I'm so pleased: Rudy Rucker's The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul just came in the mail. (I had preordered it.)

Rudy gave a presentation on the material covered in the book at the Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Ft. Lauderdale, last spring. I was inspired by the presentation to turn my attention back to mathematics and begin to work out how to go about using the program Mathematica with children. 

So I have already been inspired by this book and I haven't even cracked it yet.

We're having a New York Review of Science Fiction work weekend, and already, several people have wandered by and, spying the book on top of the frog terrarium next to my desk, exclaimed, Hey wow, I didn't know this was out yet.

(Full disclosure: My husband is the editor of some of Rucker's recent fiction, though not of this book.)

PS: Apparently, you can download some of Rucker's recent talks, though I have not tried it.