2015 VNSA Used Book Sale

A sampling of my finds from our yearly trek to the VNSA Used Book Sale:

Sci-Fi

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick -- the inspiration for Blade Runner.  I had a few others of his but had never picked this one up.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester -- on most lists of the best sci-fi books of all time.  I have not read this author yet.
Feersum Endjinn by Iain M. Banks -- Banks is probably my favorite sci-fi author.  I have almost all of his books now.

The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss

Science Non-Fiction 

Wrinkles in Time:  Witness to the Birth of the Universe by George Smoot
A More Perfect Heaven:  How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos  by Dava Sobel
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

The Poincare Conjecture by Donal O'Shea -- nerdy math stuff.  I love it.
The Case for Mars:  The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must  by Robert Zubrin

General Non-Fiction & History

Benjamin Franklin:  An American Life by Walter Isaacson -- After reading John Adams and now reading Team of Rivals, I'm kinda hooked on political history.
Code Breaking:  A History and Exploration  by Rudolf Kippenhahn
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Garbage Land:  On the Secret Trail of Trash by Elizabeth Royte 

Soul Made Flesh:  The Discovery of the Brain by Carl Zimmer

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” -- Jane Austen

2013 VNSA Used Book Sale

A sampling of my finds from our yearly trek to the VNSA Used Book Sale:

Sci-Fi

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson -- a modern classic sci-fi author that I have never gotten around to and what is considered his best book

Cyteen and Downbelow Station by C.J.  Cherryh -- another "classic" modern author that I have not read before
Anvil of Stars by Greg Bear -- a sequel to Forge of God, which I've already read and liked
Fleet of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
Earthclan:  Startide Rising & The Uplift War by David Brin -- I have read other Brin stuff and liked it.
Science Fiction:  The Illustrated Encyclopedia by John Clute --This is a really nice coffee-table book with a fairly comprehensive overview of all science fiction (movies, TV, books, comics, etc.)
When looking for new sci-fi books, I let my own experience guide me but I also referred to several lists of the the top science fiction books of all time, including:

David Pringle's Science Fiction:  The 100 Best Novels
Sci-Fi Lists:  Top 100 Sci-Fi Books
NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels

Science Non-Fiction 

Chaos:  Making a New Science by James Gleick
Quantum Man:  Richard Feynman's Life in Science by Lawrence M. Krauss -- Feynman and Krauss ... two of my scientific heroes. 

Not a Drop to Drink:  America's Water Crisis by Ken Midkiff

General Non-Fiction & Philosophy

Don't Eat This Book:  Fast Food and the Supersizing of America by Morgan Spurlock -- a companion piece to the excellent documentary Super Size Me
The Island at the Center of the World:  The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America  by Russell Shorto
Letters to a Young Teacher by Jonathan Kozol
Towards a New Architecture by Le Corbusier -- I'm a modernist nerd and this is considered one of the "bibles" of modernism.

Postcards from Ed (Abbey):  Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast
Bertrand Russell:  A Collection of Critical Essays edited by D.F. Pears

"For me science fiction is a way of thinking, a way of logic that bypasses a lot of nonsense. It allows people to look directly at important subjects." -- Gene Roddenberry

Stairway to heaven ...

... of my youth

Doing a semi-annual purge of my garage, I came upon a box of my paperback books from my late teens, early 20's. Taking a look at pictures I took of them, you get a window into the mind of a shy, but ambitious young man.

It's not just about content of the books, which were great and informed my outlook, but also the cover art. The books are bright, abstract, inventive. All the things that my upbringing in podunk Iowa was not. Escaping into these books gave me the hope that I would not always be where I was then and the impetus to escape once I was able.

I was able to escape, but just not to where I thought I'd end up. Naive me, I thought I'd somehow venture beyond Earth's confines (all sci-fi geeks do) ... or at least save the free world from bad guys and bed the hot Russian spy. Oh well. I may not have done those things, but at least part of me went there - my imagination.

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."
-- William Shakespeare

2012 VNSA Used Book Sale

A sampling of my finds from our yearly trek to the VNSA Used Book Sale:

Sci-Fi

Virtual Light by William Gibson (one of my favorite authors. This is the last book of his that I did not have.)

