luch finished reading Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings
Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings
[From the Back Cover]
Winning the lottery has ruined Opal Devlin's life. After quitting her dead-end job where she'd earned …
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20% complete! luch has read 1 of 5 books.
[From the Back Cover]
Winning the lottery has ruined Opal Devlin's life. After quitting her dead-end job where she'd earned …
[From the Back Cover]
As the election of Donald Trump shows, fascism in all its white nationalist and "alt-right" permutations …
Goodness, this is the big one.
I have a long and complicated relationship with Dummit & Foote. This is a text that one can get absolutely lost in, and i absolutely have. For example, i think that at one time i had solved (nearly?) all of the problems in Part I. It's full of excellent examples, it's full of wonderful exercises, and… honestly, one could probably spend the rest of one's life reading it if one wished.
That's both good and bad.
On the one hand, it's wonderful about taking its time, about being complete, thorough, approachable to students at just about any level of post-proofwriting-course experience (or maybe with an elementary number theory course under their belts). It's a text that really tries to bring everything it can to the student, and be a comprehensive guide. And… the student is well-rewarded for their efforts. This text has a lot …
Goodness, this is the big one.
I have a long and complicated relationship with Dummit & Foote. This is a text that one can get absolutely lost in, and i absolutely have. For example, i think that at one time i had solved (nearly?) all of the problems in Part I. It's full of excellent examples, it's full of wonderful exercises, and… honestly, one could probably spend the rest of one's life reading it if one wished.
That's both good and bad.
On the one hand, it's wonderful about taking its time, about being complete, thorough, approachable to students at just about any level of post-proofwriting-course experience (or maybe with an elementary number theory course under their belts). It's a text that really tries to bring everything it can to the student, and be a comprehensive guide. And… the student is well-rewarded for their efforts. This text has a lot to teach, and spending quality time with it will yield wonderful rewards.
On the other hand, because it's such a vast forest, one can find oneself lost. At the very least, it can take a /very long time/ to get to some topics, or through others. I also don't know that i find all of its explanations and approaches to be the cleanest or the most crystal-clear. For example, i've long found that the presentation of tensor products is wanting in some way that i have trouble specifying; perhaps it's that it is so general that a student can readily miss the point of the exercise, the goal of the tool. I'm not sure; i've not looked at it in some time. Mostly… i've read better presentations elsewhere.
Still… i think one would be hard-pressed to find a better comprehensive algebra text. I think Lang is probably the other major reference (and/or textbook), and… i've never found Lang's writing especially compelling—he was infamous for completing textbooks in a few months, and i think it shows in his presentation; i often find that he says too little in his texts, or tries to be too slick in his presentation in order to make topics appear simpler than they are. In so doing, he will make certain examples appear wonderfully natural and straightforward, while leaving a reader totally adrift on related problems.
I think that this is a text every student with any serious interest in mathematics should own. Even with its drawbacks, well… my copy's spine has been duct-taped back together because it has seen so much happy use, so i think its kind, gentle, and thorough presentation is well worth taking a good look at.
One of the canonical undergraduate texts, this is my first time opening it, and… i must say, i'm impressed. I've read several undergraduate analysis texts, but this is probably the one i've enjoyed most. Of course, it may be that things look different because of the experience i already have, but, still, i think it's a wonderful read. The presentation is clear and efficient, and there are some stylistic choices that feel right to me. For example, Rudin's definition of the "upper limit" of a sequence (or its "lime superieur," or its "limsup") is in terms of the limit points of said sequence thought of as a set, rather than in terms of the limit of the sequence of suprema of tails of the sequence, which is the usual definition (and which i have /always/ found cumbersome to think about). This definition may be less efficient in terms of actually …
One of the canonical undergraduate texts, this is my first time opening it, and… i must say, i'm impressed. I've read several undergraduate analysis texts, but this is probably the one i've enjoyed most. Of course, it may be that things look different because of the experience i already have, but, still, i think it's a wonderful read. The presentation is clear and efficient, and there are some stylistic choices that feel right to me. For example, Rudin's definition of the "upper limit" of a sequence (or its "lime superieur," or its "limsup") is in terms of the limit points of said sequence thought of as a set, rather than in terms of the limit of the sequence of suprema of tails of the sequence, which is the usual definition (and which i have /always/ found cumbersome to think about). This definition may be less efficient in terms of actually /calculating/ the upper limit of a sequence, but it is amazingly efficient for writing proofs that utilize this tool. There are myriad other examples present that also feel refreshingly clear to me, but… well, perhaps you get the idea.
I've read nearly the first three chapters of this text, and i look forward to reading more.
Thus far, i've found this an engaging read. The presentation of the material is lean, which has its advantages and disadvantages. I'm mostly reading this text as a review, so its complete lack of formal exercises and its brisk (but, crucially, complete) summary of undergraduate topology is perfect for me. But i think even the novice would find this an excellent companion to something like Munkres, the traditional introductory topology text. Indeed, this text presents a number of examples very clearly, with excellent diagrams and accompanying descriptions. Further, Jänich has a real talent for keeping the reader's eyes on the larger picture, on developing ideas and intuition, and not getting overly bogged down in technical details (which they trust the reader will be able to provide—these tend to serve as the text's exercises).
Perhaps the main thing to bear in mind while reading is that some portions of the text …
Thus far, i've found this an engaging read. The presentation of the material is lean, which has its advantages and disadvantages. I'm mostly reading this text as a review, so its complete lack of formal exercises and its brisk (but, crucially, complete) summary of undergraduate topology is perfect for me. But i think even the novice would find this an excellent companion to something like Munkres, the traditional introductory topology text. Indeed, this text presents a number of examples very clearly, with excellent diagrams and accompanying descriptions. Further, Jänich has a real talent for keeping the reader's eyes on the larger picture, on developing ideas and intuition, and not getting overly bogged down in technical details (which they trust the reader will be able to provide—these tend to serve as the text's exercises).
Perhaps the main thing to bear in mind while reading is that some portions of the text assume a knowledge of some background material that i would think would be unfamiliar to many, if not most, undergraduates. But… i've just been skipping things i've not been exposed to, or that i have only vague memories of. Doing so does not seem to disrupt the overall flow of the text; it merely leaves one with fewer examples to draw from, which is perfectly all right. It also gives one material to return to.
The point is: i like it very much, so far, about three chapters in.
There is today a crisis in psychiatry. Even the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health has said: …
Another text I'm interested in reading because I'm not sure how it will resonate. I'm interested in reading a good-faith critique of contemporary psychological practice (i.e. one from, like, not Scientologists) for various reasons; but I'm also wary of the sub-title, which claims that it has a complete solution to the issues it raises—I worry this boldness (verging on arrogance) may be telling of some rot in the foundations of the work. We shall see…
I've been meaning to reread this for a few years now, as it had a dramatic impact on me when I first picked it up four or five years ago. I think it's well worth a read to anyone interested in the inescapable connection between racial hypercarcerality and hypercapitalism in the US. It's approachable for someone with little to no knowledge on the topic, but I think that even people who have some knowledge already will get something from this—even if it's just how well-expressed the ideas are.
**2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
A haunting Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance, from the acclaimed author of …
From the Publisher:
It’s 2003 and Romy Hall, named after a German actress, is at the start of two consecutive …