In this series I note what I am reading and people comment with what they're reading. Sometimes, on Sundays, I post a special edition on a particular genre or topic.
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Just finished
Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The first in the Pendergast novels; Pendergast is an FBI agent in the mode of Sherlock Holmes. In this novel, someone or thing is killing people in the American Museum of Natural History. I liked the Pendergast character but am mixed about the book and series as a whole.
Sharpe's Tiger by Bernard Cornwell. Historical fiction about the British in India at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. Good fun and very well written. I will read more in the series.
A Slip of the Typewriter by Terry Pratchett. Pratchett is one of the great fiction writers. This is a collection of his nonfiction. It's OK but not on the level of his fiction.
Now reading
The Age of Atheists: How we have sought to live since the death of God by Peter Watson. Faith and atheism in the modern world.
Struck by Genius by Jason Padgett. Jason was an ordinary guy; he held blue collar jobs, liked to hang out in clubs and sang karaoke. He wasn't great at school and certainly not at math. Then he got mugged and beaten up, got a brain injury and became a mathematical wizard.
Sharpe's Triumph by Bernard Cornwell. The 2nd in the series.
Just started
What's Luck got to do with it? by Joseph Mazur. A nontechnical introduction to the role probability plays in our lives
The Mathematics of Life by Ian Stewart. The role of math in biology. Stewart is very good at explaining things, but this isn't his strongest work. Still, it's interesting.
Computability: Godel, Turing, Church and beyond Theoretical computer science. Heavy duty but fun.
Play of the hand with Blackwood . Bridge. One of the classics of the literature on the game.
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