The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman
The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies by John Scalzi

Science Non-Fiction

Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution by Madison Smartt Bell

The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist by Richard Feynman
Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law by Peter Woit
They All Laughed ... Fascinating Stories Behind the Great Inventions that have Changed Our Lives by Ira Flatow
eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben

General Non-Fiction & Philosophy

AThe Lord of the Rings and Philosophy Edited by Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson

The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness by Erich Fromm
The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonathan Kozol
This Game of Ghosts: The Sequel to Touching the Void by Joe Simpson (yet another book about mountain climbing ... I love these!)
The End of Oil: On the Ege of a Perilous New World by Paul Roberts

The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf
Render Unto Darwin: Philosophical Aspects fo the Christian Rights' Crusade against Science by James H. Fetzer
Modern Architecture: since 1900 by William J. R. Curtis
Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress ... by Michael Specter (Wunelle had turned me on to this book and I was thrilled to find it)

"No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance." -- Confucius

Book Review: Darwin's Children

Darwin's Radio is the second book by Greg Bear that I've read, The Forge of God being the first. I liked both as they are both good examples of my favorite type of sci-fi: near-future hard science fiction.

Set in the U.S. but with excursions to Europe, Darwin's Radio plays like a plague outbreak novel early on, not unlike The Hot Zone/Outbreak, and progresses to a more traditional science fiction later on.

The rapid spread of the endovirus SHEVA is seen as a typical, but deadly virus that seems to threaten a whole generation of newborns. The story is told through the actions of the scientists and researchers that would be involved in the containment of outbreaks. One of the primary scientists is an archaeologist who sees a link between a mummified family of neanderthals found in a cave in the mountains of Europe and the current "disease". Another is a research biologist who first sees that this may not actually be a disease but rather speciation ... the creation of a new species of human.

The reader can tell that Bear really researches his subject matter and if you are not careful, you can get buried by the minutiae of whatever he is writing about. In this case, evolutionary biology and infectious diseases. The premise is that evolution hasn't necessarily always been a gradual progression. In human history, and in current time in the case of this book, drastic changes have happened in as little as a single generation. It's a radical idea that has been realized in lesser species, but not in humans (as far as we know). That would explain some of those gaps in the fossil record.

Now Bear is not saying that this is really what can happen, and he goes out of his way in the afterward to explain that the biologists that he spoke to say as much. But he fills the story with enough details and plausible science, that the reader doesn't feel it is far-fetched. That suspension of disbelief is generally important for me and why I have always tended towards hard science fiction as opposed to fantasy. Explaining away things as "magic" can be a turn-off for me when reading fiction. Not always, however, as I obviously love Lord of the Rings and greatly enjoyed Harry Potter. But, in general, I like that foundation in science. Perhaps, it's the scientist/engineer educational background in me.

Darwin's Radio explores hot button topics of abortion, internment, the role of women and mothers in society, the government's role in outbreaks, religion and evolution, just to name a few. I like the book's exploration of how many different people (scientists, politicians, citizens) may do things that they feel are right but perhaps for the wrong reasons such as religion, fear, and intellectual pride.

Darwin's Radio won the Nebula and was nominated for the Hugo (sci-fi's most prestigious awards) in 2000. These accolades were well-deserved and I recommend this book. I own the book, but oddly enough, I read it electronically on my wife's Kindle. We've been checking out a lot of books through our local libraries' digital collections and I saw it listed there. Wanted to give her reader a test drive, I downloaded it. I have to say, despite still loving physical books, I thoroughly enjoy reading on the Kindle.

I also have this book's sequel, Darwin's Children, and will certainly read it soon while this one is still fresh in my memory.

Things I like: Science Fiction

For regular readers here, this is no surprise. And I mean that I like science fiction in all its flavors: books, movies, TV, graphic novels. And it doesn't even have to be great science fiction. I've said this before, but I believe that even bad science fiction has merit. This is because even the worst science fiction is trying to make a point or send a message. It may fail miserably, but it's still trying.

Science fiction is allowed to address important social and political issues that traditional genres would not be able to without being considered preachy. Most recently we saw this with Battlestar Galactica, addressing torture, fundamentalism and terrorism, among other things.

My early beginnings in sci-fi were the novels of Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert. As I got a bit older, Larry Niven became probably my favorite hard sci-fi author. It might be cliche, but for a brainy and shy teenager, the escapism of science fiction was one of the few things that brought me solace and joy for those tough years.

