On Books and Reading
There are many ways of reading. I am going to concentrate basically on science text books.
The first five, at least, recommended books could all be left on a coffee table for perusal, if not reading. The idea is of course firstly to become somewhat familiar with the content. This overcomes the first obstacle, namely that they may be intimidating at first sight. By becoming familiar, over time – maybe many years or even decades – eventually sufficient curiosity and assurance may be obtained to read these books from beginning to end.
There are many ways to read text books. If one is not intending to take examinations, then basically the enjoyment is in the gaining of understanding. You may want to dispense with the questions. These are basically for reinforcing the knowledge understood so that the knowledge is readily retained in the memory for answering examination questions.
To read a text book of any magnitude takes mainly perseverance. This can be achieved in a few minutes each day, or some sort of frequent but small amounts of reading. Essentially if you do not read sufficiently often you are likely to lose the thread, and then more or less have to start again right from the beginning.
At one time I was reading about 50 books at a time, allowing about five minutes each. This can be achieved for example quite easily in a session of about four hours per day, or about three sessions of about only one hour and 20 minutes hour per day. How one reads is of course probably an individual preference. It probably depends upon the time that you have, the inclination to read, the motivation, tiredness levels and so on. Of course to read about fifty book a day requires a lot of bookmarks.
Easy Bookmarks
If you take a foot ruler and a sheet of A4 paper you can easily create 10 bookmarks by tearing off strips of one ruler’s width. Fold over about one inch at the top. You now have ten bookmarks. You can easily make as many bookmarks as you want. You certainly do not need bookmarks of leather or bookmarks which make you want to gaze at them instead of reading a book! In text books you often may want to mark temporary look-up pages. These paper bookmarks are ideal.
At other times I have found interest so absorbing that the number of books on the go at any one time has been essentially about four. How one reads is surely a matter of one’s own capabilities. Therefore the contents of this document may not apply to you at all.
Let us now look at some of the recommendations. It is advisable to obtain a copy of any book that it might be thought to be worth purchasing from the public library first.
The first five, at least, recommended books could all be left on a coffee table for perusal, if not reading. The idea is of course firstly to become somewhat familiar with the content. This overcomes the first obstacle, namely that they may be intimidating at first sight. By becoming familiar, over time – maybe many years or even decades – eventually sufficient curiosity and assurance may be obtained to read these books from beginning to end.
There are many ways to read text books. If one is not intending to take examinations, then basically the enjoyment is in the gaining of understanding. You may want to dispense with the questions. These are basically for reinforcing the knowledge understood so that the knowledge is readily retained in the memory for answering examination questions.
To read a text book of any magnitude takes mainly perseverance. This can be achieved in a few minutes each day, or some sort of frequent but small amounts of reading. Essentially if you do not read sufficiently often you are likely to lose the thread, and then more or less have to start again right from the beginning.
At one time I was reading about 50 books at a time, allowing about five minutes each. This can be achieved for example quite easily in a session of about four hours per day, or about three sessions of about only one hour and 20 minutes hour per day. How one reads is of course probably an individual preference. It probably depends upon the time that you have, the inclination to read, the motivation, tiredness levels and so on. Of course to read about fifty book a day requires a lot of bookmarks.
Easy Bookmarks
If you take a foot ruler and a sheet of A4 paper you can easily create 10 bookmarks by tearing off strips of one ruler’s width. Fold over about one inch at the top. You now have ten bookmarks. You can easily make as many bookmarks as you want. You certainly do not need bookmarks of leather or bookmarks which make you want to gaze at them instead of reading a book! In text books you often may want to mark temporary look-up pages. These paper bookmarks are ideal.
At other times I have found interest so absorbing that the number of books on the go at any one time has been essentially about four. How one reads is surely a matter of one’s own capabilities. Therefore the contents of this document may not apply to you at all.
Let us now look at some of the recommendations. It is advisable to obtain a copy of any book that it might be thought to be worth purchasing from the public library first.
