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The Man Who Counted

September 14th, 2009 No comments

615B601GCAL._SL160_I always liked math puzzles, this was my favorite book when I was a kid, it’s a book that tales a story of the adventures of an Arabian man named Beremiz who has very good mathematical skills, and during his journey he founds lots of mathematical puzzles to solve. But it’s not just a puzzles book, Is a story that includes puzzles, therefore it’s more interesting, and the whole thing is in a particular context.

This is not only a book for children, but also for grown ups.

I always thought that the author was Arab, but only in recent days, I found out that he’s Brazilian.

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The God Delusion

September 11th, 2009 No comments

410UkKG0LcL._SL160_The God Delusion is a book written by the british biologist Richard Dawkins that provides a very comprehensive view of the non-thinking process called faith.

It’s a book openly written to un-convert to the converted, and for the same reason can be very controversial and some people even considered it as offensive (e.g. in the first chapter it explains the sins of the God of the Old Testament).

It provides evidence on why Natural Selection is a better theory than the so called theory of the Intelligent Design (The God hypothesis).

The book defends the children’s right to don’t be labeled as adherents of any religion only for that fact that their parents are. Children are free individuals and must think for them selves.

It provides the following scale to measure the belief of the persons:

1.00: Strong theist. 100 percent possibility of God. In the words of C.G. Jung, ‘I do not believe, I know.’

2.00: Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. De facto theist. ‘I cannot know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there

3.00: Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. ‘I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.’

4.00: Exactly 50 per cent. Completely impartial agnostic. ‘God’s existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.’

5.00: Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. ‘I don’t know whether God exists but I’m inclined to be sceptical.’

6.00: Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. ‘I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.’

7:00: Strong atheist. ‘I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung ‘knows’ there is one.’

The book explains that non-belivers (atheist) are happy, moral, balanced and healty persons (being an atheist is being considered as bad thing for many religious people, specialy in USA). And encourages the atheist to be prod of it.

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Pedro Páramo & El llano el llamas

September 4th, 2009 No comments

Juan Rulfo was a Mexican author, with a very particular position in the spanish language litarature:
He wrote just two books:

  • Pedro Páramo – A novel about a man’s quest for his heritage.
  • El Llano en llamas (The Burning Plane) – A tales compilation

71NHXG7N0GL._SL160_.gifThat’s all what he published, but they are so interesting and very well written, that they were enough to put Rulfo in one of the more prestigious places in Literature.

41J43R87R1L._SL160_I remember I heard a a radio interview with Gabriel García Marquez, where we was asked about the small contribution (just two books!) of Rulfo, he’s answer was simple: Anyone able to write such precious books, does not really need to write anything else.

“I came to Comala because I had been told that my father, a man named Pedro Páramo, lived here. It was my mother who told me. And I had prommised her that after she died I would see him.” First text from Pedro Páramo

“Don’t You Hear the Dogs Bark?” On the most famous tales in El llano en llamas

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A Brief History of Time

September 2nd, 2009 No comments

51QFQ89YMAL._SL160_I have to say that this book is one of the best gifts I have received… Although I don’t know were is it now, sorry dad, I think I need to get a copy…

It’s a so called popular science book by Stephen Hawking, its an attempt to explain a very wide range of subjects in cosmology. It talks about BigBang, Black Holes, Stars, Time, etc.

I think that the more interesting concept for me was the one of Light Cones, it really helps you to understand many things!

I also remember that previous to that book I had the idea that time travel was possible  (I still think that time pseudo-travel to the future will be possible, but definitely not to the past), and the solution to the question was soooo simple: If time travel were possible, we would be full of visitors from the future, and we are not! It was so simple that I was blind to see it.

I really recommend it.

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The Da Vinci Code

September 2nd, 2009 No comments

51EQAHFVD6L._SL160_The Da Vinci Code is  a fiction novel, that combines many historic  facts, myths and mysteries, creating a very interesting puzzle, around one of the best hidden secrets:  the Holy Grail.

The novel in fact is based on puzzels, adpating very well the described mind of Jacques Saunière, the just murdered curator of the Lovre Museum. But before he died he figured out a way to leave clues around him with the firm conviction that only his granddaughter,  Sophie Neveu, and Robert Langdon, can untangle.

Langdon and Neveu have a thrilling time solving the puzzle wich leads them to understand a mystery that has been hidden by a secret society for two thoustand years…. but that has clues all over.

It was a very polemic book, and there are even books written as a response to it, the most polemic issue is that talks about the idea of Mary Magadalane as wife of … guess whom? but also the way it links many ideas that have been in the air for years.

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No one belongs here more than you.

August 30th, 2009 No comments

No one belongs here...When I saw this website I considered it one the more original websites I had seen, since it was a presentation of a book, I guessed that someone with such good imagination would have to write a very good book. So I decided I had to buy it.

When I received the book I realized it was true, the 16 stories in the book are interesting imaginative and very well writen and I really enjoyed them, some of them have even some kind of erotic taste, which I understood once I dig a bit in the life of the writer: Miranda July.

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