Some thoughts
The janitor would find reams of copy in his wastepaper basket.
“Mr. Mitchell had always been a perfectionist and Mr . McGrath said that he suspected that Mr. Mitchell was raising his standards all the time. The janitor would find reams of copy in his wastepaper basket.”
– from Chronicler of the Unsung – Joseph Mitchell by Richard Severo from the book The Last Word
Well, I guess that’s what everyone should be doing if she wants to excel at whatever her passion be!
That was the question before me. Where do I begin? That pestering question was around me like a monsoon mosquito buzzing around. Why a mosquito you ask? Why not a fly? Fly does not bite though it could kill you. When did it begin? On 29th of August, some time around noon I think. We all affectionately call him TRS and apart from other things he is a voracious reader and he tagged me. Where you say? Facebook. That’s where. For the ”top ten books”.
There were others too. But I am not mentioning here because here I am going talk about only the English books.
It is a great advantage to be born into a family of letters. That is until someone comes and asks you for a list, like TRS does here, to list the “Top Ten”
Here is my first one in the series.
Physics for Entertainment.
Yep. A non-fiction book. Actually a set of two books.
This is the book that kindled in me a certain scientific temperament. It helped me understand things better and equipped me with the right tools to understand life as it unravelled its secrets to me.
I tore off a page from one of my used rough note book, made a container out of it, and with the lighted candle, boiled water in that paper container! That was just fantastic don’t you think?
Then I understood how this little bird you see in this picture constantly keeps dipping its head into the glass of water?! Like a perpetually thirsty bird! I think a whole generation was inspired by this book.
Yakov Isidorovich Perelman was the author of this book. It is unfortunate that this author died of starvation during the seize of Stalingard, by the Germans.
This book was translated into many Indian languages. One of them was in Telugu నిత్యజీవితంలో భౌతికశాస్త్రం. (nityajiivitaMlO bhautikasastram).
So there you are TRS, this is the first book in my “top ten list“. I’ll try to post them as and when I find the time.