May 2011 - The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood

[Melissa]

Time to start thinking of books for the May Book Club Read. Please post your nominations here. I'll take nominations until March 29, then I'll open up the poll for a few days.

[Melissa]

I'll start by nominatingThe Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature. It's been around for a long time, and it's been recommended to me many times--I've never gotten to it.

A reviewer says "a paleontologist with a poetic soul confronts the deep past."

[Valerie]

I liked the one Heather nominated last month, The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse.

[David]

Melissa wrote: "I'll start by nominatingThe Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature. It's been around for a long time, and it's been recommended to me man..."

Loren Eisley is a great author!

[April]

Hi all! New here but I'll nominate Brian Greene's new book The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos

[Kirsten]

I just read that one (Brian Greene book), it was good. I was going to suggest E.O. Wilson's new book, but it hasn't gotten very good reviews.

So instead I'd like to nominate The Longevity Project

[Patricrk]

byHeidi Cullen is my nomination. Starts out with a history of climate forecasting over the last 100 years and then discusses climate change impact on various regions of the world 40 years out or so.

[[deleted user]]

I'd like to suggest The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence Krauss, although I'll understand if not many others are interested ;)

[Jeffrey]

How about The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood
by James Gleick.

Here's Slate's review. http://www.slate.com/id/2289328/

by James Gleick

[Cheryl]

Hey Donegal, I have that book on my TBR mountain - even if it's not selected we could do a buddy read or something. :)

[Gofita]

Looks like a ton of great nominations! So I'll bow out this time and just vote.

[jb]

Donegal wrote: "I'd like to suggest The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence Krauss, although I'll understand if not many others are interested ;)"

That sounds interesting....my husband said he might like to read it too, but then again we are both Star Trek fans....LOL

[[deleted user]]

jennbunny wrote: "That sounds interesting....my husband said he might like to read it too, but then again we are both Star Trek fans....LOL "

I'm a Star Trek fan and Lawrence Krauss fan and science geek so I expect to enjoy that book immensely. We'll see how many votes it can garner.

[Gofita]

Donegal wrote: "jennbunny wrote: "That sounds interesting....my husband said he might like to read it too, but then again we are both Star Trek fans....LOL "

I'm a Star Trek fan and Lawrence Krauss fan and scienc..."

I love love love Star Trek! This looks great!

[Melissa]

Seems like a good poll this time for May, we had a good selection to choose from. It was pretty clear early on that the Star Trek book was popular, but then another book pulled up for the final neck and neck to the finish. We have a tie! So there will be two reads for the month of May, and you can read one or both if you have time.

The winners of the May 2011 poll are:

The Physics of Star Trek and

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood

I'm still holding out for the Biology of Battlestar Galactica myself.

[Cheryl]

I own the first and have ordered the second from inter-library loan, so I might get to read both. :)

[Kate]

I'm looking forward to read The Information. Not a huge fan of physics (but I have Life Signs: The Biology of Star Trek floating around here somewhere).

[Kirsten]

The wait list in my local library system for The Information A History, A Theory, A Flood is 134 patrons long. That's definitely not going to be here in time for May.

[David]

Kirsten wrote: "The wait list in my local library system for The Information A History, A Theory, A Flood is 134 patrons long. That's definitely not going to be here in time for May."

I had actually requested that my local library order this book several months ago. They ordered it, but by the time they ordered it and I looked at the library catalog, there was already a long waiting list!

This is a problem that bothers me, concerning the nomination of brand new books. I suggest that we hold off from nominating brand new books, until they have had a chance to "settle down" in the library systems.

[Gofita]

David wrote: "Kirsten wrote: "The wait list in my local library system for The Information A History, A Theory, A Flood is 134 patrons long. That's definitely not going to be here in time for May..."

You all must live in very scientific-minded places because at my library there are no holds...except mine that I just added today...

[Kirsten]

The Physics of Star Trek also has a wait list. My library system has a very high circulation rate, which is both a blessing and a curse.

David-I agree. It's tough.

[Cheryl]

I requested Information back on April 6. I'm next in line. I'll double check with my family, but I'm pretty sure I could read Physics of Star Trek in the first few days of May and then mail it to a US member.

Meanwhile, science books do become obsolete, and they're more fun to read while fresh and controversial, so we don't want to wait too long to read them. But maybe we could wait a bit. And maybe we could plan monthly reads an extra month ahead to give us a chance to move up the waiting list

[David]

Cheryl in CC NV wrote: ".... But maybe we could wait a bit. And maybe we could plan monthly reads an extra month ahead to give us a chance to move up the waiting list ..."

Cheryl, we are already choosing monthly reads a month ahead. Personally, if I think that a book is going to be obsolete in a year or two, I don't want to waste my time reading it. Fortunately so far (crossing my fingers!) we haven't chosen any books that will become obsolete soon. :-)

[Cheryl]

Good points, ok.

