Books I saw in the Library

I have a lot of off time to walk in the library and every time I traverse the worn aisles of the institution, I find books I have either never heard of or at one time I wanted to read. I usually forget about the books I saw after awhile and then never get the chance to read them. So for this feature, which I hope to have regularly, I will present 4 books per article, for my record and maybe to promote discussion.

Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan
Saw this on the shelf and was appealed to the title and the content according to the inside cover-flap. A guy who doesn't care about anything is charged with a murder he did not commit but cares too little to defend the good name he never had. Well, that is enough to get me intrigued. Plus, all the reviews presented in the book talk about how funny it is, and I have yet to come across too many books that are funny. I read Pnin by Nabokov which has some jokes, but Catch-22 never did a thing for me.

 Consider Phlebas by Ian M. Banks
Ah, science fiction. I am always looking for a good sci-fi tale and I do not think this one will fail me. Of course I am interested in this book because of the author and synopsis, but also somewhat because of the cover. All that crap everyone says about not judging a book by its cover is just that, crap. I have been judging books by their cover for as long back as I can remember and the only time it failed me was when I read Tad William's craptastic Otherland: City of the Golden Shadow. Once out of a few hundred times is not that bad if you ask me. Of course there are books out there with poorly designed covers or none at all and I do read books from that category, but I will not shy away from judging a book by its cover.

The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl
I am actually less interested in the storyline of this book and more interested in the mathematics it is based on. The title alludes to Fermat's Last Theorem, which is probably one of the most well known problems (which was eventually solved) in mathematics and perplexed mathematicians for centuries. Fermat wrote in the margins of a book he was reading that he had a theorem to prove the Fermat Theorem, but he died before ever publishing a proof. Debate has raged for centuries over whether or not Fermat ever had a proof. Regardless, this book seems to wrap a good story around the math and that is something I can respect.


The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco is quite possibly the best author to ever live. He wrote the massive tome I read called Foucault's Pendulum which may have been the best book I have ever read. The Name of the Rose was written before Foucault's Pendulum and according to many academics, The Name of the Rose is better. The only thing I am worried about is that Foucault's Pendulum is supposed to be more accessible, and it was a book that was quite challenging with so many allusions even the most educated will be lost sometimes.