Friday, September 16, 2011

The Golden Section by Scott Olsen. 2006, ISBN 978-0-8027-1539-5. Subtitled Nature's Greatest Secret. Also, on the cover in small hard (for me) to read print it says "the essential guide to the deepest mystery on earth" and "a little book about the secret of life." This is a little book. It is not tiny, but it is smaller than most hard covers. The entire "Wooden Book" series is the same size. This book has many fine drawings illustrating the various subjects described. The book has 26 chapters and seven appendix. The chapters are each two pages long, with one page of text and one page of drawings. The subject is mostly "phi" (the Greek letter "phi" is used as a symbol for the number) an algebraic irrational number that appears frequently in nature. "phi" is approximated by the ratio of succeeding Fibonacci numbers 8/5,13/8, 21/13, etc. It is these Fibonacci numbers that usually are found. "phi" itself is given by the expression (1+sqrt(5))/2. The decimal value is approximately 1.6180339... While this book is mathematical in some of its content it is mostly mystical ideas related to how the numbers occurs in many places. I found this book very interesting to read and if I find the time may read it again. The text however is very terse, each chapter just scratches the surface of an idea before it goes on to another. If you are interested in "phi", but don't have a lot of time, then this book will introduce you the subject. You may find that when you have learned some about "phi" you will want to learn more. Golden Section is sometimes called Golden Ratio.

Monday, September 5, 2011

In The Quarter by Robert W. Chambers. 1894. This is a short novel about a student living in Paris and studying art. It appears to have been Mr. Chambers first novel. I found it easy to read. The version I read was an ebook (pg6893.mobi) file created from a Project Gutenberg text. I don't remember where I found it. I read it on my Kindle. I think you can also find pdf of this file on books.google.com.

Sunday, August 28, 2011


The Aeneid by Virgil, translated by Robert Fagles with Introduction by Bernard Knox. 2006, ISBN 0-670-03803-2. Last of the three epic poems from the Greeks and Romans. This story, written by Virgil, hundreds of years after Homer tells of events that occur at about the same time as the Odyssey. It is the story of Aeneas and other surviving Trojans who escape Troy and make their way to Italy to found Rome. The story has elements of both Odyssey and Iliad in it, the long wandering journey and the epic battles. Book was purchased at Borders, 11-17-2006 for $32.00.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Facts on File - Calculus Handbook by Eli Maor. 2005, ISBN 0-8160-6229-3. This a reference book intended for students of calculus. There is a six page historical introduction to calculus. This followed by four sections of reference material. The first is a Glossary that defines many terms related to calculus, trigonometry, analytic geometry and strangely economics and finance. The second section contains Biographies of various mathematicians, third is a section of Chronology that lists significant events in the history of mathematics and finally the fourth section has some tables listing various facts about trigonometry and calculus.
The glossary is hard to read from beginning to end because it is an A-Z dictionary of math terms. It isn't intended to be read that way, but instead as a place for the student to look up terms. The other sections can be read from beginning to end or just those parts that the reader is interested in.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011


Venus In Transit by Eli Maor. 2004, ISBN 0-691-11589-3. This book is about astronomy, in particular the transit of Venus. The planet Venus has been known to man since ancient times, because it is visible to the naked eye. Venus is one of the seven wanderers (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.) However, the transit of Venus wasn't seen by man (as far as anyone knows) or even imagined until mathematical astronomy predicted that it should happen. Once people knew that this should happen they started looking for it and it was first observed in England by Jeremiah Horrocks on 24 November 1639. This book tells the story of how the transit of Venus was predicted and the various attempts at viewing it. (Note: the next transit of Venus will be on June 6, 2012. After that it doesn't occur again until the year 2117.) Like his other books, I found this book enjoyable to read. It even has a little bit of trigonometry when explaining what the scientists were trying to do by viewing the transit (measuring the distance to the sun, etc.) See parallax and parsec. I purchased this book from Shell Creek Books, on 3-20-2011, for 6.99.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011


