A quick poll, I'd like your opinions...
So, I am house-sitting, and as such, have an extra-long commute every morning and afternoon until January 5. It's boring.
A friend suggested I try audio books. So I did. But it brought up a question I have... I know technically the rules say "it's up to you" with regard to what books are counted here, but I can't decide whether or not to count these toward my goal. It would make things go much faster, but ... I just don't know... I thought I'd see what others are doing. There aren't many posts with the "audio book" tag, so we'll see how this ends up :) I hope it's allowed, if not, let me know and I'll edit the post to delete the poll. I'm just curious, is all.
Poll
And I did just finish Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas R. Hofstadter. It took me forever and ever to get through this book, but not because it wasn't enjoyable. I just had a ton of work to do with regard to my degree.
The book was extremely interesting, and put together (with the exception of a few chapters around the middle, in my opinion) for just about anyone. It is a book about artificial intelligence - what he believes is and is not possible for a computer to "learn". Before each chapter there is a Dialogue, which consists of multiple characters carrying out a conversation in such a way to illustrate the point he will be discussing in the chapter - this REALLY helps to set the scene and show what he means by a concept, or why a particular concept is important. I would highly suggest doing the mind problems he gives throughout the book, because otherwise the concepts may become muddled in your head... especially if you have not been aquainted with first order logic and predicate calculus in the past (these are the sections in the middle that I don't think he explains very well... or rather, he goes through them very fast). Also, if you get to the point in the middle and get hopelessly confused, don't give up hope! Skip ahead to the next dialogue and next chapter... or just read the dialogues and skip a few chapters. But the last 3 chapters are very interesting and should be read by everyone!
A friend suggested I try audio books. So I did. But it brought up a question I have... I know technically the rules say "it's up to you" with regard to what books are counted here, but I can't decide whether or not to count these toward my goal. It would make things go much faster, but ... I just don't know... I thought I'd see what others are doing. There aren't many posts with the "audio book" tag, so we'll see how this ends up :) I hope it's allowed, if not, let me know and I'll edit the post to delete the poll. I'm just curious, is all.
Poll
And I did just finish Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas R. Hofstadter. It took me forever and ever to get through this book, but not because it wasn't enjoyable. I just had a ton of work to do with regard to my degree.
The book was extremely interesting, and put together (with the exception of a few chapters around the middle, in my opinion) for just about anyone. It is a book about artificial intelligence - what he believes is and is not possible for a computer to "learn". Before each chapter there is a Dialogue, which consists of multiple characters carrying out a conversation in such a way to illustrate the point he will be discussing in the chapter - this REALLY helps to set the scene and show what he means by a concept, or why a particular concept is important. I would highly suggest doing the mind problems he gives throughout the book, because otherwise the concepts may become muddled in your head... especially if you have not been aquainted with first order logic and predicate calculus in the past (these are the sections in the middle that I don't think he explains very well... or rather, he goes through them very fast). Also, if you get to the point in the middle and get hopelessly confused, don't give up hope! Skip ahead to the next dialogue and next chapter... or just read the dialogues and skip a few chapters. But the last 3 chapters are very interesting and should be read by everyone!