EPTWhat Are You Reading 2014 - Page 2
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IgnE
United States7681 Posts
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
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KillerSOS
United States4207 Posts
On January 01 2014 05:25 DoctorM wrote: Starting 2014 off with The Black Count, a book about Alexander Dumas' father, who was a mulatto general in Napoleons army. It's going pretty deep into historical accounts, and making all sorts of connections between Dumas' works and his fathers adventures in the military. Very cool if your a fan of Dumas' brand of swashbuckling adventure. =) I actually received this book for Christmas so I'm going to have to read it soon as well. | ||
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lungic
Sweden123 Posts
Anyone knows any good books on leadership and likewise psychology? | ||
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packrat386
United States5077 Posts
+ Show Spoiler + And my first book for this year, Love and Math: ![[image loading]](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/11/19/science/19SCIB/19SCIB-popup.jpg) This was a birthday gift from my parents and I’m halfway in. It’s partly a biography of a young mathematician overcoming discrimination and finding his passion in soviet Russia. The other part is a sort of an explanation as to why he enjoys math so much. I find the biographical element really interesting, but so far the math has not been terribly engaging. I understand that he’s trying to avoid the kind of nitty gritty detail that makes people hate math in school, but it often leaves me feeling like it hasn’t really been explained. We’ll see how the rest goes. Happy New Year Folks! Finished: Love and Math This book could have been 2 books, one of which I would gladly read, and one of which I would gladly leave on the shelf. The far more interesting part of this book was the biography of the author, who beat the odds and anti-semitism of his home country (soviet russia) to become a mathemetician. His story of working on mathematical discoveries as a side job and sneaking into the best university to read papers and attend lectures, was compelling and interesting. On the other had his presentation of mathematics was largely boring. I get what feels like a real sense of the passion that he has for math, but I find that his descriptions are too general for me to feel like they've been really explained. Part of my distaste may also stem from the fact that I don't find discussion of these sorts of concepts that interesting to begin with, so it would take a lot for the author to win me over. I would recommend the book to someone who really enjoys abstract math, but otherwise just get a good biography instead. Next I'm going to read The Stranger ![[image loading]](http://www.hihimag.com/hi/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Camus.jpg) Since a lot of people on here seem to like it (I'm looking at you corumjhaelen). Should be good! | ||
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IgnE
United States7681 Posts
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4eg0ChB.png) About halfway through this book. It's a good read if you want an introduction on how we can model the human brain. Essentially provides an architecture for a complex artificial neural network model. Although some details are left out (book was written 10 years ago), it's still an interesting read. | ||
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Pl7jDnbrL._SL500_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-big,TopRight,35,-73_OU01_AA300_.jpg){kind=icon} Ian Baucom - Specters of the Atlantic: Finance Capital, Slavery, and the Philosophy of History | ||
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itkovian
United States1763 Posts
On January 07 2014 20:01 lungic wrote: Hi guys. Anyone knows any good books on leadership and likewise psychology? Have you read How to Win Friends and Influence People? That might be a book you'd be interested in. I definitely learned a couple useful things from it. I just finished reading Physics for Future Presidents. I've been trying to wean myself off novels. Physics for Future Presidents was a straight-forward and simple book that discusses the physics relevant for every day life. Its written by a physicist so the writing is not top-quality, but I do appreciate his effort at dumbing down science and making it more digestible. I also read, The Last Duel, a book about a trial-by-combat between two French vassals. I haven't read many books concerning historical events, so I wasn't sure what to expect and I'm not sure how it should compare. Obviously, the prose itself is not very appealing, but the story was intriguing. And it was fun to learn about the culture of medieval France. Now I'm staring at the copy of War and Peace sitting on my desk ![[image loading]](http://i43.tower.com/images/mm101347359/war-peace-leo-tolstoy-hardcover-cover-art.jpg) I've been putting it off for years, and while I told myself I would begin after finishing my last couple books, I still hesitate. Reading it will be a consuming task, and I'm worried I should be focused on other things since this is my last semester of college. But its been a while since i've read some good, absorbing fiction... | ||
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
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imre
France9263 Posts
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dmnum
Brazil6910 Posts
edit: not that war and peace is bad, it's among the best things I've ever read, but anna karenina is the best novel ever written, followed closely only by the brothers karamazov | ||
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
On January 09 2014 11:02 dmnum wrote: have you read anna karenina? it's better imo it is | ||
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dmnum
Brazil6910 Posts
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
edit: I now have amazon prime and 1-click ordering, how terrible a thing is that | ||
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dmnum
Brazil6910 Posts
It's the one I read, great translation and it contains Hadji Murat and The Kreutzer Sonata which are also very good. | ||
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packrat386
United States5077 Posts
Any recommendations for a good collection of short stories? I've been reading not fun things for too long. | ||
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dmnum
Brazil6910 Posts
On January 09 2014 11:13 packrat386 wrote: The Stranger is so good. I'm going to finish it today. Any recommendations for a good collection of short stories? I've been reading not fun things for too long. The one I just posted above is great. There's the Gogol collection too(also translated by P&V), some of the stories are hilarious, some are terrifying, all of them are brilliant. | ||
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