What Are You Reading 2014 - Page 33

And my first book for this year, Love and Math:


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


Since a lot of people on here seem to like it (I'm looking at you corumjhaelen). Should be good!


Finished: The Stranger
Excellent book. I had read a little bit of existentialism before this, so I wasn't unprepared for the content. That said the presentation was great. I really loved the descriptions of the protagonist just experiencing life in the moment. I don't think I need to give a detailed review of this book since half of the people here seem to have read it but, 5/5 would binge read again.


I ditched sixty stories because it didn't look very good in the library (sorry sam). Instead I picked up This Side of Paradise


I've heard from some that it is actually better than gatsby. Should be good.


Finished: This Side of Paradise
Quite a good book. My major criticism is that the plot doesn't move very well, but otherwise the writing is excellent. The portrait of a lost young man hits close to home.

decided to pick up the screenplay, The Seventh Seal


I've always wanted to see the movie, but never have. My uncle gave me the book. Should be good!


Finished: The Seventh Seal
Pretty short, but also pretty good. Really left me wanting to see the movie. I also enjoyed the mildly existential overtones. Not a whole lot to say about this other than that the imagery was amazing and the story itself was the good kind of heavy.

On the topic of existential overtones, I picked up


except in its The Fall because I'm reading the English version (even I'm not that pompous). Should be good!

Finished: The Fall
Another excellent book. I'm genuinely sorry that I didn't start reading Camus' work earlier after having read this. I found the narrative style really cool (always being talked to about the past, makes it seem like an oral history). I also enjoyed the wholehearted endorsement of brothels in this book, all of my friends enjoyed hearing about the feeling of satisfaction that comes from lying drunk between 2 sleeping prostitutes. Great book.

I picked up Across the River and Into the Trees


because I'm on a quest to read everything that hemingway ever wrote. Should be good!

Finished: Across the River and Into the Trees
This book was quite good. The standard stiff drinks, beautiful women, and maimed soldiers that I've come to expect from Hemingway. I think this book was interesting because of the extent to which his warriors were removed from their war. It reminded me a lot of some of the Nick Adams stories in that the colonel finds that he can never really escape his profession. A good read if you want a more hipstery selection of Hemingway's work.

Speaking of hipstery, I've picked for my next book The Torrents of Spring.


Its Hemingway's first piece of published fiction, and that last of Hemingway's non-posthumous novels that I haven't read. Should be good.

Forgot to update, but a few days ago I Finished: The Torrents of Spring
This book was sort of weird. To me it seemed that Hemingway was poking fun at some of the tropes of "lost generation" writing. His characters make numerous references to Paris although they have been there only briefly and many have a massive admiration for continental culture that they don't actually understand. They also tend to heavily overvalue "authentic living" (one his characters prasies pump making factories for about a page and a half), and Hemingway includes numerous asides about his current position in the world of professional writing.

It was enjoyable, but a bit strange since it was written before a lot of the works that it seems to mock, and many of the tropes that it pokes fun at are employed in his later works.

Anyway, for something new and interesting, I picked up a 110 year old copy of The Count of Montecristo.


Should be good.

Finished: The Count of Monte Cristo (Vol 1)
Holy shit, there are 2 volumes O_o

That said, this book as been really fun, I like the adventure feeling and the verbal smack-downs from the count. Its kind of interesting as well to see what the attitudes were toward things like medicine and race at the time. The second volume is supposed to be rife with vegeance, so I can't wait to pick that up, but first an interlude.

I picked up Moonraker


Its one of the Bond books that I haven't yet read since it wasn't in the anthology that I had. Can't wait to get my spy novel fix!

Finished: Moonraker
The book was pretty good. I was super busy this last week so it took me a while to read, but I really did enjoy it. I thought it was kind of interesting in this book to see how little the Bond of the book is like Bond in the movies + Show Spoiler +. That said, it was quite nice.

Picked up Count of Monte Cristo: Part 2
Should be good.

Finished: The Count of Monte Cristo
Finally. Exams and projects really killed my free time these last few weeks. This book was pretty awesome. I really liked all of the focus on honor and the intricacies of parisian society. I also kind of enjoyed the way that Dantes was like a 19th century batman. Really fun read, I highly recommend it to anyone with a lot of time.

Picked up Snow Falling on Cedars


My dad really liked this book and I need something to read at baseball games. Should be good!