Mathematics
Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers by Jan Gullberg
Reviews
Amazon.com: What does mathematics mean? Is it numbers or arithmetic, proofs or equations? Jan Gullberg starts his massive historical overview with some insight into why human beings find it necessary to "reckon," or count, and what math means to us. From there to the last chapter, on differential equations, is a very long, but surprisingly engrossing journey. Mathematics covers how symbolic logic fits into cultures around the world, and gives fascinating biographical tidbits on mathematicians from Archimedes to Wiles. It's a big book, copiously illustrated with goofy little line drawings and cartoon reprints. But the real appeal (at least for math buffs) lies in the scads of problems--with solutions--illustrating the concepts. It really invites readers to sit down with a cup of tea, pencil and paper, and (ahem) a calculator and start solving. Remember the first time you "got it" in math class? With Mathematics you can recapture that bliss, and maybe learn something new, too. Everyone from schoolkids to professors (and maybe even die-hard mathphobes) can find something useful, informative, or entertaining here. --Therese Littleton
Scientific American: The book is an enthusiastic and utterly amazing popularization that promises to be in print for decades.... It is an important reference and a book that is plain fun to dip into. If a family is to have only one mathematics book on the reference shelf, then this is the one.
Comment:
The teaching of mathematics is in need of a massive overhaul. This is about theonly readable book that covers much of modern mathematics. Although only in black and white it is littered with cartoons, drawings and pictures and has a historical perspective that can make it easy to dip into or peruse, without necessarliy reading it from end to end. It goes well beyond school mathematics.
Details
Hardcover: 1128 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (March 1997) Language: English ISBN-10: 039304002X or
ISBN-13: 978-0393040029
Reviews
Amazon.com: What does mathematics mean? Is it numbers or arithmetic, proofs or equations? Jan Gullberg starts his massive historical overview with some insight into why human beings find it necessary to "reckon," or count, and what math means to us. From there to the last chapter, on differential equations, is a very long, but surprisingly engrossing journey. Mathematics covers how symbolic logic fits into cultures around the world, and gives fascinating biographical tidbits on mathematicians from Archimedes to Wiles. It's a big book, copiously illustrated with goofy little line drawings and cartoon reprints. But the real appeal (at least for math buffs) lies in the scads of problems--with solutions--illustrating the concepts. It really invites readers to sit down with a cup of tea, pencil and paper, and (ahem) a calculator and start solving. Remember the first time you "got it" in math class? With Mathematics you can recapture that bliss, and maybe learn something new, too. Everyone from schoolkids to professors (and maybe even die-hard mathphobes) can find something useful, informative, or entertaining here. --Therese Littleton
Scientific American: The book is an enthusiastic and utterly amazing popularization that promises to be in print for decades.... It is an important reference and a book that is plain fun to dip into. If a family is to have only one mathematics book on the reference shelf, then this is the one.
Comment:
The teaching of mathematics is in need of a massive overhaul. This is about theonly readable book that covers much of modern mathematics. Although only in black and white it is littered with cartoons, drawings and pictures and has a historical perspective that can make it easy to dip into or peruse, without necessarliy reading it from end to end. It goes well beyond school mathematics.
Details
Hardcover: 1128 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (March 1997) Language: English ISBN-10: 039304002X or
ISBN-13: 978-0393040029
Languages
If you want to learn how to speak a language the 10 minutes a day series is excellent. "This best-selling Series by Kristine K. Kershul allows travelers, students and international business executives to learn a foreign language faster and easier than ever before." These books will help you to learn to speak and understand the spoken language to enhance your experiences when visiting a foreign country. They give a natural way of learning a language and provide early on the ability to ask questions, such as "What is that?" enabling a rapid learning of the spoken language when visiting a coutry. Languages available are Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, [Ingles], Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
University Texts
The following books cover the foundations of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology for university degrees.
Get the most up to date editions
Get the most up to date editions
More Advanced Books
Generally speaking one can associate Chemistry with Biology and Physics with Mathematics, although there will sometimes be some overlap.
