Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
On Reading Despicable Species
Last week I finished reading Janet Lembke's, Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges (New York : The Lyons Press, 1999. xi + 216 pages, illustrations by Joe Nutt). You might like to read my book note about it. I like the author's portrait inside the back cover: the gracefully maturing lady […]
In: All, Books, It's Only Rocket Science
Best Seller: Worst Writing
As you know, aside from all the science books I write about here, I also read crime fiction, about which I write much less frequently. Last night I finished the collection of short stories called A New Omnibus of Crime, edited by Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert, contributing editors Sue Grafton and Jeffrey Deaver (Oxford […]
In: All, Books, Crime Fiction, Writing
Beard of the Week XXXVII: Evo-Devo Again
The beard at right belongs to author Wallace Arthur, Professor of Zoology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. I recently read his excellent book Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom (New York, Hill and Wang, 2006. x + 255 pages). Naturally, there's a book note, with a couple of entertaining […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Books
On Reading American Prometheus
In truth it was last summer* when I read the book by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (New York : Vintage Books, 2005; 721 pages). It's only today, however, when I finally got around to assembling my notes into the requisite book note. […]
In: All, Books, It's Only Rocket Science
On Satellite Dishes Looking in the Same Direction
I recently finished reading Richard Dawkins' Climbing Mount Improbable (New York : W.W.Norton & Company, 1996, 340 pages). It wasn't bad, but it wasn't his best by any means. All of the little things that irritate me about Dawkins' writing seemed emphasized in this book. There's more in my book note, of course. Dawkins is […]
In: All, Books, It's Only Rocket Science
Beard of the Week XXXVI: A Thriller
This week's beard belongs to Michael Robotham, an Australian author of mystery thrillers. I recently read his book Night Ferry and found it quite a satisfying page-turner, one of the select few where I had to stay up reading until 4am to find out what happened. I had read his two previous books, Lost and […]
Notes to The Map that Changed the World
I recently finished reading Simon Winchester's excellent book, The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology (New York : HarperCollins, 2001, 329 pages). It's the fascinating story of William Smith (1769—1839) and how he came to draw the first geological map of England (the first in the world, […]
In: All, Books, It's Only Rocket Science
An Exciting Proposal
Tidying up I tripped over one more little gem from Watson's Ideas that I had marked, this one because of the lovely, all-purpose nature of the case made for the proposed clock in Lyons. I think we should use this as a model for modern proposals, for simplicity and clarity. The first clocks in towns […]
In: All, Books, Common-Place Book
On Reading Watson's Ideas
I have always liked reading big books. I can remember how, in my youth, I trudged my way through Isaac Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (941 pages), for instance. I also can remember reading David Kahn's The Codebreakers (1200 pages), but I can't say I remember any details. It all goes into the […]
On Not Reading Singh's Fermat's Enigma
For a few days recently I was reading Simon Singh's book, Fermat's Enigma : The Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem (New York : Walker and Company, 1997, 315 pages). However, I stopped reading after about 80 pages. The reason had nothing to do with the subject, which was interesting and developing reasonably […]
In: All, Books, It's Only Rocket Science, Writing
Paul on Roach on Sex
I have previous read the two available books by Mary Roach, Stiff and Spook, and rather enjoyed them, for the most part. Roach is a sort of gonzo journalist-science writer who likes to take odd topics and see how science deals with them. Stiff is subtitled "The Curious Life of Cadavers", and Spook is subtitled […]
In: All, Books, Common-Place Book
Huler's Defining the Wind
Back in the days when we roamed at video stores looking for something that might pique my interest, my attention would invariably be drawn to any movie that reviewers blurbed as–and publicists dared print on the package–"quirky". So, when my eyes landed on Scott Huler's Defining the Wind : The Beaufort Scale, and How a […]
In: All, Books, It's Only Rocket Science
Lienhard's Inventing Modern
When I went recently on my cultural trip to New York with Bill, I traveled with a couple of books: reading for the train trip and for those quiet moments at the hotel. One of the books I took was John H. Lienhard's Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins (Oxford : […]
In: All, Books, It's Only Rocket Science
Panning a Popular-Science Book
Recently I read the book The Story of Measurement, by Andrew Robinson (London : Thames & Hudson, 2007, 224 pages). It's a coffee-table sized book filled with lovely color illustrations and short digestible articles on all manner of topics related to measurement that I was hoping to find interesting. Interesting enough they were, but they […]
Watson on the Bridgewater Treatises
In today's reading from Peter Watson's Ideas (New York : HarperCollins, 2005), the discussion turned on the idea, dawning in the first half of the 19th century, of the Earth's great antiquity. Geology was in the earliest stages of understanding the formation of the Earth, fossils of animals not like those of the day were […]
Thuggy Projection
A couple of nights ago I wanted to read something not too taxing and reliably satisfying. I had a newish Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker handy, so that was the choice. I admire Parker's prolific output, his plots that do not get by on stereotypes and cliché, and it doesn't hurt that I can […]
Science-Book Challenge Update
I just finished reading Edward O. Wilson's The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. My book note is here. It was a charming little book, oddly written in quasi-epistolary, addressed to a generic Southern Baptist pastor. It's more or less a series of essays recounting reasons why humankind might wish to forestall its […]
In: All, Books, It's Only Rocket Science
Millet's Oh Pure and Radiant Heart
I have finished reading Lydia Millet's Oh Pure and Radiant Heart (Brooklyn, New York : Soft Skull Press, 2005; 489 pages). I'm pretty sure that I chose to read it because of a recommendation by Mel at The Indextrious Reader, but now I can't find a link.* I read a lot of novels but, to […]
Ceci N'est Pas Une Blog
This is a blog posting about itself. According to my blog-software statistics, this is my one-thousandth posting since the first one I posted on 18 October 2004.* To be honest, I'm a bit surprised that I'm still writing here regularly three-plus years later. Evidently it works for me somehow. I've noticed that one-thousand is an […]
In: All, Books, It's Only Rocket Science
The Prime Mammal
I love reading Daniel Dennett. His voice, his pace, his examples, his metaphors, his ideas all seem tuned exactly to my taste. One of his books that I read last year–for which I finally finished my book note–was Freedom Evolves (New York : Viking, 2003, xiii + 347 pages). I was not as dazzled by […]