- First published in 1937.
- Biographical sketches of 30 famous mathematicians who worked in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
Reading Log
- E.T. Bell, Men of Mathematics, Touchstone Books, 1986
-
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
ae97013- February 7th, 21:20
Rating: 4/5 Buy
- Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, Ace Books, 1987
-
- ae97013
- January 31st, 20:59
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1961.
- Won the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
- Became a cult classic during the late-1960s counterculture.
- Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie, Broadway Books, 2002
-
- ae97013
- January 24th, 21:23
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1997.
- Sub-title: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson.
- Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, Oxford University Press, 2008
-
- ae97013
- January 17th, 20:19
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published from March 1836 through October 1837 (19 issues).
- Charles Dickens's first novel.
- Jon Krakauer, Eiger Dreams, The Lyons Press, 2009
-
- ae97013
- January 10th, 21:12
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1990.
- Sub-title: Ventures Among Men and Mountains.
- A collection of articles and essays on mountaineering and rock climbing.
- Stephen King, 'Salem's Lot, Pocket Books, 1999
-
- ae97013
- January 3rd, 23:14
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1975. Stephen King's second published novel.
- Inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula.
- Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, Harper Perennial, 2005
-
- ae97013
- December 27th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 2001.
- Sub-title: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.
- Agatha Christie, Lord Edgware Dies, Berkley Books, 1986
-
- ae97013
- December 20th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1933.
- Also published as Thirteen at Dinner.
- Barbara Oakley, Evil Genes, Prometheus Books, 2008
-
- ae97013
- December 13th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 2007.
- Subtitle: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend.
- Robert Heinlein, Red Planet, Del Rey Books, 2006
-
- ae97013
- December 6th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1949.
- Third book of the 12 Heinlein juveniles.
- First appearance of Heinlein's idealized Martian elder race.
- Tony Horwitz, Blue Latitudes, Picador Books, 2003
-
- ae97013
- November 29th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 2002.
- Subtitle: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before.
- Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, W. W. Norton, 2005
-
- ae97013
- November 22nd, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1996.
- The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.
- Robert J. Shiller, Irrational Exuberance, Currency Doubleday, 2006
-
- ae97013
- November 15th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in March 2000 (peak of the dot-com bubble).
- The 2nd edition was published in 2005 (peak of the U.S. housing bubble).
- Ira Levin, Rosemary's Baby, Signet Books, 1997
-
- ae97013
- November 8th, 2009
- Stephen E. Ambrose, Undaunted Courage, Simon & Schuster, 1997
-
- ae97013
- November 1st, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1996.
- Sub-title: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson And The Opening Of The American West.
- Chronicles the politics and adventure of expanding the United States.
- Agatha Christie, Peril at End House, Berkley Books, 2003
-
- ae97013
- October 25th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1932.
- Features Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings.
- James Gleick, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, Vintage Books, 1993
-
- ae97013
- October 18th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1992.
- An excellent scientific biography.
- Isaac Asimov, The Complete Robot, Voyager Books, 1983
-
- ae97013
- October 11th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1982.
- A collection of 31 short stories from the Robot Series written over a time period from 1939 to 1977.
- Michael Pollan, In Defence of Food, Penguin Books, 2009
-
- ae97013
- October 4th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 2008.
- Sub-title: An Eater's Manifesto.
- Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
- P. G. Wodehouse, Carry On, Jeeves, Overlook Press, 2003
-
- ae97013
- September 27th, 2009
Rating: 4.5/5 Buy- First published in 1925 (UK).
- A collection of ten short stories featuring Bertram Wilberforce Wooster and Reginald Jeeves.
- John Noble Wilford, The Mapmakers, Vintage Books, 2001
-
- ae97013
- September 20th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1981. Revised in 2000.
- History through the eyes of mapmakers.
- Henry James, The Turn of The Screw and Other Short Novels, Signet Classics, 2007
-
- ae97013
- September 13th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1898.
- One of the world's most famous ghost stories.
- Richard Dawkins, River Out Of Eden, Basic Books, 1996
-
- ae97013
- September 6th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1995.
- Sub-title: A Darwinian View of Life.
- Part of the Science Masters series of books.
- Agatha Christie, The Mystery of the Blue Train, Berkley Books, 2000
-
- ae97013
- August 30th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1928.
