Reading in 2024

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2024: the year of the Very Short Introduction!
Author

Stephen J. Mildenhall

Published

2024-12-31

Modified

2024-10-27

My plan for 2024 is to read at least one Very Short Introduction per week. Here’s my progress to date.

Wk Starting n Title
46 2024-11-11 55 Roman Britain
45 2024-11-04 54 Habeas Corpus
44 2024-10-28 53 The British Empire
43 2024-10-21 52 American Slavery
42 2024-10-14 51 The Book of Common Prayer
41 2024-10-07 50 Locke
40 2024-09-30 49 Sound
39 2024-09-23 48 Light
47 The European Union
38 2024-09-16 46 Work
37 2024-09-09 45 The History of Chemistry
36 2024-09-02 44 Genes
35 2024-08-26 43 Molecules
34 2024-08-19 42 Black Holes
41 Galaxies
33 2024-08-12 40 Condensed Matter Physics
32 2024-08-05 39 Matter
31 2024-07-29 38 Rivers
30 2024-07-22 37 Superconductivity
29 2024-07-15 36 The Elements
28 2024-07-08 35 Chaos
27 2024-07-01 34 Forests
26 2024-06-24 33 Magnetism
25 2024-06-17 32 Plate Tectonics
24 2024-06-10 31 Particle Physics
30 Globalization
23 2024-06-03 29 Chemistry
22 2024-05-27 28 Waves
21 2024-05-20 27 Biogeography
20 2024-05-13 26 Geography
19 2024-05-06 25 Symmetry
18 2024-04-29 24 Mathematics
17 2024-04-22 23 Geology
16 2024-04-15 22 The Sun
21 Stars
15 2024-04-08 20 Human Evolution
19 Keynes
14 2024-04-01 18 The First World War
17 Climate Change
13 2024-03-25 16 Climate
12 2024-03-18 15 Weather
14 Isotopes
11 2024-03-11 13 Newton
10 2024-03-04 12 Planets
11 Geophysics
9 2024-02-26 10 The Ice Age
9 Earth System Science
8 2024-02-19 8 Tides
7 2024-02-12 7 Statistics
6 2024-02-05 6 Magna Carta
5 2024-01-29 5 The Laws of Thermodynamics
4 2024-01-22 4 The Earth
3 2024-01-15 3 Global Catastrophes
2 2024-01-08 2 Risk
1 2024-01-01 1 The Periodic Table

Note: the table shows that n=9 (Earth System Science) was read in week 8, etc. Reverse chronological order.

Notes

I’m trying to remember three things from each book. Here are some of my notes.

Title Description Reading Time
Accounting VSI The earliest human written records are all accounts; expenses use assets so are entered on the left. 1 min
Chemistry VSI Bonds: ionic, covalent, metallic; reactions: proton transfer, electron transfer, radical, Lewis acids 5 min
Climate and Climate Change VSIs “IPCC 2021 states that the evidence for climate change is unequivocal, and there is a very high confidence that this warming is due to human emissions of GHGs.” 19 min
Earth System Science VSI The Earth has experienced huge changes over very long time frames but feedback induced stability over shorter time frames. 10 min
Galaxies VSI The age of the Universe is determined by studying the largest things using general relativity. The age of star comes from studying the smallest using quantum mechanics. The consistency between the two is a profound result. 12 min
Geography VSI Space, place, and environment. 5 min
Geophysics VSI To do 1 min
Global Catastrophes VSI Meteorites will kill us…or maybe a volcano or our own stupidity. Landslides could flood the US East Coast. 1 min
Human Evolution VSI Out of Africa or multiregional? 3 min
Isotopes VSI Same on the outside but different on the inside; detect one atom in \(10^{-15}\); cosmogenic creation 12 min
Keynes VSI Economists should strive to be as useful as dentists. 2 min
Magna Carta VSI Charters were common; John was a really bad king; original MC included enforcement by 25 barons. 6 min
Newton VSI Newton: scientist, alchemist, anti-Trinitarian, MP, Master of the Mint. 10 min
Particle Physics VSI There are seventeen fundamental particles: six quarks, six leptons, and five bosons. 27 min
Planets VSI The asteroid Apophis will have a close encounter with the Earth miss on 2029-04-13, which is a Friday! 11 min
Plate Tectonics VSI Lithosphere takes tens of millions of years to warm up when subducted into the asthenosphere. 16 min
Risk VSI Normative - descriptive - prescriptive: What should we do? What do we do? How can we improve? 3 min
Stars and The Sun VSIs We are all made of atoms created in stars! 39 min
Statistics VSI The technology of extracting meaning from data and of handling uncertainty. Mechanistic vs empirical models. 2 min
The Earth VSI The Earth was very different a long time ago; microbes under the seafloor; paleomagnetism and reversals of magnetic field. 2 min
The First World War VSI “At the end of 1917 the prospects for the Allies still looked grim.” 8 min
The Ice Age VSI Ice bergs or ice sheets debate; seabed and ice cores; Milankovitch’s three cycles; global impact of Himalayas. 3 min
The Laws of Thermodynamics VSI Temperature: most probable distribution over available states; conservation of energy; entropy never decreases in an isolated system; as the temperature of a system approaches absolute zero, the entropy of the system approaches a minimum value. 8 min
The Period Table VSI Potassium-Argon reversal. Where should hydrogen appear? Why the actinides and lanthanides appear along the bottom. Quantum basis for the length of each row. 9 min
Tides VSI Almost everything you know about tides is irrelevant to how they actually work! It’s all about resonances. 6 min
Weather VSI Different types of cloud. 7 min
No matching items

