Book update!

Completed

I finished The Tipping Point - as suspected, I'm not the right audience. It's ok, and has interesting moments, but I don't think it's the new key to understanding chaos theory or anything. Most troubling - I spotted some mathematical errors in one or two of his examples (nothing huge, but certain details that he fudged to make his analogies work a little more cleanly) that made me sort of suspect the research quality of the rest of the book.

Before departing for Ireland I hit up a used bookstore for some cheap paperbacks I could shed along my travels, thus freeing up space in my suitcase. Alas, I didn't read nearly as much as I planned, but between Dublin and Denver I did manage to polish off an old collection of Nonrequired Reading (a mixed bag, as I find most of those series to be, but still worth the investment), Contact (very enjoyable, and added bonus, the previous owner left a NOW convention nametag in the book. yay feminism!) and Acceptable Risk, which is both terrible and awesome (new drug synthesized in days! may cure depression and anxiety! oh, but it builds up in key parts of the brain and makes you revert back to your most animal instincts! Plus, witches!)

Purchased/Started

On impulse at Wordsmiths fundraiser last night I picked up Shut Up I'm Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned In the Israeli Government by Gregory Levey. I'm only a chapter in, but already it's threatening to provide ample distraction from completing my course notes. Speaking of which...(four more lectures and I've outlined the entire semester!)