For Biochemistry
Modern Genetic Analysis
Modern Genetic Analysis: Integrating Genes and Genomes by Anthony J.F. Griffiths, William M. Gelbart, Richard C. Lewontin & Jeffrey H. Miller Publisher: W.H.Freeman & Co Ltd; 2Rev Ed edition (3 July 2002) ISBN-10: 0716743825 ISBN-13: 978-0716743828
Molecular Biology of the Cell
Molecular Biology of the Cell by Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts & Peter Walter
Publisher: Garland Science; 5 edition (2 Jan 2008) ISBN-10: 0815341067 ISBN-13: 978-0815341062
Product Description For nearly a quarter century Molecular Biology of the Cell has been the leading cell biology textbook. This tradition continues with the new Fifth Edition, which has been completely revised and updated to describe our current, rapidly advancing understanding of cell biology. To list but a few examples, a large amount of new material is presented on epigenetics; stem cells; RNAi; comparative genomics; the latest cancer therapies; apoptosis (now its own separate chapter); and cell cycle control and the mechanics of M phase (now integrated into one chapter).
The hallmark features of Molecular Biology of the Cell have been retained, such as its consistent and comprehensive art program, clear concept headings, and succinct section summaries. Additionally, in response to extensive feedback from readers, the Fifth Edition now includes several new features.
It is now more portable. Chapters 1-20 are printed and Chapters 21-25, covering multicellular systems, are provided as PDF files on the free Media DVD-ROM which accompanies the book.* And for the first time, Molecular Biology of the Cell now contains end-of-chapter questions. These problems, written by John Wilson and Tim Hunt, emphasize a quantitative approach and the art of reasoning from experiments, and -they will help students review and extend their knowledge derived from reading the textbook. The Media DVD-ROM, which is packaged with every copy of the book, contains PowerPoint® presentations with all of the figures, tables and micrographs from the text (available as JPEGs too). Also included is the Media Player, which plays over 125 movies—animations, videos, and molecular models—all with voiceover narration. A new reader-friendly feature is the integration of media codes throughout the text that link directly to relevant videos and animations. The Media DVD-ROM holds the multicellular systems chapters (21-25) of the text as well.
By skillfully extracting the fundamental concepts from this enormous and ever-growing field, the authors tell the story of cell biology, and thereby create a coherent framework through which readers may approach and enjoy this subject that is so central to all of biology.
* There is also a reference edition of Molecular Biology of the Cell, Fifth Edition (ISBN 978-0-8153-4111-6) that contains Chapters 1-25 entirely in printed format.
Publisher: Garland Science; 5 edition (2 Jan 2008) ISBN-10: 0815341067 ISBN-13: 978-0815341062
Product Description For nearly a quarter century Molecular Biology of the Cell has been the leading cell biology textbook. This tradition continues with the new Fifth Edition, which has been completely revised and updated to describe our current, rapidly advancing understanding of cell biology. To list but a few examples, a large amount of new material is presented on epigenetics; stem cells; RNAi; comparative genomics; the latest cancer therapies; apoptosis (now its own separate chapter); and cell cycle control and the mechanics of M phase (now integrated into one chapter).
The hallmark features of Molecular Biology of the Cell have been retained, such as its consistent and comprehensive art program, clear concept headings, and succinct section summaries. Additionally, in response to extensive feedback from readers, the Fifth Edition now includes several new features.
It is now more portable. Chapters 1-20 are printed and Chapters 21-25, covering multicellular systems, are provided as PDF files on the free Media DVD-ROM which accompanies the book.* And for the first time, Molecular Biology of the Cell now contains end-of-chapter questions. These problems, written by John Wilson and Tim Hunt, emphasize a quantitative approach and the art of reasoning from experiments, and -they will help students review and extend their knowledge derived from reading the textbook. The Media DVD-ROM, which is packaged with every copy of the book, contains PowerPoint® presentations with all of the figures, tables and micrographs from the text (available as JPEGs too). Also included is the Media Player, which plays over 125 movies—animations, videos, and molecular models—all with voiceover narration. A new reader-friendly feature is the integration of media codes throughout the text that link directly to relevant videos and animations. The Media DVD-ROM holds the multicellular systems chapters (21-25) of the text as well.
