From: amnell@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Marko Amnell)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Holiday reading
Date: 25 Dec 92 13:20:12 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Holiday reading (was Re: Books for Christmas)

Some books I'm reading over the holidays:

Tom Maddox, _Halo_.  I liked it, but won't say more since I'm sure it's
been reviewed here many times.  I read the new Legend paperback, which
cost $13 in Finland.
  
_The Faber Book of Diaries_ ed. Simon Brett.  Entries from the journals of 
famous Brits like Elizabeth Barret Browning, James Boswell, Lord Byron, 
Noel Coward, George Eliot, Sir Walter Scott, Mary Shelley, Philip Toynbee, 
Queen Victoria, Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Woolf.  I like these Faber anthologies
(like Letters, which I have, and Parodies, which I'd like to get).

Byron's _Don Juan_.  I'm trying to finally finish it.  I like to read his
`human epic' slowly, and looking up all the end notes as I go along.

Hubert Selby Jr., _Last Exit to Brooklyn_.  I saw the movie and wanted to 
read the book.  'Not very good, I didn't finish it.  I couldn't help being
irritated by Selby's slang style.

Georg Henrik von Wright, _Minervan Pollo_ [The Owl of Minerva].  Personal
essays on philosophy and literature by Finland's most famous academic.
A penny for the old guy.  I already have _Explanation and Understanding_
and _The Philosophy of Von Wright_, autographed by G.H.

_Confessions of a Mask_ by Yukio Mishima.  Engrossing autobiographical tale.

_Dictionary of the Khazars_ by Milorad Pavic.  The Male edition.  So
appropriate now with all that's going on in Bosnia; good for getting some
insight into the Balkan soul.

_The Generous Corporation: A Political Analysis of Economic Power_ by
Neil J. Mitchell.  Interesting, well-documented study of the development
of corporate culture in the 20th century.  Recommended if you like reading 
about that sort of thing.  All the better if you've already read _The Prince_.

_The Anatomy of Philosophical Style_ by Berel Lang.  The philosophy of
literature and the literary styles of philosophers (eg. Descartes, Rorty).
I haven't got very far yet.  It looks like a fairly light read.

_Material Beings_ by Peter van Inwagen.  A metaphysical treatise that
defends the seemingly absurd thesis that the only existing things are
living organisms and their parts.  Inwagen offers numerous ingenius and 
interesting arguments along the way.

_Topology of 4-Manifolds_ by Michael H. Freedman and Frank Quinn.  Two
mathematicians present their revolutionary and important work.  If I have the
time, I plan to study it for mental exercise, along with Hocking and Young's 
classic textbook.  I'm just a curious dabbler in this field.

_Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ and _Through the Looking Glass_.
A Zephyr Books paperback from 1946, with illustrations by Mervyn Peake.
I found the book in a musty attic chamber, and reckon it used to belong to
a relative, although it has no ex libris.

_Conscious Mind in the Physical World_ by Euan Squires.  A mathematical
physicist attempts to understand what quantum mechanics tells us about the
mind.  Looks like a good book, thorough, well thought-out, and sufficiently 
technical not to be dull.

_Change and Selves_ by Edo Pivcevic.  I've always found Pivcevic to be an
interesing thinker, and in his latest book he resurrects Zeno's old
arguments about motion to formulate a thesis about selfhood.

Herodotus, _The Histories_.  A treasure trove of stories about the ancient
world.  I've always meant to read it, and hopefully I finally will.

_The Geometry of Rene Descartes_ from Dover.  It is simply fascinating 
to examine what is probably the most important book in the history of the 
exact sciences.

_Fractals in Physics: Essays in Honour of B.B. Mandelbrot_ ed. J. Feder and
A. Aharony.  A testament to the astonishing variety of applications fractal
theory has found in physics.  A collection of dozens of interesting papers,
most understandable to the non-specialist.  Essays on everything from the
structure of cauliflowers to the structure of the universe. 

Leslie Lamport's LaTeX manual.  Professional level typesetting on your PC.
I'm sure you all use it already; I want in on the fun.

_History of the World_ by J.M. Roberts.  A good new 1000 page world history.
Read it quickly and compare your view of history with that of the author 
of the TV programme _The Triumph of the West_.

Next, I plan to finish some of the above works, read _The Quincunx_ by 
Charles Palliser, a massive, insanely detailed novel about 19th century 
London, and then some of the new novels by Julian Barnes, Peter Ackroyd 
and Paul Auster.

Seasonal greetings,

-- 
Marko Amnell
amnell@klaava.helsinki.fi
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf.written