2008 Books
Jan. 7th, 2009 12:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cdaveThese things come threes.
One of my half written blog posts is a break down of last year's new year's resolutions (mostly FAIL, but that was meme of the year). One of which was to blog about each book I'd read.
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makyo actually posted a list of all the books he read last year.
So I'll keep a better list of what I've read this year. Even if I don't manage to write anything about it. For the purposes of numbering I'll not count weekly or monthly comic, but I'll try to mention them.
(I'll start with Christmas since that's the last date I can remember what I'd finished reading)
-4) Space Captain Smith by Toby Frost
Won at the BSFA 50th birthday raffle. My prediction was from the cover was three parts ripping yarn, to one part silly fun, to one part steampunk.
Was actually three parts silly fun, to one part ripping yarn. It's essentially a very silly space opera, which isn't in itself a bad thing. But I'd been expecting a bit more of a heroic tale, than an anti-hero.
-3) Symmetry and the Monster by Mark Ronan (Popular Science: Maths)
Really rather good. But there did seem to a big hole. Tells the chronological story of the study of Symmetry in Maths, including potted biographies of the Mathematicians involved. The occasional forays into Physics naturally caught my attention.
The election orbitals that make up the basis for the atomic table are the simplest 3D symmetries! I think I knew that before, but this made it so clear.
And those same three dimensional symmetries could be behind the number of force carriers for the fundamental forces. 1 for EM, 3 for weak nuclear, 8 for strong nuclear. Anyone want to bet if we find new particles at work in CERN, the force will need 15 particles to mediate it?
I probably misunderstood, but there seemed to be a bit missing from the end of the book. The author calls forwards a lot. Stating that this seemingly tangential theorem will be used later, or that this result will be explained in more detail later. On of these promised clarifications was the proof (or rather a very high level description of the proof. Many of the papers in this area are literally hundreds of times longer than most modern papers) that there are only 26 of these >complicated mathematical object<s, of which the titular Monster is the largest. But it didn't seem to have appeared by the end of the book, leaving me to wonder if it has in fact been proved, or if there may be a Monsterous Monster eventually.
Three graphic novels lent to me by Fuzz, purchased at the London Autumn MCM Expo
-3) Fray by Joss Whedon (Graphic Novel) On loan from Fuzz
-2) Witchblade Origins Volume 1 by David Wohl, and Christina Z. and Michael Turner.(Graphic Novel)
-1) Midnight Kiss by Tony Lee (Graphic Novel)
*) Weekly comic: The DFC.
1) The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin
2) Hunter's Moon by David Deveraux
{edit: Oops missed one: The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin}
One of my half written blog posts is a break down of last year's new year's resolutions (mostly FAIL, but that was meme of the year). One of which was to blog about each book I'd read.
makyo actually posted a list of all the books he read last year. So I'll keep a better list of what I've read this year. Even if I don't manage to write anything about it. For the purposes of numbering I'll not count weekly or monthly comic, but I'll try to mention them.
(I'll start with Christmas since that's the last date I can remember what I'd finished reading)
-4) Space Captain Smith by Toby Frost
Won at the BSFA 50th birthday raffle. My prediction was from the cover was three parts ripping yarn, to one part silly fun, to one part steampunk.
Was actually three parts silly fun, to one part ripping yarn. It's essentially a very silly space opera, which isn't in itself a bad thing. But I'd been expecting a bit more of a heroic tale, than an anti-hero.
-3) Symmetry and the Monster by Mark Ronan (Popular Science: Maths)
Really rather good. But there did seem to a big hole. Tells the chronological story of the study of Symmetry in Maths, including potted biographies of the Mathematicians involved. The occasional forays into Physics naturally caught my attention.
The election orbitals that make up the basis for the atomic table are the simplest 3D symmetries! I think I knew that before, but this made it so clear.
And those same three dimensional symmetries could be behind the number of force carriers for the fundamental forces. 1 for EM, 3 for weak nuclear, 8 for strong nuclear. Anyone want to bet if we find new particles at work in CERN, the force will need 15 particles to mediate it?
I probably misunderstood, but there seemed to be a bit missing from the end of the book. The author calls forwards a lot. Stating that this seemingly tangential theorem will be used later, or that this result will be explained in more detail later. On of these promised clarifications was the proof (or rather a very high level description of the proof. Many of the papers in this area are literally hundreds of times longer than most modern papers) that there are only 26 of these >complicated mathematical object<s, of which the titular Monster is the largest. But it didn't seem to have appeared by the end of the book, leaving me to wonder if it has in fact been proved, or if there may be a Monsterous Monster eventually.
Three graphic novels lent to me by Fuzz, purchased at the London Autumn MCM Expo
-3) Fray by Joss Whedon (Graphic Novel) On loan from Fuzz
-2) Witchblade Origins Volume 1 by David Wohl, and Christina Z. and Michael Turner.(Graphic Novel)
-1) Midnight Kiss by Tony Lee (Graphic Novel)
*) Weekly comic: The DFC.
1) The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin
2) Hunter's Moon by David Deveraux
{edit: Oops missed one: The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin}
