New books in my collection

November 14th, 2008 at 0:01 · Filed Under Books · 3 Comments 

While I was browsing a local bookstore two Sundays ago, I stumbled upon a rather rare but very interesting book. After careful browsing and evaluation, I decided to buy it thinking that our kids would benefit from a book like this. I remembered that none of my math teachers ever told us why we learned math and its purpose in life. That is my motivation to buy such a book. Yeah… Blame the teachers. I bought this book so that our kids will not blame the teachers. If those teachers in my time did not tell us why we should learn math and its purpose, I don’t think teachers in my kids time will ever tell that to them. Those close friends and readers who have been following my lampoon of the Malaysian education system will understand better my thinking.

The title is “50 Mathematical Ideas You Really Need to Know” by Tony Crilly. Tony is Reader in Mathematical Sciences at Middlesex University. 

I was in Kuala Lumpur for a business trip this Wednesday and I came across another two great books. I bought them of course. One is “A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein” by Stephen Hawking. I always wanted to read Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Both Einstein and Hawking are my favorites. This is also a great collection for my bookshelves. It will certainly take me a lot of time and neurons to digest the entire book. I expect to read it many times over. Definitely not for my kids at this moment but can be a good inspiration for them.

The other book is “Scientific Writing: A Reader and Writer’s Guide” by Jean-Luc Lebrun. Although it is not the best book, in my opinion, it certainly is one of the good books. It will be useful for my undertakings and it is also a great book for bed time reading.

Tags: ,