Rapscallion wrote:I've recently finished reading Sun Tzu's "Art of War." I liked it. It had some interesting teachings, and an entire chapter about using fire on a battlefield. Right now, I'm reading Anne Rice's "Queen of the Damned," which I'm enjoying, although I still think that "The Vampire Lestat" is the best one so far. After that, I'm going to read Sir Isaac Newton's "Principia Mathematica", and then Beowulf (the original version, not translated or anything), then possibly Gallileo's book (the one where three men are arguing about the universe at a table, I can't remember the title).
What is everybody else reading right now?
Why are you going to read Principia Mathematica? Here's what wikipedia.org says about the first of the three books it contains:
De motu corporum (On the motion of bodies) is a mathematical exposition of calculus followed by statements of basic dynamical definitions and the primary deductions based on these. It also contains propositions and proofs that have little to do with dynamics but demonstrate the kinds of problems that can be solved using calculus.
I don't think Newton uses the standard notations that are used in Calculus, today. For example, see this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral#NotationPlus, Newton wasn't exactly writing Principia Mathematica for the masses - he was writing it for people who were probably, at the time, exceptionally well educated. People have since had 100's of years to make calculus accessible to the lay person.