The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin - This book has been on the to-read shelf for a while, but got pushed to the top recently because someone else was reading it (by coincidence) and I wanted to be able to chat about it. The book is basically a guy who is fairly anti-string theory talking about why he's anti, what else he thinks has potential, and then some broader philosphy of the educational and research systems and of science. I've always sort of felt uneasy about string theory, but I've never known anything about it, so I figured I just didn't like what I didn't understand. This guy points out a great many fundamental flaws with string theory - from it's basis (not being "background independent") to it's results (having no real expriments to test its validity). It's all interesting, but there is a problem. Much of what he says is that most scientists for too long have assumed string theory is correct because everyone told them it was - a valid point. However, now HE is telling me it's not correct and that something else is more likely, but why should I believe him any more than the next? At the end, though, he gets into philosphy of setting up science and education to allow broader thought. His complaint is that you can't NOT do string theory any more, and that that limits scientific potential and growth. This I am totally down with and I agree that scientists, just like any other group, get stuck on themselves, think they know it all, think their way is the right way. And when enough of them get in power, the system is geared toward only that way of thinking, and that's dangerous to science. So it's a good book. I don't read a lot of pop science, but it was informative. I at least have a better idea of the basis of string theory.
Oil! by Upton Sinclair - Oh man, I can honestly say I have been unambiguously excited about this book ever since I saw There Will Be Blood. So I admit, I'm an easy audience, but I have to say, wow did it start out great. Just the opening chapter, whodathunk a father and a son driving down a road could be riveting reading?? It's just so well written, I love it. It is very very different from the movie, no surprise. First of all, it's all from the perspective of the son, and has much more to do with him than with his father. The father is really no more than a foil or pure form of the capatilist view. The first, say, fourth of the book is very much like the movie, all about the oil business and religion. Then it's off to tangent town - society, growing up, falling in love, world war I, bolshevism, social issues, socialism, communism, a big coming of age tangent that is good and makes me feel dumb I didn't know that world war i, bolshevism, and lenin were all at the same time. All this is really rather the point of the book, not the oil. The oil is just a big analogy for the greed and corruption of politics and society. Well, not really an analogy, because it is part of the corruption of politics and society. Still, it serves as an entry point into it. It's very good, but it's just worlds different than the movie. In fact, I have a whole new respect for the movie now. There was a lot to go on in this book, and it would hvae been a horrendously boring movie to see all about the details of socialism and communism, there's just not the patience to learn like there is in a book. So instead Anderson took this microcosm aspect and made a wonderful glorious character driven spectacle. They are both fantastic pieces of art, in completely different ways.
Three Fingers - Ok, this is a graphic novel. I don't think I've done comics on here, but this blew me away, I had to write about it somewhere! This book is kind of set as an expose documentary, kind of a behind the music but more scandalous. The subject of the expose is the "toon" industry, in a world where cartoons were real people (think roger rabbit). The specific scandal I'll leave out, it's not a spoiler, but it's an amazing moment. The book has a good number of amazing moments, the pain and bitterness is so palpably written and drawn, it's fantastic.
While I'm on the subject, maybe I'll keep doing comics, so as I go I'll review ones I've read in the recent past I liked. My current subscriptions are:
Invincible & The Walking Dead - Both by Robert Kirkman. The first a fantastic modern superhero story, the second a zombie story. Kirkman is such a good writer, I don't really know how to describe it, but he makes two fairly routine stories (superhero kid and zombie attack) wonderful to read. These are my favorites, hands down. I feel like I'm not doing them justice, but there's not much to say except how great they are.
Fables - I didn't like this book at first, but it really grew on me. The main idea is that all our favorite fairy tale and cartoon characters are real people, many of whom live in their own community in new york. Their fairy tale worlds are the "homelands" and there is drama with an evil force that controls them now. It seemed silly at first, but like I say I grew to like it a lot, enough to pay anyway!
Atomic Robo - This one is actually done, but it's pretty good, and it will be back. It's from the guy who does 8-bit theater (a webcomic) and it's basically a robot built in the, I dunno, 40s or something (whenver tesla was) and he is a superhero. It's snarky and spiderman-like and well written. I don't actually think it's AS amazing as everyone else does, but it's pretty good.
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