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India (Lonely Planet Country Guide)

by: Joe Bindloss, Sarina Singh, Rafael Wlodarski, Amy Karafin, Paul Harding, Lindsay Brown, Mark Elliott, Simon Richmond, Virginia Jealous, Tom Spurling

September 01, 2007
A decent enough book. But my Rough Guide (1996 edition) is better ! More details and better accuracy.

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Fermat's Last Theorem

by: Simon Singh

June 05, 2002
The book looks like the author is just postponing the end of the story just repeating and repeating the same ideas. The part of the proof and the attempts to correct the proof are quite disappointing because they are too much redundant. Moreover Singh is sliding some e-mails which don't add anything to the story and are quite "impenetrable". I do not like this way of writing. The author pretends not to use math symbology and math concepts beyond very basic ones, and then he lets go concepts like Hecke algebra, Euler system, "quasi-automorphic representations", i.e. without giving any clue about what they mean.
I think it leaves too much maths unexplained (and in a book about a math conundrum you understand it is a big problem!); I would ... Read More:

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The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking

by: Simon Singh

June 08, 2000
I came across this by accident after reading the same author's book on Fermat's Last Theroem.

Simon Singh style matches exactly what I want from a science book. Very readable and dumbed down just enough for me to understand the complex topics but certainly not "Janet and John".

This book does not attempt (quite rightly) to enthuse people that are not bothered. There is no attempt to sex things up - if you like science, the science is sexy enough. And it assumes you have a pretty good grasp of maths and science (maybe to 'A' level).

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Big Bang: The Most Important Scientific Discovery of All Time and Why You Need to Know About it

by: Simon Singh

July 04, 2005
This book is a must-read for anyone who wishes not only to broaden their knowledge on this subject but to start from complete scratch.

It reads easy, but as some of the other reviews have stated, an understanding of fundamental Physics is certainly going to help. The well ordered, well written text, with a few bits of humor dotted around explain the subject in a manner as easy to understand as could possibly be!

You can download a lecture by Simon Singh, promoting the book. It's on itunes under "Perimeter Institute Lecture Series". It only covers a small amount of the books content - but it's worth a listen.

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Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial

by: Simon Singh, Edzard Ernst

April 21, 2008
This is a very well-structured and well-written book. It opens by considering the case for evidence-based medicine before moving onto its four main chapters. These deal primarily with acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic and herbal medicine. Where there is favourable evidence then this will be mentioned.

The book then concludes by examining some of the more general issues including an analysis of the main culprits who promote alternative medicine. In addition, there is an appendix which gives a one page analysis to about 30 other therapies. I would imagine that this would cover more or less everything which someone is likely to encounter.

I read this book in parallel with 'Suckers' by Rose Shapiro and would highly recommend anyone else to do likewise. ... Read More:

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South India (Lonely Planet Country & Regional Guides)

by: Sarina Singh, Rafael Wlodarski, Amy Karafin, Simon Richmond, Virginia Jealous, Stuart Butler

September 01, 2007
I'm a fan of Lonely Planet guidebooks because, when it comes to the backpacker/individual traveller guides, I think they're the best you can get. They do have a lot of practical info and most of the stuff is accurate and helpful. However, I found that you have to approach them with some, say, pinch of salt. In the case of this guide, the I found the prices for accomodation + occassionally sights quite inaccurate (i.e. almost always higher) - I went to India in September 2008. Another thing I found slightly irritating was the language. The vocabulary was much more high-brow and, frankly, showy and exalted (too many superlatives, too many adjectives, etc.), than in the other guides I've used (Turkey, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia); my friends found it difficult to use because of this. I could ... Read More:

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Fermat's Last Theorem

by: Simon Singh

May 07, 1998
The book looks like the author is just postponing the end of the story just repeating and repeating the same ideas. The part of the proof and the attempts to correct the proof are quite disappointing because they are too much redundant. Moreover Singh is sliding some e-mails which don't add anything to the story and are quite "impenetrable". I do not like this way of writing. The author pretends not to use math symbology and math concepts beyond very basic ones, and then he lets go concepts like Hecke algebra, Euler system, "quasi-automorphic representations", i.e. without giving any clue about what they mean.
I think it leaves too much maths unexplained (and in a book about a math conundrum you understand it is a big problem!); I would have loved to see the same ingenuity Derbyshire put ... Read More:

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The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking

by: Simon Singh

September 02, 1999
I came across this by accident after reading the same author's book on Fermat's Last Theroem.

Simon Singh style matches exactly what I want from a science book. Very readable and dumbed down just enough for me to understand the complex topics but certainly not "Janet and John".

This book does not attempt (quite rightly) to enthuse people that are not bothered. There is no attempt to sex things up - if you like science, the science is sexy enough. And it assumes you have a pretty good grasp of maths and science (maybe to 'A' level).

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The Cracking Code Book

by: Simon Singh

October 04, 2004
This is definitely a must read book. Simon walks the reader through the universe of crytography and maths as your mum would explain it to you! Being in the field of communications I could readily appreciate the link but it also impressed my friend who is in the field of accounting! So for one second just take a dive at being a student again and let Simon guide you through!

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The Code Book

by: Simon Singh

2000
I came across this by accident after reading the same author's book on Fermat's Last Theroem.

Simon Singh style matches exactly what I want from a science book. Very readable and dumbed down just enough for me to understand the complex topics but certainly not "Janet and John".

This book does not attempt (quite rightly) to enthuse people that are not bothered. There is no attempt to sex things up - if you like science, the science is sexy enough. And it assumes you have a pretty good grasp of maths and science (maybe to 'A' level).