Authors

For as long as I can remember, I've loved reading.

I like books a lot, and I like a lot of books. I have eclectic tastes. Mostly I read math books (not math textbooks, but books about or containing math, math education, or math history), science books, and philosophy books. I also read history, fiction, logic puzzles, O'Reilly computer books, Wikipedia, and pretty much anything that I can learn from and/or that is well-written.

Authors who have influenced me

Douglas Adams

I was introduced to the Hitchhiker's trilogy the summer before I started high school. It's full of wacky humor, wonderfully quotable lines, and towels. Besides, who could resist a trilogy with more than three books?

Douglas Hofstadter

I first read Gödel, Escher, Bach in ninth grade while researching for a paper about math and music. I read it again twice in college. It heavily influenced my undergraduate thesis. I have also read and enjoyed Metamagical Themas and Le Ton beau de Marot, and I've twice had the privilege of hearing Hofstadter speak.

Plato

The first Plato I read was "The Allegory of the Cave" from The Republic early my sophomore year. I immediately found it thought-provoking. Later that year I stumbled across a college application. One of the application essays was to write a response to the Allegory. I applied, went to college early and read more Plato. And amusingly enough, while I never seriously considered being a philosophy major, I did end up going to graduate school in philosophy.

Neil Gaiman

My freshman year in college I was introduced to Neil Gaiman. He's an amazing story-teller. His Sandman graphic novels are breathtaking works of art. Sometimes I'd like to say surreal things and talk in trippy colors like Delirium or be a perky goth like Death or be the Lord of Dreams. Gaiman's short stories are pretty awesome too.

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll was a mathematician, a logician, and a successful author. I aspire to be the same. I own about half a dozen complete works of Lewis Carroll. Lewis Carroll was another major influence on my thesis, which is loosely based on Alice in Wonderland.

Isaac Newton

I took some excellent history of science classes in grad school. I've read Newton's Principia (I. Bernard Cohen's translation) cover to cover, including all of the commentary. I am a Newton geek.

You may also be interested in my recent reading list.