If you like to trade books, try BookMooch.
cfk has bookflurries on Weds. nights
pico has literature for kossacks on Tues. nights, but it's on hiatus
sarahnity has books by kossacks, now its own series, on Tuesday nights
It's been the usual list for a while now, so, today, our inner geeks rule! Science books, math books and anything related to that are featured.
Of course, feel free to mention whatever books you are reading.
I'm not reading all of these now, of course.
It's been the usual list for a bunch of weeks, so, today, our inner geeks rule. Of course, feel free to mention any books you want, but I'm focusing on math and computer science.
If you are a math teacher, or interested in math education, I recommend Out of the labyrinth: Setting mathematics free by Robert and Ellen Kaplan. These two are the most impressive math teachers I've ever seen. I wrote about them in the joy of participatory learning. Their book isn't as good as their teaching, but.... well, nothing would be.
If you want to know what a mathematician's world is like, but don't know a lot of math, then one book is the idiosyncratic conversations with a mathematician: Math, art, science, and the limits of reason by Gregory Chaitin. Chaitin is very smart, and he's not shy about letting us know. But somehow, it's not annoying. He seems like he's having enormous fun with his brain, and he wants us to share.
On the other hand, if you want a taste of what math is like and don't have a lot of math, then there's proofs and refutations: the logic of mathematical discovery by Imre Lakatos. Really fascinating, and uses a basic geometrical theorem that anyone who passed 8th grade math can understand.
If you do have some math training (say, at least a year or two of calculus) then the art of mathematics: coffee time in Memphis is a lot of fun. Interesting puzzles that mathematicians pose to each other.
My field is statistics, and, if ever need to understand statistics, a great book is statistics as principled argument this is a stats book like no other. It's about what the title says: Principled argument. Highly recommended.
Graphics are important in statistics. A graphic can be worth more than 1,000 words.... but which words? If you want to see some 'great speeches' and some things that are worthy of George Bush, then the works of Edward Tufte are great. If you actually want to produce some good speeches, then I like the works of William Cleveland: the elements of graphing data
and visualizing data
Keith Devlin has written a lot about math, and what I've read, I've liked:mathematics: the new golden age
and the millenium problems
Alfred Crosby wrote the fascinating book: the measure of reality: quantification and western society 1250-1500
and I'll close with
The magnificent Godel, Escher, Bach: An eternal golden braid by Douglas Hofstadter. An amazing book. I've read it three times. I will get more out of it if I read it again. It's a book to read slowly and think about and discuss.