Current reads! I like to write these every once-in-a-while to clear my thoughts and get a handle on what I need to finish up on my reading list. I have a bad habit of reading books halfway and never finishing them.
The Art of Multiprocessor Programming (Maurice Herlihy & Nir Shavit)
I was kind of doubtful of this book at first but that was mainly because I didn’t know what to expect from a book on multiprocessing. We are using this text for my graduate course on Multiprocessor Programming and I have actually been fairly surprised at how good it is. Everything is written in Java but for the most part you can easily find the equivalent statements in C++ (especially with the new C++11 standard). It lays out a lot of neat examples that, for the most part, are not contrived. The problems are sufficiently hard and provide some nice looks into real-world uses of concurrent objects/algorithms. We should be getting through the whole book so hopefully I can write a full-blown review at some point this summer!
C++ Concurrency in Action: Practical Multithreading (Anthony Williams)
I am using this book as a supplement to my Multiprocessor Programming graduate course and as the main text to help out with my project since it is C++11 based. I haven’t had too much time to really dig into the book but there are A LOT of good code examples. If you don’t know advanced C++ though I think this book will be a little bit of an uphill struggle.
Numerical Linear Algebra for High-Performance Computing (Jack Dongarra)
I started this book last semester for my Numerical Analysis & Software graduate course but never got past the first few chapters. I like the layout of the book and have heard it is a foundational book for Numerical Linear Algebra on HPC systems. I just need to find the time to finish it!
The Theoretical Minimum (Leonard Susskind)
Just like the Dongarra book above, I got through the first few chapters and just haven’t had time to pick it back up. I love the examples and think Susskind does a great job at explaining concepts of classical mechanics. I am looking forward to reading the follow-up book to this one on Quantum Mechanics (if I can ever finish this one!).
The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets (Simon Singh)
This is the only book on the list that I haven’t actually started yet (except for like the first few pages and I don’t even remember what they said). I have seen some Numberphile videos with Simon which were awesome so I am looking forward to the book very much!
The Queen of the Damned (Ann Rice)
This is the third installment of Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and I love them! This one brings together A LOT of back story on A LOT of vampires which is always awesome. Just as with Tolkien, I love the development of the world the characters live in and their history. I’m trying to hack through the entire series but keep getting distracted with lame things like work/eating/bills/etc.
I am hoping to finish most of these by the end of the summer. I would really like to get through at least half of the Vampire Chronicles so that I can start working on some of the books I got for Xmas!