I love books.
I entered a book collecting contest sponsored by the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia:
Now I’m a prize winning collector of physics books.
My prizes were, in order from most awesome to pretty sweet:
- A tour of the “Vault” at the Special Collections Library of UVa by it’s former director Christian Dupont. I got to see the original hand written notes/manuscripts of “Leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman, “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner, “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck, & much more!
- Three of my books (Feynman’s Lectures Vol. 1, Panofsky & Phillip’s “Classical Electricity & Magnetism”, and Purcell’s “Electricity & Magnetism”) were displayed about 10 ft away from a copy of the Declaration of Independence that was printed on July 5, 1776 by John Dunlap, the official printer for the Continental Congress and was once owned by both Marquis De Lafayette & George Washington!
- Rare Book School Scholarship
- I was humbled & honored just to be eligible for the The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest originally sponsored by Fine Books & Collections Magazine.
- $400 of prize money & gift certificates
I used to blog about physics books: On Physics Books.
2008-03-28 First Prize, BSUVA Bi-Annual Student Book Collecting Contest
2008-04-01 cville (alt weekly paper), Issue #20.14 :: 04/01/2008 – 04/07/2008, Arts: Curtain Calls (p. 35 print edition) “Alphabet Snoop” by Brendan Fitzgerald: “47 Down: Physics, Tibet and books”
“A couple of years ago, one of our winners had a flipbook collection,” says Anne Ribble, secretary of UVA’s Bibliographical Society and the biannual Student Book Collecting Contest. “Last year, one of our winners had a collection of graphic novels. Someone submitted a collection of Hardy Boys children’s books. We’ve had a collection of Alexandre Dumas, collections of artists’ books, more traditional things like ‘18th century novels’…”
Founded in 1947, the Bibliographical Society is a small team of text junkies hooked on the looks of books (Hey, Wordplay: Any points for a triple rhyme score?)—graphics, binding, materials, you print it and they’ll pore over it. Since 1955, the society’s book-collecting contest has received a handful of entries from UVA students (recently averaging about 10 each year, according to Ribble) and selected a few worthy bookpiles for awards.
Last Friday, however, the Bibliographical Society announced that the winning collection broke free of the usual humanities-heavy flock to claim first prize. Jaideep Singh’s collection, titled “The Education of a Physicist,” nabbed $300 and eligibility for the national Book-Collecting Championship, narrowly edging out Christopher Bell’s “Books of Tibet, Books from Tibet.”
All right, a book competition is a bit less thrilling than, say, women’s arm wrestling (we’re getting there, folks!), but Ribble let this gem slip when she brought up Bell’s collection with Curt. Apparently, UVA has an immense collection of Tibetan texts and materials, removed from the contested land following the agreement that made Tibet part of the People’s Republic of China. Give the collection a look at www.lib.virginia.edu.
2008-04-14 UVa Today: “Physics Student’s Personal Library Wins University of Virginia Book-Collecting Contest” by Matt Kelly
April 14, 2008 — Jaideep Singh, a Ph.D candidate in the physics department at the University of Virginia, took his physics textbooks to the top of the pile in the book-collection competition sponsored by the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia.
Singh’s collection, submitted as “The Education of a Physicist: A Collection of Physics Textbooks,” emerged from a field of 10 competitors, ranging from a first-year student in the College of Arts & Sciences through students graduating this spring with doctoral degrees.
“The physics textbook collection was very extensive, covering complex areas of physics, and it contained some very rare items,” said Anne Ribble, executive secretary of the Bibliographical Society. “According to John Scott, a distinguished nuclear physicist consulted by the judges, the entry really constituted an excellent bibliography of physics texts from around the world.”
Singh, a 29-year-old San Diego resident, said he started collecting the books to help learn physics.
“I found that every book had its own strengths and weaknesses, so I kept on acquiring different books on the same subject,” Singh said. “Eventually it got a little out of hand, and I was starting to look for books just to complete a set or to see how they changed from edition to edition.”
