William Poundstone

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William Poundstone is an American author, columnist, and skeptic. He has written a number of books including the Big Secrets series and a biography of Carl Sagan. He is a cousin of comedian Paula Poundstone. Two of his books, The Recursive Universe and Labyrinths of reason, were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

An enthusiast of Harry Stephen Keeler, he maintains the Keeler homepage and contributed to the anthology A to Izzard: A Harry Stephen Keeler Companion (2002).

William Poundstone as seen on his personal website

[edit] Bibliography

Big Secrets: The Uncensored Truth About All Sorts of Stuff You Are Never Supposed to Know (1983)
The Recursive Universe: Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge (1984)
Bigger Secrets: More Than 125 Things They Prayed You'd Never Find Out (1986)
Labyrinths of Reason: Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge (1988)
The Ultimate: The Great Armchair Debates Settled Once and for All (1990)
Prisoner's Dilemma: John von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb (1992)
Biggest Secrets: More Uncensored Truth About All Sorts of Stuff You Are Never Supposed to Know (1993)
Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos (1999)
The Big Book of Big Secrets (2001) reprints Big Secrets and Biggest Secrets
How Would You Move Mount Fuji? : Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle—How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers (2003)
Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street (2005)
Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren't Fair (and What We Can Do About It) (2008)