A Guide To Korean Characters: Reading and Writing Hangul and Hanja by Bruce K. Grant
I checked this out intending to learn Korean writing. It does cover the writing systems. However, the Korean characters are only in the inside cover. The rest of the book covers Chinese characters. From what I have heard, these Chinese characters are only rarely used in Korea today. I'd rather find a book that focuses on Korean writing.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R Hofstadter
How could you resist a math book that name drops a great composer and artist in the title? The book ties together the works of the two brilliantly with the Gödel's incompleteness theorem. Examples abound of self-referencing or self-continuing systems. Escher has drawings that seem to extend up endlessly. Bach has compositions that go up only to be back where they started.
Alas, the book is incredibly verbose. The preface to the 20th Anniversary edition goes on for more than 20 pages. The book itself extends beyond 700 pages. The chapters are mostly in couplets, with the first being a conversation between Tortoise and Achilles, followed by a chapter containing detailed analysis. The author was inspired by Lewis Carroll in approach, but not in succinctness. By the end, I was speed skimming. Perhaps I should have just read the outline at the start. The only problem with that would be missing out on the various drawings (primarily from Escher) included. The author did mention that he started out writing a paper and then transformed it into a book. It would have been nice to see that paper.
The first part of the book talks about incompleteness and systems that return on themselves or require themselves for definition. It elaborates that ad nauseum, and then focuses more on artificial intelligence. The view of machine learning and artificial intelligence from a 45 years ago is much different than today. At that time approaching human capabilities was seen as fairly impossible. Things are much closer now. The approach has also changed. Rather than try to create detailed decision trees, today most machine learning is done from models and training. AI "learns" and helps program itself. The book can be an interesting reference on the history of artificial intelligence and how things have changed in the past decades.
The Ramona Quimby Audio Collection by Beverly Cleary (illustrations by Tracy Dockray )
This is an audiobook collection of the Ramona books. She starts out as a preschooler and ends up in fourth grade. She is rambunctious and cares a lot about how people feel about her. However, she often reads people incorrectly. The books were written over a period of 44 years, with each book seemingly set in an idyllic version of those days - generally in anonymous Portland area.
Beezus and Ramona (1955)
This is the most distinct book in the Ramona series. It is more from the view of the other characters than Ramona herself. Ramona is always getting into trouble. She wants big construction equipment. She invites all of her preschool friends over for a party - without telling anyone else. She is just a big pain. However, mother and her sister had similar issues when they were young.
Ramona the Pest (1968)
Now the series is more from Ramona's point of view. She is in kindergarten. It is interesting that back then it was perfectly normal for kindergarteners to walk to school themselves.
Ramona the Brave (1975)
Now she is approaching first grade. Some kids call his sister a name and Ramona defends her - offending her sister. Ramona does other "brave" things.
Her father loses his job. Money is tight. He also smokes at home. Ramona and his sister work to get him to stop smoking. In the end, he gets a job at a supermarket. I was wondering what the smoking thread would be like. Looks like it was new enough to identify smoking as "bad". (Newbery honor book)
Ramona and Her Mother (1979)
Dad has a job he doesn't like. Mom still works her job. There is a fight with mom and dad over pancakes. Mom helps with some sewing. Beeezus wants a haircut from a beauty salon, but it ends up bad. There are other random episodes.
Romona has a degree of unintentional mischief. She cracks an egg on her head - only to find it is a raw egg. She throws up all over the school. She feels her teacher does not like her. However, it is all a misunderstanding. She is gradually growing up.
Things start to change. Howie's uncle visits. He later becomes engaged to Ramona's aunt. Ramona's mom is pregnant. Ramona will now have to deal with being a big sister. Ramona and her sister also take care of burying the cat. Dad has teaching jobs far away. However, he decides to take a grocery store manager job instead so they can stay close.
Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay
I read this after hearing Eric Cline refer to it in his lectures on archeology. In this book, an area of the contemporary United States has had a cataclysmic event occur. A few millennia later archeologists discover a pristine motel. They make all sorts of inferences about it. They assume it is a burial chamber for the elite. Things like TVs, remote controls and toilets all have religious aspects. A toilet seat is seen as a fine piece of jewelry. It makes us wonder how many wrong inferences we are drawing when excavating sites. Are we over assuming religious purposes? How do we know what is valuable or important?
The early history in the book has a focus on our current historical understanding of the roots of Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism. This helps give context, but also distracts from the religious history. It would be more interesting to have a focus on what Zoroastrians accept as their history and then bring out areas that can't be verified. This is especially important with a religion that is as old as narrowly practiced as this one. I also struggled understanding the beliefs and locations that were described.
Things started to become more clear after the rise of Islam. The religion was mostly relegated to rural backwaters. The story of the Parsi in India is the one major exception. The exodus allowed the Zoroastrians to flourish. They have come to economically dominate the Indian economy, but are also fading in population.
The beliefs of the Zoroastrians is a little less clear. Fire is important. They are often accused of being fire worshipers. However, they also have a form of monotheistic dualism. There seems to be a good deal of Zoroastrian doctrines that have been adopted by Judaism.
A professor hears the neighbor's phone ring. He is troubled that it may be for him. After he can't endure it anymore, he answers. The caller says that his wife is bound in a building that will be destroyed in 30 minutes. Now he is struggling with what to do. He eventually goes there after realizing it is a girl that he knows. He rescues her only to be yelled at.
A novel primarily ruminates on the life of the writer. How does one write? Do they own what they right. What about those that do unauthorized translations or new works in the style of an other? This is almost an essay, but writing as fiction allows for greater exploration.
The Timeless Way of Building is an elegant describing characteristics and patterns for timeless building. The layout of the text and images adds to pleasure in reading the book.
A "pattern language" helps in design. The language allows one to envision what is being done. The description of the patterns follows a logical order allowing anyone to visualize. One can focus on the proper interaction of people with the patterns. The patterns will be adapted to the various needs. In construction, there should be flexibility to adapt as the need arises. Even afterwards, things should be adapted and built upon as needed.
The best buildings and cities evolve over time. Even the best planner cannot see all the uses of the environment. The more "planning" involved, the more sterile the environment. Even on a small level, the site may just not fit into the "standard" model. Non-modular development is more expensive, but allows for better use of the location.
Since the book was written in 1979, things have chugged further down the "bad path". I recall a blogger that tried to buy a house in Appleton, Wisconsin. The agent tried to guide him towards houses on the periphery built in the last three decades. These would best maintain their value and had the best school. Only, after living in them, they would fall into the "old house" category. This is not timeless. This is just sprawl. Big arterials separate out development. (You may be able to see the neighbor across the street, but need to walk over a mile to get to a crossing to get to their house.) Today there are many subdivisions that are plopped down. The houses look similar and have little relationship to the land. They tend to be isolated in single-family ghettos. Even the amenities, like playgrounds are created in cookie cutter fashion without regards to the location. (Why is the playground next to the busy street?) While they have new homes, they are sought after. But how will these age? Probably not well. They are not timeless.
Suttree is one of those characters that I don't find very interesting and don't have much of a desire to know more about. He hangs out with people that I would like to avoid. The settings are not very appealing. It takes place in Tennessee, mostly among the riff raff. It is just not a book that appeals to me. About the only thing that sticks in my mind about it is chicken fried steak and busses. I would much rather be eating a chicken fried steak than reading this book.
The Faded Sun trilogy includes the novels Kesrith, Shon'jir and Kutath. The books deal with some conflicts in the future space exploration. Humans are one of multiple species involved in diplomatic maneuvers. Others have very different characters. Some can seem to remember anything and find it strange that human have the ability to lie. The books are dominated by political meanderings and seem to move at a very slow pace. Every now and then parts are interesting, but that is the exception rather than the rule.
