Saturday, September 20, 2014

Birthday Book Bash


Well, not exactly a bash in the classic definition of the term.  I got three books this year, but they look like a trio of real good ones.

The main gift, from my wife, was G. H. Hardy’s A Mathematician’s Apology, the classic math tome published by a classic mathematician, written about 75 years ago.  Don’t know much about it save that it is a must-read for those In The Know, and that Hardy himself was a (typical?) math weirdo.  If “weirdo” is a little harsh, then how about this: Hardy sounds like, from everything I’ve read about him, to be about a 9 out of 10 on the Sheldon Cooper scale.

That’s the book I’m going to smuggle in to my sister-in-law’s wedding in three weeks.  (Disclaimer: While I can’t can’t can’t can’t can’t stand weddings – I have a fundamental personality flaw in the inability to mingle – I wish everyone involved in said weddings all the blessings and happiness they need and more.)  I will find a quiet, out-of-the way nook, and dissolve myself into Hardy’s hearty prose.

The book the little ones gave me is this one:


Think they’re trying to subtly tell me something?  But I know they have boundless love for me because I’ve told them about Gaffigan, how me and their mother caught his act a few years back and it was utterly hilarious, and how I said offhand I’d love to read it as we passed it by as it sat on a display table at B&N.  Read the first two pages before bed on Wednesday and laughed out loud twice.

The third book will remain a mystery for now, because it is part of a post I am working on for the near future …

Good reading!


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