Taking a break from the fiction I’ve been reading I picked up a couple of books at the library that looked interesting but didn’t draw me enough to buy them outright. I started reading Logicomix last night and I’ve found it fascinating. Here’s the blurb about the book to introduce it to you:

Covering a span of sixty years, the graphic novel Logicomix was inspired by the epic story of the quest for the Foundations of Mathematics.

This was a heroic intellectual adventure most of whose protagonists paid the price of knowledge with extreme personal suffering and even insanity. The book tells its tale in an engaging way, at the same time complex and accessible. It grounds the philosophical struggles on the undercurrent of personal emotional turmoil, as well as the momentous historical events and ideological battles which gave rise to them.

The role of narrator is given to the most eloquent and spirited of the story’s protagonists, the great logician, philosopher and pacifist Bertrand Russell. It is through his eyes that the plights of such great thinkers as Frege, Hilbert, Poincaré, Wittgenstein and Gödel come to life, and through his own passionate involvement in the quest that the various narrative strands come together.

Reading the book has made me want to read more books about mathematics such as Whitehead and Russell’s Principia Mathematica. My concern is that my lack of higher mathematics will make the book frustrating and incomprehensible. Have any of you read the book? Would someone who doesn’t know much calculus be able to understand it? If not which areas of mathematics should I study first?

Still on track with my goal of reading the LotR legendarium. One of the good things about reading the books again is being reminded of favorite scenes that had slipped from my memory. One of the bad things is realizing how much was changed for the movies. Oh well... The road goes ever on and so does my reading...

That's my reading goal for 2010. To read all of the Lord of the Rings “trilogy”. That's a lot of pages in there. I wonder...

That’s a grand total of 7,875 pages. To finish it during the year I'll have to average 22 pages per day. It will be a bit of a stretch but a goal I don't mind reaching to achieve. Now I just have to come up with some spiffy graphic to chart my progress.

While hollyqueen and I were off celebrating our marriage I brought my copy of Peter Reinhart's book The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I can see why so many people recommend this book. I'm only seventy pages into the book and what I've read so far is going to improve my bread making skills. Somehow I don't think I'll have a shortage of volunteers to help eat my experiments.

Speaking of baking I'm planning at baking some bread, Springerles and other cookies weekend. Yes, I have a fondness for anise flavored cookies. Hmmm... Now to go make a shopping list...

I just finished reading Devices and Desires, the first book of The Engineer Trilogy by K.J. Parker. I found it a good solid book and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Next up is Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I found a book that contains the entire canon of Holmes stories written by Doyle. At 1,408 pages it's quite hefty.

Sunday I saw the trailer for Sherlock Holmes (2009) which has Rober Downey Jr. as Holmes. I know sirriamnis doesn't care for the film and my first reaction to the trailer I saw on the web wasn't positive. Then I read an interview with Downey where he said that his film was true to the Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books. Downey went on to say that a lot of the popular view of Holmes wasn't from the books, but rather different actors portrayals in earlier movies. This made me curious about the new movie.

When I saw the trailer in the movie I tried to keep a more open mind. It still doesn't look like the Holmes I know, but having not read the original books I admit I don't know if it was wrong. Well there's one way to know for sure. Read the books and see for myself. I'm fairly sure these will be books to keep. So does anyone have any particular editions they would recommend?

Speaking of books I have a list of other books I want to read. Yes, I know... Lots of books to read. Like you are any different? But this list was chosen because they are all epistolary novels. Have you read any of these? Are there others you would recommend?

• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• The Book of Renfield by Tim Lucas
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Carrie by Stephen King
• The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett
• The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
• The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

My paycheck! Lindsay's Technical Books has a lot of things I want!

Yesterday I finished katatomic's book Greywalker. I know I said I was going to read Foundation next, but I was distracted by the damp vampires. Greywalker is set in Seattle and involves a P.I., Harper Blaine, and her introduction to the "Grey," the paranormal world beside our own. The book was almost a hit with me, but one thing kept me from enjoying the end. If you like urban dark fantasy you should check it out. Not quite vampire porn, but that's a good thing in my view.

Now I am really going to read Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

And luckily for me I have married a good woman who knows good books! I love how we can discuss books together. We have our own favorite genres and styles that the other doesn't read but that adds to the discussion when we can show the other something that they had never considered before.

In honor of Chuck Fowler and Captain Mark Freeman’s new book “Tugboats on Puget Sound,” the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society is having an event this Saturday! Come on down to the former Naval Reserve Armory in Lake Union Park to tour FIVE historic tugs: the ELMORE, the BLUEBERRY, the HENRIETTA FOSS, the GRACE, and the ARTHUR FOSS. The boats will be open to the public on Saturday February 8th from 1pm until 5pm.

You might remember me talking about the ARTHUR FOSS. That’s boat I volunteer on giving tours and answering questions. I’ll be down there part of the day and I invite you all to come see these beautiful boats. I’m going to guess we’ll have enough hosts that we’ll have the engine room open on the ARTHUR FOSS which gives you photographers access to a diesel engine built in 1934. We might even start it up and you can hear it chugging away.