Read Any Good Books Lately?

I am currently reading Leonard Mlodinow's The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives. It is a good lay level introduction to probability, and could be of general interest.

Of less wide interest would be Underwood Dudley's The Trisectors, which pertains to a goofy CR4 thread in which I am now engaged.

Which thread is that?

"Trisecting an Angle" (another fragrant contribution from Z_man).

British Standard 7671..... oh, sorry. Wrong section.

De gustibus no es disputandam.

abusus non tollit usum

"The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande. He's a prominent surgeon and New Yorker staff writer who experimented with checklists in surgical patient care and found that these simple precautions, adapted from engineering checklists, reduced mishaps by 36% and deaths by 47%. It is hard to believe, but checklists originated in 1935 for test pilots. Checklists catch the stupid stuff and also foster a dialogue among the team working on the problem. The art is in making them short enough to be useful, and getting prima donna professionals to admit that they might work.

Anathem, by Neal Stephenson.

Anathem is a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2008. Major themes include the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the philosophical debate between Platonic realism and formalism.

Should be of interest to engineers, mathematicians, physicists, and philosophers of any ilk. For those that have endured lengthy exposure to academia, there is even humour.

I would, perhaps, review this excellent book in greater depth, but only if posting this link will not suffice:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem

Those interested in the history of science have probably already read Stephensons' series of long historical novels, The Baroque Cycle.

"The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" - William Kamkwamba

"Full House" - Steven Jay Gould

The Foundation Series by Isaak Asimov... Classic read of what is to come.

WOW, there is a title from the past

The Lighthouse Stevensons.