Virgins? What Virgins? by Ibn Warraq. 2010, ISBN 978-1-61614-170-7. A book of previously published essays about Islam. Excellent reading, well written. I enjoyed this book very much. If you are interested in learning about Islam this book provides a "middle of the road" rational approach to understanding the many confusing issues. Islam is frequently a highly charged subject, but this book avoids the mania of the true believers, either for or against and just presents well researched facts, etc. Purchased at Borders, 11-02-2010 for $19.00. I hope to read more of his work soon.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Trigonometric Delights by Eli Maor. 1998, ISBN 0-691-05754-0. This book is about Trigonometry. This is not a text book on trigonometry. I would say that to really appreciate this book the reader should have had some prior understanding of trigonometry and maybe some calculus. However, if you are interested in mathematics then you will probably enjoy this book. It is well written. It starts with the early history of mathematics that probably lead to trigonometry and follows the thread of history and how trigonometry as a science was employed at various times to solve problems.
Purchased at Powell's Books, 7-31-2002 for $23.50.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles with introduction by Bernard Knox. 1996, ISBN 0-14-026886-3. The story of Odysseus return home to Ithaca (see map) after the end of the Trojan war. Odysseus gets put off course because he offended one of the gods and spends ten years trying to get home. At the same time, during the war and his journey home, Odysseus' son Telemachus grows up into a world of increasing chaos because his mother, Penelope, Odysseus' wife, is being courted by a large band of suitors because it is generally believed that Odysseus had died. At over 400 pages, this is a very large poem, still this translation is easy to read.

Monday, April 25, 2011

e, The Story of a Number by Eli Maor. 1994, ISBN 0-691-03390-0. This is a good book. I have read it twice now. The number "e" has the approximate value of 2.7182818284..., but cannot be written down precisely because it is an irrational number. This book covers a wide variety of topics related to "e", from the invention of logarithms, to "e" and complex numbers. The book doesn't assume the reader knows calculus, however calculus level math is discussed and explained.

Saturday, April 23, 2011


Saint Mark by D. E. Nineham. 1963, ISBN 0 14 02.0489 X. This is a part of the Pelican New Testament Commentaries series. This is a commentary on the Book of Mark (or Mark, Gospel of Mark.) This book contains the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of Mark. The commentary discusses the Greek text some, but not extensively, mostly just to explain the choices made by the RSV. Otherwise, the commentary is mostly about the writer of Mark (What they knew or didn't know about Palestine of that period, etc.) The commentary is mostly historical and literary and less about theology. Purchased new on 30 Aug 1978, for $4.95. Purchased at: unknown, possibly Powell's Books.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

To Infinity and Beyond by Eli Maor. ISBN 0-691-02511-8. Subtitled: A cultural history of the infinite. This book has four main sections. Infinity is discussed in terms of numbers, geometry, art and science. I think I enjoyed the numbers section the most. The art section discussed the art of M.C. Escher and tiling. Purchased at Powell's, 10.95.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The David Sedaris Box Set by David Sedaris. 2002, ISBN 1586214349. Audiobook. This is a set of 14 CDs containing readings from four books, ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY; NAKED; HOLIDAYS ON ICE; and BARREL FEVER AND OTHER STORIES.
The stories are mostly read by David Sedaris and Amy Sedaris. Humorous stories about his personal life, friends and family.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Soul On Ice by Eldridge Cleaver. 1968. This book is a collection of essays and letters written over a period of several years. At the time it was highly provocative. The first two sections were interesting, the final section seemed to me to be a bit silly.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011


One Two Three ... Infinity by George Gamow. Originally published in 1947, this copy was printed in 1967 and includes some revisions from about that time. I bought this book new in about 1968. I was in grade school at the time. I remember reading it and being fascinated by the big numbers (especially the descriptions of infinity) and the various descriptions of Relativity and Cosmogony. This particular edition of the book is probably a bit out of date, there is a more current Dover re-print, ISBN 0486256642. Still, I enjoyed re-reading it and would recommend it to anyone interested in learning about science. I was reminded about this book while reading The Pythagorean Theorem by Eli Maor. His book was so good that I bought a copy of his To Infinity and Beyond and in that book was a reference to this book. So I looked around in my boxes of books and found this book and decided to re-read it. Glad I did.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Iliad by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles, with Introduction by Bernard Knox. 1990, ISBN 0-14-027536-3. A massive poem (this translation is about 540 pages), considered one of the foundation stones of western culture and literature. Composed 3200 years ago, first written down at about 800 BC. It is an excerpt of the story of the Trojan war, where the Greeks attacked the city of Troy for more than 10 years because Paris had taken Helen from Menelaus. The story told in the poem starts with an argument between Achilles and Agamemnon (brother of Menelaus and primary Greek king.) The poem describes several battles in gruesome detail and ends with the funerals of Patroclus and Hector (son of Trojan king Priam.) Here is a partial list of the characters in the story. The story is mythological, but may be based originally on some similar real events. In this story much of the action is influenced by the Greek gods, for example Zeus, Hera, etc. Two other important characters are Odysseus (main character of Homer's Odyssey) and Ajax. This is the first time I have read this completely. I have collected several translations. This copy was purchased from Borders, probably about ten years ago.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Pythagorean Theorem by Eli Maor. 2007, ISBN 987-0-691-12526-8. Subtitled: A 4000 Year History. Excellent book. I really enjoyed reading this. The subject is handled correctly and the author doesn't shy away from doing real math, ie, providing theorems and their proofs. However, the book is mostly about the history of this idea and how it has come to be used in various areas of mathematics and science. I will be reading his other books soon. Purchased at Powell's books on 7-27-2007, 24.95.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010


