Book of the day: "Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast" by Lewis Wolpert.
Ok, I really wanted to like it, since the subject matter is interesting. But in the end, I think it was too light on the science. The most interesting parts were when Wolpert talks about human mental development or about the various odd belief systems of tribes, but both of those were really not very deep. They were there to explain the arguments, nothing more.
End result: it didn't really grab me. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't terribly intriguing.
It may be the same thing as with Dawkins - I really found his scientific books more interesting than the one about belief. I'll take his old "Selfish Gene" any day over "The God Delusion".
On another angle entirely, I read 'Warrior' and 'Witch' by Marie Brennan. I find myself looking at literature that I think Patricia might enjoy - so I'm looking at women protagonists. She loved the Twilight series, for example. I just want to read it first myself, because some of the female-oriented stuff really does seem to be sometimes closer to soft-porn rather than anything I'd suggest to a pre-teen girl.
They were fine.
Oh, and the girls are giggling over "Little Big Planet". Maybe trying to find books for them was a waste of time ;)
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For a pre-teen girl, look at The Circle of Magic series (and its follow-up, The Circle Opens) by Tamora Pierce. Save the Song of the Lioness Quartet, Wild Magic, Protector of the Small, and the newer ones til they're a bit older. The Circle books are aimed at ages 9 and up. The others are considered PG-13.
The Circle books have a lot about the importance of working together. The other books are more about overcoming odds, though they do get into the romantic stuff that, while they never really describe anything naughty, it is hinted at in a "they spent the night together" or "they're beyond the hand-holding stage" way. The Circle books keep everything solidly in the realm of friendship, though.
The thing that you want to know what your kinds are reading and that you are actually willing to read those books first yourself before giving them to read is some how understandable and admirable. But some how I don't see pre-teen girl asking father's opinion when choosing books to read. Also I have to ask do you still taste the food that it's not too hot? Filtering in some sense is good idea, but what, when and how long. I'm quite sure that the "soft-porn" in those books is not much if you compare it to the things kids tell to each other on the school yard and that is something you can't filter.
I'm curious about one thing, do you consider that your daughters are "American" or "Americanized"? If you do, how do you feel living with little Americans in the house?
As with Wolpert, having met him and talked to him, I have formed an opinion, that he is somewhat fanatical and delusional person himself, and it does not at the least surprise me that his books are "light on science". On the other hand, Dawkins is too fanatical for my liking too...
My favorite author is God. God said war was "servicemen competing". On faith healing, He said, "It's complicated." On favorite animals, "Elephants two". He used a funny metaphor -- "spilt candle". I died laughing.
Talk to God. Here's the kinda argument you would bite into, right -- "It builds-up your mental faculties."
When you press a key, take sample of a timer with x86 RDTSC instruction, divide by like 16 because it doesn't count by ones. Pick from a list of unique words with modulo... and you get this:
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The rule is you have to hold-up your end of the conversation.
You are giving your daughters books in English? Before it's too late, get your daughters reading Swedish and/or Finnish! They will learn English well enough on their own - outside your house, they are immersed in an English-speaking environment. As for whether they retain their parents' language into adulthood, that is very much under question.
I know many immigrant families. Generally, all children of immigrants learn to understand the spoken form of their birth language (provided their parents actually use it at home); some are also able to speak it fairly well. However, out of those children whose parents did not force them to read literature in their home language, none were able to comfortably read and write in the language as adults.
> I'll take his old "Selfish Gene" any day over "The God Delusion".
Yea, it's just more classy and honest.
And it delivers really good answers, the god delusion does not.
But, I had a good laugh reading The God Delusion. I would not miss it.
I thought it was about time that something this disrespectful of Theists was written. I'm fed up.
http://godisamyth.com/images/addiscartoon.jpg
> I'll take his old "Selfish Gene" any day over "The God Delusion".
I think that's because The God Delusion and Selfish Gene are written for different audiences. The Selfish Gene is written for people interested in the subject matter, and The God Delusion is written more in a way to turn agnostics into true atheists (and for atheists to have a big laugh ;-).
Btw Linus, did you read Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris? (It's also worth a couple of good laughs, though not as much as The God Delusion ;-)
You know, "Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast" is a phrase from a so called children book. It's from "Alice Through the Looking Glass"! Maybe your girls might like that :-) .
Hi Linus,
First advice for getting your girls to read books is tell them the books they 'can't read.' I'd advise putting books that are a little higher then there reading level like 1984 and Brave New World in the 'can't read' pile. Then place these books in an easy to reach locations. You'll find these books missing before any book you actually suggest to them. Plus, they'll push themselves to read them because they're not supposed to. Good luck!
