Sarah and I are enjoying exploring ManyBooks.net. In addition to finding old classics we want to revisit we have found some new publications that are quite entertaining. (Everyone in Silico, by Jim Munroe) Collections of poetry, science fiction from Wells and Verne, and Shakespeare‘s plays and sonnets.

The texts are available in nearly every imaginable format. The ePub files are easily imported to iBooks, include cover art, and read on the iPad and iPod Touch. ePub readers are available from Adobe (Digital Editions and others) and run on nearly all modern computing hardware.

Here are the most popular 21,657,732 copies of 27,788 titles have been downloaded since 1/1/2008:

• 113,942 – The Art of War by Sun Tzu
  
• 89,659 – The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana by Richard Burton
  
• 78,449 – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
  
• 51,364 – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  
• 51,062 – The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie
  
• 45,809 – Fanny Hill by John Cleland
  
• 45,217 – The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown
  
• 44,093 – Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  
• 41,852 – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
  
• 37,906 – The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft
  
• 37,313 – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  
• 37,176 – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  
• 36,513 – The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, père
  
• 34,914 – The Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang
  
• 31,283 – Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  
• 27,868 – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
  
• 26,923 – The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
  
• 26,504 – The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
  
• 24,742 – Ulysses by James Joyce
  
• 24,624 – The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
  

I have no doubt you will find something of interest here.

(See also: manybooks.net/recent_additions.php)
(See also: Adobe ePub Reader – Digital Editions)
(See also: ebook readers)

Finished the book. Review in progress, somewhere between zero and infinity. Each chapter begins with a quote to set the tone. Here is my favorite:

“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science. “

- William Thomson, Lord Kelvin

This is largely the problem traditional HPC sciences have with Life Sciences. Apart from statistical analysis, we simply haven’t risen to the level where we can express biological systems numerically.

(See also: amazon: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea)
(See also: wikipedia: Charles Seife)
(See also: Charles Seife)

(See also: amazon: The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero, by Robert Kaplan)

Dan Pink’s book outlines the ‘six essential aptitudes on which professional success and personal fulfillment now depend’. The era of left-brain dominance (L-directed thinking) will give way to those who are more right-brain oriented (R-directed). Individuals who develop their sense of inventiveness, empathy, and meaning will step into prominence.

Many technical careers in IT and academia are less creative than you might imagine. I have seen how the sausage is made and have turned the crank myself from time to time. I simply cannot live that way. I crave more than a creative outlet. My life must be creative.

In this book, Mr. Pink asks three critical questions:

1. Can a computer do it faster?


2. Is there a demand for my product in a time of abundance?


3. Can someone overseas do it cheaper?

In a world where information is almost free and access is immediate, the recitation of facts and figures in less important. Creativity will be in demand. Mr. Pink outlines six R-directed aptitudes:

1. Design: Moving beyond function to engage the sense.


2. Story: Narrative added to products and services, not just argument.


3. Symphony: Invention and big picture thinking.


4. Empathy: Beyond logic, engaging emotion and intuition.


5. Play: Bringing humor to business, products, and services.


6. Meaning: The purpose is the journey.

I must say, this is somewhat of a relief to hear.

(See also: danpink.com: A Whole New Mind)
(See also: danpink.com: Discussion Guide for Business)
(See also: danpink.com: Discussion Guide for Educators)

(See also: wikipedia.org: A Whole New Mind)

Reading and thoroughly enjoying Donal O’shea’s, ‘The Poincare Conjecture: In Search of the Shape of the Universe‘. Though small portions of the math are on the high end, the text is technical, historical, and accessible.

Reading the bit about Bernhard Reimann’s ‘Reimann Curvature tensor’ and his contributions to Complex Analysis. This is my Father-In-Law’s field.

More as I finish the work.

(See also: Amazon: The Poincare Conjecture)
(See also: SEED: What is The Poincare Conjecture?)
(See also: bookslut: The Poincare Conjecture)

A quick read at 147 pages, the book is peppered with examples of historical and modern heretics. (Martin Luther is cited.) In the past, life has been tough for people who think outside the prescribed norm, now the business and social climate rewards new and novel. Don’t be a ‘sheepwalker’, be a heretic.

(See also: Amazon: Tribes, we need you to lead us, by Seth Godin)