Being away: Last week I went on a hike through the Table Mountains. Took some clothes, food and a pair of relevant books to work on my thesis without being distracted. The only thing that slightly ruined it for me was one obnoxious family managed to get lost and I had to guide them back. Effectively I lost a day on this because if they managed to lose trail where I met them, I would not trust them to remember directions or be able to read the map. Having a GPS means precisely shit if you don't have some spatial sense to back it up, just saying. Otherwise, it was a very pleasant week. Most of the time I only passed two or three groups per day with only the above one being a major disappointment. I've seen some wild animals, met a bunch of students and faculty from the Wrocław University (all of them from maths which was a bit odd) and visited most of my favourite places around that area. I feel invigorated and already have some ideas about my projects, academic or other. No trip report as I forgot that I have a camera. Chess: I think that I've played one of my better games during the night between Monday and Tuesday. Here it is. I'm still too jittery to do a proper analysis just yet, but I would be glad to get some input from other chess players around here. #chess Books: GEB is a bit of a slog (about 30% done, though). That's in a large part because I forgot to take it with me on a trip, not because I don't find it as interesting. It's a shame that I've already seen most of this stuff covered in other books, though. I'm going to assume that that's the main problem with reading any highly influential book: it should be read first or it will lose a lot of its original impact. That said, English not being my first language seems to actually work in my favour: I don't know any better so I don't care about weird phrases or syntax. I've also rented both the first volume of Durant's series along with the, recommended by kleinbl00, Tony Judt's Postwar to have something to read while I'll be in Germany. Let's see if/when I'll break.
If I gave you the impression I didn't like the Durant books, it was an error of mine. The early ones are great. Take the one you're reading - what is it, 900 pages that blitzes through six thousand years and three continents? That shit is positively bracing compared to 1100 pages that covers 1783-1822 in France, England and Germany. The Millennium Trilogy books are pretty great if you don't focus on them too closely. They're like Dan Brown done right.