Book Arrivals: Cordwainer Smith and MOG

Last week was supposed to be a 1-week summer vacation. Instead, it became 1 week of overtime work. And like all overtime work, it took it's psychological toll. Mine came in the form of an order for a Kindle, and, in the process of looking through Amazon.jp, 2 new books.

Unfortunately, the Kindle will not arrive any time soon. The first time I checked, it was due to be shipped on the first week of October (plus shipping time from US to Japan).  The last time I checked, it said I will be notified by e-mail. It's now time for the long wait.

Meanwhile, the 2 new books already arrived. I ordered them because they didn't have Kindle versions. At least not yet. And besides, they've been in my wishlist for so long already. I couldn't order them because they were always out of stock here in Japan. I saw both become available, and one of them was marked "only one left in stock" (yes, I checked after it arrived, and surely, it was out of stock again).

The first book is The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith. It is a collection of classic short stories from science fiction's golden age - the late 1950's to the 60's. According to all the reviews, Cordwainer Smith was not really popular, but he wrote some of the best stories, and this omnibus (read: tome) comes highly-recommended. And also as recommended, I will read it in parts.

The second book is Reinventing Gravity by John W Moffat. It is a book about modified gravity (or MOG) theories - essentially, alternate working hypothesis that try to explain the current leading mysteries (and inconsistencies) in physics and astronomy. Lately, I've been finding the prevalent dark matter / dark energy explanations becoming more and more whimsical, especially as the evidences are not coming in. MOGs seem to be a refreshing take on the subject, and I want to understand more about them. However, save for an article in Scientific American some time back, I haven't  found any other sources, until this book came to my attention. Apparently, people really do have a hard time letting go of cherished theories*, and relatively fewer researchers are pursuing this direction.

Along with my other ongoing books (and the soon-to-be-in-my-possession Kindle and Kindle books), I am looking forward to great insightful and enjoyable reads in the near future.

Btw, it's the Obon period this weekend, so I have 4 days to enjoy them before work interrupts life again. I have no plans of rushing through the books. I am going to slowly savor and enjoy them for quite some time.

Oh yeah, Reinventing came with the first 2 pages torn! Torn! I had to wait 1 week (i.e. today) for a new copy to be delivered. The damaged one also got picked up late this afternoon. So everything's fine  and dandy now. They're now both wrapped in book plastic covers and ready to be read. On a side note, I'll probably be finishing Imago, the third and last story in Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood before continuing with The Rediscovery.

* From the first chapter: historically, the Ptolemaic earth-centered view was so entrenched that it persisted for 2000 years... until Copernicus came by. Wow, 2000 years! In comparison, Einstein's Special and General theories of relativity are just a little over 100 years old, while Darwin's theory of evolution just turned 150 last year. 2000 years indeed!