Just finished Truman Capote’s classic true-crimeIn Cold Blood, showing both the perspectives of the victims (some family in Kansas) and the killers. It’s from ’66, but it doesn’t feel dated at all (well, the time it describes is, of course). Really enjoyed the book, even though I’m not too much into the genre.
Now reading Edward de Bono’s Think!, which seems to be a bit of an overview of his other books. In general, I like his ideas, and they help me at times to come up with creative solutions to problems, to step outside the normal neural pathways. Having said that, in Think! DeBono spends way too much time promoting himself - and a specific chapter about bad journalism, which has, as a prime example of that, a less-than praising review of one of his earlier books… So, I wouldn’t recommend this book.
I’ve just started “Principles of Uncertainty”. It seems like a solid introduction to Bayesian statistics, with a focus on underpinnings and implications. Since I’ve barely started I can’t give to much of an opinion, but it looks very well written so far.
I’ve been reading Nick Lane’s “Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution” since I have a large lacking of knowledge in biology and evolution and it was recommended to me. I would recommend the book to people like me, who don’t have systematic knowledge in biology and want to learn some cool tidbits, particularly about early life. Non-rigorous. Easy-to-read.
Having now finished the book, I would like to add that the last chapter “Death” serves as a good introduction to research into life- and health-extending tech from the point of view of evolution. The author is quite optimistic that rapid progress is possible and just on the horizon if we concentrate on it.
It somewhat of an old book, (as scientific non-fiction goes) published in 2000, but one of my favorite science books of all time was Genome, by Matt Ridley. It was shortly after the human genome project was completed. Ridley took each chromosome in the human body and examined something interesting on each chromosome. Each chromosome got a chapter. Sometimes it was a bit of a stretch (Ridley is a science writer not by any means a scientist. For example, there was a “Free Will” chapter, because the chromosome basically didn’t have anything interesting on it) but a lot, if not all of it, of it was very good information, particularly if you don’t have a solid background in biology and human genetics.
Non-Fiction
Just finished Truman Capote’s classic true-crime In Cold Blood, showing both the perspectives of the victims (some family in Kansas) and the killers. It’s from ’66, but it doesn’t feel dated at all (well, the time it describes is, of course). Really enjoyed the book, even though I’m not too much into the genre.
Now reading Edward de Bono’s Think!, which seems to be a bit of an overview of his other books. In general, I like his ideas, and they help me at times to come up with creative solutions to problems, to step outside the normal neural pathways. Having said that, in Think! DeBono spends way too much time promoting himself - and a specific chapter about bad journalism, which has, as a prime example of that, a less-than praising review of one of his earlier books… So, I wouldn’t recommend this book.
I’ve just started “Principles of Uncertainty”. It seems like a solid introduction to Bayesian statistics, with a focus on underpinnings and implications. Since I’ve barely started I can’t give to much of an opinion, but it looks very well written so far.
I’ve been reading Nick Lane’s “Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution” since I have a large lacking of knowledge in biology and evolution and it was recommended to me. I would recommend the book to people like me, who don’t have systematic knowledge in biology and want to learn some cool tidbits, particularly about early life. Non-rigorous. Easy-to-read.
Having now finished the book, I would like to add that the last chapter “Death” serves as a good introduction to research into life- and health-extending tech from the point of view of evolution. The author is quite optimistic that rapid progress is possible and just on the horizon if we concentrate on it.
It somewhat of an old book, (as scientific non-fiction goes) published in 2000, but one of my favorite science books of all time was Genome, by Matt Ridley. It was shortly after the human genome project was completed. Ridley took each chromosome in the human body and examined something interesting on each chromosome. Each chromosome got a chapter. Sometimes it was a bit of a stretch (Ridley is a science writer not by any means a scientist. For example, there was a “Free Will” chapter, because the chromosome basically didn’t have anything interesting on it) but a lot, if not all of it, of it was very good information, particularly if you don’t have a solid background in biology and human genetics.