This is an archived version of this page. The current blog is here
(CSLI Publications, ISBN 1-57586-326-X)
I bought this on something of a whim - I wanted to read something by Knuth, he being the greatest living practitioner of computer science and all, and I thought it would be interesting to hear his views on the subject of religion.
Unfortunately, I didn't really check carefully enough before buying, as Knuth has also written a book called 3:16 in which he examines the meaning of chapter 3, verse 16 of all the books of the bible, and TACSSTA is largely a "making of" for that book.
While 3:16 sounds really interesting, and there is therefore some interest in (for example) the way that the calligraphic samples that Knuth commissioned of each verse were prepared, that wasn't really what I wanted out of the book.
There are some interesting insights into religion in here - and into Knuth's attitude towards his Christian beliefs. I thought the idea of randomly sampling the bible was very clever, and Knuth is able to follow through with the intelligence to analyse the verses for many levels of meaning.
Overall though, I was disappointed, although I do want to read 3:16.
Posted by MFreestone at April 10, 2004 01:58 PM