- Agatha Christie herself considers this her worst book. Was written in 1926, probably one of the worst years of her life: her unsuccessful marriage followed by her mysterious disappearance, and her mother's death.
- Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain, Ballantine Books, 1986
-
- ae97013
- August 23rd, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1979.
- Sub-title: Reflections on the Romance of Science.
- Robert A. Heinlein, Farmer in the Sky, Baen Books, 2009
-
- ae97013
- August 16th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1950.
- Fourth book of the twelve Heinlein juveniles.
- Simon Singh, Fermat's Enigma, Anchor Books, 1998
-
- ae97013
- August 9th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1998.
- Sub-title: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem.
- Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat, Oxford University Press, 1998
-
- ae97013
- August 2nd, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1889.
- A humorous and semi-autobiographical account of a boating holiday on the Thames between Kingston and Oxford.
- Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, W.W. Norton & Co., 2005
-
- ae97013
- July 26th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in May 1838 as the third volume, Journal and Remarks, of the four volume set Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle. The volume proved remarkably popular.
- The title refers to the second survey expedition of the ship HMS Beagle, which set sail from Plymouth Sound on 27 December 1831 under the command of captain Robert FitzRoy. While the expedition was originally planned to last two years, it lasted almost five - the Beagle did not return until 2 October 1836. Darwin spent most of this time exploring on land (39 months on land; 18 months at sea).
- HMS Beagle
- Second voyage of the Beagle
- Darwin's Beagle diary
- Dr. David Bisno: Darwin, A Devil's Chaplain? (March 3, 2009)
- Niles Eldredge: Darwin, paleontology and evolution - The Beagle years and the aftermath
- Charlie Rose: An hour about the life and work of Charles Darwin with Edward O. Wilson and James Watson (December 14, 2005)
- The Voyage of Charles Darwin: BBC mini-series (1978, 7 episodes, 60 minutes each)
- Stephen King, Carrie, Pocket Books, 2002
-
- ae97013
- July 19th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1974. Stephen King's first published novel.
- Thomas L. Friedman, The World Is Flat, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006
-
- ae97013
- July 12th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 2005.
- Globalization at the beginning of the 21st century.
- "Flat world" - A level playing field in terms of commerce, where all competitors (countries, companies and individuals) have an equal opportunity.
- Charlie Rose: A conversation with Thomas Friedman (April 5, 2005)
- Charlie Rose: A conversation with Thomas Friedman (December 20, 2005)
- Charlie Rose: A conversation with Thomas Friedman (August 16, 2007)
- Charlie Rose: A conversation with Nandan Nilekani and Thomas Friedman (March 26, 2009)
- Thomas Friedman: Talk @ MIT (May 16, 2005)
- Thomas Friedman: Talk @ MIT (November 28, 2007)
- Thomas Friedman: Talk @ National University of Singapore (September 9, 2005)
- Thomas Friedman: Talk @ Yale
- Thomas Friedman: The Other Side of Outsourcing (Discovery Channel)
- Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Grand Central Publishing, 1988
-
- ae97013
- July 5th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1960. Won the 1961 Pulitzer prize for fiction.
- As a bildungsroman it explores the themes of race, class, justice, courage, compassion and growing up.
- Some of the details in the novel are supposed to be semi-autobiographical.
- John Maynard Smith, The Theory of Evolution, Cambridge University Press, 2008
-
- ae97013
- June 28th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1958. The original version has since been updated numerous times.
- An excellent introduction to the theory of evolution.
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., The Sirens of Titan, Dial Press Trade Paperback, 1998
-
- ae97013
- June 21st, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1959.
- A social satire that pokes fun at the military, religion and the stock market.
- Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind, Simon & Schuster, 2001
-
- ae97013
- June 14th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- This unauthorized biography of Nobel Prize-winning economist and mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. was first published in 1998.
- A Beautiful Mind (2001)
- Charlie Rose: A conversation with Sylvia Nasar (1998)
- Charlie Rose: A conversation with director Ron Howard about his film "A Beautiful Mind" (2001)
- Dr. Sylvia Nasar: A Beautiful Mind - Genius, Madness, Reawakening (2002)
- The American Experience: A Brilliant Madness (2002)
- John Nash's Autobiography
- Interview with John Nash (2004)
- H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, Modern Library, 2002
-
- ae97013
- June 7th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- This seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth was first published in 1898.
