Reply to: CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Taming the Infinite:the story of maths from the first numbers to chaos theory" by Ian Stewart. Remaindered at £2.99 reduced to £1.49.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Read all (or most of) the words: remembered very little of it from back in the day.

Next: TBD.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Fallout: a journey through the nuclear age: from the atom bomb to nuclear waste" by Fred Pearce.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Intercept: the secret history of computers and spies from Bletchley Park to Cyber espionage" by Gordon Corera.

Tommy Flowers gets to star early on in this one.

Clifford Stoll: he of the sewing of shirts etc. and the 75 cent accounting error. .

The German chap who ended up burned to death in a forest: Karl Werner Lothar Koch (July 22, 1965 – c. May 23, 1989) aka Hagbard Celine.

The other chap involved, Markus Hesse, went to gaol (or not: suspended sentence).

Also Dr. Joseph Popp (1950–2006), the writer of the Aids trojan & the originator of ransomware.

Oooo, Titan Rain. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "SOE's Secret Weapons Centre STATION 12" by Des Turner, which is made up of interviews with people who worked there back in the 40s. A reread from 2021.

A paperback that once again has a spine breaking at the photographs.

Some remarkable stories in that. Who knew that FANYs got up to so much. .

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Fallout: a journey through the nuclear age: from the atom bomb to nuclear waste" by Fred Pearce.

[woody1]

Currently re-reading books 1-10 in Ian Rankin's Rebus series. Last read them over a decade ago, and had forgotten how good they were.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Surely you're joking Mr Feynman!: adventures of a curious character" by R. P. Feynman.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "SOE's Secret Weapons Centre STATION 12" by Des Turner, which is made up of interviews with people who worked there back in the 40s. A reread from 2021.

A paperback that once again has a spine that's breaking at the photographs.

Some remarkable stories in that. Who knew that FANYs got up to so much. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "A northern wind: Britain 1962 - 1965" by David Kynaston. Set exactly midway between Clement Atlee and Margaret "The Great She Elephantine Milksnatching Bitch" Thatcher. One who created the NHS and assorted atomic bombs and the other who sold off everything that wasn't nailed down to make her friends richer.
.

Done: off back to Oxfam with it. He writes a good book it must be said: just don't drop them on your foot.. So that's "Austerity (45-51)", "Family (51-57) ", "Modernity (57-62)" and "Northern Wind (62-65)" done & dusted. Must be a good foot of books in that selection.

Next: "Surely you're joking Mr Feynman!: adventures of a curious character" by R. P. Feynman.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: Armageddon and Paranoia: The Nuclear Confrontation 1945-2016 by Rodric Brathwaite.

I love the smell of fallout in the morning, it smells of... victory. .

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Taming the Infinite:the story of maths from the first numbers to chaos theory" by Ian Stewart. Remaindered at £2.99 reduced to £1.49.

Well there's a thing: completely forgotten how to get the roots of a quadratic, and every trig identity has vanished without trace, not that there's been much call for them over the last half century other than two technical tests at Sony, one about 45 years ago, the other about 35 years ago, neither of which came to anything, the third attempt came to something after I'd started contracting elsewhere, so working for them for half the amount of money held few attractions really.

This will either take a very long time to get through or, more likely by far, will be off to Oxfam unread once I take the remainder stickers off it.

Stone me: Lie groups, Lie algebra. It's all a Lie and I can't understand any of it. . And they wonder why people don't like maths. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Robots and Empire" by I. Asimov. This one was 508 pages & £2.95. . The return of the lovely Gladia, R. Daneel Olivaw, and Giskard, the mind reading robot, wherein The Evil Spacers come up with a Cunning Plan to destroy the Earth. .

Done: off to Oxfam with it. It seemed loooong. Dunno why.

Next: "The Currents of Space" by I. Asimov (1952). Part of the non existent "Galactic Empire" trilogy which are early 50s standalone novels. 205 pages and 35p: printed 1973.

