Comments on: Suggestion for a book for me to choose for English? http://languageisavirus.com/questions/suggestion-for-a-book-for-me-to-choose-for-english creative writing questions and answers Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:49:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Patrick R http://languageisavirus.com/questions/suggestion-for-a-book-for-me-to-choose-for-english/comment-page-1#comment-16891 Patrick R Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:03:31 +0000 http://languageisavirus.com/questions/suggestion-for-a-book-for-me-to-choose-for-english#comment-16891 I have no idea what your abilities, powers of concentration, time in which to do the report, etc., are, so some of these are pretty ambitious books. (However, I realize it's usually the case that anyone interested in these subjects has plenty of ability and concentration....) So here we go! I've annotated only parts of the list because I didn't have time to do more.... And of course I could have added more titles, too! Aaargh! TECHNOLOGY: Theory and Design in the First Machine Age -- Reyner Banham Mechanization Takes Command -- Siegfried Giedion (germinal) Edison's Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life -- Gaby Wood (British Title = Living Dolls) several biographies of Nikola Tesla (something of a cult figure) Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940 -- David Nye An Entertainment for Angels: Electricity in the Enlightenment -- Patricia Fara Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time -- Dava Sobel (hugely popular) anything by Henry Petroski The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann -- Herman H. Goldstine America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940 -- Claude S. Fischer SCIENCE: Measure for Measure: A Musical History of Science -- Thomas Levenson The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus -- Owen Gingerich It Ain't Necessarily So: The Dream of the Human Genome and Other Illusions -- Richard Lewontin The Mismeasure of Man -- Stephen J. Gould (important attack on the ever-pervasive pseudoscience of "racial hierarchy") Chaos -- James Gleick On Growth and Form -- D'Arcy Thompson (extremely important) The Two Cultures, and A Second Look -- C. P. Snow (very influential) Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body -- Armand Marie Leroi Latitude and the Magnetic Earth (more about the discovery of magnetism than about technology per se) -- Stephen Pumfrey Science and the Founding Fathers -- I. Bernard Cohen (the inventor of history of science as an academic discipline) The Making of the Atomic Bomb -- Richard Rhodes (looong version) The Manhattan Project -- Jeff Hughest (short version) Newton's Tyranny: The Suppressed Scientific Discoveries of Stephen Gray and John Flamsteed -- David Clark and Stephen P. H. Clark (obviously heretical) Hypatia's Heritage: A History of Women in Science from Antiquity to the Late 19th Century -- Margaret Alic Trust Us, We're Experts!: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future -- Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber The Northern Lights -- Lucy Jago *a special case, sort of a genre all its own: The Periodic Table -- Primo Levi (a writer and a book no one should ever miss) MATH: Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy -- Bertrand Russell The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900 -- Theodore M. Porter Fermat's Last Theorem Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics -- John Derbyshire A Tour of the Calculus -- David Berlinski Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics -- William Dunham A Mathematician's Apology -- G. H. Hardy The Man Who Loved Only Numbers (bio of Paul Erdos) -- Paul Hoffman The Man Who Knew Infinity (bio of Ramanujan) -- Robert Kanigel Alan Turing: The Enigma -- Andrew Hodges Flatland -- Edwin Abbott (fiction) Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem -- Simon Singh and John Lynch Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea -- Charles Seife Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences -- John Allen Paulos (check his other books, too) I have no idea what your abilities, powers of concentration, time in which to do the report, etc., are, so some of these are pretty ambitious books. (However, I realize it’s usually the case that anyone interested in these subjects has plenty of ability and concentration….)

So here we go! I’ve annotated only parts of the list because I didn’t have time to do more…. And of course I could have added more titles, too! Aaargh!

