The Odyssey by Homer Translated with Introduction by Emily Wilson (2018, ISBN 9780393089059)

I enjoyed reading this book. The introduction was very informative and the translation was easy to read.

When I think of the Odyssey I always think of the adventures with the Cyclops or Sirens, but actually a lot of the story is about his home and what happens when he gets home.



Purchased new on 2018-01-10 from Powells for 39.95$

 The Theoretical Minimum by Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky (2013, ISBN 978-0-465-07568-3)

Subtitle: What You Need To Know To Start Doing Physics.

The one thing I learned from this book was-- There is No Royal Road to Physics.

In 227 pages the books covers a lot of territory!  Mathematics-- Spaces, Trigonometry, Vectors, Differential Calculus, Integral Calculus, Partial Derivatives, Vector Fields-- DIV, GRAD & CURL. That is a lot and doesn't include the Physics!

Physics-- Introduction, Motion, Dynamics, Energy, Lagrangian, Hamiltonian Mechanics, Poisson Brackets, Electric and Magnetic Forces, Newton's Laws and Kepler's Laws. And a whole lot more!

I doubt you can do Physics after reading this book, unless you are a genius. But you might get a feeling for whether or not this stuff interests you. If you are interested I suggest you get a proper College Physics book (for example Theoretical Physics by Georg Joos ISBN 978-0-486-65227-6) and study for real.  The book Classical Mechanics by H.C.Corben and Philip Stehle (ISBN 978-0-486-68063-7) covers many of the same topics (not the Math, they assume you know that) but it isn't for people who don't know the basics. Another book is Classical Mechanics with Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control, An Intuitive Introduction by Mark Levi (ISBN 978-0-8218-9138-4)

Classical Mechanics, The Theoretical Minimum by the same authors is just the UK version of the above book. (ISBN 978-0-141-97622-8)

I got these books for Christmas 2019.

A Companion to the Iliad by Malcolm M. Willcock.obit (1976, ISBN 0-226-89855-5)

Based on the translation by Richmond Lattimore.

What would be really useful would to have this book embedded in the Lattimore translation as notes.

The commentary goes Book by Book (Iliad is divided into 24 books) and somewhat line by line. If you are interested in understand the Iliad better this book provided a lot of information about ancient Greek culture.

Not sure when I obtained this book, probably within the last ten to fifteen years from Powells.

Pickwick Papers By Charles Dickens (1837, this edition 1964, Signet Classic CY 443)

Originally published in serial format and when completed was published as a complete book.

From the back cover--

"The adventures of the immortal Pickwick Club, headed by the good Mr. Pickwick himself, abetted by his faithful manservant, Sam Weller..."

Received this book as Christmas present sometime in the late 1960s, Signet Classic CY443 1.25$