October 9, 2001 (12:00 AM) ( link )

About a third of the way through Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep. It's as I remembered: slam-bang space opera without any of the hesitations of good literature. Vinge's book is not mindless entertainment—it has far too many clever ideas in it—but it's not exactly a though-provoking book either, a la Stanislaw Lem's Solaris. I have also decided to start reading Ray Monk's biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius. Unlike some other philosophers, Wittgenstein had a fascinating life in addition to a fascinating philosophy. Hopefully an understanding of his background will give me some insight into his philosophy, although his philosophy is abstruse enough that I somehow doubt that I'll ever be able to understand it.