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RE: Book Recommendations?
January 22, 2015 at 3:22 pm
(January 22, 2015 at 2:12 pm)robvalue Wrote: Have you read any Douglas Adams? The hitch hikers guide to the galaxy series is still my favourite after 25+ years.
Okay, I was ready to freak out, because I thought that a bunch of sci-if loving atheists were failing to mention Douglas Adams.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
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RE: Book Recommendations?
January 22, 2015 at 3:24 pm
If I was gonna get down and worship someone...
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RE: Book Recommendations?
January 22, 2015 at 3:25 pm
(January 22, 2015 at 3:22 pm)Faith No More Wrote: (January 22, 2015 at 2:12 pm)robvalue Wrote: Have you read any Douglas Adams? The hitch hikers guide to the galaxy series is still my favourite after 25+ years.
Okay, I was ready to freak out, because I thought that a bunch of sci-if loving atheists were failing to mention Douglas Adams.
I tried to mention books that were easily accessible and NOT necessarily the first things everyone says.
Douglas Adams usually is. Everyone has read him, and everyone knows about him. Time to move on. That's why, despite having him inked on me, I don't often recommend Tolkien.
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RE: Book Recommendations?
January 22, 2015 at 3:31 pm
(January 22, 2015 at 3:25 pm)thesummerqueen Wrote: I tried to mention books that were easily accessible and NOT necessarily the first things everyone says.
Douglas Adams usually is. Everyone has read him, and everyone knows about him. Time to move on. That's why, despite having him inked on me, I don't often recommend Tolkien.
See, I think it's worth mentioning just in case, but I haven't found that everybody knows about him, at least nowhere near someone like Tolkien.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
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RE: Book Recommendations?
January 22, 2015 at 3:55 pm
I did read all the other recommendations first, and noted there was no DA  I couldn't let that stand.
But if you want to beat me within an inch of my wife for that, I'll understand.
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RE: Book Recommendations?
January 22, 2015 at 4:46 pm
The Hitchhiker's Guide is one of those things that I'm going to force my siblings to read at some point.
My favorite Stephen King is probably Cell. My favorite Malcolm Gladwell book is Outliers.
And, having a college biology teacher of a mother, I found The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks really interesting.
I will definitely check out your recommendations. Thank you all.
Gone
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RE: Book Recommendations?
January 22, 2015 at 5:24 pm
I'm currently reading Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Death by Black Hole. Wondering if anyone has similar suggestions to this, I read Hawking's Brief history of time not too long ago too and while I'm not normally a big reader I can get into these types 'sciencey' books quite easily...
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RE: Book Recommendations?
January 22, 2015 at 5:25 pm
Phil Plait's books might be your next go-to.
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RE: Book Recommendations?
January 22, 2015 at 5:51 pm
(This post was last modified: January 22, 2015 at 5:52 pm by Faith No More.)
(January 22, 2015 at 5:24 pm)Napoléon Wrote: I'm currently reading Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Death by Black Hole. Wondering if anyone has similar suggestions to this, I read Hawking's Brief history of time not too long ago too and while I'm not normally a big reader I can get into these types 'sciencey' books quite easily...
"Fabric of the Cosmos" by Brian Greene is great. It's all about the nature of space and time and trying to understanding why we observe time flowing in the direction we do. It takes really esoteric concepts that require a Ph.D in mathematics to understand and makes them easier to absorb, however, that leads to a lot of you're-just-going-to-have-to-trust-me moments.
The QM section is a bit of a struggle to understand due to the fact that it's so counter-intuitive, but overall the book is fantastic, especially for those that have a layman's understaning of theroetical physics like myself.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
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RE: Book Recommendations?
January 22, 2015 at 8:50 pm
(January 22, 2015 at 4:46 pm)Roxy904 Wrote: My favorite Stephen King is probably Cell. My favorite Malcolm Gladwell book is Outliers. If you enjoyed any of Gladwell's books, you might like Dave McRaney. His stuff is a bit dry, but a pretty fascinating look into what is being learned about the human mind by researchers. You can start at his blog and try the books if the topic seems to be of sufficient interest.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
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