The regular list
If you like to trade books, try BookMooch.
cfk has bookflurries on Weds. nights
What are you reading? is crossposted to dailyKos
If you have ideas for future weeks, let me know (one idea from last week is Fiction vs. nonfiction, but not this week, as I will not be here to tend this much today)
I haven’t been doing that much reading, I’ve been busy with my series on Congress
Statistical models: Theory and practice by David Freedman. Delves into the details of models, without getting overly mathematical.
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Impressive (as is the subject)
The Art of Mathematics by Bela Belobas. Interesting, easily stated math problems. For slow solving.
Biplots by Gower and Hand. Fascinating multivariate technique. An upcoming diary (maybe Sunday) will feature them.
Araminta Station by Jack Vance. Just started it, not sure if I will like it
8 comments
Skip to comment form
Author
tips, comments, recommends
I won’t be around much, but will stop in when I can
You Don’t Have To Be Evil To Work Here, But It Helps.
Long title, short book.
This is classic Holt – dry British humour built around a off-the-wall idea.
If you like Douglas Adams, odds are you’ll like Tom.
Battling Giant Ants and Primordial Sand Monsters!!!…..no, just these:
Just finished Brady Udall (yes, one of the extended Udall clansmen) The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint about a boy who pretty much goes through hell.
Now on The Quick and the Dead (no , not that one) by Joy Williams, kind of amusing story of somewhat odd teen girls.
I just finished Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. No, I never read it in high school – good thing. I would never have understood it and it would have just increased my negative view of the world into which I was about to be tossed in college. Now I see where so many 20th century writers thought that all you have to do is be cynical toward your characters and people will think your writing is deep. Anderson’s is deep – but a lot of others weren’t.
Now I’m reading Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. I haven’t started the book – I’ve been so captivated by the notes she wrote after finishing the novel(s) and the letters and correspondence of her family. Rarely do we get the story of a person literally about to be gassed in 1942. Usually we hear from the concentration camp survivors – who were lucky enough to have arrived late or who were children whose relatives were killed. It’s like reading another Diary of Anne Frank only this is an adult describing what she sees and what she’s doing. So now I’m looking forward to the novels she left.
I’ve finally made the jump from dailykos over here to docudharma. Haven’t seen much of you over there for awhile. The recent diary list whirls like the numbers on a gas pump.
I’ve just started reading Evolutionary Dynamics by Nowak. I’m mostly through Dennett’s Darwin’s Dangerous Idea which is very interesting. I need to have a look at Freedman’s book for teaching ideas.
Best regards!
with two books by William Engdahl:
Seeds of Destruction – The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation, and
A Century of War – Anglo American Oil Politics and the New World Order
Purchased to read during a weekly sojourn up-country later this month but don’t know if I can wait that long to begin reading.