version, do let me know if it is still there in this current version. But don’t delay!

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Elisabeth Brauss at Wigmore Hall

To lighten the day and give you hope, a simply wonderful lunchtime concert from the pianist Elisabeth Brauss – Live at Wigmore Hall, playing Scarlatti, Mozart, Ravel and Prokofiev.

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Ahah! Another step onwards …

So a first proof copy of the Study Guide has arrived surprisingly promptly.

Partly this is to check the cover design, but mainly it is for reading through for typos and layout blunders and other typographical mishaps. It is really startling what newly hits the eye when you have a draft in front of you in physical book form, even after you have previously seen piles of print-out.

But I’m pleased with the look of the book. As you’ll have seen, the design inside and out is just like the other Big Red Logic Books — but people say they look pretty smart, so I’ll rest content with that!

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The revised Study Guide: a final draft?

I’ve now checked through the complete draft of Beginning Mathematical Logic: A Study Guide, and  you can download it here (all viii + 185 pages of it).

I’ve made a few late content changes (the long ‘overview’ sections on FOL and on set theory have been split into two parts, and I’ve added a few paragraphs in each case). Obviously, this is the sort of project that one could keep tinkering with almost without limit. But I’m going to call it a day.

So it will be one final read through for me, for residual typos and to check for aesthetic flaws like hyphenations that cross pages and so on. And I need to design the cover properly and that sort of thing. Meanwhile, this is the last call for corrections and suggestions, before putting it into the Amazon paperback publishing system for those who would like a hard copy. (Yes, yes, I know that using Amazon is not ideal: but I can and will set the price so low that their royalty take will be pennies. And the result will be much cheaper than the alternatives.)

Added January 21 There’s an updated version (some typographical changes, a few typos corrected, some minor changes in Chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5.) I’ve started setting up the KDP paperback process, doing the cover design etc. The paperback will come out at x + 184 pages, unless the last minute changes alter that, and yet still can be priced at £4.99/$5.99, which is a decent bargain. If you’ve seen a paperback of one of the other, same-format, Big Red Logic books, you’ll know that Amazon in fact make an unexpectedly decent job of their cheap print-on-demand paperbacks.

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Dvořák in Prague — Piano Trio no. 3

Last Autumn, at the Dvořákova Praha festival, Boris Giltburg with Veronika Jarůšková and Peter Jarůšek of the Pavel Haas Quartet played all four of Dvořák’s Piano Trios to great acclaim. You can now hear the rather monumental third of them from a Dutch radio broadcast, which you can stream here. The first piece in the long concert is the Grieg Piano Concerto with Boris Giltburg. The Dvořák Trio starts about 1 hour 33 min into the broadcast.

Press the purple “Speel” button, and the controller then appears at the bottom of the webpage. Enjoy!

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The revised Study Guide: at last, a complete version

At last, there is a complete draft of Beginning Mathematical Logic: A Study Guide which you can download here (all viii + 182 pages of it).

I need to do a typographical check for typos and thinkos, and there are such exciting tasks as regularizing spacing conventions and so forth. Then, more importantly, I’ll want to make the tone and level of the treatments of different topics as consistent as I can. Then there are a few sections which I know require more work, including the very last one on type theory. But then end is in sight.

Meanwhile, while I’m revising and polishing, all suggestions, comments and corrections for the current draft will be hugely welcome. (If you do comment, please note the date of the draft you are commenting on!).

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