

The Indian Clerk - paul_reiners
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/books/review/Freudenberger-t.html?ex=1347595200&en=8d8278c72cdbe6a5&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

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randomhack
I read a book on Turing by the author .. and well .. I dont recommend it at
all. He seems overly obsessed with sexual themes has no understanding of the
hacker and scientist mindsets and no understanding of the maths whatsoever.
After reading that book, I am not thinking of even looking at this book. edit
: At least they explicitly claim this book is a novel. The one on Turing
masquerades as a biography.

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paul_reiners
I haven't read Leavitt’s book on Turing, so I can't comment on it.

I have read "Alan Turing: The Enigma" by Andrew Hodges, which was excellent,
both in the biographical details and the mathematical details.

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randomhack
Yes i picked up Hodges' book later and I also recommend it.

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jyothi
I read the new york times article. I get the feeling that it draws too much
attention to the personal, emotional relationships of Hardy, Ramanujan and
others and dilutes the genius each one of them were. It definitely would be a
good read once you are through with the brief introduction into their
professional lives.

I myself being too obsessed with mathematics loved this biography of Ramanujan
- The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan. ISBN:0671750615

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paul_reiners
I agree with you that it does draw a lot of attention to the personal,
emotional relationships of Hardy, Ramanujan, Littlewood, and so on. But, for
someone who has already read and loved "A Mathematician's Apology" and studied
math in college, reading about these personalities can be quite fascinating.
Of course, since this is a novel, it's hard to say what is surmise, what is
fact, and what is invented. I never was able to find much biographical
material on Hardy (I was only able to find 2 pictures of him (this was in the
80s before Google)).

I need to read the book on Ramanujan you mentioned, though.

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rams
I remember reading in Nobel laureate S.Chandrasekhar's biography,that the
Royal Society's records on Ramanujam would be made public.It's long past that
date.I wonder what happened.

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codeslinger
Have any of you read "Meta Math!: The Quest for Omega" by Gregory Chaitin? I
just started it and so far its fascinating.

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paul_reiners
I'm about half-way through it. I put it down for awhile and just started
reading it again. There are nice sections on Lisp and Gödel in it. It's a good
book.

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paul_reiners
This book has been out for awhile, but I just started reading it and am having
a hard time putting it down. If you're interested in G.H. Hardy or Ramanujan,
you should definitely read it. Of course, it's a novel, but the portrait of
Hardy is fascinating.

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vegashacker
Added it to my list. Looks like a lot of fun. Thanks!

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maheshrs
what's the point of this post? why is any of this interesting????? what am I
missing?

why would anyone care to read "fictions" about sexual inclinations of big
minds (Hardy and undoubtedly huge mind of Ramanujan) when we don't even
know/understand completely the works of these great minds?

