Comments on: Vacation reading http://www.neverendingbooks.org/index.php/vacation-reading.html lieven le bruyn's blog Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:42:15 +0200 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: lieven http://www.neverendingbooks.org/index.php/vacation-reading.html/comment-page-1#comment-2690 lieven Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:12:42 +0000 http://www.neverendingbooks.org/?p=30#comment-2690 <p>A direct question deserves a similar reply. I hate to admit it but in the end I decided to take along just 3 of the books mentioned (fearless symmetry, poincare conjecture and the sensual form; i did read the stewart book before we took off). I agree with Doug (for once) that fearless symmetry is an excellent read. If Im allowed to make one critical remark, as quadratic reciprocity is so crucial in their story maybe they should have considered including the amazing proof of it contained in the appendix of Conway's sensual form-book. So i left all three curve-books at home but took instead good-old Fulton along as well as Tsfasmann's 'Algebraic geometric codes' which I recommend as a good read. In retrospect Im happy with this because sitting on a French mountain (for Gaspard, the Ardeche-Cevenolles) makes one contemplate things, so Ive changed my plans for next year courses completely as well as my overall attitude to teaching and mathematics, but maybe ill post about that another time... Apart from the math-books mentioned already I took along at the last moment Gannon's book on Monstrous Moonshine and Hsu's on Quilts but only read through them for one afternoon. As usual I took along some trashy novels and as the weather was bad but excellent for cycling I was too tired to do my usual amount of reading. Still, two thrillers I read through and enjoyed : "Blood memory" by Greg Iles and "Buried" by Mark Billingham. And one I stopped reading "Sign of the cross" by Chris Kuzneski for the obvious reasons. That's about it Im afraid.</p> <p>Oh, and btw. for Graham : I was in London the weekend the latest Potter was released and naturally I bought one at Waterloo station on the way back for my God child. I briefly contemplated taking it along on vacation but in the end there are only that many books you can carry...</p> A direct question deserves a similar reply. I hate to admit it but in the end I decided to take along just 3 of the books mentioned (fearless symmetry, poincare conjecture and the sensual form; i did read the stewart book before we took off). I agree with Doug (for once) that fearless symmetry is an excellent read. If Im allowed to make one critical remark, as quadratic reciprocity is so crucial in their story maybe they should have considered including the amazing proof of it contained in the appendix of Conway’s sensual form-book. So i left all three curve-books at home but took instead good-old Fulton along as well as Tsfasmann’s ‘Algebraic geometric codes’ which I recommend as a good read. In retrospect Im happy with this because sitting on a French mountain (for Gaspard, the Ardeche-Cevenolles) makes one contemplate things, so Ive changed my plans for next year courses completely as well as my overall attitude to teaching and mathematics, but maybe ill post about that another time… Apart from the math-books mentioned already I took along at the last moment Gannon’s book on Monstrous Moonshine and Hsu’s on Quilts but only read through them for one afternoon. As usual I took along some trashy novels and as the weather was bad but excellent for cycling I was too tired to do my usual amount of reading. Still, two thrillers I read through and enjoyed : “Blood memory” by Greg Iles and “Buried” by Mark Billingham. And one I stopped reading “Sign of the cross” by Chris Kuzneski for the obvious reasons. That’s about it Im afraid.

Oh, and btw. for Graham : I was in London the weekend the latest Potter was released and naturally I bought one at Waterloo station on the way back for my God child. I briefly contemplated taking it along on vacation but in the end there are only that many books you can carry…

]]> By: gaspard http://www.neverendingbooks.org/index.php/vacation-reading.html/comment-page-1#comment-2688 gaspard Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:30:08 +0000 http://www.neverendingbooks.org/?p=30#comment-2688 <p>It seems you are back from vacation. Was your reading enjoyable?</p> It seems you are back from vacation. Was your reading enjoyable?

]]> By: Doug http://www.neverendingbooks.org/index.php/vacation-reading.html/comment-page-1#comment-2394 Doug Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:26:21 +0000 http://www.neverendingbooks.org/?p=30#comment-2394 <p>I just completed my first read through of Ash and Gross 'Fearless Symmetry'.</p> <p>The Monster is mentioned on page 155, section, 'Digression: The Inverse Galois Problem', chapter 13 'The Galois Group of a Polynomial', part 2 'Galois Theory and Representations'.</p> <p>I really enjoyed this book for the superb explanation of difficult concepts. There are few proofs, but proof references are provided.</p> <p>Their writing style is similar to two of the references: - Paul J Nahin, 'An imaginary Tale: The Story of "i"; - Mario Livio, The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number.</p> <p>I recall figure 122 in Livio as a contrast between ideal and perturbed planetary orbits. A similar situation may occur in nature between ideal and perturbed symmetry?</p> I just completed my first read through of Ash and Gross ‘Fearless Symmetry’.

The Monster is mentioned on page 155, section, ‘Digression: The Inverse Galois Problem’, chapter 13 ‘The Galois Group of a Polynomial’, part 2 ‘Galois Theory and Representations’.

I really enjoyed this book for the superb explanation of difficult concepts. There are few proofs, but proof references are provided.

Their writing style is similar to two of the references: - Paul J Nahin, ‘An imaginary Tale: The Story of “i”; - Mario Livio, The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World’s Most Astonishing Number.

I recall figure 122 in Livio as a contrast between ideal and perturbed planetary orbits. A similar situation may occur in nature between ideal and perturbed symmetry?

]]> By: Graham http://www.neverendingbooks.org/index.php/vacation-reading.html/comment-page-1#comment-1506 Graham Thu, 26 Jul 2007 20:59:53 +0000 http://www.neverendingbooks.org/?p=30#comment-1506 <p>What, no Harry Potter?</p> What, no Harry Potter?

]]>