At Least I Read

I just out of my second full day of executive meetings in Fremont.

My mother follows my blog and is delighted that I read (her greatest fear was that I would grow up to be illiterate). She sent me this email (Margaret is her sister)

"I wrote this in a letter to Margaret many years ago: I thought it ties in with all your book reviews you have been writing.

"Jim began to read for pleasure this week...the History of the United States for Young People that was given to me as a child. Up to this point it was only "pure" science that he would ever read on his own. I think his oral reading gets progresively worse but he was so delighted to be able to read this history and stuck it out for thirty minute periods, so I am hopeful.""

I am not sure how old I was at the time but I think 6-8. I, personally, think my mom should have had greater worries than a son that would only read about science. Not to disappoint but I still like reading science books. The following book ties into this strange habit of reading pure science books.

I read a book on a recent flight for recreation called, A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow. It is about quantum physics. I have huge respect for Stephen Hawking. He suffers from a terrible disease and is confined to a wheelchair and is basically a quadrapelegic yet he has a brilliant mind and a way of simplifying things that makes it easy to understand. Stephen Hawking is a physicist and an astronomer and the book deals with both physics and astronomy and the interaction of materials, planets, etc. It is a totally fascinating book and I would highly recommend it.

The only thing that I did not like about the book is that it burst my bubble on Isaac Newton who he claims was not a pleasant man and his relationships with other people were very strained. On the other hand, I have learned over time that even people we look up to are not perfect.

It is also interesting to read about the relationship between religion and science and how tough it was on people like Galileo.