It’s that time of year again. Time to realize I have no idea what I want for Christmas…So, hopefully, I can get some great book recommendations from my fellow SDopers.
Hmm, where to begin…math books, science books, philosophy books…so many fascinating topics to choose from. I guess for starters I’d like to read something up-to-date on the latest quantum mechanics developments. I’ve heard “The Elegant Univerise” thrown around a few times. What do you guys all think? Math is the other topic…not textbook type math, but rather, a book that investigates the history of math, its development, its implications, etc. Any suggestions?
One of my favourite books is the infamous “Godel, Escher, Bach”. Anything along these lines I’m sure I would enjoy. I love books that combine the discussion of science and philosophy.
Lastly, I’m a big electronics hobbiest. I’ve often seen the ARRL suggested as a good book. Any suggestions for other books I could look into? (I’m into radio and computer interfacing)
Well, you already have GEB. Otherwise, that would be my first suggestion. If you generally like Hofstadter, I’d suggest Metamagical Themas as a good place to go: It isn’t as coherent as GEB, because it’s a collection of his articles as published in Scientific American (he had a feature under the name Metamagical Themas for many years). It is, however, a lot of interesting nuggets on some of the same topics as GEB, but also a lot he didn’t cover in his best-known work.
Next, you might want to look into David Berlinski. I have two books of his, The Advent of the Algorithm and A Tour of the Calculus. He writes at a level roughly commensurate with Hofstadter, but his style differs: Whereas Hofstadter is more of a `philosophical technician’ (my interpretation), Berlinski focuses on the philosophy and the poetry of logic. His prose is more flowery and he doesn’t spend nearly as much time on practical applications, to the point of de-emphasizing computers in his exploration of algorithms. He does, however, grant a unique grasp of the subjects he presents.
And I would like to second Gyan9’s suggestion. Where Mathematics Comes From is the only book I know of its kind, the only one that takes mathematics in the context of the physical human mind and explains how humans can reuse their limited physical capacites to comprehend the most esoteric Platonic realms.
As for science, I find it hard not to recommend one specific text that I think has been sadly overlooked in the rush to the frontiers: Einstein’s Theory of Relativity by Max Born. By going back to the fundamentals in his largely chronological survey of the physical sciences, he takes the reader from Classical Greece to the dawn of the post-Newtonian era. He uses the sciences to build a foundation, much as scientists of all eras have, and that foundation will enable one to appreciate Einstein’s work in historical context.
Steven Pinker’s How the Mind Works is fantastic.
Anything by James Gleick is always interesting.
James Burke’s books always have loads of “Well, how about that!” nuggets in them.
The Institue of Physics are currently having a pre-Christmas booksale, I cna’t say I’ve heard of let alone read any of the books in their popular science section, but some of them are pretty cheap.
I recently read “The Music of the Primes” by Marcus du Sautoy (I think I got the name right), and can’t recommend it enough. It’s on the history of the Riemann Hypothesis.
The Mathematical Experience, by Kirsch and Davis (?) - the best non-textbook math book I’ve ever read, talks about Goedel and the discovery of incompleteness in math, different kinds of infinities, and how different choices of postulates give rise to different kinds of math, not just in geometry but in many areas.
Personally, I find The Elegant Universe too warm-fuzzy. He does a good job on relativity and quantum mechanics, but there are other authors who do better, e.g. The Cosmic Code by Heinz Pagels. I like books that really tell you something, like Goedel, Escher, Bach. I’d recommend QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, by Richard Feynman. No string theory, but a terrific description of quantum field theory, which is the basis of all modern fundamental physics theories.
