Do you regularly read non-go books?

[Solomon]

Nowadays I read more of the controversial books on religion, such as books written by Richard Dawkins and Lee Strobel. I'd like to go more into my reasons for reading such books, but I'm going to play safe and keep as far away from the TOS as possible.
...

I wonder if you've read "The God Delusion", "The Case for Christ" or "Evidence that Demands a Verdict"...

Yes, yes, no. Might check out the last one.

Finally, I will admit that I do read some Math/Stat textbooks that are not required for courses and strictly for enjoyment and curiosity (currently reading Probability Theory by Jaynes).

Jaynes is wonderful, isn't he? May I recommend A Treatise on Probability, by John Maynard Keynes? Not so much for the math as for the philosophy.

Also, poker books - got hooked after reading Harrington's volumes.

You might like The Education of a Poker Player, by Herbert O. Yardley. Not for the poker, but because Yardley was quite a character. He was a codebreaker, and the founder of MI-8, the "American Black Chamber" (the title of his first book).

Yes, so far I'm enjoying his book greatly! Shame he passed away though during the writing and had to hand the reigns to someone else though. I'll be sure to check out Herbert's book too .

[Kirby]

...
Yes, yes, no. Might check out the last one.
...

The last one is more of a reference than anything. I've read the other two books more thoroughly, but I have to admit that I've only skimmed a bit through "Evidence that demands a verdict".

[DrStraw]

Jaynes is wonderful, isn't he? May I recommend A Treatise on Probability, by John Maynard Keynes? Not so much for the math as for the philosophy.

I really hope you are advocating reading Keynes to discover what philosophy to avoid. Keynesian economics is what has got us into this huge financial fiasco which we have experienced in the last couple of years.

[ChradH]

How about some lighter stuff? I recently started re-reading Terry Pratchett's "Wyrd Sisters", planning to read all the witches' books in order.

[Harleqin]

I recently read some "Jeeves" books by P.G. Wodehouse.

[Bill Spight]

Jaynes is wonderful, isn't he? May I recommend A Treatise on Probability, by John Maynard Keynes? Not so much for the math as for the philosophy.

I really hope you are advocating reading Keynes to discover what philosophy to avoid.

I gather that you have not read A Treatise on Probability. Keynes treats probability as a form of logic.

Keynesian economics is what has got us into this huge financial fiasco which we have experienced in the last couple of years.

Gee, I thought that Greenspan was a disciple of Rand.

Seriously, the current financial crisis has been a challenge for mainstream economics, which is decidedly not Keynesian. It was the stagflation of the 1970s that rocked the Keynesian boat. Policy makers in the major economies have not been Keynesian for a long time.

[Phelan]

How about some lighter stuff? I recently started re-reading Terry Pratchett's "Wyrd Sisters", planning to read all the witches' books in order.

I have almost all of the Discworld books. I need to check my list to know which one to get next.
Other humour books I like are Douglas Adams'.

For less funny Sci-Fi fans, I recommend Starborne by Robert Silverberg. It was that book that got me into Go.

[chiwito]

I used to read a lot of books on a wide variety of topics, both fiction and non-fiction. However, in recent years I don't seem to have as much time for books; I subscribe to enough newspapers and magazines that I always seem to be trying to cath up on that, let alone try to fit in a book. However, I recently joined a book group partly to force myself to read a couple of books per month.

I am a very avid [almost obsessive] collector of fiction and literature with scenes involving go. A number of series and authors I discovered solely because of their go connection have since become favorites, and a large part of my book reading for the past fifteen years has been go-related fiction and spinoffs thereof. For example, I just finished for the second time David Wingrove's series Chung Kuo, and I am eagerly awaiting the newly revised version of the series [in 19 volumes instead of the original 8], to begin appearing this year. I also got heavily into reading and collecting works of the French literary group OuLiPo because of the go-related material written by members Georges Perec and Jacques Roubaud. Next to go lit and "regular" go books, OuLiPo was my top collecting interest for much of the past decade. The book Shibumi, probably the most popular go-related novel in English and the one most often cited as introducing players to the game, led me on a slightly odd reading path. I had read as a teen two of "Trevanian's" earlier books, the Eiger Sanction and the Loo Sanction. After finding Shibumi, I read the rest of his works. I also got into the story of James Hashian, an author who falsely claimed to be Trevanian for a number of years. I actually preferred Hashian's two novels, published under his own name, to most of the real Trevanian's work. I don't read a lot of mysteries, but I have greatly enjoyed the works of Dale Furitani, Sujata Massey, and Laura Joh Rowland, all of whom I originally discovered because they had go scenes in a few of their works. I've not been a big fan of epic fantasy, and never really got into the Wheel of Time series, but I should mention it just because of the sheer bulk it adds to my go lit collection. The same may be said of the many editions and translations of the Tale of Genji.

chiwito

[apetresc]

yes I do read non-go books, but not regularly... I used to, then I ended up reading all the good ones...

That's quite an accomplishment! I think I know what you meant, but this made me ROFL

[Gresil]

I read quite regularly these days, maybe to the tune of 30 books a year. Not much prose, though. My present preoccupation is getting more familiar with the Western canon as they call it. Right now on my nightstand:

The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton
Both of my English dictionaries, for same (pelf? bewray? livor? furfaire? advowson? caitiff? dizzard? provender?)
The Cantos by Ezra Pound (re-reading)
Notes from the Underground by Dostoyevski (first dip into his works)


(and I agree with Bill Spight—Keynes is not to blame for what's going on)

[ChradH]

Both of my English dictionaries, for same (pelf? bewray? livor? furfaire? advowson? caitiff? dizzard? provender?)

Great. My first instinct was you made these up

[topazg]

Tom Clancy, Chris Ryan, George Orwell, Ben Elton, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Laurell Hamilton, and a collection of random philosophy / religion / sociology books.

Sol, I've read some of Richard Dawkins, and while I wholly appreciate the intent of message, I tend to get irritated with his sometimes evangelical (right word? hrm!) tone at doing so. Again don't want to step on TOS issues, though I will add that if you are interested in historical scholar stuff at all on the whole God thing, you may want to look into some of Bart D Ehrman's books, I find them fascinating and more of an insight into the actual historical context of who believed what, when and why, than a "does God really exist or not" question.

[Tryphon]

I read around 2 books a week. I can't cite authors, because they're there would be too much, and some of them are french. The last good ones I read was Dan Simmon's Hyperion, and I remember having lots of fun with Ilium / Olympos too.

And as for maths books, it happens (less since I began studying Go) that I read some random chapter in Serge Lang's Algebra (Yes, I must be insane)

[DrStraw]

...

I have to wonder how you ever discovered that all those books has references to go in them. I have never even heard of the authors you mention.

[DrStraw]

... you may want to look into some of Bart D Ehrman's books, ...

I second that. They are very illuminating. He is also a very interesting person to listen to.