99 books to read on the wall, 99 books to read...

Yes! Last night I stayed up past my bedtime and finished my first book. "The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics was Reborn" was closed, probably for good. I did enjoy it, but wouldn't put it on my Top 10 list. Probably not even on my Top 50 list. It was interesting It definitely made me think--so much so, that my brain hurt. Towards the end of the book, one of the young physicists says that physics should be so easy that we can explain it to any junior high or high school student. I will admit that the author did a good job of that. There was nothing complicated about her approach, and you could always turn to the glossary if you needed help. The funny thing about the glossary though was that she defined every term in the book the first time she wrote about it, so you didn't really need the glossary. What really interested me about the book though was that all the physicists basically spent their lives arguing about the same thing, siding with one or another and then a few years later, changing their mind. Even today, the younger scientists, physicists, theorists, experimentalists or whatever you want to call them, are arguing with Einstein, trying to prove Bohr or Bell wrong. It doesn't change from decade to decade. Someone will always challenge what someone else says. Especially in a field like Physics where things aren't based in reality anyway. Working with particles so small no one can see them and then deciding what they are going to do while no one is watching is what these men spent all their lives trying to prove. I suppose, in a way, we are all "entangled" with each other. Even though it seems improbable that two items that have nothing to do with each other and will never cross paths, are somehow entangled with other items that will.

The author did try to add some interesting stories, taken from letters and, even in her own admission, made-up from several different sources. So the science was true, but the story surrounding it may or may not have happened. Just like quantum physics.

I am glad I challenged myself on this first book, but am also completely relieved that I now get to read a work of fiction. I started "Amateur Barbarians" this afternoon on the train and already devoured two chapters. This is more my style. More descriptions, more imagination needed and no glossary! This book should be a fast read. I don't believe I will make the 2 books in 7 day deadline, but considering I have to go to the doctor tomorrow, I may get more read than I thought. So, I'm starting a little behind in my goal, yet feel like I've already succeeded for not giving up on the very first book. And that will inspire me to keep going.

I will update you soon and if anyone wants a very slightly used copy of "The Age of Entanglement" I'd be more than happy to share.

Entangled Already

So it is January 4th and I still have 145 pages of my first book to read. I will probably not reach my goal of 2 books this week. I do have a little leeway, but as someone who likes to achieve my goals, I am getting frustrated that it may not happen. Am I breaking my resolution so soon? No, just having to take a bit more time. "The Age of Entanglement" is a little bit of a tougher read than I thought. I can't just read a page, or a chapter and then move on. It's causing me to think about what the author is saying, wonder about quarks and electrons and nuclei and all these famous dead scientists and physicists arguing about what reality is. On the train this morning, there was a passage about poison and a cat in a box and some atomic reaction that may or may not happen and how the cat was in the superposition of both life and death, depending on if the box was really a box in the first place. Ummmm......ok, come on, you have to think about that! Plus now, work has started back up and I have to spend 8 hours doing my job. My commute on the train is only about 20 minutes, which gives me a chance to knock out a few pages or a chapter, but not much more than that.

I probably could have or should have started with the fiction book, but I'm glad I gave myself a challenge. I will not back down. A couple of times Eric has said "if you don't like it, you don't have to finish it." It's not that I don't like the book, I am finding it interesting, I am just having a more difficult time than I thought getting through it. It's not that I don't understand what I am reading, I do...it's just that this book is one that makes you stop and ponder. But I cannot stop and I will not stop. I am hoping to be finished with this book by tomorrow night. I will let you know and give my full review at that time.

Let The Wild Rumpus Start!

2010 arrived today, not with a wild rumpus, but with a kiss and a hug and falling asleep before midnight. Eric and I watched the ball drop in Times Square though, so that usually means it's officially the new year, no matter where you are in the US. It was quiet in our neighborhood at the stroke of midnight. I could hear distant fireworks but no one was shooting off guns or yelling wildly or honking car horns. I like it that way. In my younger days I used to love to wait up and have a champagne toast, wear a silly hat, or as I did in Florida, jump into a pool sans clothing. Now I appreciate the quiet evenings at home, watching a movie or a football game or playing a game of Scrabble. I also appreciate not having to watch the Tournament of Roses Parade with a hangover.

So on this first day of 2010, I awoke with the sun. Usually I am up before the sun, so it was nice that we got up together today. Then I went grocery shopping, came home, watched the parade, watched some football, made some homemade chicken noodle soup, and began my resolution of reading the first of those 100 books I plan on getting through.

I had two choices. My fiction choice was "Amateur Barbarians" by Robert Cohen and my non-fiction choice was "The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics was Reborn" by Louisa Gilder. I chose the non-fiction book because I figure you should always start the new year out with the truth. Plus, I was never big on physics, quantum or otherwise, so I knew I would struggle with this book and figured it would be a good challenge. I was a little concerned that the end of the book contained 100 pages worth of glossary terms and notes, but got over that after looking at the glossary and realizing that I knew more about physics and scientific terms than I had remembered. Living with my mathematician step-father for all those years probably had something to do with it.

I am two chapters into the book and am finding it interesting but also realize that I still am not big on physics. The book contains excerpts from letters, interviews and conversations between all sorts of scientists including Einstein and Bohr. It has charts and footnotes and the author is doing her best to keep it an "easy" read rather than making the reader have to stop and look up every other word in the dictionary. But for me, this is a book where I am only going to be able to read a chapter and then will have to put the book down, think on it a bit and then pick it up again. I don't think this is like "Harry Potter" where I can read it in one sitting, nor do I want it to be. Part of this resolution is to introduce myself to new experiences, new authors, new ideas, and to maybe learn something or a lot of somethings in the process.

So even though the "entanglement" is sort of a "wild rumpus" in the quantum world, I'm going to take it in quietly, like my New Year's Eve celebrations.