Generally checking in

[Colin]

How's everyone getting on, both with the challenge and in general? I've found that having a book I'm looking forward to at bedtime helps me structure my days.

I'm flying through the list (Elliptic Tales is #10 of the 12 for me) so I'm considering a second lap once I'm finished. The only prompt I'm struggling with is a book that helps me make something. Any suggestions for the terminally clumsy?

[Adam]

I've been super productive, here in NYC. I've been building a website, finally got a lot of the backend working. Reading Physics, Math, and CS books and keeping up a kind of schedule with those. Scheduling exercise for myself and keeping up less than I'd like to admit but still I've improved over pre-corona me. And cooking a lot more, which I've always enjoyed.

So insofar as I can, keeping a schedule has been good. I think I need to be more reasonable when making the schedule to build in time for random things that pop up, and for time spent transitioning between tasks, and downtime.

Something really useful also has been self-enforced lights off time. Having physical books and a reading light helps make a ritual where I tire myself out and dim the environment. Before instituting that, I'd stay up way too late.

Book that helps you make something: Cannot recommend highly enough "Things to Make and Do in the Fourth-Dimension".

[Sam]

Not much progress here! I've been distracted by a sci-fi book club on Twitter - it's comfort-food reading, which is what I need right now. I don't have the head space for hard books at the moment. I was reading GEB at the stables while my daughter was riding, where I could guarantee some quiet time, so that's been put on hold for a while. It's nice to have a pile of books waiting for me to be ready for them, though.

Mathematical Window Patterns by William Gibbs might be a good maker book if you're not particularly into crafts. In fact, I might dig out my copy and do it with the kids soon - they're enjoying making window decorations.

[Colin]

> Mathematical Window Patterns by William Gibbs Mathematical Window Patterns: The Art of Creating Translucent Designs Using Geometric Principles

I've ordered this! Thanks :-)

> "Things to Make and Do in the Fourth-Dimension" Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension

I've read (and loved) this before, this could be the perfect chance to go back to it! Thank you :-)

[Evelyn]

Thanks for starting this conversation, Colin! I had a really stressful few weeks in the middle of March, and I feel like my brain is finally getting out of panic mode enough to do more reading again. I haven't made much progress on this reading lately, but I just finished The City in the Middle of the Night for a different book club, and it was really interesting. My book for this group right now is Mathematics in India, but it's pretty academic for bedtime reading.

If you've ever tried crochet, I think Daina Taimina's book Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes is a nice one. Making hyperbolic things with crochet is easier than most crochet garments that aren't scarves. Once you've mastered the basic crochet stitch, you can start doing real things pretty quickly. I'm sure there are lots of video tutorials. I learned better from a friend than a video, though that may not be possible for you right now.

Hope everyone is staying safe and well in both body and spirit!

[Colin]

Maybe I need to give crochet another shot!

[Gabrielle]

Colin wrote: "> Mathematical Window Patterns by William Gibbs Mathematical Window Patterns: The Art of Creating Translucent Designs Using Geometric Principles

I've ordered this! Thanks :-)

> "Th..."

I love Daina Taimina's book! It's been my go to book for Applied Mathematics lately. :D

[Stacey]

I feel pretty sure that I'm not going to finish this challenge this year -- I'm having trouble even reading fiction in my comfort zone right now. But it's been an interesting journey anyway:
1. In The Mathematician's Shiva (fiction with a mathematician as main character), some muggle says something like "math is all about numbers", and a mathematician retorts that arithmetic is all about numbers, math is something else. I say to myself: "Uh-oh, maybe I'm not good at math, I'm only good at arithmetic."
2. In A Long Way From Euclid (math book published in the year I was born), I'm doing ok with the concepts that can be illustrated by drawings, but can't make the leap into the fourth dimension. I say to myself: "Uh-oh, it's worse than I suspected -- maybe I have no capacity for abstract thought!"
3. In How to Cook Pi (book with a number in the title), Eugenia Cheng says that abstraction can be like the high jump: at first you can't do it at all, and then you learn the technique for a certain height and get comfortable there, and then you can keep learning and eventually work up to something higher. So now I feel hopeful again. :-) I added the crochet book to my To Read list.

[Evelyn]

Stacey wrote: "I feel pretty sure that I'm not going to finish this challenge this year -- I'm having trouble even reading fiction in my comfort zone right now. But it's been an interesting journey anyway:
1. In ..."
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Stacey! I'm glad Cheng's book helped give you that perspective of gradually building up your skills. I think it's a great attitude to have in any subject, but especially math, which our culture seems to think is this thing that you're either naturally talented in or you're not, rather than a skill that we build the way we build any other skill.

Fun fact: Constance Reid, the author of A Long Way from Euclid, was the sister of Julia Robinson, the first woman president of the American Mathematical Society and generally impressive mathematician. (Robinson's centennial was last year, and I wrote an article about her for Science News.) Robinson's "autobiography," written by Reid in consultation with Robinson, is really moving. It's freely available here: https://www.maa.org/sites/default/fil...

[Jo]

This has not been the year for me and this challenge.

There were long periods where I only felt like reading certain very specific things (comfort re-reads or certain romance or paranormal books).

We'll see how much progress I make by year end. Right now, I'm at 2/12.

[Evelyn]

I'm going more slowly on this than I anticipated also. I'm reading a lot more fiction than nonfiction this year!

[F]

Stopped living and doing fun things when the semester began, started reading multiple of the books I chose for the prompts but hardly finished any, so i've decided to give myself extra time to do this challenge, now that it's the break.