By skillfully extracting the fundamental concepts from this enormous and ever-growing field, the authors tell the story of cell biology, and thereby create a coherent framework through which readers may approach and enjoy this subject that is so central to all of biology.
* There is also a reference edition of Molecular Biology of the Cell, Fifth Edition (ISBN 978-0-8153-4111-6) that contains Chapters 1-25 entirely in printed format.
Essential Cell Biology
Essential Cell Biology by Bruce Alberts, Dennis Bray, Karen Hopkin, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts & Peter Walter
Publisher: Garland Publishing; 3 edition (3 April 2009) ISBN-10: 9780815341307 ISBN-13: 978-0815341307
Product Description
Essential Cell Biology provides an accessible introduction to the fundamental concepts of cell biology. Its lively writing and exceptional illustrations make it the ideal textbook for a first course in cell and molecular biology. The text and figures are easy-to-follow, accurate, clear, and engaging for the introductory student. Molecular detail has been kept to a minimum in order to provide the reader with a cohesive, conceptual framework of the basic science that underlies our current understanding of biology.
The Third Edition is thoroughly updated scientifically, yet maintains the academic level and size of the previous edition. The book is accompanied by a Media DVD-ROM with over 130 animations and videos, all the figures from the book, and a new self-test quizzing feature for students.
The contents of this book are similar to those of Molecular Biology for the cell but less detailed, for people with perhaps less time but still requiring an up to date knowledge of the subject.
Publisher: Garland Publishing; 3 edition (3 April 2009) ISBN-10: 9780815341307 ISBN-13: 978-0815341307
Product Description
Essential Cell Biology provides an accessible introduction to the fundamental concepts of cell biology. Its lively writing and exceptional illustrations make it the ideal textbook for a first course in cell and molecular biology. The text and figures are easy-to-follow, accurate, clear, and engaging for the introductory student. Molecular detail has been kept to a minimum in order to provide the reader with a cohesive, conceptual framework of the basic science that underlies our current understanding of biology.
The Third Edition is thoroughly updated scientifically, yet maintains the academic level and size of the previous edition. The book is accompanied by a Media DVD-ROM with over 130 animations and videos, all the figures from the book, and a new self-test quizzing feature for students.
The contents of this book are similar to those of Molecular Biology for the cell but less detailed, for people with perhaps less time but still requiring an up to date knowledge of the subject.
For Modern Physics
It is essential to understand that the theories of "modern" physics are not deducible from considerations of a three dimensional world with objects moving about in time (essentially the classical/ Newtonian world or the world of common experience) The properties of light for example as photons, and having a constant speed (in a vacuum) together with experimental evidence, give rise to equations that cannot be deduced by common sense. For quantum mechanics there are certain postulates and certain equations that have been discovered that can be used for purposes of deduction, but these equations were not deduced directly, but through at best by analogy or some sort of inspired guess with other quite different equations. As regards to relativity the constancy of the speed of light means an abandonment of our normal three dimentsional world plus time as we experience it. To get a flavour of the problem consider the earth. If one moves from the north pole southerly to the equator, moves round the equator by a quarter of the globe and then goes north back to the north pole then one in a sense describes a triangle on a sphere; but this has three right angles. Moreover if one travels to the north pole from two diferent places on the equator then one in both cases is travelling in a northerly direction and certainly one starts of in a parallel direction, but the paths meet (at the north pole) . This is essentially the problem of the flat earth. Locally one might consider that the earth is flat, with two dimensions, but it is not; it is embedded in three dimensions.
Book suggestions:
General Theory of Relativity by P. A.M. Dirac
Introduction to Elementary Particles by David Griffiths
The Six Core Theories of Modern Physics Charles F Stevens
Book suggestions:
General Theory of Relativity by P. A.M. Dirac
Introduction to Elementary Particles by David Griffiths
The Six Core Theories of Modern Physics Charles F Stevens