Book Of Mark. This is from the same copy of the New Testament as the Book Of Matthew. This was shorter than Matthew, I read a couple of chapters a day. Mark contains the ministry and ascension of Jesus, but not the birth story. The print in this tiny copy of Gideons is very tiny. The version of this text is the New King James Version.

Thursday, December 16, 2010


Gilgamesh, A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell. 2004 Free Press ISBN 0-7432-6164-X. This book is a re-telling of the Gilgamesh story. There is a 60 page introduction where the author discusses what he did and why. The story itself is around 140 page, but it is in verse form and double spaced, so it really isn't that long. There is also an extensive notes section where the author describe in detail the various choices made in writing this version. I found this version to be easy to read. I think Mitchell has retold the story in a way that makes it easier for the modern reader to understand. Purchased at Looking Glass Bookstore, 11-Oct-04, for 24.00.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Buddha, The Enlightened One by Gabriel Mandel Khan. 2004 Thunder Bay Press, ISBN 1-59223-400-3. This book presents a biography of the founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama. The text is short, but well written and I think covers the material enough that the reader will gain a good understanding of the Buddha. The book starts with a brief sketch of the Vedic culture that had established itself in India and gave birth to several religions, Hinduism and Jainism, etc. The book describes the life of the Buddha. The last half of the book is about Buddhism and how it spread across Asia. The book contains many color photos of Buddhist art.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Earth (The Book) by the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. 2010, ISBN 978-0-446-57922-3. Subtitled: A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race. The is supposed to be a guide to be used by future aliens who come to earth sometime after the human race has ceased to be. This book explains to these aliens who humans were and what we did, etc. A silly book, but has some good jokes. Purchased on 10-13-2010 at Fred Meyers for 20.99. You can probably get it cheaper if you shop around.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

The Survivor and Others by H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth. 1971, Ballantine Books. 02148-7-095. Book of short stories started or outlined by Lovecraft and completed by Derleth after Lovecraft died. I enjoyed these. They had all of the Lovecraft elements and were easy to read. Purchased from Pandora's Books (via Amazon marketplace) for 12.87 (including s&h) on June 26, 2010. Has another of those amazing covers (front and back) by Gervasio Gallardo.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The Epic Of Gilgamesh, tr. N. K. Sandars. 1972 revised edition. ISBN 0 14 044 100 X. I've owned this book for many years. Probably purchased at Powells. This is the oldest surviving written story. Contains a flood story similar to the one in Genesis. Because of the condition of the clay tablets that this story was written on, there are parts of the text that are missing. The translator in this version has filled in or smoothed over these rough spots, making the story easier to read. This is not a version for experts, but rather a version for the more average reader. I found the introduction very interesting because it explained the context in which this story was written.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. 1895. (the edition I read was published in 1902.) This is a collection of short stories. The stories are horror and fantastic in nature. Some take place in an imaginary future (is there any other kind of future?) Some of the stories have the characters reading and under the influence of a play called "The King in Yellow." Portions of this fictional play are quoted in the stories. This author was read by H. P. Lovecraft and some of the elements of the play are mentioned in his stories. The book I read was a PDF scan I downloaded from Google. I read it using the Kindle. This edition had several line drawings illustrating the stories.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. Bantam Books 1972, 553-07077-195. Subtitled: An Indian History of the American West. Presents the events of the American West from the Indian point of view from 1865 to 1890. A very sad story and a great injustice. The clash of the Indian culture and the European resulted in the destruction of the Indians, mostly because of the greed and ignorance of the Europeans.

