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.
If you like to trade books, try bookmooch
Just finished
The Kill List by Frederick Forsyth. A mysterious radical Islamic cleric is telling all Muslims to kill Americans. The hero has to track him down. A good thriller by an expert in the genre.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. On their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick's wife Amy disappears. A psychological thriller of the highest order. Disturbing but very good. Wonderfully written.
Now reading
Everything I need to know about __ I learned from Monty Python" by Brian Cogen. The Monty Python crew weren't just funny, they were very smart and knowledgeable (the five English members all went to Oxford or Cambridge) and they used that in their skits. This book shows how. But I need to watch more of the Python episodes to fully appreciate this.
Plato at the Googleplex by Rebecca Goldstein. Plato comes back to life. He's written some books and he's doing things. Stop 1 is the Googleplex, home of Google. Goldstein interweaves stories of Plato at various places with writing about why philosophy matters. Wonderful
Dialogues of Plato ; Plato wrote really well. I decided to re-read. I'm amazed that Socrates made it to 70.
The Pursuit of Italy by David Gilmour. I am only a few pages into this one, but it has grabbed my interest. Gilmour has not written a traditional history of Italy (although it is partly that) rather, he is in pursuit of Italy - how it became a country, what it means to be Italian and so on.
Just started
Coffee, love and matrix algebra by Gary Davis. All about a math department at an unnamed university in Rhode Island. Funny and not bad, but probably mostly for people who are familiar with math and academia.
Read More
