Hello again dear readers.
I'm trying to achieve my target of one book every two weeks, but it is harder than it seems. The problem lies within my will to be consistent: it is not that strong. Anyway, these are my list of books that I want to finish first, as shown in the picture above. Yes, there are many more books still waiting on the shelves.
I'm trying to achieve my target of one book every two weeks, but it is harder than it seems. The problem lies within my will to be consistent: it is not that strong. Anyway, these are my list of books that I want to finish first, as shown in the picture above. Yes, there are many more books still waiting on the shelves.
- How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg
This is the most recent book that I bought as of this writing (just two days ago) and I swear to God I should have read this book a long time ago. Well it was just published in 2014, so the earliest I could read is last year.
This is a book that I would recommend to all my friends who are in or took Mathematical courses. I liked Mathematics since I was 12, or at least that was when I discovered I have a gift in Mathematics. Long story short, during my final year in doing degree in Mathematics, I started to wonder if I actually like Mathematics. I know I am more inclined towards Pure Math compared to Applied Math, but still I couldn't convince myself to find the applications of Pure Math.
This book make me realized that I liked Math not because of its usefulness. It is simply because Math is fun, intriguing and challenging. Every chapter of this book opened up my mind on new perspective of things that I already learned (I wish teachers and lecturers can take some time to explain the beauty of Math in class), and that Mathematics is more than just equations and symbols. You should always remember Ward Abraham after reading the introductions. I only just read one-third from finishing the book, so there are a lot more to discover. - Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal
I didn't think there would be a book about video games in my local bookstore. But there it is, sitting on the shelf waiting to be picked up. My friend found this book and said he want to buy it, but I offered to buy the book and he can just borrow it from me later when I finished.
I will be taking Masters in software development, and my research will involve making programming games (as in, games that teach players or kids on how to do programming) so I believe this book will help me in big ways. The first part of this book talk about the design of video games, how the designs actually managed to hook people into playing games and be dedicated to it (hint: it is more than just because video games are "fun"). The second part of the book is about how to implement the design of good video games into our educational system and real life. I just finished the first part though, but I hope this makes you curious on how we can translate video games into real life.* - Brain Rules by John Medina
I love reading about psychology, it tells us that we don't really know about ourselves as much as we think we do. In this book, Medina explained about our behaviours on certain factors and events, such as memory, sleep.
Reading this book gives me more insights about ourselves. Some interesting facts are like:
i. we can only gives attention for 10 minutes before we start to lose focus.
ii. our brain can made up memory to "make sense".
iii. we have many great ways to be intelligent, which most doesn't show on the IQ result.
Of course, there are many more useful facts that you can get out of this book. - Out of the Labyrinth by Robert Kaplan & Ellen Kaplan
I like Mathematics, I love to teach them to my friends and underclassmen, but it is never easy to teach Mathematics to others. This is university-level Mathematics we are talking about, of course it is not easy to learn, but most of my friends are those who loves Mathematics back in their high school. Otherwise, I don't think they did bother to choose Mathematics for their degree. More and more students think that Mathematics is becoming harder and more boring.
Anyway, the authors of this book tried to change that way of thinking. Mathematics doesn't need to be difficult, alien and tedious. They shared their experiences in getting kids to start a discussion about Mathematics, and they allow the kids to trigger their own discussion while they just provide a path. It is a fun read, though I only finished first chapter. - inGenius by Tina Seelig
I only finished the introduction of this book. No wonder I had a lot of unread books, and books that I don't have any memory of buying them.
What caught my eye about this book is the author. I read Seelig's other book, What I Wish I Knew When I Was Twenty. One of the most interesting book I read about entrepreneurship and making a difference. That's why I picked up this book in a heartbeat. - Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark
I really, really want to finish this book because I want to share with others that Mathematics is our universe. But the first part of the book is about physics and astronomy, which I had some difficulty to grasp. I know it is interesting, but maybe I need to have more basics on astronomy. Still a fun read but I re-read the paragraphs many, many times. Due to having the book by Ellenberg, this book was cast aside, but hopefully just for a while.
I have many more books that I want to share, but I want to really focus on finishing these six books first. I'll definitely share more about other books that I have finished in the future posts. Have you read any of the books in the list? Any books that caught your attention? What are the books that you are currently reading? Please share in the comment section!
* Back in US, I took a course named Video Games and Learning, and the class talk about almost the exact same thing with the book. I guess my life does revolve around video games, or I am unconsciously attracted to a space where video games is the center.
* Back in US, I took a course named Video Games and Learning, and the class talk about almost the exact same thing with the book. I guess my life does revolve around video games, or I am unconsciously attracted to a space where video games is the center.