more on the reading list...

my brain is going to explode.

i realized about halfway through high school that sitting around and thinking hard all day really can be physically exhausting. the frequency of such days increases the further i get along in school.

this semester when i'm not teaching, all i'm doing is my thesis research which involves either (a) reading really hard and recent research papers by other people, or (b) trying to prove things no one else has proved before to generate my own really hard and recent research papers.

having spent the whole day today (1) planning the seminar i have to give next wednesday followed by (2) doing (a) above for 5 hours, my brain is tired.

if this is what this semester will be like (albeit i like the freedom to work at parks and miscellaneous bookstores as much as possible), i think the need for more fiction/non-math books when my brain gets tired is increasingly necessary too.

lara in a bookstore is like surrounding someone with no willpower whatsoever with every possible kind of temptation. i can't just borrow, i buy something every time without fail.

today's purchase caught my eye with the subtitle: "a hilarious and true account of one man's struggle with the monthly tide of the books he's bought and the books he's been meaning to read". inside the cover it read:

"Books are, let's face it, better than everything else," writes Nick Hornby in his "Stuff I've Been Reading" column in The Believer. "If we played cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go 15 rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time. Go on, try it. The Magic Flute v. Middlemarch? Middlemarch in six. The Last Supper v. Crime and Punishment? Fyodor on point And every now and again you'd get a shock, because that happens in sport, so Back to the Future III might land a lucky punch on Rabbit, Run; but I'm still backing literature 29 times out of 30."

all that said, how could i *not* buy the polysyllabic spree?

i just finished the number devil the other day. it was really cute. 20% of the way through how to be good now too... and since i start teaching again on friday i re-started div, grad, curl, and all that this afternoon... still math, but not research math. better background for how to explain the use of calc 3 to physics majors and engineers, i.e. recreational math reading. :)

seriously. books are an addiction i can't quit.

the rest of the stack on my floor demanding my attention, in no particular order:
Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral (Kris Radish)
Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (Julian Barnes)
Journey by Moonlight (Antal Szerb)
All the Mathematics You Missed (Thomas A. Garrity)
PAUL: A Novel (Walter Wangerin, Jr.)
more one minute stories (István Örkény (bought in Hungary, can't find link online except to the prequel))
High Fidelity (Nick Hornby)
The Bridge at Andau (James Mitchner)

speaking of which (the bridge at andau) is the perfect thing to read in the next month if you're into history. it's about the Hungarian revolution of 1956 (which happened in late october, so if you want to lean your eastern europe history, 50th anniversaries are the perfect time to get going on it?), and i've heard it's amazing.

based on this hodge podge, any more recommendations to throw on the list? ;)

later dudes.