- The Martians are coming!
- Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor, Collins Business, 2003
-
- ae97013
- May 31st, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- The classic text on value investing was first published in 1949.
- Warren Buffett describes the book as "by far the best book on investing ever written".
- H.G. Wells, The Invisible Man, Signet Classic, 2002
-
- ae97013
- May 25th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1897.
- Moral issues of not fearing the consequences of one's actions.
- Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, Signet Classics, 2000
-
- ae97013
- May 24th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- A historical fiction adventure novel first published in 1886.
- A timeless tale of fortune, camaraderie, betrayal, and independence.
- Set around 18th century Scottish events.
- Agatha Christie, Poirot Investigates, Berkley Books, 2000
-
- ae97013
- May 18th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- A short story collection first published in the UK in March 1924.
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Adventure of the Western Star (1990)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor (1991)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Adventure of the Cheap Flat (1990)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge (1991)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Million Dollar Bond Robbery (1991)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb (1993)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan (1993)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Kidnapped Prime Minister (1990)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim (1990)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman (1993)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Case of the Missing Will (1993)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Veiled Lady (1990)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Lost Mine (1990)
- Agatha Christie: Poirot The Chocolate Box (1993)
- Richard Matheson, What Dreams May Come, Tor Books, 2008
-
- ae97013
- May 18th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1978.
- Explores a range of paranormal phenomena and advances a philosophy of mind over matter, arguing that the human soul is immortal, and that a person's fate in the afterlife is self-imposed.
- The title comes from a famous line in Hamlet (Act III, Scene 1).
- Contains several allegorical references to Dante Alighieri's 1308 epic poem The Divine Comedy.
- Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Signet Classics, 2003
-
- ae97013
- April 26th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1886.
- Explores the ideas of the duality of human nature and the inner conflict of humanity's sense of good and evil.
- Royston M. Roberts, Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Science, Wiley, 1989
-
- ae97013
- April 19th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1989.
- "In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind." - Louis Pasteur.
- Also, try not to get fooled by randomness!
- H.G. Wells, The Time Machine, Penguin Books, 2002
-
- ae97013
- April 12th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1895.
- Popularized the concept of time travel using a machine.
- ... even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man.
- Human evolution. Class system. Fate of the earth.
- Yasser Seirawan, Play Winning Chess, Everyman Chess, 2003
-
- ae97013
- April 5th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 2003.
- The history and evolution of the game of chess.
- The basic rules and philosophy of the game of chess.
- Four major principles of the Seirawan method: Force, Time, Space and Pawn Structure.
- Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Signet Books, 1963
-
- ae97013
- March 29th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1962.
- Kesey was inspired to write the novel while working on the night shift at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital. There, Kesey often spent time talking to the patients, sometimes under the influence of the hallucinogenic drugs with which he had volunteered to experiment. Kesey did not believe that these patients were insane, rather that society had pushed them out because they did not fit the conventional ideas of how people were supposed to act and behave.
- Edward O. Wilson, On Human Nature, Harvard University Press, 2004
-
- ae97013
- March 22nd, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1978. Won the 1979 Pulitzer prize for general non-fiction.
- E. O. Wilson reflects on how The Insect Societies led him to write Sociobiology, and how the political and religious uproar that engulfed that book persuaded him to write another book that would better explain the relevance of biology to the understanding of human behavior and society.
- Richard Matheson, Hell House, Tor Books, 1999
-
- ae97013
- March 15th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1971.
- A haunted house novel which shares significant similarities with the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
- Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild, Anchor Books, 1997
-
- ae97013
- March 8th, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1996.
- How Christopher McCandless lost his way in the wilds.
- An expansion of Krakauer's 9000-word article, "Death of an Innocent", which appeared in the January 1993 issue of Outside.
- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, Ballantine Books, 1987
-
- ae97013
- March 1st, 2009
Rating: 4/5 Buy- First published in 1953.
- Fahrenheit 451 - the temperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns...
- Presents a future American society in which the masses are hedonistic, and critical thought through reading is outlawed.
