Robert Shaw (7) (1946–)

This is a delightful introduction to applied chaos theory and information theory, written by a physicist for other physicists. I found it very accessible, unlike my previous encounters with information theory which were entirely impenetrable.

It's something of a classic, apparently, and I can see why. Not only is it well thought out, planned and executed, there are some delightful turns of phrase, too, e.g: "The longer a string of text the easier it is to predict the next lette."

How often can you say that about something the author repeatedly refers to as a "paper"? (It's 111p of main text plus appendices...) It is also charmingly set in some ancient mechanical type-writer font with all the equations requiring Greek or integral signs hand-written in before going to press. It's both a shame and a testament to its usefulness that my copy is beaten up and verging on falling apart...… (meer)