What are you reading?

[Clueless Morgan]

I'm currently reading Richard Carrier's "Proving History", which gives a great understandable introduction to Bayes' theorem and using it to judge the likelihood of alleged historical events and facts. It has eye opener qualities, because he shows that when thinking about such things, you are either using Bayes theorem already without knowing it, or you are doing it wrong. He then goes on to show how to make well-defined judgements about historical hypotheses by using it properly.

Hey, I'm reading that right now, too!

Well, technically re-reading it. The first time most of the information went right over my head, so I'm making more of an effort this time to really understand how Bayes' Theorem works in preparation for his On The Historicity of Jesus book which should be coming out soon. I'm going to read that, and Bart Ehrman's Did Jesus Exist book. It'll be the year of the historical (or is he?) Jesus.

I just finished Carrier's Not the Impossible Faith which was really interesting.

Also, I'm struggling with Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. He follows the question why culture has developed at such different paces in different parts of the world (in a nutshell: why did e.g. the Spanish crush the American empires, and not vice versa). It's excellently written, but at times a brutal fact dump, hence the struggling part.

I found this book much, much easier to "read" in audiobook format. If that helps.

Otherwise, it's a great book, very interesting.

His Third Chimpanzee is another really good one.

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Am also reading The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne (on audiobook). Started it this morning on the way to work. It's also the year of Bayes' Theorem.

Am also feeling a little guilty that I've effectively abandoned the last fiction book I was reading... I'll go back to it... eventually.