To Be Read: The Man Who Loved Only Numbers

I thought about starting a new (private) blog for this, but it occurred to me that others might be interested (and might even get to know a bit more about me in any case), so I'm going to do this here.

"And what is this?", you wonder.

I'm going to start posting books I think I want to read someday (I already have, in fact, two older posts that are tagged "To Be Read"). If nothing else it can be thought of as a wish list, but I think it will reveal aspects of my personality at the same time.

Todays book is The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth by Paul Hoffman.

I started reading it at the bookstore today and decided that it would be great fun to read, as I really enjoy math.

I just don't have the time to read it right now, though.

Post to Del.icio.us

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Three Genre Authors

Today Love All Books wishes a happy birthday to not one, not two, but three genre authors: James Patterson, Rudy Rucker, and Louis L'Amour.

If you like mysteries, then you don't need me to tell you who James Patterson is!

From his Women's Murder Club (one of Julie's favorites) to his Alex Cross novels (two of which—Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider—have been made into movies), this guy cranks out bestsellers like you wouldn't believe.

I'm ashamed to admit that I have had science fiction author Rudy Rucker's book Wetware Software on my bookshelf since it first came out—almost twenty about twenty-five years ago already—and still haven't gotten around to reading it. [3/25/2007 edit: about the strikeouts I just added, I went looking for Wetware to put it on my pile of what to read next and discovered that I had mispoke—it is Software that I've had forever! I guess I just loved the title of Wetware so much, and the interesting images it conjures up for me, that I just substituted that in my wetware!]

However, after finding his blog—and just reading a tiny bit of it—I see this guy is very cool, and I'm going to elevate his books much further to the top of the heap (and to remind myself, I just tagged this post To Be Read).

Finally, if westerns are your thing, then Louis L'Amour is a name that also requires no introduction.

In fact, I'd hazard a guess that even if westerns truly aren't your thing—as they are not mine—you have heard of this giant in the publishing field or, at the very least, some of his works.

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Happy Birthday, Mike Resnick

Today is Mike Resnick's birthday.

I can't believe I've never, to my knowledge, read anything by him. I've got tons of science fiction on my bookshelves, but apparently nothing by him.

This, in itself, is only mildly surprising. Add in that the man has won not one, not two, but five Hugo awards, and it becomes a minor crime.

The situation is elevated, and I mean more than a little bit, to a "sin against humanity" when I realize that two of these Hugos were won when I was a single man (a phrase which here means "back when I was reading more SF than any other kind of book!")

Sins against humanity? Good thing I write this blog under a pseudonym! (What? You thought Techsplorer was my real name?)

All I can say to absolve myself is that the next time I'm wondering what to read next, I know who I'll be reading! (I just counted his Hugo nominations at his Wikipedia entry—he has been nominated an unbelievable 28 times.)

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