A fun and easy read about a wealthy man’s wager to tour around the world in eighty days through Asia, America and Europe. Verne brilliantly captured the excitement, the drama, the determination and resourcefulness required to complete a tour around the world, although he painted a negative picture of Asian and native American cultures. “Truly, would you not for less than that make the tour around the world?” You bet […]
Read moreLatest Post
“Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” by Jules Verne
An Eye-opening, Jaw-dropping Book I remember watching a movie production (1954) of the book as a child. I loved it so much that I wished the movie would not end. Listening to the audiobook years later brings back all the wonders and much more. Imagine you can explore the width and depth of all the oceans at will, all the marine species, all the natural wonders that have never been […]
Read more“From the Earth to the Moon” by Jules Verne
Verne’s humor shines brightly all the way through this book. He makes good-humored fun of almost everybody and every nation under the sun. For a while, I thought I was reading a political satire. So funny and yet so true. But of course, it’s no laughing matter to send men to the moon. Verne again impresses me with his detailed scientific knowledge, his prophetic and poetic vision of men’s relation […]
Read more“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Listened to an audiobook version of the novel, narrated by Alexander Scourby. A story about dashed American dreams and lost love, written in a crisp, wisecracking style. Rich imagery, but vacuous content. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther . . . So we […]
Read more“Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell
This book can be summarized in two sentences. Opportunities, personal drive and efforts, family upbringings and cultural background are important factors in a person’s life. He is likely to succeed if those factors have a compounding, positive effect.
Read more“A Slot Machine, A Broken Test Tube” by Salvador E. Luria
Judging a Book by the Cover What stuck me the most before opening this book was Dr. Luria’s photo on the back cover. His alert eyes behind dark rimmed glasses, thin, pressed lips with an ironic upward curl in the left corner, his head tilting slightly backward in an air of aloofness. I thought perhaps he was not as communicative as some of the other scientist-authors whose autobiographies I had […]
Read more
“Nature and the Greeks” by Erwin Schrödinger
Scientists work within a philosophical framework, though it is perhaps not as pronounced as that of philosophers. A scientific theory is an interpretation of empirical data, and it is often the case that numerous theories can describe the same set of data, which one the scientist chooses depends on his/her philosophy. Empirical evidence drives the advance of science by eliminating bad theories, and forcing the scientists to admit their own […]
Read more