martes, 27 de noviembre de 2007

Salgo a comer y

me paso por el Cortinglés, donde descubro que el mes pasado salió una edición de "bolsillo" del clásico Gödel, Escher, Bach de Douglas Hofstadter.

18 euros.

Si tienen un sobrino de 14 años, regalénselo. Yo lo leí a esa edad y nunca podré agradecerlo bastante.

18 euros, oigan. Como para no creérselo.

8 comentarios:

James Waddington dijo...

Vaguely relating to your last three posts, when I was around forty I did an MA in Theatre in Education with Dorothy Heathcote, who had started work as a mill girl when she was fourteen, had little formal education after than, and became the leading exponent in this, admittedly narrow field, in Britain and the US. She was a big Yorkshire woman, widely read, close to retirement when I new her, kind but intimidating. At my first tutorial she lent me her copy of Godel, Escher, Bach, advising me to read it immediately before anything else.

Unknown dijo...

Jago, please, be honest and tell us: would you recommend this book to be read by a fourteen year old boy? Don't you think Pedro is "a little" optimistic about it? ;-)

Pedro Terán dijo...

This book is in the list I once posted,
http://pedroteran.blogspot.com/search?q=libros+garantizados

It's funny that someone told me then, "Oh, GEB, so you've read the AI bible."

(Where `AI' stands for `Artificial Intelligence', just in case.)

I thought: "AI Bible? Wasn't it a divulgation book?"

I had delightedly read as many Hofstadter monthly columns in my uncles' back issues of the Spanish translation of Scientific American as I could find, and I can tell his material is definitely appropriate for children. Childrens not bothered by words they don't understand, in any case.

(I'm talking about 8-10 years old at that point. I still recall distinctly the `prisoner's dilemma' and `Turing's test' columns.)

Pedro Terán dijo...

I meant `Children' :(

James Waddington dijo...

Bliss, of course it depends on the fourteen year old. All my formal education is in the humanities, but I became fascinated by Einstein and relativity when I was around fourteen, and have been fascinated by science ever since - I have little understanding because I have no maths, so really its all metaphor and poetry to me, but wonderful nonetheless. Tell you what, my eldest grandson is fourteen next birthday. Guess what I'm going to give him.
Oh, and I meant `knew`.

Unknown dijo...

I am in the same case as yours, Jago, in fact I intended to study Physics after finishing my degree in English, but the wormhole I had in my knowldge of maths told me to give it up. Anyway, I guess british children may be more mature than the spanish ones regarding intelectual interests nowadays, hence my comment :-(
Hope your grandson enjoys it as well.

Pedro Terán dijo...

"I am in the same case as yours, Jago"

Do you really have a 13-year old grandson? Then would you introduce me to your daughter?

Unknown dijo...

I would never do that to a relative of mine! :p