Books (not Boobs)

I'm on the second-last Discworld (Terry Pratchett) book. Should be wrapped up by next week.

I'm on the second-last Discworld (Terry Pratchett) book. Should be wrapped up by next week.

What an amazing writer and person.

Book-related: The Expanse series now on SyFy [and Youtube], based on the James S. A. Corey space opera. There's enough material in the books to keep it going for years.

Book-related: The Expanse series now on SyFy [and Youtube], based on the James S. A. Corey space opera. There's enough material in the books to keep it going for years.

Watched it last night. Thought it was not bad. They are apparently going for the Battle Star Galactica audience. Will be watching episode 2 tonight.

Book I am reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seveneves

wicked so far

Rainmaker, the Baye's book you recco'd was great. However I can't imagine recommending it to anyone else.. I suspect this was the first time you suggested it to a stranger. In my opinion Bayes is in the same stratos as Einstein, but I don't know what it would take to make people feel the same way.

My recco's for the last few months:

If you're into SciFi, read James S.A. Corey… action sci-fi at its best right now. I still haven't watched their SciFy television show yet… I'm afraid to.

Superforecasting. At the best, people will stop taking prediction at face value on their teevee.

The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us we aren't good at making decisions.

Predictably Irrational Daniel K's successor if I get to say so. We aren't good at making decisions.

The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home We still aren't good at making decisions, but this makes us feel a bit better.

Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind was excellent. some chapters held my attention much more than others but for the most part, it was enlightening. especially if you don't have a liberal arts degree such as myself. never took an anthropology course and this covers a lot of bases. i didn't quite realize how short a time it has been in the course of human history that we have been agricultural. our entire bodies and minds are still hunter gatherers. amazing.

What an amazing writer and person.

Truth.

I just finished the last book in the Discworld series, The Shepherd's Crown. Sigh. :(

This is the trouble with the holidays - I have read 5 books in less than two weeks. Started this on the 24th, finished on the 25th:

Good read, and sets up things nicely for the next Expanse book, due out in 2016 sometime. Good character development.

Next up is The Abyss Beyond Dreams by Peter F Hamilton.

Rainmaker, the Baye's book you recco'd was great. However I can't imagine recommending it to anyone else.. I suspect this was the first time you suggested it to a stranger. In my opinion Bayes is in the same stratos as Einstein, but I don't know what it would take to make people feel the same way.

Yep. It was. Ive recommended it a lot of fellow econ nerds and they've enjoyed it. I think you'd need to already have an interest (and at minimum a cursory understanding of different approaches to statistics) in Bayesian analysis to enjoy it. That said, it provides great examples/context/history to round it out and make it as close to a page turner as it could be (IMO).

I have read an avalanche of Abraham! His "Long Price Quartet" was decent, and reads like a precursor to the Dagger and Coin series (although the two series are unrelated). I have also finished 3 of 5 "Black Sun's Daughter" books by M. L. N. Hanover, an Abraham pseudonym. They aren't as strong as his other stuff, coming off like a lite version of the Hellblazer comics. I'll skip the last two books, as they're just not that great.

Now what do I read?

Now what do I read?

On the non-fiction side of things, my suggestion would be Dan Ariely.

On the non-fiction side of things, my suggestion would be Dan Ariely.

Well, now that I've read the chapter summaries on Wikipedia, I don't need to read the book… ;)

Kidding! Well, partially. I've encountered most of what he's saying in other places, like Freakonomics podcasts, Terry O'Reilly's Age of Persuasion and Under the Influence series, and reading about logical fallacies so I can better understand online trolls and Fox News.

Any other suggestions on the behavioral/social economics side of things?

I dunno, I never got much out of Freakonomics.. At least not nearly as much out of the behavioral psychology cabal. That shit is dope. At least that's what all the cool kids say on that topic. I've heard some great things about the book Ancillary Justice and will be reading that soon.. Have you read it?

Ancillary Justice - I am not familiar with it. I'll check it out. Thanks!