Woggy Project #2: Mario Livio's The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved

My husband and I are members of Seattle's Pacific Science Center, which occasionally hosts lectures and book readings for adults. Since my husband is in the field of Computer Science, and I just have a hobby interest in math and sciences, this is a topic in which we both share an avid interest (in fact it is at a university well known for its math and sciences where we met).

A couple years ago, I heard this author speaking on the local public radio show about this book and was fascinated by the subject. I was happy to find he would be speaking at the Science Center that same week, and got my husband and some friends of ours to join me at the lecture. It was so interesting to me that I bought the book on the spot and had it signed by the author, which is something I'm usually too shy to do. The very next day I delved right into the book, and continued right through on and off over the following month until the page you see above.

I don't remember what led to the book being set down, but I'm sure it was something banal like the business of getting ready for the holidays or something like that. I even remember discussing the book at a party, having full intent to pick the book up the next week, but somehow it never ended up happening. After a while, I realized the book was still sitting out on the coffee table collecting dust, so I put the jacket back on it and put it back up on the shelf, bookmark in place, to tidy up the house. I knew I would pick it up again, because I was still very interested in continuing the book. Just not interested enough to drop everything and read it that day.

Now it joins several other unfinished books I have sitting on various shelves, bookmarks in place, waiting for their day of reopening. When I try to think of the reasons, other than "well, I ought to finish this other book first," the only main thing I can think of is that it was, for a person of my mathematical educational level (no calculus, yes now my pre-calc teacher can say he "told me so"), a book that did require a bit of extra concentration to read certain parts of it, since it did discuss various mathematical issues that were a part of what was largely a story of personalities. Also, I remember that somewhere in some notebook, I had been taking some sort of notes on this book, possibly to supplement my understanding of some ideas I was working on for a certain woggy novel of mine, or possibly to help expand my mathematical understanding (a sort of life woggy project of mine), or perhaps just because there were an unusual number of interesting quotes (the collection of which has been a lifelong woggy project since I was old enough to begin writing them down). So its also possible I keep thinking I should find that notebook before I continue reading, or perhaps I know it will be a slower read due to all the note-taking I will inevitably be inspired to do should I pick up such an inherently interesting book. In any case, I haven't picked up this highly interesting story ever since.

Things left to complete this woggy project:

• find a notebook with empty pages, and a pen/pencil
• set aside an afternoon or evening for reading
• take book off the shelf and out of its jacket
• begin reading next page
• finish reading the book