-Mallory
I like Dawkins's books but the do lack something... I've been listening to "The Portable Athiest" Audiobook by Christopher Hitchens and enjoying it quite thoroughly as it is a collection of many ancient texts and famous authors writings on the subject. No doubt some of it is a bit drab, like the parts from Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right by Karl Marx, but the rest is rather entertaining. Then again, any compendium of rants by intelligent minds would entertain me...
"The Ancestors Tale" is Dawkins' best book. I should not recommend it though because it will take too much off of your kernel time.
At the end of it, though, you will never be ashamed about spagetti code anymore. Our DNA has been accumulating cruft and goto statements for millions of years and it seems to work quite well. Copy, paste and modify/mutate is the right approach to coding for the lazy programmer. (Not that I'm calling God a lazy programmer, it would be upset by that.)
Jos: I've read it. I think Selfish Gene was a more satisfying read from a conceptual standpoint, though. More pithy.
Matt Ridley has a few good popularizations of the area too. Another fascinating (and very different) book is "Sperm Wars", about human sexual behaviour.
As to the whole anti-religion thing, I can't really find myself interested in it. What's the point?
That said, in a different vein, "Misquoting Jesus" is rather interesting. Mostly so because of all the historical background and discussion. Again, I think that one is more informative and interesting than the anti-religious tirades from Dawkins, Hitchens or Harris.
For Patricia, have you considered the Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett?
How about texts by The Inklings (C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc.) for your children? Also, read James S. Cutsinger's The Form of Transformed Vision to overcome philosophical materialism that binds the mind to the notion that what is really and finally real is the world of the senses as opposed to metaphysical reality. Lastly, as an antidote to anti-religion authors like Dawkins, read Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Dr. Peter Kreeft and Dr. Ronald K. Tacelli (two Boston University Philosophy professors). You might also look at Frithjof Schuon's The Transcendent Unity of Religions to think about how it is the case that seemingly divergent points of view are reconciled in what is called the Sophia Perennis. Don't waste your precious life moments on lightweights like Dawkins. If you are going to think seriously about God then you are going to have to dive deeply and put at least the same effort you put into programming into thinking about the existence or non-existence of God.
Regards from Sweden,
Katrineholm Uncensored
Oh, of course the Golden Compass series is wonderful as well.
Hi Linus, have you considered the LOTR books? I got my younger sisters to read it and they liked the books a lot. It's my favourite book, too.
They read all the Tamora Pierce books from their school library, and we also own the Golden Compass books - very good books. The Otherland series by Ted Williams is also pretty good.
Linus: I enjoyed the Ancestors Tale most because is clearly shows where we can from using the theory from the Selfish Gene. Having a theory is one thing, but casting such an avalanche of evidence over it is great to read. The concept of starting from us and going back past our predecessors was a great find and one that will capture many readers more then the simple concept that the interesting parts of our physical world are formed by small entities that sloppily copy themselves over and over.
From a software point of view, genetics is a great inspiration. It can teach a lot about how to make your software widely used. The development process of genes and software is very different: development of quality memes in software is done by an extensive in-brain selection process before the memes are put out on different computers.
An area I'd like to learn more about is thoughts as memes. How does our brain work? Why am I conscious?
how about Katherine Neville's "The Eight"?
I don't if a pre-teen girl can follow it though...
There are quite a few good stories with women protagonist. For example "Sianim" series/universe (I liked "When Demons Walk" most) and "The Hob's Bargain" (fantasy) or "Mercy" urban/contemporary fantasy series (starting with "Moon Called") by Patricia Briggs. "Kitty" series by Carrie Vaughn, also urban fantasy. Very nice standalone "Remnant Population" by Elizabeth Moon, educational first-contast science fiction story. The classic urban fantasy (with a bit of romance) "War For the Oaks" by Emma Bull. "Southern Vamp" series by Charlaine Harris (starting with "Dead Until Dark"), also urban fantasy. Beautiful and unique "Sunshine" by Robin McKinley; bit hard to categorize, probably conteporary fantasy.
You have to be careful about "Anita Blake Vampire Hunter" series by Laurell K. Hamilton - the later books in series are quite heavily into "soft-porn" category.
Linus, could you recommend any Finnish novels or other Scandinavian works of fiction?
I haven't read much Scandinavian literature except for occasional short stories by Isak Dinesen and Viktor Rydberg, and of course Hans Christian Andersen when I was a kid. These days, most of my reading matter is non-fiction so I'd like to get into some weird, fantastic stories (horror, the supernatural, etc.) and I understand that kind of thing was popular in Scandinavian literature of the 19th Century.
Can you recommend any authors or books that I might in English translation?
For something your daughters will enjoy...
Terry Pratchett's books. The Wrinkle in Time books. Or maybe the Girl Genius comics. (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com)
For the kids - His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman (recently made intoa film called The Golden Compass)
And for you Linus, try the Night Watch series by Sergey Lukyanenko
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