In my adult years, I gravitated to the cyberpunk of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. But, I'm still discovering authors that are fantastic, like Greg Bear and Iain M. Banks, and fantasy authors like Philip Pullman and Neil Gaiman.

Obviously, as with all males of my age, one of the most formative experiences of my youth was seeing the original Star Wars movie. In those days, there was no Internet, no DVD's, and VCR's really weren't prevalent yet. Going to a movie theater and seeing something like Star Wars was an indescribable experience. It's so indelible that I remember that it was at a drive-in in Salem, Oregon and we watched it in the back of my folks Jeep.

It was through Star Wars, Blade Runner, the Alien movies and the books of my youth that my interest was cultivated. The 70's and 80's were, however, NOT the heyday of science fiction on television. You had the original Battlestar Galactica (which may prove wrong my theory of all science fiction having merit) and Space 1999, both unintentionally campy and embarrassing. I had no exposure to Doctor Who until I was in college. It's really just been the last 15 years or so that science fiction has come into it's own through things like the X-Files, the Stargate shows, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, the new Doctor Who, and many other shows. Something that was often an afterthought in programming now has a channel dedicated to it (SyFy) and just about every traditional network has at least one program that could be considered science fiction.

I just don't find issues of science, philosophy, consciousness, religion, the environment, war, etc. being addressed in such an entertaining manner as I do in science fiction. I don't read a lot of fiction, but when I do, about 75% of it is science fiction.

Top 5 favorite science fiction/fantasy books, no particular order: Dune, Lord of the Rings, Snow Crash, Neuromancer, Contact

Top 5 favorite science fiction movies, no particular order: 2001, Star Wars, Blade Runner, The Matrix, Children of Men

Next up, tomorrow:  Bluegrass music

Pregnant with knowledge

Again, from Roger Ebert's Journal, on the importance of reading:

"... At the end of the day, some authors will endure and most, including some very good ones, will not. Why do I think reading is important? It is such an effective medium between mind and mind. We think largely in words. A medium made only of words doesn't impose the barrier of any other medium. It is naked and unprotected communication. That's how you get pregnant. May you always be so."

2011 VNSA Used Book Sale

Finds from our yearly trek to the VNSA Used Book Sale:

Sci-Fi

Anathem by Neal Stephenson
The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach
River of Gods by Ian McDonald
Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko
The Forge of God by Greg Bear
Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card
Earthman Come Home by James Blish (1955 1st Ed.)

Science Non-Fiction

"Dragons of Eden", "Cosmic Connection", "Billions and Billions ..." all by Carl Sagan
Black Holes and Baby Universes ... by Stephen Hawking
Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes by Alex Vilenkin
Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem by Simon Singh
The Origin of Humankind by Richard Leakey
Darwin's Dangerous Idea:  Evolution and the Meanings of Life by Daniel Dennett

The Third Chimpazee ... by Jared Diamond

General Non-Fiction

Amazing Grace:  The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation by Jonathan Kozol

May Man Prevail? by Erich Fromm
Selected Papers of Bertrand Russell ... by Bertrand Russell
The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson
The Great Unraveling ... by Paul Krugman

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them" -- Ray Bradbury

We went to the grand opening of the new White Tank Mountain Library/Visitor Center. Very nice. A lot of environmentally friendly features (solar, low flow water, etc.). But, par for the course for Arizonans, there's always someone that is either painfully clueless or blatantly contradictory (or both):

It's a dual-use facility serving both the library and the park itself as a visitor center. We hike at the White Tank Mountains all the time and will make use of the facility just about every time we go out there.

It's always nice to see a lot of people in a library. Gives one hope that there are actually people that read.

Speaking of reading ... I couldn't resist showing the following picture. We dropped into a used bookstore after going out to eat on Saturday and I saw this sign. Insert your own joke as I will sound snarky and disrespectful if I inject mine. But I think you know where I'm going with this (my Christian friends ... and wife ... need to forgive me):

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." -- Mark Twain

The *BIG* Book Meme

Copied from This Week @ the Library….. (by way of CK at Seeking a Little Truth)

1. Favorite childhood book?

Cannot really remember before about age 10. Early teens is when I got heavily into sci-fi (Heinlein, Herbert, Clarke, Asimov). So, probably Dune, but did not read that until I was about 15. I guess that's not really a "childhood book".

