I'm reading My Life So Far (Frankie Boyle)

There's not much science in it so far, but it has touched on the media on occassion

It's good to see this thread back again, even if my most recent read has been very much a re-read ...

Fermat's last theorem by Simon Singh

For a book which is, essentially, a history of mathematics to become a number one best-seller says a lot about the skill of the author, but that's what Singh managed when Fermat's Last Theorem was published in the late 90s.

The story, in brief, is that Fermat - a 17th century amateur (but very gifted) mathematician - was playing with variations on Pythagorean triples which say that X^2 + Y^2 = Z^2 and for which it can be proven that there are an infinite number of whole number solutions (X=3, Y=4 and Z=5 being the first). However when the equation is moved from square numbers to cubed or larger numbers there don't appear to be any solutions at all, i.e. X^n + Y^n = Z^n has no whole number solutions for values of n > 2.

Although mathematicians could not find any whole numbers to fit this equation they also could not prove that, in the infinity of numbers, no such solution existed. Fermat infuriated generations of mathematicians by writing, in the margin of a book containing the equation, "I have a truly marvellous proof for this, which unfortunately this margin is too small to contain". His proof seems never to have been written down or discussed with anybody else and so the problem haunted mathematicians from the discovery of Fermat's note, after his death.

Singh opens the book with the lecture at Cambridge in 1993 where British mathematician Andrew Wiles first announced his proof of the theorem, but then moves back in time to Pythagoras and the origins of mathematics as a scientific discipline rather than just an accountancy or problem-solving tool. He then takes us through the history of maths right up to Wiles' remarkable proof.

This could easily have been the dullest, driest book in the world, but every chapter of it sparkles. Although most people (well, me, anyway) will have lost track of the mathematics by the time Fermat himself enters the scene Singh does a remarkable job of making the esoteric world of number theory understandable and manages to explain underlying concepts of the maths without ever sounding like a textbook.

It's only really the closing chapters of the book, which cover the discovery of a gap in Wiles' proof and his work to fix the problem (which he did by 1996) which really are too abstract to work well with this treatment. Overall this is a stunning book - it is a history of 3,000 years of maths and the brilliant, often tragic, figures who transformed it, it's the story of one person's obsession with solving a problem and it's the story of the problem itself, which hung over maths like a cloud for 350 years. I really can't recommend it highly enough.

On a similar vein, I recently read Longitude by Dava Sobel, which is about the search for a reliable method for sailors to establish longitude when out of sight of land. It really is amazing to think how much calamity was caused by not being able to accurately determine longitude.

This is another scientific best seller, in this case with partial thanks to Del Boy Trotter, as it rotates around (see what I did there?) John Harrison's lifelong quest to get the Board of Longitude to accept his Sea Clocks, against the most entrenched opposition.

This could also have been the dullest book in the world. It isn't. Its very informative, and similarly to the above, written in a really engaging way, which keeps you coming back.

Agree with the sentiments of both posts. There's also a book Simon Singh wrote about code breaking - the title escapes me - but also well worth noting.

Though you may not be aware that Singh is in deep at the moment - he's being sued under the Byzantine and unfair UK libel laws.

Harrison's grave can be found approximately in the centre of this image, at St John's in Hampstead. linky

I read and enjoyed Longitude a few years ago, but I fear that Fermat may be beyond me.

I'm currently reading A case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif and it's shaping up well. It's a fictional account of the events leading up to the death of Pakistani dictator General Zia Ul Haq, featuring conspiracy amid the Pakistani armed forces and a comically surreal and witty style. Unfortunately, I only have time to read when I take my infrequent trips to France to see my kids, so everything takes a fair while to get through.

Before this I read Salaam Brick Lane by Tarquin Hall - an interesting history of the immigrant communities that have populated this area of London for centuries, beginning with the Huguenots from France, through the East-European Jewish settlers to the modern day Bangladeshis now being replaced by Afghans and (mainly) Somalis. Colourful goes without saying, but as the book is told from the perspective of a white, middle class "native" Englishman who finds himself - reluctantly at first - living on Brick Lane, it also has some more down-to-earth realities.

