BOOKS: Recommendations

John K Clark (johnkc@well.com)
Tue, 29 Apr 1997 22:22:10 -0700 (PDT)


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On Wed, 30 Apr 1997 patrickw@cs.monash.edu.au (Patrick Wilken) Wrote:

>Are there any good books that cover current work in genetics?

Try "The Human Blueprint" by Robert Shapiro, the book is ancient, almost
5 years old, but very good. I presume you've already read "The Selfish Gene"
by Richard Dawkins, if not, shame on you. I just bought Dawkins new book
"Climbing Mount Improbable" today, if it's no good it will be the first bad
book he ever wrote.

>I saw Ed Regis's book Nanotechnology in the window the other day.
>Any opinions on that?

Yes, I thought it was excellent. If you know nothing about Nanotechnology
this is the place to start, by the way it's called "Nano".

"Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman" by Richard Feynman is the perfect book to
read on an airplane, it's both funny and profound and about one of the most
brilliant men of the century.

A lot of people hate "The Physics of Immortality" by Frank Tipler, but not me,
I thought it well worth reading.

The best science fiction novel I've read in years is "The Silicon Man" by
Charles Platt.

If I was stranded on a desert island and could only have 10 books
"Godel Escher Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter would certainly be one of them,
as would "The Tao Is Silent" by Raymond Smullyan. Smullyan is a mystic and
I don't agree with everything he says, but it's an absolutely wonderful and
brilliant book. Before I read Smullyan I thought that all mystics were fools,
now I know that is not true, only most of them.

John K Clark johnkc@well.com

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