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a record of books I read.
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Sept_2005.html
Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin (1996)
Began: September 24? | Finished:
[11/30] This is a re-read, but I didn't get very far before letting myself get distracted. This one requires some concentration and attention - there are a lot of characters involved in a rather convoluted story. I will pick it up again. Some day soon.
Walden - Henry David Thoreau (1854)
Began: September 24? | Finished:
[11/30] I am so behind on my book diary. I started Walden at some point in September, but I didn't get very far. I kept taking issue with some things he said. Someone suggested that I'm reacting defensively, because I feel like Thoreau is handing down a negative judgement on those who don't live as he did at Walden. I think that's probably a valid point, and I also think this someone has a point when he says that Thoreau means no such thing. I decided to put it down for a while and let things percolate in my brain for a while. I'm about ready to pick it up again.
Persuasion - Jane Austen (1816)
Began: September 20 | Finished: September 21
[9/27] I hadn't read this one before, so I picked it up for 50 cents when I saw it at the library sale. I quite enjoyed it; I'll be looking for a nicer copy to buy. The one I have right now is a cheap Pocket Classic.
The tension throughout the book was similar to parts of Pride and Prejudice. Anne is a bit on the nice and quiet side (so unlike Elizabeth) but with enough passion to be likable.
Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity - David Bodanis (2005)
Began: September 12? | Finished: October 3?
[9/27] My next non-fiction book, primarily for my morning bus commute. I like to find a book that's good enough to hold my interest but not so interesting that I can't put it down when I get to work. Non-fiction seems to work well for that.
Doesn't include too much hard-core scientific detail, but provides references to back everything up.
First up was the telegraph and the telephone. Morse was a nut. I've already forgotten the name of the guy who invented the telegraph. Henry? I always thought it worked through some mechanical force, but it's magnetic force that draws the clicker down. Bell was able to figure out how to make a telephone work because of his experience working with deaf people, learning how sounds are made by vibrations, the larynx, and the shape of the mouth/teeth/tongue.
Let's see if I can remember the rest -- next came radio waves, I think. The existence of invisible forces, that you can vibrate to send waves, was originally thought up by Faraday, but no one believed him. A guy named Hertz discovered radio waves (called Hertzian waves for a while)
So once they figured out radio waves, they figured out how to use radar to detect enemy ships during World War II. Others had theorized the uses of radar previously, but again, no one believed them (or at least, no one gave them any money to develop the idea).
Bodanis includes an account of the horrific consequences of discovery and use of radar. The British captured a German radar device and found that their radars were very difficult to re-calibrate or adjust. This led them to use chaff -- long strips of aluminum -- during an air raid on Hamburg (I believe it was) to render the German defenses completely useless. The chaff confused the radar, so the German spotlights, anti-aircraft guns, and fighter planes couldn't locate the Allied planes at all.
There was a nasty guy in charge, Harris, who figured the best way to destroy the efficiency of German factories was to kill all the workers. So the British planes dropped all their bombs on the closely-packed workers' homes (which were filled more with old women and children than workers). The bombs not only destroyed buildings, the heat from them also set off a firestorm in the city. Asphalt melted on the streets; people got stuck on the asphalt and cooked there. Disturbing.
Moving on. Next up after radar was computers. Bodanis has a nice long section on Turing and his ideas, though Turing unfortunately never lived to see a computer built. The big discovery that allowed computers to be built was silicon - a transistor (a new term for a substance that sometimes acts as a conductor and sometimes acts as a insulator) that provides an atom-level switch to turn current on and off, with none of the mechanical parts/movement that required all previous machines to be so big.
The last section (I'm pretty sure it's the last), which I'm currently reading, is on electricity in the brain. I didn't know nerves are hollow. Well, maybe I knew once, but I'd forgotten. Electricity can exist in liquid (in the body) through ions like sodium and potassium, which provide the charge to keep messages speeding along through the nervous system. Cool stuff.
Oh, I also found out where the term "electronics" came from. Ok, I suppose it's obvious, but I'd never thought about it before. Electronics is when you're messing with electrons. Doh.
[11/30] There's a note in my record book dated October 3, stating that I finally finished Electric Universe. This was a good one; it's going on the shelf.
Crazy for You - Jennifer Crusie (2000)
Began: September 18 | Finished: September 18
[9/27] I took this on a business trip for the plane ride, but I've read it so many times it barely lasted the flight. Something to remember in the future. This is probably my second favorite Jennifer Crusie.
Manhunting - Jennifer Crusie (2000 reissue; 1993 original publish date)
Began: September 7? | Finished: September 9?
[9/27] A re-read, for the nth time. Still fun. This may be my favorite Jennifer Crusie novel. Though that's a really tough choice to make.
Dixieland Sushi - Cara Lockwood (2005)
Began: September 1 | Finished: September 1
[9/5] A friend loaned this to me for plane-reading on a business trip. Great choice. A light read, finished in a few hours, likable characters, and a fun story. The ending, while happy, was a little weak, but the book was still worth the time.
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