Blogocentric Formulations

Bargain Book Gems

If you ask me, there are few things better than rooting through the bargain books section at your local bookstore chain and finding a gem that's not only interesting, but heavily discounted. Yesterday I was at Barnes & Noble, picking up The Outsiders and The Freedom Writers' Diary for my wife for her classes, and I couldn't help but do a little perusing for myself. I found three books: a novel that sounded mildly interesting which I purchased for $1.78, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author's memoir/collection of essays which I had been meaning to read and purchased for the princely sum of $1.29... and this book, which cost me a whole $6, but fascinated me:

30-Second Theories: The 50 Most Thought-Provoking Theories in Science, Each Explained in Half A Minute.

I don't know why stuff like this jumps out at me, but I'm in love with this book. It takes concepts like the Theory of Relativity, Schrodinger's Cat, Chaos Theory, etc. and distills each one down into a couple pages that explain in general terms what it's about, who discovered it, etc. I feel like a brainy scientist now.

Adding this to my collection of other bargain book finds, it joins - among others - an encyclopedia of secret signs and symbols I found last week, reference books on vampires lore, codes and ciphers, scientific explanations for how superpowers could work in the real world, as well a dictionary of world religions and a manual of secret agent/spy practices and techniques.

And if you think this is an eclectic, even odd compilation of topics, you really don't want to see my browsing history! And I'm not even talking about the naughty websites...