鈥淚 admit to being a slow reader,鈥� says Steve Grand, creator of the computer
game Creatures. But that hasn鈥檛 stopped him ploughing through The 杏吧原创
and Engineer鈥檚 Guide to Digital Signal Processing by Steven Smith
(California Technical Publishing, 1997). 鈥淚t鈥檚 not exactly bedtime reading,鈥� he
says, but it does an excellent job of opening up important computational
techniques to the non-mathematician.
For relaxation, Grand is re-reading his
all-time favourite book, Dirk Gently鈥檚 Holistic Detective Agency by
Douglas Adams (Pan, 1988). Adams signed a copy of the book for Grand on his 42nd
birthday with the reassuring words: 鈥淭his date is of no significance
whatsoever.鈥� But he thinks the real reason it tops his list is because
underneath the warm humour and absurd plot he catches 鈥済limpses of something
profound. Adams understood the Universe far more clearly than he let on.鈥