Books Read in 2004

I was keeping these lists up to date, at least until July 2003 when I stopped. Now (July 2004)
I am starting again. It will be inomcplete for 2004 but better late than never.

Best Books of the Year

• A Short History of Nearly Everything -- a fun review of the physicla and biological sciences.
• Wicked -- delightful backstory on the Wizard of Oz.
• Jarhead -- insights into was and being a soldier.
• The Painted Word -- very funny dpiction of how the art world works.
• Fire in the lake -- amazing analysis of Vietnam and the war.
• Darwin's Dangerous Idea -- Evolution is such an important idea and this is a great
  exposition of it.

Books I Read

• Biological science, psychology, and philosophy
  • Darwin's Dangerous Idea: evolution and the meanings of life by Daniel C. Dennett -- An
    excellent review of Darwin's theory and its implications. Dennett clears up many myths about
    evolution and shows the basic beauty and power of the idea of evolution.
• Computers, complexity and mathematics
  • Everything and More: a compact history of infinity by David Foster Wallance
    -- basically a discussion of the work on infinity by Georg Cantor and a history of the
    mathematics that preceded it, staring the Zeno's paradoxes.
    Quite mathematiclaly sophisticated and hard to follow
    unless you have a lot on college mathematics. I found it quite interesting. I knew the
    results but not the history that led up to them. Wallance is the author of Infinite Jest
    which many people loved.
• Physics
  • Heisenberg's War by Thomas Powers -- Very interesting story of Heisenberg and whether
    he was trying to develop the atomic bomb for Hitler. The jury is still out on this. But a
    nice history of the development of the atomic bomb.
• Other science
  • Out final Hour: ascientist's worning: how terror, error, and environmental disaster
    threaten humankind's future in this century -- on earch and beyond by Martin Rees --
    A scary review of all the things that could go wrong.
  • A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson -- Written in Bryson's usual
    interesting and droll style. A good review of the current state of knowledge in
    all the physical and biological sciences.
  • Krakatoa: the day the world exploded, August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester -- Another
    of Simon Winchester's books about geology and related things. This gives him a chance to talk
    about colonialism, history, science, and history.
• Social commentary, social science and politics
  • The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli -- A great book. Keen insights into human nature.
    He was the ultimate realist.
  • Fire in the lake: the Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam by Frances FitzGerald -- A
    penetrating analysis of Vietnamese society and the many ways the US got things all wrong.
  • Globalization and its discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz -- Still reading.
  • The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe -- A wonderful and funny book about art, artists and art
    dealers. Wolfe really knows how to skewer people that seem to deserve it. He makes the point
    that art doesn't have a popular audience, unlike almost all other art forms.
  • Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers by Tom Wolfe -- Not as good as the painted word
    but it had some good parts. Leonard Bernstein came off better than I had expected from what I
    remember of the popular culture accounts from the time. He seemed to be a reasonable person
    trying to deal with the difficult issue of racism. Mau-mauing brought back a time when the
    government was trying to help poor people.
• Novels. etc.
  • Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis -- The story of the coming of age of a girl was is a
    chess prodigy. She starts out in an orphanage and ends up playing for the world chess
    championship. The book does a good job in describing what it is like to play chess at that level.
    I liked it a lot.
  • Love Me by Garrison Keillor -- A novel about people from St. Paul
    and their lives. The comments and insights on daily living that you would expect from Garrison
    Keillor based on his stories. Lots of things to think about.
  • The Time Machine by H. G. Wells -- This book was much better than I thought it would be.
    Wells tells a great story and there is a lot of things to think about.
  • War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells -- I read this because I liked the Tim Machine. It was
    very good also. A page-turner.
  • Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger -- I read this a long time ago but did not like
    it as well this time. I guess I just didn't relate to it.
  • Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen -- I read this a long time ago and I seem to remember
    that I enjoyed it more before. He is too serious about everything. He also seems to have the
    fervor of a new convert to Buddhism. Lots of nature writing that was good but I am not too keen
    on nature writing. Lots of conflicts with the porters. Getting through it seemed a little like
    a long trek through the mountains ;-) He seems to believe in everything, yeti, levitation, etc
    and doesn't seem to have any idea what science is.
  • Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse -- I read this long ago and enjoyed rereading it but I did
    not find it as profound this time. I did not resonate with his view of life.
  • The Stranger by Albert Camus -- I read this long ago. I did not enjoy it as much
    this time. I didn't see the point of the story.
  • Wicked: the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire -- A great
    idea for a story. The Wicked Witch was really a revolutionary against the despotic Wizard
    and Glinda was her roommate in college. He fills in an entire world as back-story for the
    Wizard of Oz.
  • Cosmpololis by Don DeLillo -- Short, unusual and generally very good. More of a meditation
    on things than a story. The story of one day in the life of a mogol invester.
  • The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown -- Poorly written but a good story.
• Humor
• History
  • Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast -- The story of coffee and how it affected
    the history of the world, which is did a lot. A bit long but usually interesting. It makes
    you realize how terrible it is for a country to be able to grow coffee. All the growing
    nations were screwed, often by the US.
  • Laxdaela Saga author unknown -- one of several Icelandic sagas. Basically the story of
    a family over many generations. The most interesting part was the legal system. It was a good solution'
    where you don't have legal authority around all the time. Everyone got together once a year
    and sorted things out. If an injustice was done the family revenged it. If you killed
    someone you had to pay off the relatives for the loss.
• Essays, memoirs and biography
  • Bill Bryson's African Diary by Bill Bryson -- Bill Bryson was asked to go to Africa by
    CARE and this is his diary of the trip. It is very short, less than 50 small pages. His insights
    are interesting and humorous, typical of Bill Bryson.
  • Instructions for Visitors: Life and love in a french twon by Helen Stevenson --
    The author lived in a small French villiage when she was young and had a love affair with
    the local Romeo. Very nice observations of villiage life and lots of backstories about
    the people. It all seemed very real.
  • Jarhead by Anthony Swofford -- A memoir of the author's time in the marines and in
    the first Gulf War. Insights into what it is like to be soldier.
• Plays
• Mysteries
  • Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers -- I saw the BBS production but the book
    was still good. Ian Carmichael was Wimsey in the BBC version and is an excellent reader.
  • Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers -- The first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery. Excellent
    although the reader was not as good as Ian Carmichael.
  • The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers -- Another excellent
    Peter Wimsey mystery.
  • Clouds of Witness by Dorothy Sayers -- An excellent Peter Wimsey mystery.
  • Pompeii by Robert Harris -- I liked this a lot. Sort of a mystery but really a story of
    the last days before Vesuvius erupted. Lots of interesting facts about vulcanology and about
    the Romans. The Romans were amazing engineers. The aqueducts dropped 1/4 inch every 100 feet,
    and did this for dozens of miles, and the lasted hundreds or thousands of years. They were
    very organized and disciplined.
• Other