Singh won $300 and a Bibliographical Society Rare Book School Fellowship.
“I had never seen a contest so precisely tuned to my interests and strengths,” Singh said. “Only an idiot with over 300 physics books would pass this up.”
Singh, who did his undergraduate work at California Institute of Technology, said he has an interest in how ideas change historically and found textbooks an ideal way to track these changes.
Singh’s research focuses on using lasers and magnetic fields to magnetize helium-3 gas and using it for improved medical imaging, in collaboration with the radiology department in the School of Medicine. It can also be used for pure physics research.
Christopher Bell, who is in the doctoral program in the religious studies department, took second place with a collection titled “Books of Tibet, Books from Tibet,” a collection of texts resulting from many miles of travel here and in Tibet.
Heather Burns, a Ph.D. candidate in the Curry School of Education, earned an honorable mention for her collection, “Signed Contemporary American Poetry Books.”
The book-collecting contest “encourages reading and book collecting among the students,” said Ribble. “It helps to promote the idea that gaining in-depth knowledge of a subject is valuable and rewards students for pursuing a passion in some field of intellectual endeavor.”
Selections from all three winners’ collections are on display in the downstairs lobby of the Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature and Culture / Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library through April.
The next book-collecting contest will be held in two years.
2008-09-01 Fine Books & Collections (bimonthly magazine), September/October 2008 Issue (p.X print edition) “Champion Book Collectors” by Scott Brown
2009-01-04 The New York Times (daily newspaper), Education Life, Trendspotting (p.37 Sunday print edition) “Collectors’ Items” by Amanda M. Fairbanks: Sole Mates (p.1), Sole Mates (p.2), Vinology (p.3), Vinology (p.4), Quantum of Solace (p.5), Quantum of Solace (p.6)
Photo credit: Jason McKim for The New York Times In the course of graduate school, required books may number a few dozen. But Jaideep Singh, a Ph.D. candidate in physics at the University of Virginia, has amassed more than 350 physics textbooks. It started when he first “stole” books from his father’s library. (His father, Surjit Singh, is a retired physicist and co-author of a book in the collection.) Last year Mr. Singh, 29, was named by Fine Books & Collections Magazine as one of the country’s top collegiate collectors.
More than 25 campuses award prizes for book collecting; Mr. Singh won Virginia’s in 2008. His organizing principle is “each book has to be useful,” so he has few published pre-1870 because the science is “often speculative or just plain wrong.” For much of his life he has been trying to track down a copy of Richard Feynman and Al Hibbs’s “Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals.” Twice, he says, he was hoodwinked on eBay. “It remains the Moby Dick to my Ahab.”
2009-01-09 symmetry magazine (a joint Fermilab/SLAC publication), 1:24pm “Everything you wanted to know about physics text books” by Tona Kunz
Lots of people collect baseball cards, comic books, or wine corks but physics text books???
Jaideep Singh has made a name for himself doing just that. The PhD candidate from the University of Virginia was featured in a New York Times article on unique collections, was named one of the country’s top college collectors by Fine Books & Collections Magazine and won first place for book collecting from the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia.
Through his blog, On Physics Books, you can take advantage of his collecting passion and glean tips on the best books to read and where to find information on physics books.
The blog includes helpful posts such as what books best prepare you for the physics GRE test and a list of good online book resources.
2009-01-16 Science (weekly journal of the AAAS), Volume 323, Number 5912 (p.317 print edition), Newsmakers “On Campus” edited by Jennifer Couzin (interview by Adrian Cho)
BUY THE BOOK. Every graduate student accumulates a few textbooks, but Jaideep Singh, who is studying physics at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, has collected 350 physics texts. His collection, which includes a textbook written by his father, retired theorist Surjit Singh, got him named one of the country’s top collegiate collectors by Fine Books & Collections magazine. “I didn’t start thinking of myself as a collector until I had a couple hundred books,” says Singh, who began seeking useful books as an undergraduate at the California Institute of Technology. “It just sort of happened.”
The books provide an unusual perspective on the history of physics, Singh notes. Early texts on quantum mechanics were almost apologetic in describing the theory’s weird principles, and advances in radar and related technologies during World War II appear to have prompted texts on electricity and magnetism to include radiation and antenna theory, Singh says.
CREDIT: SOURCE: PETER DOLPH “He’s driven by a deep interest in science and physics,” says Gordon Cates Jr., Singh’s graduate adviser. The library has also been a boon to Cates, who says that “on more than one occasion” he’s borrowed a book from Singh.
2009-01-26 The Cavalier Daily (daily student newspaper at UVa), January 26, 2009, Section B, Life, page B2 “Mastering physics by the book: A collection of classic physics textbooks wins Graduate Arts & Sciences student Jaideep Singh University prize” by Lyssa Cleary
For the graduate student who spends long hours in a small office, seemingly endless all-nighters and regular caffeine highs are endured in the hopes of coming to a ground-breaking research discovery or completing a dissertation. For Graduate Arts & Sciences student Jaideep Singh, years of research have led to another result: the accumulation of an award-winning collection of physics textbooks.
Last year’s winner of the University’s Bi-Annual Book-Collecting Contest, Singh has 357 texts.Though he began his book collection during his undergraduate years, Singh said physics has always been a part of his life. Singh’s father was a theoretical physicist and though he did not push Singh toward that particular area of study, Singh said, “it’s hard not to become interested in physics when you’re in that type of environment.”
Singh’s childhood predilection toward physics deepened during his time as an undergraduate at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.
In addition to the general textbooks for his classes, Singh would buy the supplementary books and extra recommended material. Back then, his textbook purchases were for the simple purpose of helping him to pass his classes, giving an opportunity him to “gain a different perspective on the material,” Singh said. Singh said his collection was of particular help while trying to pass the “really killer” qualifying exam during his second year of graduate school.
As Singh’s collection started to pile higher, his goals for acquiring physics textbooks changed. The books helped Singh gain a better understanding of physics material, but soon after, his efforts became less geared toward “helping to complete school work” and more toward “actually becoming a collector,” Singh said.
He started completing textbook sets. “If I had volumes one through nine, and not 10, then I figured I might as well get 10,” Singh said.
Singh acquires new textbooks in whatever ways he can, whether by providing shelf space for a retired professor’s textbook that otherwise would have been thrown away or scouring Web sites of used book stores.“A lot of the time, the books I am looking for aren’t very valuable in the sense that they are hard to find or expensive,” Singh said, noting that often, when ordering textbooks online, “the shipping is more than the price of the book.”
Luckily for Singh, the majority of the books he has or currently is looking for are not necessarily collector’s items and therefore are not too draining on his bank account.
“It’s a real stretch for me to be spending money on the kind of books that I don’t really need for my classes anymore,” he said. “I’ll get them one day when I have a real job — I am still a graduate student.”
One collector’s item Singh has his eye on is “Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals” by Richard P. Feynman and A. R. Hibbs. Although this textbook is currently out of print, costs a few hundred dollars and was co-written by an author who is famous even outside the world of physics, Singh hopes to one day add this to his collection.
Having collected books for about a decade, Singh finally considers himself his “own library.” Singh’s fellow graduate students, his professors and his advisers often borrow books from him.
“It’s really convenient because in some cases he has books that a library doesn’t have,” Graduate Arts & Sciences student Peter Dolph said.
No library card is needed for this informal collection. “I just e-mail myself with the name of the book and who borrowed it,” Singh said. “It’s very free-flowing, which I enjoy.”
Singh, who has worked with a team at the University on the polarization of helium-3 targets since 2001, is a resource for his peers.
“He’s really interested in knowing everything that he possibly can about the work that we do,” said Graduate Arts & Sciences student Karen Mooney. “He’s become the best resource we have in our group because he enjoys learning about the things that we do. It’s amazing the amount of knowledge that he has in his head.”
Doctoral Education student Heather Burns, an honorable mention in the 2008 book collecting competition and the collector of more than 200 autographed books of contemporary poetry, described Singh’s collection as being “really unique as far as being so subject-specific” as well as “having a big span through the years.”
Having a collection of books published throughout many decades and eras of physics is one of the most interesting and important things to Singh about his collection.
By comparing textbooks from different eras, Singh has “found it interesting seeing how people choose what they teach,” he said. “You can see the evolution of a particular physics subject by what people teach in a different era.”
Despite the intellectual stimulation and passion that Singh derives from his textbooks and the seemingly endless resource Singh has become to his fellow graduate students and professors, Singh has set his collector goals high.
“If I had my way, my super-dream is to become the Oprah of physics books so that if I give a recommendation for a particular textbook, the sales for that book goes up,” he said. Ultimately, he would like to “become so important to publishers that they send me free exposition copies.” For now, though, it looks like he will have to stick to eBay and professors’ dusty shelves.
2009-??-?? Physics World (monthly magazine of the IoP)
Frequently Asked Questions (circa 2008-2009)
Why did you select physics textbooks as a collection subject and when?
I started collecting in college. It was mainly to help me learn physics. I found that
every book had its own strengths and weaknesses, so I kept on acquiring different books
on the same subject. Eventually it got a little out of hand, and I was starting to look
for books just to complete a set or to see how they changed from edition to edition.
What attracted you to this?
It’s fun and satisfying. I have an interest in how ideas come about and change historically.
A great place to track that kind of development in physics is how different physical ideas
are conceptualized and explained in textbooks over time. My favorite example of this is
quantum mechanics. Physicists’ pedagogical approach and interpretation of this subject has
changed alot in the last 100 years or so, and it’s all conveniently packaged in textbooks.
Why did you enter the competition and how did you feel about winning?
I happened to run across the annoucement in the Cav Daily. I had never seen a contest so
precisely tuned to my interests and strengths – I thought to myself that only an idiot with
over 300 physics books would pass this up!
It was a big surprise that I won, because, really, it’s just a bunch of physics books. Most
people, even ones in the physics department, don’t care. When I found out about the incredible
collections of Chris Bell and Heather Burns (both of whom I barely edged out), it really blew
me away. Considering the amazing competition, I consider it a great honor.
What is your favorite textbook?
My favorite textbook (or book of any kind) is Purcell’s Electricity &
Magnetism. IMHO, it is the most beautiful physics book ever written.
I joke with my friends that it’s the closest that anyone has ever come
to the platonic ideal of a “Physics Textbook.”
Why did you start the collection? How many do you have now?
At first it was just to help me better understand the material from my
physics courses in college (Caltech) and then later to pass the
qualifying exam in grad school (UVa). Different books have different
strengths and it was nearly impossible to find a single book that
explained everything really well. Luckily, the required textbooks for
a given class would recommend books for further study. I would track
down those books and then the process would repeat itself. At some
point I started buying books just to complete a set (Sommerfeld’s
lectures are a good example) – that’s when I knew I had undergone a
phase transition into a collector (or a “serious problem” according to
my girlfriend).
One point I should make is that the goal of my is collection is to
learn physics. As a consequence, few of my books are rare or old.
Rare books a prohibitively expensive for a graduate student budget.
Old books use a antiquated notation and are sometimes just plain
wrong.
At this point I would say that I have 360 +/- 5 books. (The large
uncertainty is due to the fact that I haven’t updated my list in a
while and I often loan out my books.)
Where do you keep the textbooks?
In my office at UVa – I’m lucky enough to have (1) a lot of office
space (2) share it with *very* considerate office mates.
What areas of physics do you think there are not many textbooks?
I would say general relativity, cosmology & string theory. Things are
looking good though – In the last 10 years, at least 5 very good up-to
date textbooks in each of these fields have been published.
Do you really have over 350 textbooks?
Yes! 14+24+22+17+9+26+35+32+28+36+26+24+40+27 > 350 . . . or you could just count them for yourself:
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