Literate Scientist

I read this book from cover to cover while flying on a plane from Dublin to St. Petersburg and back. That was so wonderful reading experience - I couldn’t put the book down during those flights. I recall that I visited the Department of Mathematics a few times when I studied Chemistry in Moscow State University although at that time I knew next to nothing about Russian mathematicians. The book touched me so deeply that I bought the main work of Florensky: The Pillar and Ground of the Truth, the history of Russian philosophy and several books explaining Orthodox Church. This is the best mathematics history book I have ever read, my feelings perhaps comparable to those that I experienced when I finished reading Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty by Morris Kline but that was more than 20 years ago.

Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity

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After I finished A Brief History of Theology I wanted to read more about Religion in general, not from an evolutionary point of view like in Breaking the Spell but more from the cultural perspective. So I bought this book in a local bookshop and read from cover to cover. I like the book, in fact some ideas I encountered there are similar to my own philosophy of Memoidealism and Memorianity (Memory religion) and now I understand better even my own private religion. Recommended for scientists with reductionist background or having narrow views about religion like I had before reading this book.

Religion: The Basics

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I was very interested in History when I was at school and used to read a lot about ancient Greece, Rome and Middle Ages. This was greatly accessible in USSR. A few years ago I started reading history books again and was looking for a general Russia history book. I bought this one and recently started reading a few months ago, reading 10-25 pages every week now. A bit dry sometimes but really good in explaining various forces and pressures, cultural aspects and with plenty of maps and pictures. You may wonder why I, a native Russian, read in English? The reason is that I write books in English myself and voracious reading in English helps me to attain native fluency in written English.

A History of Russia: Peoples, Legends, Events, Forces

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I bought this book in Eason book shop in Dublin city center a month ago when I had a large break while waiting for my ticket number in the Visa office. I finished Homework for Grown-ups in that queue and needed to buy something to read next. Now I finished this book and I can say that I like all chapters, especially about politics, ethics, mind and art because these areas of philosophy were missing in my education. Today I was again in Eason book shop in Dublin city center when I had a large break while waiting for my ticket number in the Visa office. And guess what? I bought Religion: The Basics book…

Philosophy: The Basics

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I’m in love with QFT. I noticed this planned monumental 6-volume work some time ago but I bought this book from Amazon UK (I give the link to Amazon US here) after reading Quantum Field Theory Demystified and looking for more thorough ab initio treatment of QFT. Upon its arrival I immersed myself into it and in my opinion the first volume is like The Road to Reality but more mathematically oriented with proofs, numerous examples, historical notes, generous citations and references.

Quantum Field Theory I: Basics in Mathematics and Physics: A Bridge between Mathematicians and Physicists (v. 1)

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This was a nice short book for me to see some derivations and mathematics behind physical concepts discussed in more popular books that I read before such as The Road to Reality, Deep Down Things and The Great Design, Not Even Wrong and the Trouble With Physics and The Comprehensible Cosmos. Although I accelerated a bit skipping some derivations by the end of the book I was able to grasp most of them including explanations of Feynman rules and path integrals. Because I have never read anything mathematical about QFT some additional reading will definitely improve understanding. Perhaps I come back to this book again for a second read. For now, I start reading another book: A Unified Grand Tour of Theoretical Physics.

Quantum Field Theory Demystified

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I own the other square box book “The Art of Looking Sideways”. This is how I noticed the bigger square box book in a local bookshop. My art education was very weak and I decided to buy the book. Later I also bought the portable “The Story of Art” from the same publisher. 

“30,000 Years of Art” contains pictures and reproductions of 1,000 artistic works arranged by time. I consider it also as a color complement to Ideas book. Now I read 10 pages every evening before going to sleep. Highly recommended to get the sense of history right. For example, before reading this book I had the impression that before 2,000 BC the art was at the level of cave paintings and venuses, but that level was actually long time before.

30,000 Years of Art

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I read this book in a few days briefly glancing at problem solutions because my aim was to review QM I studied long time ago. Highly recommended for a quick review. I noticed some misprints in derivations even during quick read but all explanations (physical semantics) are very clear. Now I venture into mathematics and physics of Quantum Field Theory Demystified that I hope to finish in a few days too. Here detailed mathematics (especially derivations) of QFT is almost unfamiliar to me so I expect to learn something new here and my future book review will reflect this reading and learning experience.

Quantum Mechanics Demystified

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As soon as I finished Linear Algebra Demystified I started reading this book and read it in a week. This book is about general relativity, only a few pages cover special one. Lots of equation derivations which I mostly skipped while approaching the end of the book. The algebraic treatment of tensors is refreshing after The Road to Reality which uses mostly graphical notation devised by Roger Penrose. I finally understood what Christoffel symbols are for and the distinction of holonomic and nonholonomic coordinate bases. I would say that this book is very heavy on the syntax of physics and has less discussion of physical semantics. I’ve started reading Quantum Mechanics Demystified and then I plan to start with Quantum Field Theory Demystified. After that I approach a bit more semantics by reading A Unified Grand Tour of Theoretical Physics by Ian Lawrie.

Relativity Demystified

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It is interesting to compare core school subjects in 70-80s USSR with those in UK and Ireland. I certainly missed any religious education and many art-isms. Physical education (games) was also different except football and climbing a rope. So I bought this book in a local bookshop a few months ago to align my basic school education and finished reading yesterday while waiting in a queue in Irish visa office near Dublin O’Connell Bridge:

Homework for Grown-ups: Everything You Learnt at School…and Promptly Forgot

It was also useful for me to learn some English words from basic biology, classics and geography.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -