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Book: Snow Crash

I picked this up a while ago thinking it was just another cyperpunk novel. What a suprise I had. Definitely worth checking out.

Book: The Far Side Gallery 4

Larson makes excellent cartoons that are marred by the inclusion of superfluous captions. I was happy to read that captions were often forced on him by his editor.

Book: The Consolations of Philosophy

Botton gently introduces the thoughts of six different philosophers in this guide to philosophy as self-help.

Book: Ogre, Ogre

Book: The Language Instinct

Pinker presents the modern case for a human language instinct – a predisposition in human beings to acquire complex language in specific ways. His argument is compelling and enjoyable to follow. He also launches some amusing rockets at the “Language Mavens”, self-appointed language gurus like Safire who regularly miss the mark with their own analyses.

Book: Chthon

No idea. Apparently, this was one of his first novels.

Book: Steppe

Sci-fi with Turkish warrior chieftans, or something. Man, I read too much Anthony.

Book: Pretender

The book’s title actually has some accent marks over the “T” and the last “R”. Really. No memory of this at all.

Book: Macroscope

While Anthony is known more for his fantasy work, he also wrote sci-fi. I don’t remember this one at all, though. According to the Amazon reviews, it is much better than his later works.

Book: Unweaving the Rainbow

Using Keat’s poetic lament that Newton had unwoven the rainbow by his discovery of the prism and the refraction of light, and thus drained that phenomenon of all poetry and wonder, Dawkins launches on an exploration of the incredible scientific discoveries connected with Newton’s work. Along the way, he shows that the knowledge which science can bestow on us can be as poetic and awe-inspiring as anything that Romantics (modern-day or otherwise) have to offer.