As I start my new job as a Research Engineer, I am hoping to have a lot more time on my hands to continue some of my readings. I am always interested in new areas of science and new perspectives on old ideas. Below are a few of the books I am currently reading and a short blurb about what I think of them so far. Enjoy!
Road To Reality by Sir Roger Penrose
Awesome book so far and one of the most comprehensive texts I have ever read on anything. Roger Penrose is a master Mathematical Physicist and does a brilliant job at explaining a ton of ideas extremely well. The exercises are very interesting so far and I enjoy working them when I have time. I plan on spending a lot more time on the exercises in the next few months. If I had to recommend one book to anyone in the sciences, this would be it!
Explorations In Quantum Computing by Colin P. Williams
I am on Chapter 3 of this book and as of now, I think it is a good text for someone who already has a good understanding of both quantum computation and quantum mechanics. It seems that some of the information is misplaced and Colin goes into too much detail too early in the book, mainly in some of the examples. He introduces some concepts without explaining them (such as the Pauli gates) and doesn’t get around the telling you what they are till about 50 pages later. This is why I think that this book is more for the reader who knows a little about the subject. Other than that, I love the book. Colin gives a great introduction to the field and gives very interesting examples that I have not seen other places. I hope the rest is as good as what I have already read!
Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Michael Nielsen & Isaac Chuang
An amazing book that I should have read cover to cover years ago. It is THE text on quantum computing and is extremely in depth and provides the best introduction to the subject around. I recommend reading this text and then picking up Colin’s book above for a more “Computer Science and Computer Engineering” viewpoint on the subject. Everyone who is anyone in quantum computation knows that this book is a great book. Peter Shor, Charles Bennet, and Michael Freedman all are recommenders for this book and they give it praise (if you don’t know who these people are, look them up and you will see my point). Read it!
The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch
I am not very far into this book yet and I am sad to say it has taken me this long to start reading it. David is one of the founders of the field of quantum computing and I love many of his views on fundamental physics. I look forward to finishing this book quite soon.
Hopefully I will be finishing these books in the next few months and continuing onto other ones. I have a ton books on my bookshelf and I assume I will be adding to them just out of shear love for reading (and buying books!). We shall see how it goes, just thought I would gather my thoughts on which books I am currently reading.