Currently reading ....

[d000hg]

No equations. It's all based around the LHC which is pretty interesting, and takes diversions into the theory behind it all. I'd recommend it if you haven't binged on popular science books.

I understand a fair amount of the theory from my degree, and things like "what a field is" are not problems. More just "where did this come from?" and "how does that fit in with what I previously knew?"

[doodab]

No equations. It's all based around the LHC which is pretty interesting, and takes diversions into the theory behind it all. I'd recommend it if you haven't binged on popular science books.

I understand a fair amount of the theory from my degree, and things like "what a field is" are not problems. More just "where did this come from?" and "how does that fit in with what I previously knew?"

I might look at it. The book I've bought has as section on the Higgs field so that might make sense...

[wurzel]

Mill on the Floss by George Elliot.

I'm 100 pages in and I don't think I can take any more. Page after page of frumpy old dames sat around drinking tea and gossiping. Truly awful. If it doesn't get any better in the next 10 pages, in the bin it goes & I'm going back to Tom Clancey.

Feck this culture sh1te.

[OwlHoot]

Mill on the Floss by George Elliot.

I'm 100 pages in and I don't think I can take any more. Page after page of frumpy old dames sat around drinking tea and gossiping. Truly awful. If it doesn't get any better in the next 10 pages, in the bin it goes & I'm going back to Tom Clancey.

Feck this culture sh1te.

It's a real downer at the end too, literally

[doodab]

Have moved onto excession by Iain M Banks now. Only three more to go after that and I'll have managed his entire oeuvre. Then Ill polish off Murakami and I'm pretty much done with works of fiction.

I have to stop buying maths and physics books though. I'll never get through most of them, it's just that I want to complete the library.

[JPennW]

Have moved onto excession by Iain M Banks now. Only three more to go after that and I'll have managed his entire oeuvre. Then Ill polish off Murakami and I'm pretty much done with works of fiction.

I have to stop buying maths and physics books though. I'll never get through most of them, it's just that I want to complete the library.

Done Excession and Consider Phlebas (both very good) and now onto The Player of Games. Only just discovered Banks, but am making my way through the collection. Need to revisit 1Q84 - started but didn't get anywhere with it.

[doodab]

Need to revisit 1Q84 - started but didn't get anywhere with it.

I have it on my shelf. I haven't started it yet as it's the hardback and a bit bulky to carry around. I will get going on it soon though.

[OwlHoot]

I have to stop buying maths and physics books though. I'll never get through most of them, it's just that I want to complete the library.

Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh

Ecclesiastes ch 12, v 12

[pjclarke]

After seeing the movie, The Wolf of Wall street and Catching the Wolf of Wall street. 3.49 each on Kindle.

As you might expect in a stockbroker, his prose style is not going to win him any literary prizes but it is such a rollicking good narrative you don't really care.

The movie did take some liberties with the timeline, but annoyingly the anecdotes and excesses that have been independently verified do seem to be the most far-fetched examples.... yes he did smuggle millions into Switzerland, he did sink his yacht on a drug-fuelled excursion into a Force 8 gale, there were midgets, cocaine and qualuudes, and hookers...

What is missing is any real contrition for the victims of his fraud, who are barely mentioned, just liabilities on the balance sheet. There IS a chapter entitled 'Innocent Victims', but it turns out he means his kids. He comes across as a very bright guy and salesman extraordinaire, but unconstrained by any ethics whatsoever.

So, an entertaining addition to the corpus on the amorality of Wall St, to sit on my (virtual) shelf alongside Liars' Poker and The Big Short ....

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

After seeing the movie, The Wolf of Wall street and Catching the Wolf of Wall street. 3.49 each on Kindle.

As you might expect in a stockbroker, his prose style is not going to win him any literary prizes but it is such a rollicking good narrative you don't really care.

The movie did take some liberties with the timeline, but annoyingly the anecdotes and excesses that have been independently verified do seem to be the most far-fetched examples.... yes he did smuggle millions into Switzerland, he did sink his yacht on a drug-fuelled excursion into a Force 8 gale, there were midgets, cocaine and qualuudes, and hookers...

What is missing is any real contrition for the victims of his fraud, who are barely mentioned, just liabilities on the balance sheet. There IS a chapter entitled 'Innocent Victims', but it turns out he means his kids. He comes across as a very bright guy and salesman extraordinaire, but unconstrained by any ethics whatsoever.

So, an entertaining addition to the corpus on the amorality of Wall St, to sit on my (virtual) shelf alongside Liars' Poker and The Big Short ....

Read this very recently and was left with a general feeling of sadness after reading it. The guy was obviously clever, talented, charismatic, charming, rich etc etc etc and he seemed to spend a decade or more trying to find ways to totally self-destruct, eventually with reasonable success. I am not sure how much was just drug fueled paranoia but he seemed to take no responsibility whatsoever for his own downfall