Saturday, December 22, 2001


My stephen Hawking book finally arrived at the local library. Not wanting to have to request it a second time (or, heaven forbid, buy it), I'm in the process of scanning the entire book onto a CD. So far I've only read the first chapter, and it's not covering anything that wasn't in the first book, but I've peeked into later chapters and it looks like interesting stuff.

Hawking, or someone on his team, decided that books would make more sense if they had lots of pictures. The new book is extensively and creatively illustrated, but I can't help thinking how well the first book explained things without all the graphics. Early on in this book, Hawking admitted that the first two chapters of the first book turned people off, and many read no further. I've met a few people who have told me that they stopped reading after the first chapter, so I could relate. I probably got through those first two chapters mainly because I had paid for the book and wanted to get my money's worth. At any rate, I found the book to be a real eye-opener, without tagging on an insulting title like "The Universe for Dummies". The "Dummies" label really does apply to me, but it's still off-putting.

For the record, Hawking's books are:

A Brief History of Time
and
The Universe in a Nutshell

While at the Library, I picked up a couple recent issues of Fine Woodworking Magazine. That's something else I'll scan to CD, which is one of the original reasons for wanting a CDR and scanner in the first place. Ideally, I'll end up with a ready reference of CDs chock full of things that interest me. I've even found complete books online through Morpheus. Most are in PDF format. This could put parchment mites on the endangered list.


another hasty insight by Jeff on 12/22/2001

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