Book Meme

There is a book meme making its way around the web, which I've come across at See Jane Compute and Afarensis (among other places). I've never been tempted to do one of these meme thingies before. However, the topic for this meme is certainly a worthy one, so here goes...

1) One book that changed your life?

There have been a lot of books that have shaped my life positively in some incremental way. For example, my responses below for items 2 and 4 in this list fit in that category. However, for something that was a catalyst for a more dramatic change, what comes to mind is a book that had a negative effect on me.

I read Hermann Hesse's novel Siddhartha, about the title character's spiritual quest for enlightenment, when I was starting high school. Afterwards, I dropped out of social activities at school and became very introspective. For someone who was introverted to begin with, this was not a productive change (and obviously I somehow missed the whole concept of the middle road). I never did achieve nirvana, but the choices I made back then still continue to shape my life in unintended ways.

2) One book you have read more than once?

For this item I choose Introduction to the Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser, which is arguably the best introductory text available on the theory of computation. While it's known for its easy-to-understand proofs of difficult theorems, what I like best about the book is its breadth of topics. It introduces subjects such as descriptive complexity and interactive proofs that are typically only covered in graduate level texts. I plan on reading this one again soon.

3) One book you would want on a desert island?

I suppose for a desert island one would want something that could take a long time to savor, like, say, the collected works of Shakespeare. On the technical side, something like Penrose's The Road to Reality comes to mind. But for something a bit more basic but with a lot more heart, I would pick Richard Feynman's The Feynman Lectures on Physics. This 3-volume set is based on the lectures that Feynman gave for an introductory physics course he taught at CalTech from 1961 to 1963. Of course, to properly appreciate these lectures, one needs to hear Feynman's own voice. For this, I think I'd prefer the iPod version.

4) One book that made you laugh?

Although it could fit just as well in several of the other categories on this list, Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is as noteworthy for its sense of humor as for its ideas on logic, AI, and the interconnectedness of knowledge. The dialogues between Achilles and the Tortoise are hilarious.

5) One book that made you cry?

When I was young, I always used to cry at the end of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, when Charlie Brown thinks that he's killed the Christmas tree. I still have a weakness for sentimental kid's stories, and one very nice one that I've read recently is Kate DiCamillo's latest book, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Edward Tulane is a toy rabbit, and the plot conceit for this story is that Edward is a totally passive observer of his life--he is, after all, just a toy, and only moves when his owner makes him move. While it somehow made me think of panpsychism while I was reading it, anyone who has ever felt like a passive participant in life is likely to be taken in by this story. I balled my head off at the end of it.

6) One book you wish had been written?

I think it would be great to have a book which used Sudoku as a jumping-off point to teach about topics in math and computation. I've mentioned this before. In fact, I might be tempted to try writing something like this myself.

7) One book you wish had never had been written?

Well, after looking at what I've written so far, maybe I should pick Siddhartha. Instead, I'll choose An Introduction to the General Theory of Algorithms by Michael Machtey and Paul Young. This was the text used in the introductory theory of computation course I took in college. It utterly turned me off from the subject, and it wasn't until years later that I realized that this material can actually be exciting.

8) One book you are currently reading?

Explaining Consciousness: The Hard Problem, edited by Jonathan Shear. This book consists of the essay Facing up to the Problem of Consciousness by David Chalmers, along with responses by many other researchers in the field of consciousness. It gives a nice overview of the current thinking on the subject. More about the book can be found here.

9) One book you have been meaning to read?

My "To Read" list is pretty long, and I'll probably never get around to reading many of them. But the next book on my list is Programming the Universe by Seth Lloyd. This book treats information as a fundamental physical property of the universe. The connections between computation (as an abstraction) and physics are deep, and it makes me wish I had studied more physics back when I was in school. Maybe this book will help.

10) Now tag five people.

Well, I'm not sure I buy the tagging part of blog memes. If it's really a meme, then shouldn't it spread on its own without any overt action? Otherwise, you have something more resembling a chain letter. In any event, I'm not sure I know 5 other people who read this blog. So, if you're reading this, considered yourself tagged. But only if you want to be!