[Katy]

I am going to pick up The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood for our May read. Do you think I should get the book or on my Kindle?

[Kirsten]

Decided to read The Physics of Star Trek because I actually could get a copy and it looks good. Unfortunately the author insists on calling fans "trekkers". Most Star Trek fans I know prefer to be called Trekkies, but that's a small detail. It looks interesting based on reading up through page 3.

[David]

Unfortunately, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood is not yet available from our library. I am listed as #5 out of 36 holds--and the 5 copies that the library ordered back in March have not yet arrived. I plan to read the book, but it won't be this month.

[Kirsten]

Me too, David. There are over 200 holds on this book now, I'm #135. I don't hold out hope of getting this any time soon.

[Cheryl]

Well I read Physics... and did neither enjoy it nor feel as if I learned anything. I don't think I'll be able to get Information... either.

[Katy]

I have a copy of The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood. Hopefully someone else found a copy so that we can compare notes.

[Gofita]

Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "Well I read Physics... and did neither enjoy it nor feel as if I learned anything. I don't think I'll be able to get Information... either."

Thanks, Cheryl, for the book. I'm glad I was able to snag it from you. Sorry it wasn't up to snuff. I don't know a ton about physics so hopefully I'll have plenty to learn once I get it!

[Cheryl]

I hope you enjoy it Heather - it wasn't bad, just not right for me.

[David]

Yay! The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood has come in at the library!

[Cheryl]

Yay David!

[David]

I just finished reading The Physics of Star Trek. Here is my review.

[Cheryl]

Well-put David - that review does explain at least part of the problem I had with it, too.

[Olivierco]

My copy of The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood is still on its way but I have received and just finished The Physics of Star Trek
I perhaps expected too much from the book considering the fact its author is Foundation Professor at Arizona State University in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the Physics Department, and Director of the Origins Initiative: I would have expected more detailed and consistent explanations.
It was a quick and pleasant read anyway. The best part for me is that I was able to figure out by myself most of the explanations, even many years after my studies.

[Tim]

I got a copy of The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood from my library system yesterday. It's challenging, but interesting so far.

[Aloha]

I'm on Chapter 3 of The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood. I am loving. Every chapter draws me in with interesting facts. The book was presented in an understandable, personable way.

[David]

I've been enjoying The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood very much. The applications of these ideas are far ranging; communications, genetics, computer science, linguistics, cryptography, and physics.

I just saw the two musical memes on page 312. Gleick does not inform the reader what they represent. Obviously, the first one is the opening theme from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. I think that the second one is from the song Macarena. :-)

[Cheryl]

I got my copy from the library today - no waiting in this small city!

[Aloha]

I'm starting Chapter 9 on Entropy. Every chapter has been engrossing, but I'm especially interested in the mystery of entropy. Every fact that he presented so far have made me want to do more research on those facts. He could have made the book abstruse, but it is a great, fun read that stimulates my curiosity. Definitely one of my all time favorite books. I love books that give me the shakes to learn more.

[Aloha]

I like this book so much, I got Gleick's other book Chaos: Making a New Science. I'm surprised I've never heard of this book, since I am interested in the topic of chaos and its relation entropy. Oh, wait, I think I was reading the art, literature, romance, horror and fantasy genres. Takes a while to get back to nonfiction again. So many books, so little time, and only one head.

[Betsy, co-mod]

I downloaded a sample of The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood from Amazon and started reading it. Loving it so far. It's got all of my favorites: computers, language, words. It picks up disparate threads from all kinds of disciplines and weaves them together in a way to make them fascinating and undeerstandable.

Don't know if I'll be able to finish it by the end of May, but I'm definitely going to buy it.

[Cheryl]

I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish it in time, either, but there's no reason to archive the thread if we're still reading and talking, is there?

[Aloha]

It might be too late to mention this since you have your system all set up, wouldn't it be better to title the thread with the title of the book? When I go into a forum, I find it handy to be able to see the title of a book of interest right away and go into that thread.

[Aloha]

I'm on Chapter 12: The Sense of Randomness. I really am loving this book. I'm starting to look at a variety of books that relates to the things he talked about in his book. Which means that I'm looking at just about everything. It's terrific how he managed to tie different things together into a neat little interesting package. Of course, his book is about information. What in life does not contain information? His approach is metaphysical, I think.

[Katy]

I picked up the book, but just haven't had time to start it yet. I would love to see this thread continued for next month too, that way hopefully we can finish it and continue the discussion.

[John]

Aloha:

An excellent book to explain entropy is "Decoding the Universe" by Charles Seife. I used it as a reference in my book, and list it in my bibliography.

Later, John.

[Aloha]

Thanks, John. I'll look it up.