When I finish my current read, I have the new Iaiaiaiaian Banks awaiting, Transition, which I hope is better than his last...

Isn't it Simon Singh that is being sued about his comments on alternative medicine? I think he's a friend of Tim Minchin (if it's him).

It's called The Code Book and is, indeed, an excellent read, although some of the later chapters on quantum cryptography have to be read very carefully if you're to understand their significance.



I didn't know this, but I've just read up on it quickly. Alternative medicine, and the prestigious support it enjoys in this country, is really starting to pee me off, I tell you.

Anyway, back on topic. I have just finished Shakespeare by Bill Bryson - a biography that goes to great pains to tell us how hard it is to write a biography of Shakespeare, because we know next to nothing about him. We don't know excatly when he was born, we can't definitely place him except on a few dates in his life, we don't know what order he wrote his works in, we know nothing of his sexuality and we have only 14 words written in his own handwriting - 8 of them on one document, his will.

So what Bryson presents is as much as we do know, a background to late Elizabethan/early Jacobian life and some details of the wild surmises that other biographers, historical and more contemporary, have jumped to. He does all of this with his usual light touch, making this fairly slim volume an easy work to romp through at a fair old pace (I read most of it in a hospital bed, yesterday, while awaiting the doctor with the 2 half-bricks). As is usual for Bryson he adds colour with potted biographies of some of Shakespeare's contemporaries and later researchers, which means that this book isn't wall-to-wall bard.

In all it's a great book, which many will not read because they are put off by the subject - most of us having Shakespeare forced upon us at school - but it's worth persevering past the title page, even if you have only the most casual of interest.

As Tim Minchin says: "You know what they call 'alternative medicine' that’s been proved to work?
Medicine."

Apropos of which, Monday's Beyond Belief is no doubt still available on iPlayer. I couldn't make my mind up whether to laugh or cry as three loons discussed the relative efficacy of various alternate quackeries.

Tim Minchin: If you open your mind too much, your brain will fall out.

Sort of related, I recently read The Last Theorem by Arthur C Clarke

Last two books read are: My Booky Wook by Russel Brand... not as side splittingly funny as we are lead to believe. In fact I saw it as the self justified trail of destruction left by a very disturbed individual.

Monstrous Regiment by Pterry Pratchett. What can I say... ptypically Pterry It's about a girl who dresses as a boy and enlists in the army to find her brother. Set in a land where the God (Nuggan) is very fond of declaring abominations, the latest ones being rocks and accordian players. The army of Borogrovia is constantly at war with everyone, but is running out of soldiers, money and food, but refuses to stop.

Currently reading the I Ching... just a little light reading after the recent heavy stuff

Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys by Neil Oliver.
I first heard about this book while the author was being interviewed on BBC2 a year ago. For one reason or another I have put off reading it until now.
This book chronicles the greatest Hero stories in history, from Charge of the light brigade to Apollo 11 and 13, The siege of Constantinople, and many others. The authors genuine empathy and humanity comes across in this book and the narration is filled with incidental anecdotes that add a truly legendary flavour to the stories told. Some of the tales I am very familiar with (shackleton's expedition via Georgia) some, I read about for the first time (the devils of camerone..wow). Each one told with colour and feeling. I would rate this book 8.5 out of ten and recommend all growing boys from 8 to 80 to read this book, if it was not for the one issue that had me groaning throughout.

The problem..

It is clear that all of us are susceptible to a little National pride now and again, I am Welsh and so I know what it means to have nationalistic pride (even when its not justified sometimes..(OK. most of the time)). This author (Scottish) takes this to a whole new level. I had to check the inside cover more than once to make sure the publisher was not the Scottish national party or some such organisation. What I am talking about here is a ridiculous need by the author to include the names of Scots who were linked to one of the stories (however tenuous the link). Obviously some Scots deserve special mention in some of the stories Collingwood for starters. ( I always thought he had a bad deal in the shadow of nelson during Trafalgar). It gets so bad that if you look at the black and white photos in the centre section of the book, you will find a picture of captain Scott. Underneath this photo are the words.."The greatest hero of them all). I honestly believe that the reason the author believes this, has more to do with the explorers name than anything he did. If you think that ridiculous, so would I, until I read this book.
This book could have been great, really great, damn you Neil Oliver.

