Currently Reading
Mathematics & Non-Fiction
The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius by Patchen Barss
I am a massive fan of the work of Penrose, and further, I am a fan of the way that he thinks about maths. Most people could not begin to imagine what twistors in complex space look like, but here is a man who developed them on mainly intuition alone. I was nudged to read this after seeing Penrose sitting in the Maths Institute recently, and feeling amazed to see someone in his 90s still working on the table. A definite read for anyone who would like to know more about how someone, who I believe ranks among the top physicists in the world currently.
The Strangest Man by Graham Farmelo
Paul Dirac surely ranks among the greatest physicists of the 20th century, responsible for the proposition of anti-matter and monopoles, among many other incredible contributions. Whilst I do have a pet peeve about the choice of title, as I do not believe that there was anything about Dirac which ranks him as the 'strangest' but more just with quirks I often see, this book is incredibly written. I have a particular interest in the way that the author describes Dirac's years in Cambridge, as there is something so warming about its description of cigar smoke filled offices, and good conversations around chalkboards. I find the way Dirac thought about things quite refreshing. He showed a strong sense of restraint when it came to communicating, which meant he only spoke when it was neccessary. This gave him sufficient room to think, and be certain about his ideas when he did. In fact, collegues termed the phrase 'Dirac unit' as a measurement of his slow pace of speaking! Read any of his expositions and find a piece of writing which carries all of the details one could want, but written in a way which avoids any sense at all of woffle, and invokes a sense of precision. Anyone else who feels interested in learning about his life, and his thought process, should surely read this book. Full of great annecdotes about his interactions with other physicists and mathematicians too.
Fiction
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
I found this book on a recent trip to Blackwells, seeing it upon a table entitiled 'Timeless fiction'. This novel won the Man Booker Prize, so I'm expecting great things.