I bought this book as a refresher on topics I learned years ago for a state exam on Physics. Unfortunately, I think videos would be much better than this book for learning physics or as 'refresher courses'.
My biggest problem with the book is that for me it just didn't work. The chapters are lessons Feynman taught as a professor but I think that's where the should have stayed at, being recorded as lectures. The explanations would probably work as a lecture, but in the book I felt like they were taking too long to get to the point. I get the point some of these explanations are trying to make, there is a lot of 'building up the logic behind the experiments.' For example, the final chapter Quantum Physics explains and builds the logic of the uncertainty principle through three double-slit experiments. First using bullets, then waves of water, …
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Fantasy, sci-fi and non-fiction enthusiast. Commute is my reading time
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CrustaceousCrab reviewed Six easy pieces by Richard P. Feynman
Review of 'Six easy pieces' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I bought this book as a refresher on topics I learned years ago for a state exam on Physics. Unfortunately, I think videos would be much better than this book for learning physics or as 'refresher courses'.
My biggest problem with the book is that for me it just didn't work. The chapters are lessons Feynman taught as a professor but I think that's where the should have stayed at, being recorded as lectures. The explanations would probably work as a lecture, but in the book I felt like they were taking too long to get to the point. I get the point some of these explanations are trying to make, there is a lot of 'building up the logic behind the experiments.' For example, the final chapter Quantum Physics explains and builds the logic of the uncertainty principle through three double-slit experiments. First using bullets, then waves of water, and finally electrons. Personally, it just strained my attention because it took too long to get to the point. For the novelty of a Feynman lecture in paper format, I think his actual lectures (found on Youtube, for example) are just better.
My second problem with it is that there are quite a few diagrams, but the text just couldn't 'keep up.' This might just be an issue with my edition, but it was quite annoying to backtrack several pages to review the diagrams while the text explained them. In the fifth chapter Gravitation, the text could not keep up with the images, sometimes referring to images three pages ahead. It's not that it's hard to follow, it's just that it's tedious in my opinion. So unfortunately, the book just didn't work for me.
CrustaceousCrab reviewed Zinky Boys by Svetlana Aleksievich
Review of 'Zinky Boys' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A very interesting and oftentimes depressing read. What I love about the book (and Alexievich's other works) is how much of a human face to the individuals that were part of the Soviet-Afghan war. I also really liked that my particular edition (I don't know if others did as well) included letters and conversations for when Alexievich was brought to court because the book was considered libel by some. The outpour of reactions, both positive and negative, was really interesting to read. It shows how much of these stories don't just exist in a vacuum. The people that went to Afghanistan had very different lives before and after Afghanistan, and Boys in Zinc has also had some effect on the lives of these people. Definitely one of my 'favorites' of this year, as far as you could call a book like this a favorite.
CrustaceousCrab reviewed Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Review of 'Piranesi' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Wow, I did not expect the direction this book would take. It was a very interesting read, and initially I thought it would be something mythological rather than arcane. The mix of journal entries and in-person events always pulled me further into the story. What I really like about Piranesi is that it doesn't provide all the answers and it leaves a bit of a mystery behind. What is the House, and how large is it? Are there other worlds? Who exactly are some of the people we meet? It simply doesn't give an exact answer, which I really like because not everything needs an answer. Sometimes the mystery is more appealing than the answer.
CrustaceousCrab rated Circe: 4 stars
Circe by Madeline Miller
The daring, dazzling, and highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Song Of Achilles that briliantly reimagines …
CrustaceousCrab rated The song of Achilles: 5 stars
The song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
This is the story of the seige of Troy from the perspective of Achilles best-friend Patroclus. Although Patroclus is outcast …
CrustaceousCrab rated Mortarion: 4 stars
CrustaceousCrab rated Embassytown: 4 stars
Embassytown by China Miéville
Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe.
Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, …
CrustaceousCrab rated The Shadowed Sun: 4 stars
The Shadowed Sun by N. K. Jemisin
Gujaareh, the city of dreams, suffers under the imperial rule of the Kisuati Protectorate. A city where the only law …
CrustaceousCrab rated Paper girls: 4 stars
Paper girls by Brian K. Vaughan (Paper Girls #1)
In the early hours after Halloween on 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all …
CrustaceousCrab rated Communist Manifesto: 3 stars
Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Friedrich Engels
Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License: www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/
One of the most influential political tracts ever published this short book …
CrustaceousCrab rated The Cloud Roads: 4 stars
Path of Destruction: A Novel of the Old Republic (Star Wars: Darth Bane) by Drew Karpyshyn
Once the Sith order teemed with followers. But their rivalries divided them in endless battles for supremacy - until one …
CrustaceousCrab rated Kraken: 4 stars
Kraken by China Miéville
Kraken is a fantasy novel by British author China Miéville. It is published in the UK by Macmillan, and in …
CrustaceousCrab rated Exit Strategy: 5 stars
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)
"Martha Wells's Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling series, The Murderbot Diaries, comes …