the addiction continues

as usual... just can't stop buying books... as a result i'm currently in the middle of um... 5 of them.

(1) The Bridge at Andau by James Michener... story of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 (which incidentally started on October 23rd). I don't know what I expected, but I was planning on something good, and 1/3 of the way through it's way better than expected. Good history lesson. Read it.

(2) An Abundance of Katherines by John Green... how on earth did a young adult novel get on the list? the author also wrote in the september/october issue of mental floss, i was intrigued by the cover art, and then drawn in by the plot outlined on the back cover of the book. it's about a mathematical child prodigy whose favorite hobby is writing anagrams and who only dates girls named katherine... he gets dumped by katherine #19 on the day he graduates from HS which prompts a massive road trip with his best friend to "find himself". so far, i'm rather enjoying it.

(3) Linear Algebra Done Right by Sheldon Axler... you knew the "fun" reading couldn't be the whole list, right?... i learned linear algebra as a college sophomore, and again for my written qualifying exam 2 years ago, but intuition about the big picture of what it's all about? not much. i wish i knew it better... so i'm (re)teaching myself. yes, math nerd... but hey, it's my job, right?

(4) Proofs Without Words by Roger Nelsen... amazingly, this whole math book is just a picture on each page that somehow visually proves some theorem or another. my friend Sara gave a seminar on it a week ago, and i borrowed her copy of the book after. at first i thought it would be an easy page-through thing to look through, but lo and behold it takes a lot more thought per page than expected to truly get what's going on. still, very clever...

(5) How To Solve It by George Polya... classic math text written in the 40s by one of the most famous combinatorialists in the last century. i'm a sucker for using bookstore coupons, so when i picked up #2 above on sunday, i also picked up this.

how i can read 5 books at once, i don't know... each fits a different mood/purpose... at least they help me feel productive because my research definitely is not right now. it's a good idea to not say a word to me about it until i bring up that i actually solved something.

for when i feel like not being productive at all, there's still the scrubs season four dvd... i've been waiting for this for a bit. in anticipation, i've had a marathon of seasons 1,2, and 3 in the past week as background noise, but now i have to pay attention to the screen to watch season 4 since it's the first i've seen them since they were originally on TV. in the past 24 hours, 14 episodes down, 13 plus bonus features to go. good thing tuesdays are my "weekend". ;)

summary lately: mad at my research & waiting for a eureka moment, reading lots of good books, and watching lots of scrubs

the end.