I actually struggled through this book in the end, something a reader should never have to do.
so its a 4 out of 10 from me. I had such high hopes for this book.

Gareth

Finally got around to reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Epic book. Am emotionally drained. 10/10.

Try 'The Complaints', I can see that turning into a series, I wouldn't be surprised if Rebus makes a cameo either.

A cult (yes, cult) book for the thread now ... The Beach by Alex Garland.

On his first night on the tourist trail in Thailand English backpacker Richard is kept awake by the Scottish guy in the next room ranting about a beach. The next day the Scot, who gave his name as Daffy Duck, has slit his wrists, but not before he's passed to Richard a beautifully drawn map showing the location of the beach he obsessed about.

Richard, accompanied by a French couple he meets - Etienne and Francoise - set off in search of the mythical location, hidden on an island in a Thai nature reserve where tourists are forbidden. What they find is an idyllic tropical paradise which is the home to 30 or so travellers of all nationalities who have isolated themselves from the world.

Life for the 3 newcomers becomes beautiful, as they settle in to the routine of fishing, swimming and forgetting about their previous lives. Naturally not all is well. The beach commune shares the island with a Thai drug-lord and his cannabis fields, with a seemingly unspoken agreement between the two groups to ignore each other. The greater threat, however, is the insanity that comes with isolation and which starts to make itself felt in the lengths that the beach-dwellers will go to in order to keep their paradise secret and prevent the disintegration of the community.

Because the story is told in the first person from Richard's perspective it's easy to follow him through his journey without realising just how far insane he has gone, in spite of his dreams about Daffy Duck becoming full-blown hallucinations, but his new life starts to blend in to his video-game obsession and fascination with the Vietnam war, leading to a shattering conclusion.

Garland builds the story magnificently, keeping you turning the pages and saving the darkest sides of island life until right at the end, when you're finally allowed to see how far from sanity and morality the group have strayed.

By any criteria this is a great book, a meandering story that pulses with foreboding about events to come, populated with well drawn characters and with something to say about the price of paradise.

And - you won't be surprised to hear - the book beats the crap out of the film. Although you'll be hard pushed to find a better soundtrack of its time.

Try The Tessaract next if you enjoyed that.

I've read The Tessaract - it was ambitious, but flawed.

I have just read A few kind words and a loaded gun by Noel 'Razor' Smith

Razor is a habitual criminal and this is his story, at the point of writing he was 42 years of age and had spent more than half his life behind bars. It starts from his birth, his troubled childhood, his life in and out of young offender institues, prisons and the outside world.

Its a fantastic read, its gritty and doesn't hold back. All in all Razor is not a nice person, but he knows that. The part of his life in prison are excellent reading and certainly paints a different picture to what the Daily Mail would have you believe!

What made it great for me, was the area Razor was brought up in, is not far from me, South London. Many of the pubs he mentions are pubs I drunk in as a teenager, I always thought they were rough places, I just never knew ot what extent!

So if you like true life stories, don't hesitate to read this.

PS. I read it one day, just couldn't put it down!

You've got my address, send it on

My brother has pinched it already, but when he returns it, its yours

Cheers Jim

Has it really been 4 months since anybody on here read a book worth talking about? Oh well, I'll add my thoughts on ...

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

This is a much acclaimed science fiction book, which is probably what persuaded me to read it, despite my general lack of fondness for SF.

The story starts on Earth, about 70 years after mankind's 2nd war with the insectiod alien race known as 'the buggers'. Mankind would have been destroyed in 2nd war without the tactical genius of Mazer Rackham, so an uneasy political treaty maintains the International Force which selects promising children to train to be the future saviours of mankind.

Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin is selected, at the age of 6, to leave his family and enter the elite off-world Battle School and the story tells of his emerging tactical genius and how he is manipulated by the adults around him, hoping to mould him. Ender's childhood is sold to buy a future for humanity, as he is deliberately isolated, made to repeatedly face unfair odds, trained to exhaustion and pushed almost to the point of insanity. However, it's not until the novel's climax that Ender realises just how deep the lies go and sees what he has become.

This isn't a bad book, but for me it seemed to lack any real depth and it pushes of suspension of belief to breaking point to accept that the words and actions described come from children under the age of 12. That said, it kept me turning the pages and the revelations at the end of the story are enough to make me want to read the sequel, Speaker for the dead.

Given that apparently <ahem> you can easily find a pdf of the full novel on the net it's worth Googling and having a read.

Good review there Andrew. I read this book many years ago and it was a great book for someone just getting to grips with Sci-Fi for the first time.
Other Orson S Card books have left me a little cold, although Speaker for the Dead is one of his better ones IIRC.

I finished A Case of Exploding Mangoes as above and it was pretty good. One of those "heading for an already inevitable ending" books, which leads me neatly on to Transition, the latest by Iain Banks. Although not an Iain M. Banks, this is him doing that sci-fi masquerading as normal fiction thing, and I think he does it well. The story is told from the perspective of a number of protagonists whose future relationship becomes gradually clearer. The title is derived from the discovery that there is an almost infinite number of parallel worlds and that certain people can slip or transition in between them. As ever, there is a shady power that seeks to control this, in this instance the Concern. Although it's not the most imaginative of Banks' books, I enjoyed it as a readable romp, unlike the stodgy and frankly dull Steep Approach to Garbadale. If you can't be bothered to read it, it's available as a free podcast on Amazon. Which is nice!

I'm now reading the first of Stieg Larsson's ubiquitous Millennium Trilogy - The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. It's a very slow starter for a thriller, and seems rather stilted in a stiff, Scandinavian way. I have a sense that it's been translated, but that may just be my professional radar working overtime. Now that I'm 300 pages into it, I'm enjoying it and may seek the second book when I've finished. I'll let you know...

Well, following on from Ender's Game last week, this week I have mainly been reading ...

Speaker for the dead by Orson Scott Card

Three thousand years have passed since the end of the bugger wars and, in that time, mankind has spread out to colonize a hundred worlds amongst the stars. Ender is remembered as the worst human who ever lived, for his part in the genocide (or xenocide) of the buggers, but under his pseudonym - the speaker for the dead - which he used to write the history of the bugger race he is remembered as one of the greatest humans, the founder of a vast humanist religion.

On all of the inhabited star systems only one has been found to hold other intelligent life - Lusitania, a remote world colonized by Portuguese-speaking Brazilian Catholics. They share their world with the 'piggies', a primitive tribal race that are observed under strict controls, to prevent human contamination of their society.

When the piggies brutally murder one of the scientists who had befriended them his adoptive daughter sends out for a speaker to speak of his life.

Ender has spent much of the time since the bugger wars travelling between worlds at near light speed, so from his personal perspective only quarter of a century has passed. He is also carrying with him the last remaining queen of the buggers, looking for a planet where he can leave her to rebuild bugger society. He answers the call for a speaker and, after nearly 30 years of space travel, arrives to find himself in the middle of a delicate situation, where Catholicism, alien culture, deep rooted secrets and human fear are clashing.

As with Ender's Game this book felt very lightweight to me and I couldn't shake off the impression that I was reading a children's book. There are elements that I quite like; mankind's lack of understanding in a lot of the technology they have, the alien culture of the piggies and the 'realistic' treatment of near light-speed travel, but the novel from Ender's arrival on Lusitania reads like one extended deus ex machina ending, devoid of any real conflict.

Anyway, if I've decided not to read any more in the series, so I'm off to find something completely new to try. Something a bit more grown-up, hopefully.

