I am working on doctorate in molecular biophysics (which is just a confusing way of saying: the stuff that makes stuff do stuff).

The first book I mentioned is very good in my opinion- Dr. Zuckerman focuses on an intuitive understanding the material, which I really appreciate.

Is it a physics book or for chemistry? The answer is yes. It is a lot of statistical mechanics- so both.

Edited by rslack 13/11/2012 20:22

'From the Corner of his Eye' by Dean Koontz.


...what do they say...the beat of a butterfly's wing in Buenos Aires can affect events in Fulham Broadway. (so to speak).

I never expected to enjoy this book that I picked up on a whim. Wonderful writing, unusual characters and deep suspense.

I may read more of Mr Koontz......

For this weekend- Rudiments of Polymer Physics by Justin Bois of Caltech.

for any interested, it begins here: http://pimprenelle.lps.ens.fr/biolps/sites/default/files/teaching/4...

Currently reading 'Nightshade' by Paul Doherty.... pretty darn good so far if that's your kind of book.... if not... I wouldn't read it as you wouldn't like it ;-)

'Assembly Instructions for Cheap Kitchen Cabinets' by Jack Hammer.

I was visiting family in New Orleans a few weeks ago. We made our obligatory visit to the French Quarter. There's a great bookstore off Conti Street, the kind of store with hidden treasures all over--the only catch is that the place is pretty disheveled and it takes some digging.

Anyway, I stumbled upon Ken Bates' My Chelsea Dream, a cheap old paperback. I've not read it, so I'm thinking I may stretch out on my sofa and read it over the weekend.

reminds me of visits to Haye On Wye RD, a lovely little town in Powys, Wales, famous for it's second hand bookshops. I normally have to be physically dragged back to the car!
The smell of old fashioned roses, of espresso coffee and old books are a heady cocktail for me.

Sounds lovely, mutters. As with most places, I presume, chains are taking over and the only way the secondhand shops can compete is to make a business of selling valuable books. This place in New Orleans is no exception, and you can well imagine that they have some amazing gems locked inside glass display cases. For instance, they have an incredible collection of signed books from southern authors--Faulkner, Harper Lee, Capote, Walker Percy, and of course John Kennedy Toole.

I was drooling.

A combination of Amazon and Kindle is closing many an old bookshop over here too RD.
Apart from the many small shops, there is even an old cinema in Hay, stripped of all its seating and now filled with bankj after bank of bookshelves...awesome!
I too bought a few books there a couple of years ago, and then got 'invited' to the private room upstairs where all the rare stuff is. They knew how to reel me in!!

The problem with a bookshop in a place like the French Quarter amounts to this: you go to the Quarter to stuff your face w great food and drink. Inebriated, you wander into our equivalent of a toy store, and suddenly money becomes more abstract and immaterial. Suddenly there are no consequences!

I had a babysitter with me this time (my wife), but a few years ago I did some SERIOUS damage to my credit card.

In retrospect, I can only laugh at myself. If you're in the Quarter and get hammered, most visitors wander into one of many strip clubs. I have a peak inside if I can and then I'm off to buy literature!

When I was in the French Quarter in March of 2005 ( 6 months before Katrina hit) for our daughter's wedding, I found some neat war journals published by Civil War vets from the south in a little bookstore...real history!

My wife is into the Kindle reader. I still read 'actual' books. Currently reading, "Let Me Go - My Mother and The SS".

Squig: I'm not currently at home, but in my office there I have a copy of a Civil War letter that my mother found in the attic of an antebellum home she and my father purchased before I was born. This was in a tiny town called Monroeville--actually, in literary circles it's a place known for two famous inhabitants, Harper Lee and Truman Capote.

Anyway, I'm already off track: the letter they discovered is among the most beautiful things I've ever read.

I can quote the last part of it from memory: "Aunt Jacqueline says Byrd is a mischievous little fellow, and that he said he would bet Pa killed a Yankee today. Tell him I have not yet had that delightful pleasure, but hope to inform him of the fact in a few days."

The letter is dated 4 May 1862, just after the Battle of New Orleans.

That is a really neat story. In all of my readings on the Civil War, and it covers some 12 years of steady study and fascination in the 70's and 80's, I came to enjoy the journals and personal letters the most! I also have all the volumes of The Image of War series by the National Historical Society...it was the first war to be covered by the early photographers.

I also became very interested in Lincoln and Washington itself during the war years so I really enjoyed the new film "Lincoln". Daniel Day Lewis is superb!

By far the best thing I've read on the Civil War was Bruce Catton's 'The Army of the Potomac' trilogy. He wasn't just a historian...he made it come alive and imbued it with the drama it deserved.




Edited by Squig 28/12/2012 23:10

Rome :The Biography of a City, byChristopher Hibbert.

In it I came upon a Pasquinade which actually referred to the liberal distribution in Rome of Legion of Honour crosses to Roman collaborators by the Napoleonic administration:

'In fierce old times they balanced loss,
By hanging thieves upon a cross.
But our humaner age believes,
In hanging crosses on the thieves'.



...how apt, and moreso in our current times.
No doubt Lance Armstrong will receive his too.......

I'm reading a biography on Daniel Defoe by Paula Backscheider, a brilliant scholar who works out of Auburn University. It's an older bio but still as comprehensive as they come.

Reading "Stalingrad - The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943". By Antony Beevor. Realizing just how key that battle was to the eventual fall of the Nazi regime. Brutal battle, inhuman conditions and suffering, a million lives lost. Psychologically and in terms of the loss of manpower and material, a devastating loss to the German war effort. Also shows just how Hitler's intransigence, arrogance and stubbornness played into the Russians' hands and was responsible for not just the destruction of the 6th Army at Stalingrad but for the eventual loss of the war.

...and let's not forget that T34 tank Squig! The Germans had no answer to it, and indeed refused to even copy it as they couldn't believe that Russian engineering could better German engineering!...which perfectly fits your observations on German stubborness and arrogance etc!
I read Antony Beevor's account a couple of years back...brilliant.

The T34 was a monster. Their katyusha rockets were something else,too. German panzer crews had better training and held their own against Russian tanks but constantly ran out of fuel and ammunition when supply lines were over-stretched. Hitler and his minions never learned from history....Napoleon's disastrous campaign against the Russians. Distance...never-ending steppes, the brutally cold winter months and the practice of 'scorching the earth' as your enemy advanced were critical. The Russians also had such a huge population of men to replenish the decimated ranks...they just kept putting new armies together. Beevor describes the suffering on both sides so vividly. One passage on frostbite still gives me a shiver....the smell of rotting, gangrenous flesh on living men and skin and sometimes whole fingers and toes left stuck to bandages as they were changed!
The prophetic statement of the Russian officer to his surrendering German counterpart on the outskirts of Stalingrad, " Take a good look! This is what we will do to Berlin!"

Edited by Squig 8/2/2013 01:39

Believe it or not, I'm trying to trudge through Aristotle's Rhetoric. It's been years since I read it, and one of our resident comp rhet scholars insisted that I read it again, since so much of what we teach in composition courses comes from this particular text. I find myself skimming a lot, but I must admit that it's fascinating to consider how a text so old not only survived but remains so relevant in rhetoric studies today.

This colleague suggested I read it in Greek. I nearly laughed my ass off.

Radio, are you familiar with George Saunders at all? I have heard a lot of talk about his new collection of short stories...10th of December and am considering getting it. His two previous collections- CivilWarLand in Bad Decline and In Persuasion Nation were apparently well received and critically acclaimed.