Currently reading ....

[cojak]

'The Long Earth' by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.

'Stepping' into alternate Earths (in alternate universes?) - a fascinating premise used to explore all kinds of ideas, actions and consequences..

[MyUserName]

Re-reading the summaries of each chapter of Game of Thrones as the computer keeps updating a very large XML file (lots of small changes with about 30 seconds needed to save each change).

Fun to see the various things I missed first time through.

Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett. Very funny and very interesting, same story arc as the awesome Going Postal and the quite good Making Money.

[OwlHoot]

Some 30 odd years old New Scientists from the early 1980s.

The article that just caught my eye was about the JVC AHD audio disk.

It was killed by the CD.

Odd that, considering it was 26 cm in diameter.

I really wish the New Scientist publishers would scan and sell DVDs of all their old issues going back to the first, 50 or more years ago or whenever they started.

Many of the articles, even from 30 or 40 years ago, are very interesting and often still relevant.

[MyUserName]

Yes, I enjoyed "Going Postal" too, but it wasn't by Terry Pratchett.

Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: from Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond: Amazon.co.uk: Mark Ames: Books

The one I read (or listened to, I can't remember) was:

Going Postal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[doodab]

I have my copy of Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur being delivered today. It does look like I might need to be quite gifted to get my mind around it properly but we'll see.....

After that it's The Ideas of Particle Physics

Then I just need to get my head around General Relativity and I'll have achieved one of my major lifetime ambitions

[d000hg]

I'm reading this which started off easily and then went into field theory: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

All my background in theoretical physics is from the era of Hawking, and then string theory. so I'm struggling a little with this totally new interpretation.

[d000hg]

I'm also reading Wonderful Wodehouse 1 for balance

[TheFaQQer]

News From Gardenia

[OwlHoot]

Pure, by Andrew Miller

Jean-Baptiste Baratte, an engineer of modest origin, arrives in Paris in 1785, charged by the King’s minister with emptying the overflowing cemetery of Les Innocents, a ancient site whose stench is poisoning the neighborhood’s air and water and leaving a vile taste in its inhabitants’ food. At first the ambitious Baratte sees his work as a chance to clear the burden of history, a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to both his own demise and that of the monarchy. Baratte expects the task to be unpleasant but cannot foresee the dramas and calamities it will trigger, or the incident that will transform his life. As unrest against the court of Louis XVI mounts, ...

Sounds ghastly and morbid, but was actually an excellent read.

[doodab]

I'm reading this which started off easily and then went into field theory: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

All my background in theoretical physics is from the era of Hawking, and then string theory. so I'm struggling a little with this totally new interpretation.

Does it have equations in?

TBH I've felt I've not *truly* understood any of it from the layman's books I've read. I've understood them well enough and I get the basic ideas and principles they explain and that was satisfactory for a while but I've never really felt like I've got the whole truth. That's why I'm taking the trouble to understand the equations now. I'd not claim I can *do* the maths i.e solve examples or whatever, but with a bit of work and revision I can read and understand the equations well enough to link them up to the physical explanations that go with them and it all makes a lot more sense. It definitely helps that I studied a lot of abstract maths at uni though.