47% of posts in this thread are down to one poster. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Geometry of the Sun god" by Keith Squires. A nicely obscure epic about Stonehenge & assorted circles. Remaindered at £3. The interweb knows very little about it.

Done: Off to Oxfam with it: Supposed to be vol 1 of 2: the 2nd was never written. Lots of geometry which I didn't bother figuring out and square roots of 2, 3, and 5. . The Stonehenge bit was more inneresting than the Egyptian Pyramids bit. I'd never heard of "The Sanctuary" before: it's a grubbed out stone circle destroyed as a source of stone (the way Stonehenge nearly was).

Next: Armageddon and Paranoia: The Nuclear Confrontation 1945-2016 by Rodric Brathwaite.

I love the smell of fallout in the morning, it smells of... victory. .

Nice mention of Richard Feynman borrowing Klaus Fuchs' car so he could visit his dying wife, only to have 3 flat tyres (or tires) on the way & having to hitchhike to the hospital to arrive shortly before his wife died. And then having yet another flat tyre (or tire) on the way back to Los Alamos. See: the septics had shortages too: very few new tyres (or tires) during WWII (or the bit where they were actually involved from 7th December 1941).

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Mercator: the man who mapped the planet (and made the Orange Moron think Greenland is bigger than Africa)" by Nicholas Crane.

Stone me, this is as dry as the Atacama desert.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. I very much doubt any of that will remain in my memory, though "rhumb lines"* and "loxodromes" might, assuming I could understand them. Shoulders of Giants.

Next: "The Geometry of the Sun god" by Keith Squires. A nicely obscure epic about Stonehenge & assorted circles. Remaindered at £3. The interweb knows very little about it.

*The path taken by a ship for a constant compass bearing. A bit like a spiral towards the magnetic pole.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Nodding Dogs & Vinyl Roofs: the weird world of quirky car accessories" by Stephen Vokins. I paid 29p for this one, remaindered remaindered and remaindered again: last price label was a right bugger to peel off & there's still some glue left after 3 or 4 different solvents.

Our multiply banned ex colleague Churchill appears. .

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Why girls can't throw... and other questions you always wanted answered" by Mitchell Symonds.

Filled a need for something rather lighter than Mercator. No idea where or when I bought it and there's no remainder sticker . Must have been feeling flush or something. It has, however, judging by the dust, matured well on the bookshelf.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The worst cars ever sold in Britain" by Giles Chapman. Purchased (remaindered) 23/12/2005, so it's mouldered well on the bookshelf as evidenced by the pages being stuck together. A WHS book.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Mildly inneresting in its way: The Stimson Scorcher: a fine suicide machine and The Triumph Mayflower: a car so remarkably hideous that I recall that a chap down the road, the late Douglas Thomas, had one about 60 years ago IIRC. Not a patch on the Triumph Sodomite though. .

Next: "Nodding Dogs & Vinyl Roofs: the weird world of quirky car accessories" by Stephen Vokins. I paid 29p for this one, remaindered remaindered and remaindered again: last price label was a right bugger to peel off & there's still some glue left after 3 or 4 different solvents.

Our multiply banned ex colleague Churchill appears. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Bomb: A History of Hell on Earth" by Gerard DeGroot.

Done: Off to Oxfam with it. Sadly no mention of Cobalt Thorium G, but these small deficiencies might be excused.

Next: "Mercator: the man who mapped the planet (and made the Orange Moron think Greenland is bigger than Africa)" by Nicholas Crane.

Stone me, this is as dry as the Atacama desert.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Dark Side of the Moon: the making of the PF masterpiece" by John Harris. Set the controls for the heart of the sun. Or something.

It's all dark: Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "The worst cars ever sold in Britain" by Giles Chapman. Purchased (remaindered) 23/12/2005, so it's mouldered well on the bookshelf as evidenced by the pages being stuck together. A WHS book.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Longitude" by Dava Sobel. Tick Tock.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "The Dark Side of the Moon: the making of the PF masterpiece" by John Harris. Set the controls for the heart of the sun. Or something.