Read in Prior Years

Year Title
2023 Accounting
2014 Global Economic History
2013 Capitalism
2012 Freud
2010 Philosophy of Law
2010 Darwin
2009 Law
2009 The Great Depression and the New Deal
2009 Marx

Library

90 titles total

The Middle Ages…

  1. 003 Buddhism
  2. 017 Roman Britain
  3. 018 The Anglo-Saxon Age
  4. 019 Medieval Britain
  5. 020 The Tudors
  6. 021 Stuart Britain
  7. 022 Eighteenth-Century Britain
  8. 028 Marx
  9. 032 Aristotle
  10. 035 Darwin
  11. 036 The European Union
  12. 045 Freud
  13. 066 Mathematics
  14. 069 Quantum Theory
  15. 084 Locke
  16. 086 Globalization
  17. 090 The Earth
  18. 101 Molecules
  19. 104 The Elements
  20. 108 Capitalism
  21. 109 Particle Physics
  22. 112 Ancient Egypt
  23. 118 Climate Change
  24. 128 Dinosaurs
  25. 143 Human Evolution
  26. 145 Global Catastrophes
  27. 147 Philosophy of Law
  28. 150 The Roman Empire
  29. 154 The First World War
  30. 158 Newton
  31. 159 Chaos
  32. 166 The Great Depression and the New Deal
  33. 180 Law
  34. 182 Galaxies
  35. 185 Geography
  36. 190 Relativity
  37. 196 Statistics
  38. 204 Superconductivity
  39. 216 The Norman Conquest
  40. 226 The Laws of Thermodynamics
  41. 248 Keynes
  42. 254 Planets
  43. 270 Risk
  44. 282 Global Economic History
  45. 285 The Cell
  46. 289 The Periodic Table
  47. 311 Rivers
  48. 317 Magnetism
  49. 321 Magna Carta
  50. 322 Stars
  51. 327 The Roman Republic
  52. 337 Work
  53. 353 Symmetry
  54. 355 The British Empire
  55. 358 Climate
  56. 380 The Ice Age
  57. 383 Accounting
  58. 396 American Slavery
  59. 399 Genes
  60. 417 Chemistry
  61. 425 Plate Tectonics
  62. 431 Forests
  63. 446 Light
  64. 450 Moons
  65. 451 Sound
  66. 453 Black Holes
  67. 456 The History of Chemistry
  68. 464 Earth System Science
  69. 469 Crystallography
  70. 470 Astrophysics
  71. 476 Isotopes
  72. 502 Rocks
  73. 503 Banking
  74. 506 Weather
  75. 509 The Industrial Revolution
  76. 512 Gravity
  77. 560 Geophysics
  78. 574 Geology
  79. 576 The Book of Common Prayer
  80. 590 Waves
  81. 599 Matter
  82. 605 Extinction
  83. 621 Tides
  84. 638 The Sun
  85. 647 Biogeography
  86. 661 Enzymes
  87. 680 Habeas Corpus
  88. 708 Fluid Mechanics
  89. 722 Condensed Matter Physics
  90. 739 Victorians

