drew's blog

Thursday, November 18, 2004

The Demon Haunted World by Dr. Carl Sagan

An interesting subject, skepticism, but unfortunately the book is a loosely tied together collection of magazine articles, and somewhat dated (pyramid power, UFO's).

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Thursday, October 07, 2004

Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, and the Beauty That Causes Havoc by Arthur I. Miller

This book is an intriguing parallel between the revolutionary art of Pablo Picasso and the revolutionary science of Albert Einstein. There are more common in their creative geniuses that you would initially think. The reactions to their upheavals of the traditional, accepted doctrines, common culteral influences, and their solitary, initially unappreciated labors are just a few. The book has 368 pages, and was published in March 2002.

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Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman

A friend gave me the book Genius by James Gleick, and so enjoyed reading about the physicist Richard Feynman that I had to read his autobiography as well. Gleick is a much better writer than Feynman, but it's nice to hear some of the stories from the horse's mouth.

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Thursday, August 26, 2004

Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science by Steven Mithen by Steven Mithen

The Prehistory of the Mind was a Houston Book Club selection. It seemed more like a college textbook than popular nonfiction, with small print, tables and charts, and a zillion references(1). It's about minds and consciousness from the point of view of an archeologist instead of a psychologist, talking about skulls and art and stone axes and bear skins. It had some interesting conclusions about how the mind works, and many seemed to be plausible, but some I don't think are valid. Interesting book, nonetheless.

(1) Literally

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