Dr. Eric Ayars

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Last updated:
Oct 1, 2015

Books I've Read Recently

Here are some books I've read recently. These are not necessarily recommendations, unless indicated otherwise -- they're just what I've read, with some comments. You might also find them interesting. If you have suggestions of other books you think I might enjoy, based on this list, let me know...

Shibumi by Trevanian

Dreadful.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

This is one of my favorite books of all time. It's one of those books where you spend much of the book wondering what's going on: the characters all know, so they don't bother explaining, and the author allows the reader to figure it out on his own. The combination of the reader's confusion and the characters' confusion and the occasional character who, ten pages later, turns out to be a dog makes for one of the few books I've willingly read multiple times.

In some ways, this is the "back story" to Jerome K. Jerome's classic Three Men in a Boat, which is possibly the funniest book of the last two centuries. Willis borrows Jerome's style selectively, to excellent effect. Hers is not as funny as Jerome's, but much easier to read.

There's no way I can do this book justice in a two-paragraph review, though. Read it yourself. Read Three Men in a Boat, too; then go back and read To Say Nothing of the Dog again.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

A fascinating read! Well worth reading overall.

I found minor errors in the parts dealing with things I know well (physics), so I would presume that there are similar errors in the parts I don't know well. But these small errors do not detract from the value of the the historical detail, the fascinating stories about the people who discovered the science, and the cross-linking between the various ideas.

In many ways, this book reminds me of "Connections", by James Burke, which is unfortunately out of print. It's even better, though!

Black by Christopher Whitcomb (No link provided so that you don't accidentally buy it.)

This is the worst paramilitary pulp-fiction I've ever read. For starters, the author seems to have no clue about any of the technical details he's writing about. The book is littered with references to "AK-74's", the "Macintosh D: drive", "Zip disk tapes", and so on... And these are just complaints about the things I know. I can only imagine how badly the author has butchered the inner workings of paramilitary teams, which I know nothing about. But here's one to consider: two men are in a small room. One fires two rounds from an SMG, which clip the hero's hair on both sides of his head and embed themselves in the forhead of a third guy, who is not moving. Do the geometry... And then there's the all-important cell-phone, which -despite being the size of a credit card- can somehow make a sound capable of melting a person's head! Or maybe it's the secondary black box that does the melting, but sometimes that black box isn't needed. The author doesn't seem to know either.

Of course, technical absurdity is forgivable if the plot makes up for it, but this plot is so bad that the only reason I know how the book ends is that I just kept stubbornly ploughing through the book, knowing that the ending HAD to be better than the bulk of the book. I was wrong. The ending is utterly contrived and twisted and --quite frankly-- stupid. It's possible to have a good ending that turns your expectations on their heads, but such an ending would allow the reader to go back through the book and realize that all the clues were there, hidden. THIS ending completely contradicts the rest of the book, and isn't even entertaining.

Truly awful. I recommend waterboarding the author.

1984 by George Orwell

I don't know which is more depressing: Reading this book, or listening to the news.

Why Beauty is Truth: a History of Symmetry by Ian Stewart

A worthy attempt at bringing the beauty of group theory and its application to physics within reach of the average reader. Unfortunately, the early chapters are far too simplistic to be of any educational value, and the material in the later chapters is of such complexity that the simplistic coverage is completely useless. His point seems to be that the beautiful symmetry of group theory lies behind all of physics, and thus beauty is truth: but he doesn't convincingly make the point.

He has a large amount of material concerning the history of the development of group theory, and why certain problems can't be solved, and this is actually worthwhile reading. But overall the book does not live up to the title.

Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara

This is the second volume in Jeff Shaara's 2-volume history of the American revolution. It is a fascinating book -- just as good as the first volume, Rise to Rebellion.

Death of a Dissident by Stuart Kaminsky

A police detective novel, set in Moscow in the early 1980's or so.

Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara

This is the first of a 2-volume history of the American revolution. If history had been this interesting back when I was taking history classes, my own history might be different!