TECHNOLOGY:
Theory and Design in the First Machine Age — Reyner Banham
Mechanization Takes Command — Siegfried Giedion (germinal)
Edison’s Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life — Gaby Wood (British Title = Living Dolls)
several biographies of Nikola Tesla (something of a cult figure)
Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940 — David Nye
An Entertainment for Angels: Electricity in the Enlightenment — Patricia Fara
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time — Dava Sobel (hugely popular)
anything by Henry Petroski
The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann — Herman H. Goldstine
America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940 — Claude S. Fischer

SCIENCE:
Measure for Measure: A Musical History of Science — Thomas Levenson
The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus — Owen Gingerich
It Ain’t Necessarily So: The Dream of the Human Genome and Other Illusions — Richard Lewontin
The Mismeasure of Man — Stephen J. Gould (important attack on the ever-pervasive pseudoscience of “racial hierarchy”)
Chaos — James Gleick
On Growth and Form — D’Arcy Thompson (extremely important)
The Two Cultures, and A Second Look — C. P. Snow (very influential)
Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body — Armand Marie Leroi
Latitude and the Magnetic Earth (more about the discovery of magnetism than about technology per se) — Stephen Pumfrey
Science and the Founding Fathers — I. Bernard Cohen (the inventor of history of science as an academic discipline)
The Making of the Atomic Bomb — Richard Rhodes (looong version)
The Manhattan Project — Jeff Hughest (short version)
Newton’s Tyranny: The Suppressed Scientific Discoveries of Stephen Gray and John Flamsteed — David Clark and Stephen P. H. Clark (obviously heretical)
Hypatia’s Heritage: A History of Women in Science from Antiquity to the Late 19th Century — Margaret Alic
Trust Us, We’re Experts!: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future — Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
The Northern Lights — Lucy Jago
*a special case, sort of a genre all its own: The Periodic Table — Primo Levi (a writer and a book no one should ever miss)

MATH:
Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy — Bertrand Russell
The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900 — Theodore M. Porter
Fermat’s Last Theorem
Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics — John Derbyshire
A Tour of the Calculus — David Berlinski
Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics — William Dunham
A Mathematician’s Apology — G. H. Hardy
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers (bio of Paul Erdos) — Paul Hoffman
The Man Who Knew Infinity (bio of Ramanujan) — Robert Kanigel
Alan Turing: The Enigma — Andrew Hodges
Flatland — Edwin Abbott (fiction)
Fermat’s Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World’s Greatest Mathematical Problem — Simon Singh and John Lynch
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea — Charles Seife
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences — John Allen Paulos (check his other books, too)

]]> By: Winston S http://languageisavirus.com/questions/suggestion-for-a-book-for-me-to-choose-for-english/comment-page-1#comment-16890 Winston S Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:18:40 +0000 http://languageisavirus.com/questions/suggestion-for-a-book-for-me-to-choose-for-english#comment-16890 A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson A short history of nearly everything – Bill Bryson

]]> By: Ceeee http://languageisavirus.com/questions/suggestion-for-a-book-for-me-to-choose-for-english/comment-page-1#comment-16889 Ceeee Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:09:18 +0000 http://languageisavirus.com/questions/suggestion-for-a-book-for-me-to-choose-for-english#comment-16889 Night by Eilie Wiesel. Very good book and to the point. Its about the hallocaust. I thought I would really hate reading about that kinda stuff b/c I hate suffering etc. but it was very meaningful. Its one of those books where while you read it you can picture it very clearly in your head. Night by Eilie Wiesel. Very good book and to the point. Its about the hallocaust. I thought I would really hate reading about that kinda stuff b/c I hate suffering etc. but it was very meaningful. Its one of those books where while you read it you can picture it very clearly in your head.

]]> By: popsicle http://languageisavirus.com/questions/suggestion-for-a-book-for-me-to-choose-for-english/comment-page-1#comment-16888 popsicle Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:15:17 +0000 http://languageisavirus.com/questions/suggestion-for-a-book-for-me-to-choose-for-english#comment-16888 The Book Thief my Mark Zusak. set in Nazi Germany times and told through the eyes of death. The Book Thief my Mark Zusak. set in Nazi Germany times and told through the eyes of death.

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