I'm relatively new here and have posted only a couple times, but drop in regularly. I'm a uni student in Australia.
I was wondering if you have favourite non-fiction books which other OSC fans might be interested in.
I'll start with this one:
"Ubiquity" by Mark Buchanan
My favourite non-fiction book of all time, recommended to me by one of my teachers in high school.
It touches on popular physics topics like chaos theory, complexity theory and networks, in a way that a layman like myself can appreciate. Essentially it's about causation and the ubiquity of what physicists call the critical state. Buchanan puts forward the hypothesis that much of the world (including human affairs) is governed by 'power laws' and extremely simple but innately unpredictable patterns.
His favourite analogy (/theoretical model) is the sandpile - If you drop on grain of sand on top of the other repeatedly, you form a heap of sand. Occassionally, a grain will cause an avalanche. But the grain which causes the avalanche is identical to grains which didn't - it seems random. When things are in a critical state, he argues, the details can not be predicted - but statistically, a pattern governing the big picture always emerges. So we can't know when WWIII will start, but we do know that a war is 2.62 times less likely every time you double the number of deaths which result from it. There is a similar law with earthquakes, bushfires and the size of the broken shards of a frozen potato, established through statistics. Is this useful? I don't know - it certainly doesn't look promising for firefighters or peace activists if this is true, since a major war or a bushfire would be unavoidable and unpredictable not just practically, but scientifically.
The book is filled with interesting experiments (he calls them 'games'), statistical evidence and most of all, clear explanation. It's thought-provoking and suggests a new and simpler way of looking at the world, and covers many related issues. Anyone interested in causation in history will not want to miss out.
Buchanan also wrote other great books like "Nexus", which looks at networks.
A couple of other related books:
"Deep Simplicity" by John Gribbon "Critical Mass" by Philip Ball
Anyone who adds a book related to causation and/or history gets bonus points.
I love that you spell it "Favourite," by the way... I suppose you also write "tyres" and "colour." Personally I'm a huge fan of these spellings.
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A guy walks into a tailor shop and lays a pair of pants on the counter. The tailor says, "Euripedes?" The man nods and says, "Eumenides?"
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The story of 3 generations of women living in China. Written from the perspective of the grand daughter. She write how her grandmother lived in imperial China, having bound feet and being a concubine. How her mother grew up in the culture of imperial disatisfaction and become an active communist, and how she was raised to see the attrocities of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward first hand. This was followed by the communist party of china betraying her parents.
Its a powerful book that I enjoyed reading immensily. China's fall from Imperialism, to democracy, to communism is an extremely interesting read in of itself. But such a well illustrated first hand account is truely rare. The book is banned in China as it is not very generous of the communist party and its founders. Its quite a long book because it covers so much time, but I was interested the entire time I was reading it.
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Excavations at Ur by Sir Leonard Wooley. It's basically his descriptions of all the findings in the 1922-1934 dig at the ancient Sumerian city of Ur (which is now in Iraq). I'm finding it absolutely fascinating.
Dancing in the No Fly Zone by Hadani Ditmars, which is described as "A Woman's Journey Through Iraq", and spans 1997ish-2004ish. It too, is very interesting.
Going with these two is the Epic of Gilgamesh. I have books on Antarctica, and more or Ur awaiting me at the library for pick-up tomorrow.
It's all for a story I'm planning, you see. *bounce*
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Oh, Teshi! I am a Sumerophile,too, and have written a story based on the time period. I would love to hear what you are up to!
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Well, my story is more complicated than just ancient Sumerian Ur- it's sort of all tied in with modern Iraq (at Ur, though- the Ziggurat, specifically) as well as other places in the world. More of a novel-in-embryo than a story, really. But in order to get ideas as well as a necessary thick layering of the complete and utter history of the city I got this book out the library and suddenly I'm devouring it and trying not to think about all the other story possibilities that are blossoming out because I might forget what I'm "supposed" to be doing! I don't 'need' to read the whole book but I find myself not only reading it carefully but also spontaneously taking notes!
It makes me wonder why I've never actually studied ancient history before since a Very Long Time Ago (other than a brief foray into Sumerian Cuneiform in October of last year- again, totally fascinating especially since I'm now seeing some familiar words showing up) because I'm really enjoying it much more than I have anything for a long time .
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I've really taken a liking towards "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. It was a pretty big hit last year- about what the author calls Globalizaton 3.0. It speaks at length about the technological revolution that is "flattening" the marketplace so that tech start ups have almost as much chance at success as established businesses. Or about how a 2nd/3rd world country like India, parts of it are becoming a 1st world country because of the flattening of the marketplace (same thing with Latin America and Southeast Asia).
