Books
-
The Five Ages of the Universe, Fred Adams, Greg Laughlin (ISBN 978-0-684-86576-8, Simon & Schuster)
I read this book a while ago. It came out in 1999 but I came across a reference to it in another book. This book is a ‘biography’ of the universe from the beginning with the big bang until its speculatvie end after 10150 years. It is based on our current understanding of the laws…
-
In Praise of Good Bookstores, Jeff Deutsch (ISBN 978-0691207766, Princeton University Press)
This book was a tip from the book reviewers in the newspaper I read. And it is clear why book lovers like this book. Written by a former bookstore manager it is a basically long tribute to the bookstore, elaborating why it is important that we as a society ensure they survive. If you love…
-
Selling Second-Hand Books: My First Experience with BoekenBalie
I had a long weekend free and decided to complete my library dabase. In the process I discovered a couple of books I have 2 copies of. Some time ago we were discussing with friends about buying and selling second hand books and they were using BoekenBalie because it is an easy process to sell…
-
Evariste Galois. 1811-1832, Laura Toti Rigatelli (ISBN 978-3-7643-5410-7, Birkhäuser)
I found this biography of Evariste Galois after reading about him in Eric Temple Bell’s Men of Mathematics. It is part of the Vita Mathematica series of the publisher with biographies of mathematicians, most of them published in German. The author is an Italian professor in mathematics with a special interest in the history of…
-
Richard Feynman. A Life in Science, John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin (ISBN 978-1-78578-372-2, Iconbooks)
During my physics studies at university I became a fan of Feynman. His path integral formulation of quantum mechanics was a revelation after years of plodding through the standard formalisms by Heisenberg and Schrödinger and the mists surrounding the question what it all meant physically. Especially the fact that this approach was also applicable to…
-
Exercised. Why something we never evolved to do is healthy and rewarding, Daniel E. Lieberman (ISBN 978-0-525-43478-8, Vintage Books)
I heard about this book in a podcast about running. 2 journalists discussed their own running habits and struggles and one of them mentioned this book as a good one to read. I definitely found it interesting as it gives insights from an evolutionary perspective to why so many people struggle to exercise even though…
-
Nickel and Dimed. On (not) getting by in America, Barbara Ehrenreich (ISBN 9780805063899, Henry Holt & Company)
I finally read this book last week after it had been sitting on a shelf for a decade. Ehrenreich is a journalist who got asked by a publisher to write a piece about the living conditions of low wage workers in America. She decided to find out by getting such a job herself and mimic…
-
Hoe boeken onze levensverhalen vormen
‘Het verband tussen alle aangeschafte boeken vormt onze autobiografie.‘― Stefan Hertmans
-
Einstein’s Wife. The Real Story of Mileva Einstein-Maric, Allen Chesterton & David Cassidy (ISBN 9780262538978, MIT Press)
I read about this book in the paper when it came out in 2020 but didn’t buy it immediately. Then, not so long ago I decided to buy and read the Einstein biography by Walter Isaacson and I also got this book about Mileva Maric which I read first. Mileva Maric, Einstein’s first wife was…
-
The Destinies of Books
‘Books have destinies as objects, and people appointments with them.‘― Gotham Book Mart
Response 418 