2. What are you reading right now?

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Briane Greene and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

3. What books do you have on request at the library?

I'm a book hoarder, not a book borrower. The wife and kid use the library all the time.

4. Bad book habit?

Like CK, it's buying more than I can read.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library

Nada.

6. Do you have an e-reader?

Nope. Have tried out several (Kindle, iPad).

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?

One fiction, one or two non-fiction

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?

Not frequency, but certainly in what I read. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't influenced at least a little bit by what some of my blog friends are reading and recommending.

9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)

Pull Up a Chair by Curt Smith. It's a biography of Vin Scully, who I love. But Smith seemed to be more in love with his own writing than in Scully.

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?

Probably The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?

I'll try a few a year that I wouldn't normally read if someone recommends them.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?

Sci-Fi

13. Can you read on the bus?

Sure, but haven't rode the bus in awhile.

14. Favorite place to read?

Living room near several of my bookcases.

15. What is your policy on book lending?

I have no problem with it as long I know the person and I know they are serious about reading the book they are borrowing.

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?

Definitely not.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?

Duh, no.

18. Even in college textbooks?

I did not, though I certainly had used books that were plenty marked up.

19. What is your favorite language to read in?

English. I wish I knew other languages.

20. What makes you love a book?

Detail and the sense that you are not just part of some formulaic book.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?

If a book inspires me to do something or change something, then I usually feel that it will do the same for someone else.

22. Favorite genre?

Sci-Fi

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)

I used to read a lot more history books, but have gotten out of the habit. I read books that talk about history indirectly, but not specifically.

24. Favorite biography?

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer or Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?

I know these books are helpful to some people and would not want to minimize that. But, I can't ever imagine reading one. If you are motivated enough to buy one, then you probably don't need it in the first place.

26. Favorite cookbook?

A couple of vegetarian ones I picked up.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?

Oddly, Collapse by Jared Diamond

28. Favorite reading snack?

Trail mix.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.

Can't remember any.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?

I generally don't read book reviews. The exception is those by my blog friends. And I generally agree with them.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?

If you are willing to recommend a book, then you should be willing to criticize another.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?

Right now, Swedish. It would be cool to read ... Dragon Tattoo in its native language.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?

I hope I'm a little intimidated by most books. I need the challenge.

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?

Believe it or not, I've never read On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. I just expect it to be a little dated and too detailed to be enjoyable.

35. Favorite Poet?

I never really read poetry.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?

When I was checking out books, probably just 1 at a time.

37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?

A few.

38. Favorite fictional character?

Aragorn in Lord of the Rings

39. Favorite fictional villain?

I like books where the villain is really internal. The main character is fighting against his/her own demons.

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?

I don't think I really read anything different than I normally would.

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.

Probably about 6 months in college.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.

The previously mentioned Vin Scully biography.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?

TV.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?

Probably the Golden Compass. I didn't out-and-out hate it, and I liked the casting. But there was way too much of characters explaining the story.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?

I think $70 or $80.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?

Non-fiction to get an idea of the scope of the book. Never with fiction.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?

I usually feel compelled to read books I've started. But if I know I'm really not going to like it, I'll stop in the first chapter. I won't wait till I'm halfway through it.

49. How do you keep your books organized?

Sections by subject and alphabetically within them. But, of course, I buy so many that at any one time, there are a bunch of random books sitting around the house.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?

I keep 'em.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?

I'm pretty sure I'll never read a romance novel.

52. Name a book that made you angry.

I can't think of one off the top of my head.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?

The Language Instinct by Stephen Pinker

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?

Sci-Fi

Stupidity Sells

I was at Costco today and was perusing the books and came upon the political section. These were the books I saw ... the only political books I saw:

• ** An Obama hatchet-job book by Michelle Malkin, Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies. 
• ** Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto by Dick Armey, who, unintentionally, has the most appropriate name ever for the movement he represents. 
• ** Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin. There's no joke that hasn't already been said about Palin. 
•  ** And last, and certainly least, a novel by Glenn Beck, The Overton Window. Considering everything that Beck has ever said or written is fiction, this is not exactly a stretch.

No books by liberal or even moderate authors to be found. Is this a switch to the dark side by the traditionally progressive company? Probably not. More likely an admission that the Right is more likely to shell out $ for blatantly biased writing. It's why conservative talk radio and FOX News make money. For all the talk about "freedom" and "independence", Republicans don't want to form their own opinion. They want to be told what to think. They don't want an exchange of ideas. They want a chorus of sycophants.