Well- I just got done with my AP US history class- and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed "The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It" by Richard Hofstadter. It chronicles the lives and careers of about a dozen influential politicans throughout American history (first the founding fathers in general, then to Jefferson, then to Jackson) It ends with FDR as this book was written in the 1930's-40's. It is a great book with clear, precise language, and should be a must-have for any people interested in American history (especially if they are just beginning to get into the subject).
The other one that I most recently have read was "Prozac Nation" by Elizabeth Wurtzel. It chronicles about a dozen or more years of her suffering chronic, severe clinical depression. Someone close to me who has suffered from clinical depression told me about this book and said: This is the closest thing that can describe depression. It chronicles her life and how it spirals out of control time after time and about her attempts to recover.
Oh. And this summer for school I have to read a book called "The Paideia Proposal" Paideia is an interesting educational philosophy about the "upbringing of the whole child" the whole "mind, body, spirit" thing that my school is into. It also uses extensively the idea of the Paideia Seminar which is essentially probably the most efficient and pure form of Socratic questioning. And the use of coached projects. I haven't yet read that one- but I was planning on it before it became an assignment anyways. The book seems to be the theories behind all of it.
Those are my nonfiction books- I don't have any on causality- although that first one you mentioned sounded mighty interesting.
Posts: 980 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Thanks Shawshank - those are great recommendations. As a bit of trivia I think Prozac Nation has also been made into a film, though I haven't seen it myself.
posted
I rather liked "Iron Eagle", the biography of the bomber Gen. Curtis E. LeMay. He's your typical soldier: surly, resourceful, and hated by everyone until he comes in and saves the day. *grin*
Stud's Terkel's "Working" is fun. "Working" contains interviews with several real-world workers, from all sorts of different professions (preacher, hooker, truck driver, etc.) giving their thoughts on life.
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence" is non-fiction, though I suspect that Pirsig was slightly liberal with the truth. This is one of the best books you will ever read! For instance, it contains a working argument why gravity does not exist. THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU THINK! BEWARE!
If you prefer something slightly more humourous, I recommend Cecil Adams' "The Straight Dope", (5 volumes in the series thus far) which is Cecil's collection of answers to some of the oddest questions you'd ever think to ask. (Examples: Where did the H. in Jesus H. Christ come from? What's the calorie count of sperm? How do they get the M's on M & M's?)
Hope I was of help!
Also, do any of you know of any good books on Italy, the Renaissance, or Leonardo da Vinci? Mucho gracias!
Posts: 135 | Registered: Mar 2006
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Recently I read a few books by Bill Bryson that I rather liked. "In a Sunburned Country" is an acount of travels in Australia, and another is "A Short History of Nearly Everything," a history of scientific development. If you like Bryson, you'll enjoy these books.
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"The Pinball Effect" describing how science and discovery are linked across time, specialty, and geography, with amusing cause and effect.
Isaac Asimov's "Atom" It is a wonderful history of atomic chemisty, even if it is slightly dated. It connects all those things I should have learned in school with what I read about in the news.
Machiavelli's "The Prince" Ok, this is a book to read just for the looks you get from others when you read it. It is the ultimate Evil Emporer How To Manual. The scariest part is when you see its strategies being used by countries today.
There is one section about conquering a territory. It describes how impossible it is to pacify a conquered people with troops and fear. You send in colonists to claim it as there own. I do not know what is more worrisome, how the US has missed this lesson in Iraq, or how some in Isreal follow it so closely in the settlements.
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I'm not a fan of LeMay's bombing policies. War is war, but his incendiary bombs killed many more civilians than the atomic bombs did.
Great recommendations again - "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" sounds particularly intriguing!
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Humanity by Jonathan Glover A Moral History of the Twentieth Century
From the back cover:
quote: This book is about history and morality in the twentieth century. It is about the psychology which made possible Hiroshima, the Nazi genocide, the Gulag, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and many other atrocities.
America's most important author, telling the story of one of Europe's most important historical figures. He considered it his finest and most important work, but very few people seem aware that it exists.
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quote:Originally posted by Euripides: Humanity by Jonathan Glover A Moral History of the Twentieth Century
From the back cover:
quote: This book is about history and morality in the twentieth century. It is about the psychology which made possible Hiroshima, the Nazi genocide, the Gulag, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and many other atrocities.
Ooo that sounds fascinating.
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A random question = can anyone recommend a good bio of Richard Francis Burton? (That's the explorer, not the actor.) Ever since I read Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld books I've always meant to read up on Burton, but there's a LOT of biographies of him out there...
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quote:Originally posted by Jim-Me: Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
America's most important author, telling the story of one of Europe's most important historical figures. He considered it his finest and most important work, but very few people seem aware that it exists.
I must confess - I was unaware of it as well Thanks for pointing it out. Sounds interesting.
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I looked up your recommendation. Are you referring to Mark Twain's "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte"? Isn't that fiction? Not to suggest that this makes it any less interesting.
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