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06 Jun 2010, 10:56 pm

Btw, I bought the books I was planning on buying. Here they are:

Create your own Economy by Tyler Cowen
God's Problem by Bart Ehrman
Overcoming Law by Richard Posner
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein
A Theory of Justice by John Rawls
Irony, Contingency, and Solidarity by Richard Rorty
Crimes of Love by Marquis de Sade
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
Birchwood by John Banville
Book of Evidence by John Banville
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
American Psycho by Brett Ellis
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
On Literature by Umberto Eco
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Gnostic Bible by a bunch of dead people
Straw Dogs by John Gray

Now you can go and analyze me and my purchases however you please.

Master_Pedant
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06 Jun 2010, 11:08 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

I read very little fiction, but that has to be one of the most arse-kicking fiction books I have ever read.

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06 Jun 2010, 11:34 pm

Master_Pedant wrote:

Awesomelyglorious wrote:

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

I read very little fiction, but that has to be one of the most arse-kicking fiction books I have ever read.

I think I might have preferred his work The Breakfast of Champions, but that was a dollar or two more expensive.

That being said, I think I am slowly building myself up a postmodern library.
(I already own Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson, as well as Madness and Civilization by Michel Foucault)

Master_Pedant
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06 Jun 2010, 11:38 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:

Master_Pedant wrote:

Awesomelyglorious wrote:

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

I read very little fiction, but that has to be one of the most arse-kicking fiction books I have ever read.

I once met someone who said the tangentiality of Kurt Vonnegut's stories reminded her of autistic thinking. I'm not sure about the Autistic Spectrum population in general, but his tangentiality certainly reminded myself of my more looser thoughts at times.

I find this one bit of triva on Vonnegut's life (from Wikipedia) rather interesting:

Wikipedia wrote:

In the foreword to Breakfast of Champions, Vonnegut wrote that as a child, he saw men with locomotor ataxia, and it struck him that these men walked like broken machines; it followed that healthy people were working machines, suggesting that humans are helpless prisoners of determinism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonne ... ing_career

skysaw
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07 Jun 2010, 4:45 am

Awesomelyglorious wrote:

skysaw wrote:

I would recommend getting Godel's Theorem by Newman & Nagel before getting Godel, Escher, Bach. It doesn't really contain any philosophy about consciousness, but it's shorter than the Hofstadter book (!) and it even features an intro by Hofstadter saying how it was that book more than any other that inspired him to (eventually) write Godel, Escher, Bach.

I don't see the point. It is likely a good book, but I am reasonably familiar with Godel's theorem. Not enough to prove it, but I have some idea about it and what it proves and a vague idea of how it works. (it is similar to the liar's paradox from what I hear)

Well, that's up to you. But Godel's Theorem is more complicated than the liar's paradox. If Godel had just produced another version of the liar's paradox (which had been known for centuries) he wouldn't have caused such a stir.

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07 Jun 2010, 4:57 am

I personaly have enjoyed the Eragon saga very much

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07 Jun 2010, 11:24 am

skysaw wrote:

Well, I didn't say "it is the liar's paradox". Even further, if it was, it really still could have created a stir if applied right. Godel's proof created a stir, not necessarily because the proof was the most brilliant or difficult thing ever, but rather because it brought fundamental doubt to our hopes for the foundation of mathematics.

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07 Jun 2010, 2:34 pm

I just finished the Kama Sutra. Quite a good book.

Jono
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08 Jun 2010, 2:24 pm

I apologise for not replying before. I forgot that I replied to this thread.

Orwell wrote:

Jono wrote:

What are the prerequisites?

Brian Greene's book is meant to be a popular science book. For that book, there are no prerequisites. Nice link you've got there. In a way it's true. In order to do research in string theory, you have to know everything.

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08 Jun 2010, 2:49 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:

Jono wrote:

Have you read The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene? The book is about string theory but doesn't have any equations in it as it's for the general audience. Plus there are sections in it, which he says you can skip if it gets too technical. With regards to intellectually oriented things, I'm not sure if physics stuff is your cup of tea though. Brian Greene also wrote another book called the Fabric of The Cosmos, which is more general physics.

I haven't read anything by Brian Greene, however, I am not very interested in string theory given ongoing questions on its scientific merit. I also would prefer to avoid basic physics given that it also feels like a category that could be picked up elsewhere, given that physics itself isn't copyrighted.

Right, there are people who question the scientific integrity of string theory. Their main complaint about it though, is that can't be any direct tests of it given that it deals with energy scales 20 orders of magnitude higher than what can currently be achieved even by the newest particle accelerator. There are some things that can be indirectly tested, such as the search for supersymmetry, although some people argue that it provide only very weak evidence. It's not necessarily true that string theory is incapable of being tested. I'm not going to pretend that string theory is fact because there hasn't been any evidence to date to support it, although it may be because it's still in an incomplete state and is not well defined. This doesn't mean that researchers interested in it shouldn't per-sue it though, since about 60 years ago quantum mechanics was in a similar state to what string theory is in now.

The book, even though it is written by a string theorist, I think gives a fair hearing to the criticisms as well. If you watch the Nova documentary series based on the book, you'll even see some of the opponents being interviewed.

If you don't want a book on basic physics or this one, then are you interested in advanced physics? I could also suggest Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne, that one is about general relativity.

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08 Jun 2010, 3:24 pm

Jono wrote:

If you don't want a book on basic physics or this one, then are you interested in advanced physics? I could also suggest Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne, that one is about general relativity.

Oh, I was not trying to be too dismissive. My basic point is just that all physics isn't copyrighted, so even though having a solid background on the matter is a GREAT thing, any book idea you could offer would likely have a number of very good substitutes, even free ones, such as physicists who wrote online.

Heck, I have a kids book on relativity. (or at least had one when growing up)

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Space-Uncle- ... t_ep_dpi_2

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08 Jun 2010, 3:34 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:

Jono wrote:

OK, just offering up suggestions.

Have read any of Dan Brown's novels, I haven't finished the Lost Symbol yet, which is latest one following the De Vinci Code. I tend to like those novels as well. I'm sorry if I'm offering too many suggestions.

iamnotaparakeet
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08 Jun 2010, 4:05 pm

Though you don't want Physics, here is an historical tome regarding it: Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica: Tomus I.

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08 Jun 2010, 4:41 pm

iamnotaparakeet wrote:

Though you don't want Physics, here is an historical tome regarding it: Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica: Tomus I.

You wouldn't prefer I get the Principia Mathematica written by Russell and Whitehead?

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08 Jun 2010, 4:42 pm

Jono wrote:

I'm sorry if I'm offering too many suggestions.

Its ok. I already said I bought the books I was planning to buy. (I am not sure how clearly I said that) So, I probably won't be buying books any time soon. Other people might value recommendations made though.

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10 Jun 2010, 10:16 pm

Jono wrote:

I apologise for not replying before. I forgot that I replied to this thread.

Orwell wrote:

Jono wrote:

What are the prerequisites?

well.........

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-p8yZYxNGc[/youtube]
Greene seems to explain everything

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