I am currently reading

Fire by Kristin Kashore

This is the 2nd book of the 7 Kingdoms Trilogy (the 1st being Graceling which i have also read).

She is the last of her kind...

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her.

It's pretty light reading and can be read with little effort put in but it does completely capture you with the way the world has been shaped by the author.

If i am honest i am about 3 quarters through and i still believe Graceling was the much better book but both are worth a read.

Iceberg by Clive Cussler:

Major Dirk Pitt finds a boat that was never lost, visits Disney Land, saves the world and turns down the chance of sex with a post op transexual. All fuelled by copious amounts of alchol and cigarettes.

A ripping yarn indeed.

Remember to Tune in next time when I review 'The Last Testament' by Sam Bourne

Okay a variety to choose from, for various tastes - random bookshelf pickings.

I do enjoy (although that is probably the wrong word) accounts of miscarriages of justice. Very influenced by the old Rough Justice series (and I recommend anyone who does not know about the Stefan Kiszko case should do!) They obviously always try to do things one step better in the US, so ended up reading a non-fiction John Grisham, An Innocent Man. Worth reading and, I suspect the only time the author is going to be mentioned in this thread!

Hanif Kureshi - The Body and other collected stories. You know what, some people swoon at his writing, and it is well written, but it wasn't doing anything for me. The Body is an interesting conceit though. All started feeling a bit self-indulgent towards the end.

Dice Man - Luke Rheinhart (George Cockcroft). A seminal work, that I probably would have enjoyed more had I got round to reading it when I was younger. As it is it felt like a big adult book for the Nuts generation. Unpleasant. For the first time ever I binned a book rather than allow someone else to read it.

A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick. Pick of this bunch. Very interesting literary devices (that were new to me anyway). Not a great deal of action - relying more on its language, but a tale told well and beautifully paced and written. Interesting because I didn't want to like this one, but I wanted to like Mr Kureshi. I have no doubt it is the sort of book that Oprah and Richard and Judy will have recommended and I feel terribly dirty.

In my desperation for reading material I even picked up the wife's Chris Ryan - can't remember what it was called, but the hero was called something like Dirk Slazenger or Rock Steel. Good gravy! Even worse that I dared to anticipate. The plot holes actually made it wryly amusing, but ultimately frustrating. Don't, just don't. If you like those sort of books can I suggest you will like Lee Childs' series about Reacher. Still popcorn, but much much better written popcorn.

Finally, ought to mention Mongol Rally - 3 weeks in the unknown, by FCCUK's own John Irving. It's not going to win the Booker prize - it is his first person jottings of his journey and reads exactly how it is, but sharing his passion for travelling and adventure I have thoroughly enjoyed his wing and a prayer account.

I read Dice Man a few years ago and found it pretty disappointing. I would say it's simply a book whose time has past. The mood it tried to capture is gone.

And what I eneded up with was Cat's cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, a book I've had hanging around on my shelf for a while, waiting to be read.

Up until a few years ago (when I read The sirens of Titan) all I would have been able to tell you about Vonnegut was that he was a science-fiction writer. It's certainly true that his books sometimes involve time-travel, or spaceships or advanced technology, but the focus of his books is always humanity and I've never read another author who is willing to take such a dark and subversive look at life.

Cat's Cradle is narrated in the first-person by an author, looking to write a book about what various people were doing on the day that the first atomic bomb was dropped. As part of his research he contacts the children of the late Nobel-laureate, Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the fathers of the bomb. This drags him into the strange lives of the three children, the desperately poor Caribbean island of San Lorenzo, it's strange religion, Bokononism, and Dr Hoenikker's last gift to mankind - Ice nine, a crystal which makes water ice at room temperature ... all water.

This book sparkles all of the way through. From the sheer genius of Bokononism (the only religion to openly acknowledge that all of its great truths are lies), to the use of the Cat's Cradle as a metaphor, the utterly banal conversations that people have about huge topics and the the fun that is poked at nationalism, the relationship between government and religion and the arms race.

I really think that this is my favourite Vonnegut book so far, which is saying something, and I'd highly recommend it.