Thursday, September 9, 2010


One Hundred and One Famous Poems With A prose Supplement, An Anthology Compiled by Roy J. Cook. 1958. The copyright is 1958, however, I think that there were previous editions. How many I do not know. For example, here is a full view edition in books.google.com. First edition maybe 1916. The book is still in print and probably could be found at Powells or Amazon. I have never been a big fan of poetry and many of these poems I could not begin to understand. Some of the authors are Emerson, Whitman, Wordsworth, Shelley, Longfellow. I got this book at Camerons's Books for one dollar probably five to ten years ago.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

The Koran translated and with notes by J. M. Rodwell. 1909. ISBN 978-0-486-44569-4. This Dover Thrift Edition is an unabridged republication of the 1909 edition with the notes and the chronological ordering of the Suras. It is amazing how much different translations can vary. See here for example. A PDF of this book can be obtained at books.google.com. I purchased this copy at Borders sometime last winter (2010) for $5.00.

Thursday, August 26, 2010


About Time by Paul Davies, 1995, ISBN 0-671-79964-9. The subject of this book is the temporal realm, the dimension of time. The author is a physicist. In technical literature he is listed as P. C. W. Davies. The subtitle is "Einstein's Unfinished Revolution" and much of the book is about general relativity and time dilation. The book starts with a brief history of how people have (and still do) think about time. Everyone experiences time. In some cultures they claim that all times exists together, others only see the Now. In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, the character Billy Pilgrim becomes aware of his disjointed time travels. Most of "About Time" is about time as it relates to modern physics. Good book. The book has 285 pages, a Preface, a Prologue, 14 chapters and an Epilogue. Plus Notes describing sources of quotes, etc., a Biblography and an Index.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, edited and with Introduction by S. T. Joshi.
This book contains four stories by H. P. Lovecraft, "The Rats In The Walls", "The Colour Out Of Space", "The Dunwich Horror", and "At The Mountains Of Madness". These were all good stories. The annotated part is mostly footnotes added to explain the more obscure words in the stories. The book also has a number of pictures showing various places where Lovecraft lived. I purchased this book used at Powells, $10.95.

Saturday, June 26, 2010


The Spawn of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft and others. 1971. Ballantine Books 02394-3-095 (SBN 345-02394-3-095). Edited by Lin Carter. This is a book of short stories which illustrates the development and growth of the "Cthulhu Mythos" stories. The other authors include Ambrose Bierce, Robert W. Chambers, Vincent Starrett, August Derleth, Lin Carter, Robert E. Howard, Walter C. DeBill Jr., Clark Ashton Smith, Frank Belknap Long, Zealia Bishop and J. Ramsey Campbell. This book was purchased in the early 1970s. I liked these stories for the most part, I might try to read them again sometime. I am also interested in reading more by the other authors (besides Lovecraft.) I have about a quarter of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. The cover art is fantastic, like the previous two books (Dream Quest and Doom) by Gervasio Gallardo.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

The Doom That Came To Sarnath by H. P. Lovecraft. 1971. Ballentine Books 02146-0-095 (SBN 345-02146-0-095.) Edited by Lin Carter. This collection of short stories is related to the "Dream Quest" collection. Some of these stories are dreams, others are horror and even science fiction. One story was co-authored with Harry Houdini. Like "dream Quest" I purchased and read this first in the early 1970s. The cover art is fantastic, probably the reason I bought the book. The story can be read here or here.

Thursday, June 3, 2010


The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft. Ballantine Books 01923-7-095, 1970 (SBN 345-01923-7-095). Edited by Lin Carter (assumed to be no relation to Randolph Carter!) Dream Quest is both the title of this collection of six stories and the title of the longest story. I think these stories are in the public domain, so you can probably find them for free (for example, here.) This book is a paperback that I purchased new in the early 1970s. It is a part of a series of books published by Ballantine Books, Adult Fantasy Series. This book has several of the stories from Lovecraft's Dream Cycle. These stories are related because they have some of the same characters or locations.

