Read,+read,+read

One of the best ways, if not //the// best way, to improve your reading and writing skills as well as your vocabulary is to read, read, read--especially book-length texts. To this end--and to help us in our pursuit of academic communicative competence--we're going to read 3-4 books. This is wholly optional: you don't have to participate if you don't want to. The amazon link to the book is http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Mind-Mathematical-Genius-Laureate/dp/0743224574/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295490207&sr=1-1-spell. We'll begin reading on Monday, February 7, and conclude on Friday, Feb. 1

Listen to an interview with John Nash http://nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=429

Read an autobiographical essay by John Nash http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1994/nash.html

See a series of short interviews with Nash on a range of academic and personal topics http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/nash/sfeature/sf_nash.html

Read Nash's Princeton dissertation //Non-Cooperative Games// (1950) http://www.princeton.edu/mudd/news/faq/topics/Non-Cooperative_Games_Nash.pdf

STUDY GUIDE Unless otherwise asked, please post your written responses at the Discussion Board. All responses are due by 8pm of the calendar date. We will meet once a week to discuss the text on a day to be mutually determined. Please be thinking of a lunch hour that would be convenient for you.

For W, 02 16 1. As we begin our reading, define what a "beautiful mind" means to you. Be as specific as you can, thinking both about what "mind" is and how aesthetics or beauty could describe it. How does Nash's mind exemplify beauty? Keep a reading journal as we read and redefine your understanding of what a beautiful mind is and how Nash's exemplifies a beautiful mind.

For Th, 02 17 2. Before completing Saturday's reading tasks, please post a 2-3 paragraph description of how you usually approach a book-length, nonfiction reading project like //A Beautiful Mind//?

For S, 02 19 3. Now examine the text. A. Begin with the "front matter"--the epigraph by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. Some vocabulary notes on the epigraph: hath=has, palms=prizes, meanest=most common, blows=blossoms, blooms. The lines are from Wordsworth's famous "Intimations of Immortality" (http://www.bartleby.com/101/536.html). What purpose(s) do you think the epigraph serves Nasar? The reader? Post a 1 paragraph response. B. Continuing with the front matter, now look at the Contents pages. Examine each of the 5 Parts, and, in each part, scan the chapter titles for topics. How are the chapters organized (genres/topics) and what do you expect the overarching purposes of each Part is? Post a 2-3 paragraph response. C. Read the Prologue and "Reawakening." How do these "bookends"--beginnings and endings of Nash's narrative--alter your expectations of what you'll find in the text? Post a 2 paragraph response. D. Now skim and scan the "back matter"--the Notes, Select Bibliography, Acknowledgments, and Index. How do these parts of the text inform and alter your expectations of the narrative journey into science, a 'beautiful mind', genius andmadness, and recovery we're about to begin? Post a 2 paragraph response.