SPECIAL!
Because I'm going to have to work on Fridays in the summer, on a job where I have to leave at about 7:30, WAYR will be moving days or times.
So take the poll!
Just the usual list this week
cfk has Bookflurries on Wednesday nights, with links to lots of other diaries about books and reading on daily Kos.
sarahnity has Books by kossacks on Tuesdays.
If you like to trade books, try bookmooch
Just finished
The Limehouse Text by Will Thomas. Cyrus Barker is a detective in Victorian England. In this, the third in a series, he and his assistant investigate a mysterious Chinese book.
Flynn's World by Gregory McDonald. Flynn is an Irishman with a large family, he's a cop, and he lives in Boston. But there all the stereotypes end in this funny but also highly intelligent mystery.
A History of Western Philosophyby Bertrand Russell. A great survey.
Now reading:
Godel, Escher, Bach - the going is getting heavy, the crowds are getting scarce, but I keep plugging away, every Sunday morning. This week, we have a guest host: joffan.
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. Space opera. Millions of worlds, aliens abound, huge stakes ... good stuff
The Enlightenment: An anthology by Peter Gay. I found this at a used book stand near me. A fascinating period.
The Cult of Statistical Significance why the traditional, Fisherian method of doing statistics is bad, and what we should do instead. Very important, but somewhat overly dramatic.
Bozo Sapiens: Why to err is human by Ellen and Michael Kaplan. The authors, one of whom (Ellen) is a friend, sent this to me. This is wonderful stuff, full of humor and insight into why we make mistakes. Also, the jacket photo shows one author (Ellen) pushing the other in a baby carriage (she's his mom). In fact, you can get a good sense of the book from the cover (I KNOW I KNOW) ... but ... the title, the subtitle, the cover picture (a banana skin) and the jacket photo together give me the following impressions:
1) The authors are having fun. When the authors have fun writing, I usually have fun reading.
2) The authors have a sense of humor
3) The authors assume you will get the joke. Not on some super-high, Umberto Eco-like level, but that you will know "to err is human" and "bozo sapiens" and similar levels (or perhaps slightly higher level) things throughout the book
In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language by Arika Okrent.
Okrent is a linguist who got interested in artificial languages and the revival of 'dead' languages. This book is a ton of fun. Filled with portraits of highly intelligent eccentrics, and also some good linguistics.