Over the weekend Janet and I drove down to Massachusetts to see her mom for Mother's Day, which meant that we ended up stopping at the Northshire Bookstore not once, but twice. And so, nine books later, and that was just my haul, Janet's was slightly larger (clearly, we have a problem). To be fair, the return trip on Sunday was entirely my idea, with my only excuse being that the bookstore had a 20% off sale for members. Of course, I will regret all of this when we're in the process of moving overseas and I need to store or rehouse or give away hundreds of books (but that's another post).
One of the books I picked up was Benjamin Labatut's When We Cease to Understand the World, which was absolutely wonderful. I bought it Saturday early afternoon, and even considering travel and plans for most of Saturday evening and Sunday, I still finished it last night. It's mainly straight history, but at times slides into a novelistic retelling of the history. It tells several related stories of scientists and mathematicians and their roles in revolutionary changes, but also what lunatics they often were - so, come for the math and science and stay for the sex, drugs, and religious visions - or come for the sex, drugs, and religious visions and stay for the math and science. Either way, this is highly recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment