"Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions"

Recently I've begun reading two completely seperate blogs with the common theme of "flatland." I assumed that this was no coincidence and that they must both inspired by the same book and decided to find it and order myself a copy. I know it's a little weird to be posting about a book I've never even read, but I'm excited!

It's called "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions," and according to wiki, it's "an 1884 novella by Edwin Abbott Abbott, still popular among mathematics and computer science students, and considered useful reading for people studying topics such as the concept of other dimensions. As a piece of literature, Flatland is respected for its satire on the social hierarchy of Victorian society." Also, there are two independent animated films based on it that came out this last year.

Also of interest was the definition of the perjorative term 'flatlander': a term used, disparagingly, by people living at higher altitudes—typically in smaller towns—to refer to those living at lower altitudes. In the blogosphere it seems to be used to describe not the physical location of where a person was raised, but their intellectual haunts.

And on the subject of flatlanders, there's another book call "flatlanders and ridgerunners" (that's a review by another blogger) and from what I've read about it, it sounds pretty nifty, too. I think I might check that out as well, and perhaps even enjoy it more as a relative flatlander from the midwest myself. However lofty my aspirations, in the end I'm fairly two-dimensional, like a black and white cookie.

At any rate, I'll let you all know how the books go!