To Buy/Borrow, Science and Math

Submitted by jim on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 10:02
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  • The Accidental Theorist by Paul Krugman
  • Depression Era Economics by Paul Krugman
  • Phantoms in the Brain by V. S. Ramachandran
  • The Life of the Cosmos by Lee Smolin
  • Faster by James Gleick
  • How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker
  • Mathematical Tourist by Ivars Peterson
  • The Jungles of Randomness by Ivars Peterson
  • The Conscious Universe by Dean I. Radin
  • Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer
  • The Book of Numbers by John Horton Conway
  • Figments of Reality by Ian Stewart
  • A Field Guide to the Invisible by Wayne Biddle
  • Black Holes, A Traveler's Guide by Clifford A. Pickover
  • Chaos in Wonderland by Clifford A. Pickover
  • The Collapse of Chaos by Jack Cohen, Ian Stewart
  • Strange Brains and Genius by Clifford A. Pickover
  • Time, A Traveler's Guide by Clifford A. Pickover
  • The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss and Stephen Hawking
  • Instant Biology by Boyce Rensberger
  • Randomness by Deborah J. Bennett
  • The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen;
  • Who's Afraid of Schrodinger's Cat by I. N. Marshall
  • Our Stolen Future by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski and John Peterson Myers
  • The Age of Intelligent Machines by Raymond Kurzweil
  • The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil
  • The Self-Made Tapestry by Philip Ball
  • The Elegant Universe by Brian R. Greene
  • Q Is for Quantum John R. Gribbin
  • Spineless Wonders by Richard Conniff
  • Every Creeping Thing by Richard Conniff
  • The Science and Art of Tracking by Tom Brown
  • The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
  • Seek! by Rudy Rucker
  • The Science of Discworld Terry Pratchett, Jack S. Cohen and Ian Stewart
  • Appointment at the Ends of the World by William B. Karesh
  • The Knowledge Web by James Burke
  • Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine
  • Warmth Disperses and Time Passes by Hans Christian Von Baeyer
  • Silent Thunder by Katy Payne
  • Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel
  • The Nothing That Is by Robert Kaplan
  • The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman
  • The Third Culture by John Brockman
  • The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman
  • Stigma by Erving Goffman
  • Winning Ways by John H. Conway
  • Tesla, Man Out of Time by Margaret Cheney
  • Genome by Matt Ridley
  • The Complete How To Figure It by Darrell Huff
  • Why Flip a Coin?: The Art and Science of Good Decisions by H. W. Lewis
  • Zero, The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife
  • At Home in the Universe by Stuart Kauffman
  • The Myth of the First Three Years by John Bruer
  • Inventing the AIDS Virus; Peter H. Duesberg
  • Viral Sex: The Nature of AIDS by Jaap Goudsmit
  • Darwin's Ghost by Steve Jones
Author Comments: 

Feel free to warn me off any of these, if necessary. You'd save me time and money.

I'm particularly looking forward to Rare Earth and The Myth of the First Three Years, as I think they'll provide interesting counterpoints to stuff I've already read.

ragbar11/24/2000

At a glance, this looks like a pretty good list. Of course, I only have knowldge of three of them: James Gleick's Faster, and the two titles by Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart: The Collapse of Chaos and Figments of Reality.

Faster is a very intriguing read, but I would hardly call it a "science" book - it's really a loose collection of musings on time and sociology. Still, I would at least get this one from the library.

The partnership of Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart have always produced dazzling results, and I would say that both Collapse of Chaos and Figments of Reality are indispensable additions to your library. Be aware that Figments occasionally makes reference to Collapse, so while it may not be essential to read Collapse first, it might be a good idea.

jim12/07/2000

Thanks for the comments, especially on the reading order for the Cohen/Stewart books.

Since you've clearly done some reading in this genre, would you consider creating a favorites list that I could steal recommendations from?

busy06/17/2001

liked your comments on "Faster". it's a borrower, for sure. i too thought it looked intersting and picked it up, but i haven't made it past the first 30 pages. just isn't holding my attention.

it's another book i'll add to the shelf; the bookstore receipt marking the exact page where I lost interest and/or patience.

jim06/18/2001

That's good to know - since it's gotten mixed reviews Faster has definitely slid down the list for me. But I have really enjoyed Gleick's other books (Genius and Chaos are the ones I've read).