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Dec 24 2008 07:00am
the elegant universe is a pretty good book to introduce yourself to modern physics and string theory
don't worry if you don't entirely understand what he's trying to explain, even the concepts. Just worry aobut the background information about the direction study is headed into

as for math it's really hard to know what to look for as higher level maths can really head into many different directions
Euclids stuff as suggested before is good for geometry and basic introductions to proofs but it doesn't introduce anything really interesting

since my studies in math have been more university guided and I haven't had to rely on looking up ressources I can't be sure of the following but I think looking into Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (Latin, Arithmetical Investigations), would be worth your while.
But it's probably filled with useless stuff you don't want to worry about so what I'd suggest is first looking into different proof methods, the most important being induction
then learning some elementary set theory
then either choosing calculus (which I dislike)
or discrete math (which I like) and then you can look into modulus arithemetic or combinatoric probelsm which are really fun to do if you're an amateur mathematician and not going to suffer through formal training
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Dec 26 2008 01:52pm
I'm about half way through Stephen Hawking's A Brief History Of Time -- It's very well written and easy to understand

I also got Michio Kaku's Physics Of The Impossible and Hyperspace -- although I havent started them, they seem like a good read

One last one my astronomy professor recommended was: One, Two, Three...Infinity by George Gamow -- again haven't started it, but I've heard good things about it

This post was edited by Nick10 on Dec 26 2008 01:52pm
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Jan 8 2009 07:18pm
Sun Tzu - Art of War -> logic, strategy, not only useful for war, good for everything
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Jan 12 2009 08:45am
Goosebumps.
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