What Are You Reading?

[Pappers_]

I just finished The Clockwork Universe and would recommend it. I guess the genre is popular history of science.

From the description on Amazon's site:

In a world of chaos and disease, one group of driven, idiosyncratic geniuses envisioned a universe that ran like clockwork. They were the Royal Society, the men who made the modern world.

At the end of the seventeenth century, sickness was divine punishment, astronomy and astrology were indistinguishable, and the world’s most brilliant, ambitious, and curious scientists were tormented by contradiction. They believed in angels, devils, and alchemy yet also believed that the universe followed precise mathematical laws that were as intricate and perfectly regulated as the mechanisms of a great clock.

The Clockwork Universe captures these monolithic thinkers as they wrestled with nature’s most sweeping mysteries. Award-winning writer Edward Dolnick illuminates the fascinating personalities of Newton, Leibniz, Kepler, and others, and vividly animates their momentous struggle during an era when little was known and everything was new—battles of will, faith, and intellect that would change the course of history itself.

I appreciated the social analysis, the biographical info, and even the mathematical explanations. I did not realize that Newton was extremely religious and his work was significantly motivated by faith - fascinating.

 

[Yooper]

My favorite recent book was Unbroken (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400064163/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20) and right now I'm reading Defending Jacob, by William Landay (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11367726-defending-jacob).

I've been reading mostly entertaining fluff. I feel like I "think" too much the rest of the time, so I read for escape and entertainment.

But now that fall is here, I will start digging out the classics. Last year I was on a Dostoyevsky kick that lasted most of the winter. I'm not sure what I"ll grab this winter, but I put some Tolstoy and Dickens on my Nook.

 

[Pappers_]

My "classic" that I want to start reading through are the collected works of Scottish poet Robert Burns - I've never read him, which seems wrong.

 

[nukebrewer]

I recently started reading some Jack London starting with The Sea Wolf. I bought his collected works, along with those of Mark Twain and H.G. Wells, for $2.99 each on Amazon. I've got enough to keep me going for a while.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Kindle has a lot of classics you can get for free.

Sadly, my reading is 99.99999999999999% comprised of school work. The tiny portion left is for reading about beer/brewing.

 

[nukebrewer]

For those into fantasy novels I recommend Raymond E. Feist.

 

[Pappers_]

Kindle has a lot of classics you can get for free.

Sadly, my reading is 99.99999999999999% comprised of school work. The tiny portion left is for reading about beer/brewing.

That's where I got the Burns poems, for free.