Monday, April 26, 2010

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Popular Library 445-00300-125. This is a book of short stories. The most famous is "The Lottery." I think I either saw a film version of this story or read it when I was in High School. It is quite shocking the first time you read it. Many of the other stories feature a character named Jim Harris (or something like that.) This is a reference to a popular English ballad "The Daemon Lover." Most of the stories are quite short, with a few being only two or three pages. Most have tricky, surprise endings. This book was purchased at Powell's a few years ago for 95 cents. It is a cheap paper back probably printed in the 1970s. The book "Night in Funland" also had a story by Shirley Jackson.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Fear Of Flying by Erica Jong. Signet 451 J6139. Novel. This the story of Isadora Wing, a young woman trying to determine who she is and what she wants. She is a feminist or at least is searching for what that means. The novel describes many of her sexual adventures and coins the term zipless f*ck. Well written and easy to read, the novel contains many references to literature and psychology.
This book was purchased on February 7, 1978 at the Varsity Book Exchange for one dollar.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Black Cargoes, History of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Daniel P. Mannix in collaboration with Malcolm Cowley. ISBN 0 1400 4253 9. Covers the four hundred year history of Europeans purchasing people in Africa and transporting them to North and South America. Well written and refers in many places to historical documents. Has several pages of drawings depicting conditions on the ships, etc. The sad thing is that in many places in the world slavery is still allowed, e.g., in Haiti (a former French colony that was freed by slave revolt) people still sell their children into slavery. (See Restavec.)

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Genesis: A Living Conversation by Bill Moyers. ISBN 0-385-48345-7. This book is a series of transcripts of conversations recorded for a PBS television series of the same name. The series first appeared in the late 1990s. I found this book interesting to read, however sometimes the comments seemed to be a bit silly. The stories of Genesis were written thousands of years ago for a completely different social-economic context. To expect them to represent some modern value system (in other words, to be politically correct) seems to me to be unrealistic. Most of the participants were professional religionists, i.e. people who have made a career out of studying religion.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction by J. D. Salinger. ISBN 978-0316766944. Two short stories. The stories are about Buddy Glass and his brother Seymour Glass. The first story is about Buddy and some other people on the day that Seymour was to get married, but failed to show up at the altar. The second story appears to be an introduction to a book of poems by Seymour, an introduction written by Buddy.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

On Genesis, A New Reading by Bruce Vawter. 1977, ISBN 0-385-06104-8. I really enjoyed reading this book. It uses the New American Bible (NAB) as its English translation. I first purchased this book back when it was new. It has taken me 32 years to get around to reading it. I wish I had read it when I first bought it. The book explains Genesis in terms of the four different sources of text, Priestly (P), Yahwist (J), Elohist (E) and the Redactor (R) and how these contribute to the inconsistencies in the text. It also relates many of the stories and names to information found in other sources and through archeology, etc. In some places it discusses the NAB and how it relates to the Masoretic Text (MT), Septuagint (LXX) and othe sources (Syriac etc.)

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger. ISBN 0-316-76950-9. I enjoyed reading this book. It was easy to read. The stories contain a lot of conversation and smoking! Too bad all of his stories are not available in book form, maybe someday.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Franny and Zooey by J. D. Sallinger. ISBN 0316769495. This book contains two stories, actually two episodes of one story. There isn't much action, it is mostly just conversations.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Night In Funland And Other Stories From Literary Cavalcade, edited by Jerome Brondfield. TK1056. This is a collection of short stories published by Scholastic Book Services in 1968. I first read this book in high school sometime around 1970. The story Night In Funland is by William Peden. He also has a book of short stories called Night In Funland. I found this book in a used book store about 20 years ago. The stories are mostly written in the 1950's but there are a few from the 30's, 40's and 60's. Contains 13 easy to read stories, including Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes and One Ordinary Day with Peanuts by Shirley Jackson.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Behold A Pale Horse by William Cooper. ISBN 0-929385-22-5. This book purports a theory that there is a vast conspiracy of a group known as the Illuminati that has involved numerous other groups, including, the Masons, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, FEMA, etc. This conspiracy has been on going for hundreds of years and its purpose is to either 1) control the world (i.e., establish the New World Order), 2) protect the world from extraterrestrial beings (UFOs, etc.) or 3) deliver the world to extraterrestrial beings to be used as a slave planet. Also contains a copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Cooper claims that the protocols are really the secret plans of the Illuminati.