So-called "liberal" authors have never sold a lot of books because most liberals don't want an echo-chamber. The few that have done moderately well did so because they were also humorists (Al Franken and Molly Ivins). But we've lost both of them in one way or another ... Franken, thankfully, to the Senate, and Ivins, unfortunately, passed away a few years ago.

Most liberals are far more likely to read scholarly works analyzing society in general (Jared Diamond, Malcolm Gladwell, Thomas Friedman, etc.) than anything partisan. This makes for better rounded people, but it doesn't necessarily help Costco sell more books. So, I guess it doesn't bother me that they sell the books. They are certainly not changing anyone's mind with them. In Arizona, if agreeing philosophically with one's customers was a prerequisite for a transaction, then I would be out of business.

"SYCOPHANT, n. One who approaches Greatness on his belly so that he may not be commanded to turn and be kicked. He is sometimes an editor." -- Ambrose Bierce (American Writer, Journalist)

A(nother) Book Meme

Inspired by CK at Seeking a Little Truth, my take on this book meme:

Do you snack while reading?

Unfortunately, I snack when doing just about anything.

What is your favourite drink while reading?

Diet Mt. Dew

Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

Not in a million years. The fact that I have a hard time even getting rid of a book would indicate that I would not dream of defacing one.

How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat?

Usually bookmarks, but a ticket will do also. My main book that I am reading always has my gym pass in it, as I take it every time I go to the gym to read while on the stationary bike.

Fiction, non-fiction or both?

Both, usually at the same time. Reading two non-fiction books or one non-fiction and one fiction are fine. But reading two fiction books at once screws me up on characters a little bit.

Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere?

I prefer stopping at a break indicated by the author, which may be the end of the chapter or just some other break within a chapter.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?

Nope. As they say, the opposite of love is not hate ... it is apathy. If I disagree with the author, I'm more likely to just stop reading the book.

What are you currently reading?

Best Seat in the House: A Basketball Memoir -- Spike Lee
Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology -- Eric Brende
I Am Legend -- Richard Matheson

What is the last book you bought?

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal -- Eric Schlosser

Do you have a favourite time/place to read?

Saturday and Sunday mornings on the couch near where most of my bookcases are.

Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?

Probably stand-alones, but some of my favorite books have been part of series (Dune, LOTR)

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?

The book I've recommended the most in the last couple of years would be The World Without Us by Alan Weisman.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?

Definitely. I have a dictionary.com app on my Blackberry that I use all the time.

How do you organize your books (by genre, title, author's last name, etc.)?

Yes (all of the above). I try to split them up by genre and within each genre, they are ordered by author and title.

Background noise or silence?

Generally silence but can read with something mellow.

Book Review -- The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks

I just finished reading The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks this weekend. Cyberkitten read and reviewed the book several years ago. It's a great review and I agree with everything in it. This is truly an epic book and does a good job with characterization and bringing disparate cultures and species together in a believable story. Rather than try to improve on CK's review (which would be futile), I just want to list a couple of my favorite passages:

"The Truth went a stage further, holding that this was difference that could be made to make a difference. What was necessary was for people truly to believe in their hearts, in their souls, in their minds, that they really were in a vast simulation. They had to reflect upon this, to keep it at the forefront of their thoughts at all times and they had to gather together on occasion, with all due ceremony and solemnity, to express this belief. And they must evangelise, they must convert everybody they possibly could to this view, because - and this was the whole point - once a sufficient proportion of people within the simulation came to acknowledge that it was a simulation, the value of the simulation to those who had set it up would disappear and the whole thing would collapse.

If they were all part of some vast experiment, then the fact that those on whom the experiment was being conducted had guessed the truth would mean that its value would be lost. If they were some plaything, then again, that they had guessed this meant they ought to be acknowledged, even - perhaps - rewarded. If they were being tested in some way, then this was the test being passed, this was a positive result, again possibly deserving a reward. If they had been undergoing punishment for some transgression in the greater world, then this ought to constitute cause for rehabilitation.

It was not possible to know what proportion of the simulated population would be required to bring things to a halt (it might be fifty percent, it might be rather smaller or greater), but as long as the numbers of the enlightened kept increasing, the universe would be constantly coming closer to the epiphany, and the revelation could come at any point.

