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Arrows of the Queen — Mercedes Lackey The Art of War and Other Stories — Timothy Zahn At Winter’s End — Robert Silverberg The Backlash Mission — Timothy Zahn Bastion: Book Five of the Collegium Chronicles (A Valdemar Novel) — Mercedes Lackey The Battle of Space Fort Jefferson and Other Stories — Unknown Betrayer — C. J. Cherryh The Birthgrave — Tanith Lee
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Chanur's Legacy — C. J. Cherryh Chanur's Venture — C. J. Cherryh Closer to Home — Mercedes Lackey Closer to the Chest — Mercedes Lackey Closer to the Heart — Mercedes Lackey Cocktails — Williams Sonoma The Collected Short Fiction of C.J. Cherryh — C. J. Cherryh Companions on the Road — Tanith Lee
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Delusion's Master — Tanith Lee Dessert of the Day — Author

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The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel

William Goldbloom Bloch

August 25, 2008 · Hardcover · Oxford University Press · 224 pp

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ISBN 9780195334579 · English · Dewey 868 · LC PQ7797.B635 .Z63438 2008

Hardcover

"The Library of Babel" is arguably Jorge Luis Borges' best known story--memorialized along with Borges on an Argentine postage stamp. Now, in The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel, William Goldbloom Bloch takes readers on a fascinating tour of the mathematical ideas hidden within one of the classic works of modern literature.Written in the vein of Douglas R. Hofstadter's Pulitzer Prize-winning Godel, Escher, Bach, this original and imaginative book sheds light on one of Borges' most complex, richly layered works. Bloch begins each chapter with a mathematical idea--combinatorics, topology, geometry, information theory--followed by examples and illustrations that put flesh on the theoretical bones. In this way, he provides many fascinating insights into Borges' Library. He explains, for instance, a straightforward way to calculate how many books are in the Library--an easily notated but literally unimaginable number--and also shows that, if each book were the size of a grain of sand, the entire universe could only hold a fraction of the books in the Library. Indeed, if each book were the size of a proton, our universe would still not be big enough to hold anywhere near all the books.Given Borges' well-known affection for mathematics, this exploration of the story through the eyes of a humanistic mathematician makes a unique and important contribution to the body of Borgesian criticism. Bloch not only illuminates one of the great short stories of modern literature but also exposes the reader--including those more inclined to the literary world--to many intriguing and entrancing mathematical ideas.