Sunday, August 23, 2009


Interpretation of the Meaning of The Noble Quran Translated into the English Language By Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali Ph.D. and Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan. This is a pocket sized edition of a popular translation of the Quran. According to the Wikipedia article, this translation of the Quran is disliked by Western Muslims (what is a Western Muslim? verse 3.149 and an associated Hadith by Samara bin Jundab indicate that Muslims shouldn't live in the land of al-shirk, i.e. western countries. See here number 2781.) because it is too blunt, contains grotesque misogyny, and is more like a supremacist Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian polemic than a rendition of the Islamic scripture. Harsh. The book has both Arabic and English, 975 pages for the Quran and about another 130 pages of preface and appendix. There are many notes attached to the Quran translation taken from Hadith, etc. Here is the text of the translation.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. ISBN 0-440-32497-1. This is the Twentieth Anniversary edition, printed 1984. Purchased at Powell's, 1992-08-14 for $2.95, used, regular sized paperback (the one I read, not the one pictured.) This book is credited by some as starting the second women's liberation movement. It is well written and full of information, even though it is now more than 45 years old (originally published in 1963.)

Friday, July 17, 2009


50 Physics Ideas You Really Need To Know by Joanne Baker. ISBN 978-1-84724-148-1. This book, like the other "50 Ideas" books, contains 50 short descriptions of physics related subjects. Each subject gets four pages. This also includes diagrams and boxes on special terms (for example, in the section on chaos theory there is a box on the "butterfly effect".) Other subjects include Mach's Principle, Newton's laws, Nuclear fission, Nuclear fusion, the Big Bang, etc. These descriptions are very high level and aimed at a general audience. There are no references to help pursue a subject further, however, one can easily look them up in Wikipedia. I got his book for $5.99 at Borders.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Dictionary of Islam by Thomas Patrick Hughes. ISBN 978-812060672-2. This book was originally published in 1885. It has been re-published in recent times by several companies. There is also a PDF version available for free.
I find it interesting to read, even though it is out of date in many areas.

Interlinear Chumash Bereishis. ISBN 978-1-4226-0202-7. This book is a part of an Artscroll series. Interlinear means that the original Hebrew text is shadowed by a word for word English translation. This can be a bit difficult to follow at times, but it gives you a sense of how the original text reads. These books are probably only for those who are seriously interested in the Hebrew religion. There is also a commentary drawn from various medieval Rabbis, such as Rashi, Ramban, etc. The commentary frequently refers to the Midrash. This is a beautiful book, very well typeset, etc. I wish that they would have provided more information about the source of the commentary.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Infinity and the Mind, by Rudy Rucker. ISBN 0-691-00172-3. This is an excellent introduction to some complex ideas. Probably the reader who has little or no exposure to these ideas will find this book very difficult. Chapter titles are Infinity, All the Numbers, The Unnameable, Robots and Souls, The One and the Many, The Transfinite Cardinals, Godel's Incompleteness Theorems. I enjoyed this book (I have read it three times), but I find the Unnameable and the sections on Large Cardinals and Incompleteness difficult to understand.

Friday, May 8, 2009

The Mystery of the Aleph by Amir D. Aczel. ISBN 1-56858-105-X. The subtitle is Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity. This book is about the history of infinity. It is less technical than the David Foster Wallace book. Like that other book this one is mostly about Georg Cantor, but also covers Zeno (and other Greeks), Galileo, Gödel, Cohen and others. The book is well written and easy to read. The explanations of the more technical parts of the story are a bit over simplified, but still enjoyable for someone interested in this subject. This book plays up the idea that the study of infinity causes insanity.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

National Sunday Law by A. Jan Marcussen. No ISBN. This booklet is being mail to people in the United States. This book purports to explain future events based on the Book of Revelation. The style is sensational, for example, on the cover it says "A Shocking Glimpse Behind the Scenes" and "Forces unite amid stupendous crisis...". The author is a Seventh-day Adventist. He is against the so called "National Sunday Law" (see here for example Lord's Day Act or here
Lord' Day Alliance.) His theory is that the Pope and the United States of America are two beasts from the Book of Revelation that are going to help Satan ruin the lives of millions by causing them to worship the Sun instead of G-D. The book can be obtained from websites like this.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Everything and More: A Compact History of, By David Foster Wallace. ISBN 978-0-393-32629-1. This a really good book. A bit eccentric in style, but it works because the subject, infinity, is so complex. The story is mainly of Cantor's work in the modern theory of infinity, but it covers stuff from all periods of history, e.g., Zeno and other ancient Greeks to European mathematics of the 1600's and the discovery of Calculus (Leibniz and Newton.)
This book touches on many complex mathematical ideas, but doesn't get too bogged down with proofs, etc.