The Truth claimed with some degree of justification to be the ultimate religion, the final faith, the last of all churches...

...It could also claim a degree of universality that the others could not. All other major religions were either specific to their originating species, could be traced back to a single species - often a single subset of that species - or were consciously developed amalgams, syntheses, of a group of sufficiently similar religions of disparate origin..."

The "Truth" is the prevalent religion in the galaxy. Of course, any description of this religion that may seem similar to Christianity is purely coincidental (right). What I like about this book specifically and the sci-fi/fantasy genre, in general, is that you may seem like you are talking about one thing, but you are really talking about something else altogether. The cloak of science fiction gives one license to explore controversial subjects stealth-like. We've certainly seen that in things like His Dark Materials (The Church, free will) by Phillip Pullman and in Battlestar Galactica (fundamentalism, war on terror, torture, etc.).

The above passage and the following one also show that Banks is well-versed in philosophy. In this case, Bostrum's simulation thesis.

" ... Any theory which causes solipsism to seem just a likely an explanation for the phenomena it seeks to describe ought to be held in the utmost suspicion."

The Algebraist is also just a darn entertaining book that doesn't assume that you take any more out of it than that. But if you want the added meaning, you don't have to dig very far. You will not find much better fiction that explores the importance of rationality so well.

My finds from the 2010 VNSA Used Book Sale

Great finds again at this year's sale:

Sci-Fi

Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling
Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan
Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams

Science Non-Fiction

The four following authors spoke at the Origins Symposium I attended last year (3 of which I saw):
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
Hiding in the Mirror by Lawrence m. Krauss (the head of the Origins Iniative at ASU and author of several 'Physics of ...' books)
Present at the Future by Ira Flatow (host of Science Friday on NPR
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene

-----------------------

Science Friction by Michael Shermer

Why Does E=mc2? by Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw (Cox was on Colbert recently discussing this book

Political

Truth and Consequences by Keith Olbermann
Hot, Flat & Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman
Straight Talk from the Heartland by Ed Schultz
The Politics of Truth by Joseph Wilson (Valerie Plame's husband)

Adventure/Climbing

I'm a nut for books about mountain climbing:

The Hill by Ed Hommer
Touching My Father's Soul by Jamling Tenzing Norgay
No Shorcuts to the Top by Ed Viesturs

"Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Blink

I just finished a really good book by Malcolm Gladwell, Blink, about how, frequently, our first impressions are the best ones. This is a very readable book, not too long and not overloaded with statistics.  In other words, it doesn't read like a college dissertation.  Gladwell also wrote The Tipping Point, a book which I haven't read yet but would like to.

Gladwell cites several studies of different types which predicted outcomes based on very limited information.  For example, one experiment studied married couples discussing a seemingly innocuous subject unrelated to their marriage.  Based on facial characteristics and subtle reactions, the the leaders of the experiment were able to make remarkable predictions on the suitability of the couples (and on whether they would be married years in the future).  They were able to do this with only a 15 minute tape of the couples talking.  If a layman watched the couples talking, they seemed jovial and compatible.  But the experimenters had a checklist of very specific characteristics that they were looking for and that constituted a scorecard of sorts.

Most everyone is an expert in something.  When you are faced with a situation in your particular field of expertise, you usually can make a highly accurate appraisal almost instantaneously based on what would appear to be very little information.  But because of vast experience, you are making unconscious judgments that go into that appraisal.  That intuition is, in many cases, uncannily accurate.  And if you go on to analyze the situation too much, it muddies the situation and your appraisal becomes increasingly inaccurate.  "Thinking on it" doesn't necessarily help.

"We live in a world saturated with information. We have virtually unlimited amounts of data at our fingertips at all times, and we’re well versed in the arguments about the dangers of not knowing enough and not doing our homework. But what I have sensed is an enormous frustration with the unexpected costs of knowing too much, of being inundated with information. We have come to confuse information with understanding."

“The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.”

First impressions are not always the most accurate.  Counter-intuitively, going with your gut on big decisions (career, spouse) is the right choice, but making hasty choices with small things (like where to eat) is not. 

Gladwell is humorous and has a wide range of anecdotes to illustrate his points.  Overall, a very enjoyable read and one that will make you think about how you make decisions.