What are you reading right now?

[tris]

Fancy a scientist ending a science book with

Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we would know the mind of God.

No. Mr. Hawking, we wouldn't. If there is only one God and if that God is truly the creator of all (and is therefore outside the constraints of spacetime) we would only know what that God allows us to think (by the way our brains are constructed) about the universe and our place in it. We would still know absolutely nothing about what such a being thinks.
Actually, the book irritated me with the constant assumption that the human way of experiencing the universe and human intelligence -specifically, those influenced by western, Protestant Christian upbringings - are the only kinds in the universe and our interpretation isn't influenced by our being short-lived carbon-based lifeforms.

I GET YOUR POINT, BUT you must admit that "for then we would know the mind of God" sounds a lot better as an ending for his book than "for then we would know what God allows us to think about the universe and our place in it. We would still know absolutely nothing about what such a being thinks."
You gotta allow the poor guy a bit of poetic licence! I guess that's realy what he meant if you read between the lines... or maybe he just stuck in a token reference to a mythological beiong to keep the God-squad happy!
I seem to remember having started the book and never finishing it (fairly unusual for me for a book on such a theme!) I guess something must have irritated me too... can't remember what it was tho'. I think it all seemed a bit too glib and easy to me... or maybe I was reading it in a bad italian translation...
PS does the book really say "just ordinary people" and " be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why"? I guess it was contorted and ugly prose like that that turned me off!
PPS on the theme of irritating, can't you get your signature bug to calm down? I keep thying to swat him on my computer screen!

[Rainswept]

Just reread the entire Harry Potter series, but out of order. I reread book 6 after watching the movie, and that made me want to reread book 7, which made me want to start over at 1... etc until I reread #5 lol.

[Tigger_the_Wing]

Rainswept! Missed you…

Neil Gaiman? Great stuff, I recently read 'Fragile Things' (I took it to hospital, along with the Gospel). I like his collabaration with Terry Pratchett, 'Good Omens', about twenty years ago so couldn't resist the short story book. I am now inspired to try some of his other work.

Tris, you're right - but I have a problem with 'poetic license' in a science book. And it is the terrible prose that makes it so difficult to read. The bug is only trying to execute a perfect figure 8*! It'll stop once it has done so!

*Or is it the infinity sign?

[Rainswept]

Missed me? I didn't go anywhere, just haven't had much time to post lol.

[Scott the Pirate]

Just reread the entire Harry Potter series, but out of order. I reread book 6 after watching the movie, and that made me want to reread book 7, which made me want to start over at 1... etc until I reread #5 lol.

I made the mistake of picking the Dark Tower series back up. Same thing. "Finish and start over"....

[Wawizzle]

I began reading "Nickeled and Dimed", a sort of "Minimum-wage Like Me" book where a reporter lives in different U.S. cities and tries to make enough money working minimum wage to afford rent and food.

I'm really loving this book and it's opening my eyes to a lot.

I also finished "The Life and Death of Socrates" earlier last week. These are 2 of the 4 books on my reading list for a class I have.

[tris]

... but I have a problem with 'poetic license' in a science book. And it is the terrible prose that makes it so difficult to read.

I say if it's really poetic why not... science does not preclude the occasional flight of fancy or florid turn of phrase... but FSM save us from terrible prose!

The bug is only trying to execute a perfect figure 8*! It'll stop once it has done so! *Or is it the infinity sign?

Now I see it... that makes it a bit less irritating somehow, the geometrical clarity of its eternal pathway and all that... are you trying to make a comment about the fact that bugs and arthropods in general reach right back to the Palaeolithic (the Devonian of Carboniferous I suppose ) which is pretty close to our limited ideas of infinity?
The words of a parody of the song "Diamonds are forever" are creeping into my head:

"Arthropods are forever" (sung by Tris Bassey)

They are all I need to please me,
They can stimulate and tease me,
They won't leave in the night,
I've no fear that they might desert me.
Arthropods are forever,
Hold one up and then caress it,
Touch it, stroke it and undress it, (!!!)
I can see all their articulated parts,
Nothing hides in their insect hearts (to hurt me).

I don't need love,
For what good will love do me?
Arthropods never lie to me,
For when love's gone,
They'll creepy crawl on. (and on)

Arthropods are forever,
creeping round my little finger.
Unlike men, the Arthropods linger;
Men are mere mortals who
Are not worth going to your grave for.

Arthropods are forever, forever, forever.
Arthropods are forever, forever, forever.
Forever and ever.
Yeah!

[daftbeaker]

^ Notty. Banned.

Maths for Chemists, a fascinating book. I lie, it's dull as shite. Partial integration and differentiation by the product rule bore the arse off me.

[Ubi Dubius]

I just finished Death From the Skies! by Phil Plait. An amusing book about the many ways the universe could kill us.

[Wawizzle]

Partial integration and differentiation by the product rule bore the arse off me.

Then you're doing it wrong! Math is supposed to be fun.

[Helene Potier]

^ Notty. Banned.

Maths for Chemists, a fascinating book. I lie, it's dull as shite. Partial integration and differentiation by the product rule bore the arse off me.

Sure. differentiation by the product rule. of course. i understood all that. *cough*....

I'm reading a book called "The Other Hand", i forget the name of the author. something Cleave. In the blurb at the back it basically goes, we're not telling you what happens, because it will spoil it. Intriguing! i just had to read it.

[daftbeaker]

Partial integration and differentiation by the product rule bore the arse off me.

Then you're doing it wrong! Math is supposed to be fun.

And healthy food is supposed to taste good but it doesn't

[Grey]

Partial integration and differentiation by the product rule bore the arse off me.

Then you're doing it wrong! Math is supposed to be fun.

And healthy food is supposed to taste good but it doesn't

I think you must be eating the wrong kind of healthy food because I have yet to run across something healthy that I didn't like, excluding things I have never liked anyway (tofu, protein powder, mushrooms, eggplant).

The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks and John Moyne, The Art of Memetics by Edward Wilson and Wes Unruh, and also several text books.

[Scott the Pirate]

I began reading "Nickeled and Dimed", a sort of "Minimum-wage Like Me" book where a reporter lives in different U.S. cities and tries to make enough money working minimum wage to afford rent and food.

I'm really loving this book and it's opening my eyes to a lot.

What class is it? Just curious because i had to read it for an Organizational Psychology class.

Worst. Class. Ever.

[tris]

^ Notty. Banned.

Does that mean you didnt like my new version of the song??
Does "Notty" hava a double meaning of “not” and “naughty”???
I doey Notty really understanddy...

PS to stay on the theme, I jsut finished reading