7. Our Molecular Future: How Nanotechnology, Robotics, Genetics, and Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Our World - Mulhall, Douglas. While this reads more like a compilation of speculation, which it is, the author does raise a couple of interesting issues. Most of these are shadowed by doomsday scenarios and cybersex hints. Don't get me wrong, he is probably spot-on on both counts. Contentwise, I would recommend that someone interested in figuring out what this big word is all about start by reading this book. You can then safely transition into the other volumes that I have read and others that I have no intention whatsoever of opening. I think the title is somewhat misleading. As we cannot accurately predict our molecular future, we then cannot suggest any "how"s.

8. Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix - Rowling, J. K.This, I would have to say, was a welcome and invigorating break from the dull, brainier books I have been reading. I found it somewhat slow, compared to my expectations of what would happen and when. I think the ending was somewhat lame-duck; certainly the events surrounding the TriWizard Contest cannot be surpassed. But, generally speaking, I enjoyed Harry's 5th Year at Hogwarts. It appears to me, almost a full decade after high school, that I knew characters along the lines of Hermione and likely Ron. And the "tumults" Ron has with girls. Enough said.

9. Nanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction to the Next Big Idea - Ratner, Dan & Ratner, Mark. The only undoing of this book is that I read it after I read all the other books, so that the subject matter is already saturated and most of what they have to say is not groundbreaking. It reads both like Mulhall's book as well as Fishbine's analysis, though, compared to the latter, it is more concise and much more realistic.

10. Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Verne, Jules. This was an interesting book to read, the narrative and highly engaging interlocution being a welcome respite from the never ending monologues of these more technical works I have been delving into. I was sort of disappointed in the conclusion of this wonderful story; in fact, even in the build up to the gripping experiences in the innards of Earth. I mean, the return to the surface is oh so abrupt albeit dramatic, much is left out that would be nice to know in the long preamble to the events deep within the earth. But because this is supposed to be some type of retrospection on the event, which though fictional, gains lifelike realism, I can forgive him for that.
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