My Reading

I read a lot and my favourite fiction genres are science fiction and crime novels. I love Arthur C Clarke, IsaacAsimov, Stephen Baxter, Clifford Simak, Larry Niven, Ben Bova, William Gibson and Iain M Banks in science fiction, and for crime I like Ian Rankin, John Harvey, Karin Slaughter, Kathy Reichs, Peter Robinson and Peter James. I have also got into scandinavian writers including Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, Camilla Lackberg, Arnaldur Indridason, Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Jo Nesbo. All highly recommended.

I also read a lot of non fiction. Having almost started a PhD in Quantum Physics 40 years ago, I have retained an interest in the subject and my library contains many books on the weird world of quantum theory. The latest aquisition is The Quantum Universe by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw.

Cosmology interests me greatly, as does particle physics. I think it is great that the unimaginably huge can be so closely linked to the infinitesimally small. One of my most treasured books is The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose, who has collaborated in the past with Stephen Hawking. It has a personal message to me in it. My eldest daughter got it for me when she worked for the London Mathematical Society. My interest in these topics is guiding my current Open University Studies.

There is an interesting concept in physics called wave-particle duality. JJ Thompson won the Nobel Physics prize in 1906 for proving that the electron behaves as if it were a particle. His son George Thompson won the Nobel prize in 1937 for showing that the electron behaves as if it were a wave. They were both right! I love that about physics, and there are some great books around that explore these intriguing issues.

I am also interested in modern history (I studied UK and European History 1901 to 1945 for O Level) and have a particular interest in World War 2 (in which my Father served as a Merchant Navy Officer). Recommended books covering this period are Finest Years - Churchill as Warlord 1940-1945, and All Hell Let Loose, both by Max Hastings, and The Second World War by Martin Gilbert. I have just got another Max Hastings book about spies and espionage in WW2 - The Secret War: Spies, Codes and Guerrillas 1939-1945. I will update this comment when I have read it, but I am hopeful - it received very good reviews.