What book are you reading now and which one was one of your favorite read?

kokonut

kokonut

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Bought this 500 page book at Goodwill a few days ago for $4 bucks.

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Book cover: Einstein: a life.

Best enjoyable non-fiction book would be:
9780385493628.jpg

"Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem" by Simon Singh
Front cover page of Fermat's Enigma.

I enjoyed it so much the amazing history in solving Fermat's Last Theorem that took place in modern history , I read it all again.

In about 1637, a French mathematical genius named Pierre de Fermat wrote in the margin of his copy of Arithmetica by Pythagorus, that he could prove that there were no solutions to the simple variation on Pythagorus' Theorem, az + bz = cz when a, b, and c are integers and z is larger than two. In over three hundred fifty years since then, the greatest mathematicians attempted to prove or disprove this little conjecture (or even to prove that no proof is possible). Students of science will recognize many of the famous names involved in the quest to solve "Fermat's Last Theorem", including Euler, Gauss, Lagrange, Cauchy, and Hilbert. Fewer will be aware that one of the most fruitful attacks on the problem was made by a woman named Sophie Germain, who concealed her gender in order to achieve credibility for her work. The recent solution of the puzzle by Andrew Wiles was the impetus for the PBS Nova program, "The Proof", which is based on Singh's work. If a book about an equation sounds pretty dry to you, this one is not! Singh has written a wonderful, engaging chronicle that brings together a huge fraction of the history of mathematics, and illustrates beautifully the utility of pure research. This is one of the best science books I've read this year.
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Hal's Picks in 1999

There was even a tv documentary show on NOVA about it, too.
NOVA Online | The Proof | Solving Fermat: Andrew Wiles


Anyway, the Einstein biography book is one of several books I'm reading. I'll add those in later here.
 
Several on the go...

Count of Monte Cristo, 2,000 Leagues under the Seas, Alistair MacLean's books, Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, Varanoid Lizards of the World by Eric Pianka, War of the Worlds, John Stuart Mill's essays.

I am one of those types that leave books laying around, then return them to the shelves once I am done with them.
 
sounds like a good one

I have almost finished chugging through 600+ pages of "A life of Harry Truman"
by Alonzo l. Hamby after reading "Thomas Paine: Enlightment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations by Craig Nelson. Favorite book of the year was The Life of Frances Perkins, by Kirsten Downey. Lots of other subject throughout the year biographies are always a favorite. It takes a lot of inspiration to keep Inspirabull going.

Plus the ongoing pile of fiction books of mystery, western, and whatever else. Sea Kayaker magazine.
 
inspirabull said:
I have almost finished chugging through 600+ pages of "A life of Harry Truman"
by Alonzo l. Hamby after reading "Thomas Paine: Enlightment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations by Craig Nelson. Favorite book of the year was The Life of Frances Perkins, by Kirsten Downey. Lots of other subject throughout the year biographies are always a favorite. It takes a lot of inspiration to keep Inspirabull going.

Plus the ongoing pile of fiction books of mystery, western, and whatever else. Sea Kayaker magazine.
Click to expand...

If you enjoyed "Thomas Paine: Enlightment, Revolution and the Birth of Mondern Nations" Check out John Adams by David McCullough, great read
 
Read a book, post on AllDeaf, or make an Aesop video for youtube, or watch the history channel with my wife.

Hmmm. I'm posting so I guess I answered my own question.
 
Right now I'm reading Midstream: My Later Life by Helen Keller. There are some parts that were nice but for the most part I can't really get into it. I guess I'm tired of reading stuff by Helen Keller, since the NLS has a habit of sending me books about blind/deaf/deafblind people.

There was a book about synesthesia by Richard Cytowic that I liked but I can't remember the exact title. I also really liked The Blind Doctor: the Jacob Bolotin Story by Rosalind Perlman, because it wasn't just about his blindness but his whole life, and he was an interesting person. :)
 
inspirabull said:
I have almost finished chugging through 600+ pages of "A life of Harry Truman"
by Alonzo l. Hamby after reading "Thomas Paine: Enlightment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations by Craig Nelson.
Click to expand...

Both of these books sound really interesting. Before I look more into them, though, what'd you think of the Truman book? Did it feel like 600 pages?
 
Books I am reading or will read:

Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe/dp/0387987010]Amazon.com: Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe (9780387987019): Peter Ward, Donald Brownlee: Books[/ame]

When computers were humans.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/When-Computers-Human-David-Grier/dp/0691133824/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262227092&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: When Computers Were Human (9780691133829): David Alan Grier: Books[/ame]

The Agile Gene:How Nature Turns on Nurture
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Gene-Nature-Turns-Nurture/dp/006000679X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262227129&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: The Agile Gene: How Nature Turns on Nurture (9780060006792): Matt Ridley: Books[/ame]

Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_0_6?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=genome+the+autobiography+of+a+species+in+23+chapters&sprefix=genome]Amazon.com: genome the autobiography of a species in 23 chapters: Books[/ame]

Plus a few more I'll add later.
 
CJB said:
Both of these books sound really interesting. Before I look more into them, though, what'd you think of the Truman book? Did it feel like 600 pages?
Click to expand...
I was looking for a biography of him and the little used bookstore in Longview, Wa. happened to have that one. In this case the author schlepped his way through a staggering number of documents to actually build an action thread that made sense of Truman's rise to the top of the heap and the events of the time. He was a man I would have liked so it is not so hard to read about him through all these pages, whew!!
 
hohDougRN said:
If you enjoyed "Thomas Paine: Enlightment, Revolution and the Birth of Mondern Nations" Check out John Adams by David McCullough, great read
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I did read a new biography of Adams about 5 years ago. I do not know if that was it but it was an excellent book.
 
At times when I am a little down

That is when reading the biographies of the great men and women that have made their mark on our world is an uplifting experience. What all these people have in common is they kept going and doing to the best of their ability, right or wrong, they built each day upon the one before.
 
inspirabull said:
I was looking for a biography of him and the little used bookstore in Longview, Wa. happened to have that one. In this case the author schlepped his way through a staggering number of documents to actually build an action thread that made sense of Truman's rise to the top of the heap and the events of the time. He was a man I would have liked so it is not so hard to read about him through all these pages, whew!!
Click to expand...

Cool. I'll check it out then. :) :ty:
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Danger hiptop 3.4; U; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050920)

I got a book for Christmas, " Deafening" by Frances Itani. I haven't began reading it bec I am currently, reading Going Rogue, An American Life by Sarah Palin.
 
I am re-reading Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World and Having a Mary Spirit by Joanna Weaver.
 
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