History Subset

  1. 112 Ancient Egypt
  2. 327 The Roman Republic
  3. 150 The Roman Empire
  4. 017 Roman Britain
  5. 018 The Anglo-Saxon Age
  6. 216 The Norman Conquest
  7. 019 Medieval Britain ?
  8. 020 The Tudors
  9. 021 Stuart Britain
  10. 022 Eighteenth-Century Britain
  11. xxx Victorians
  12. 355 The British Empire
  13. 396 American Slavery
  14. 154 The First World War
  15. 166 The Great Depression and the New Deal

Unread

  1. 003 Buddhism
  2. 018 The Anglo-Saxon Age
  3. 019 Medieval Britain
  4. 020 The Tudors
  5. 021 Stuart Britain
  6. 022 Eighteenth-Century Britain
  7. 032 Aristotle
  8. 069 Quantum Theory
  9. 112 Ancient Egypt
  10. 128 Dinosaurs
  11. 150 The Roman Empire
  12. 190 Relativity
  13. 216 The Norman Conquest
  14. 285 The Cell
  15. 327 The Roman Republic
  16. 450 Moons
  17. 469 Crystallography
  18. 470 Astrophysics
  19. 502 Rocks
  20. 503 Banking
  21. 509 The Industrial Revolution
  22. 512 Gravity
  23. 605 Extinction
  24. 661 Enzymes
  25. 708 Fluid Mechanics
  26. 739 Victorians

Consider

64 titles

Num Title Author Published
10. Archaeology Paul Bahn (illustrato 2012
16. History John Arnold 2000
23. Nineteenth-Century Britain Christopher Harvie, H 2000
24. Twentieth-Century Britain Kenneth O. Morgan 2000
44. Galileo Stillman Drake 2001
51. Cosmology Peter Coles 2001
88. The History of Astronomy Michael Hoskin 2003
100. Evolution Brian Charlesworth, D 2017
141. Feminism Margaret Walters 2005
179. Nuclear Weapons Joseph M. Siracusa 2020 (3rd ed.)
268. Nuclear power Maxwell Irvine 2011
276. Viruses Dorothy H. Crawford 2022 (3nd ed.)
280. Developmental biology Lewis Wolpert 2011
303. Stem Cells Jonathan Slack 2021
307. Plague Paul Slack 2021
309. Engineering David Blockley 2012
310. Probability John Haigh 2012
312. Plants Timothy Walker 2012
324. Radioactivity Claudio Tuniz 2012
331. Civil engineering David Muir Wood 2012
352. Bacteria Sebastian G. B. Amyes 2013
359. The Palestinian–Israeli Conflict Martin Bunton 2013
370. Astrobiology David C. Catling 2013
385. Physical chemistry Peter Atkins 2014
394. Hormones Martin Luck 2014
401. Structural engineering David Blockley 2014
404. The Middle Ages Miri Rubin 2014
405. Materials Christopher Hall 2014
406. Minerals David Vaughan 2014
409. World War II Gerhard L. Weinberg 2014
413. Microbiology Nicholas P. Money 2014
418. Human Anatomy Leslie Klenerman 2015
438. Nuclear Physics Frank Close 2015
440. Water John Finney 2015
444. Mountains Martin F. Price 2015
454. The Body Chris Shilling 2016
455. Fungi Nicolas P. Money 2016
473. Agriculture Paul Brassley, Richar 2016
485. Molecular Biology Aysha Divan, Janice R 2016
486. Blood Christopher Cooper 2016
500. Measurement David J. Hand 2016
514. Navigation Jim Bennett 2017
518. The Atmosphere Paul Palmer 2017
519. Infinity Ian Stewart 2017
520. Organic Chemistry Graham Patrick 2017
529. Oceans Dorrik Stow 2017
535. Mammals T. S. Kemp 2017
547. Lakes Warwick F. Vincent 2018
549. The History of Physics J. L. Heilbron 2018
555. Applied mathematics Alain Goriely 2018
558. Anthropocene Erle C. Ellis 2018
559. Genomics John M. Archibald 2018
582. Adam Smith Christopher J. Berry 2018
583. Glaciation David J. A. Evans 2018
588. Biometrics Michael Fairhurst 2018
592. Mathematical finance Mark H. A. Davis 2019
606. Physics Sidney Perkowitz 2019
620. Energy Systems Nick Jenkins 2019
652. Soft Matter Tom McLeish 2020
659. Global Islam Nile Green 2020
660. Volcanoes Michael J. Branney, J 2020
674. Biochemistry Mark Lorch 2021
693. Planetary Systems Raymond T. Pierrehumb 2021
709. Insects Simon Leather 2022