Update: Science-Book Challenge 2008
The year–that would be 2008, if memory serves–is now half over so it seemed like a good time for me to give a brief update on the official Ars Hermeneutica "Science-Book Challenge 2008".
I am pleased to report ample success at the same time I can note the year is only half over and anyone and everyone is still invited to take the challenge. Just this week we passed a milestone: we now have just over 100 book notes on a wide range of informative, enlightening, and entertaining nonfiction books that have a scientific outlook or a science theme. (Yes, there are even a few that we suggest you avoid).
This has come about through the efforts of seven reviewers, challengers all, who have contributed 35 notes on books read since the beginning of 2008. We are grateful to each one of them and delighted at the variety of titles and the diversity of the voices writing about them.
Here's the mid-year roundup of books, book notes, and the notes' authors. Read some notes, choose some books, and enjoy yourself and learn something at the same time!
- —Melanie—
- George Johnson, Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe
- —Eva—
- Neil deGrasse Tyson, Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries
- Matt Ridley, The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
- Natalie Angier, The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science
- Clea Koff, The Bone Woman : a Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo
- Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief
- —Melanie—
- Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World
- Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto
- —Emily Barton—
- James D. Watson, The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
- —Maggie—
- Bill Hayes, The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy
- Natalie Angier, The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science
- —RRT—
- Jackson and Jamieson, unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation
- Howard Bloom, Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials
- Astronaut Mike Mullane, Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut/a>
- David L. Boslaugh, When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy
- —SJB (Isaac)—
- Linda Simon, Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray
- Dr. Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon
- —JNS (your humble blogger)—
- Chet Raymo, Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian
- Jared Diamond, The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
- Edward O. Wilson, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth
- Andrew Robinson, The Story of Measurement
- John H. Lienhard, Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins
- Scott Huler : Defining the Wind
- P.W. Atkins, The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements
- Colin Tudge, The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact
- Peter Watson, Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud
- Erik Larson, Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
- Simon Winchester, The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
- Richard Dawkins, Climbing Mount Improbable
- Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
- Wallace Arthur, Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom
- Janet Lembke, Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges
- Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher
- James Schwartz, In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA
- Simon LeVay, When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery
4 Responses
Subscribe to comments via RSS
Subscribe to comments via RSS
Leave a Reply
To thwart spam, comments by new people are held for moderation; give me a bit of time and your comment will show up.
I welcome comments -- even dissent -- but I will delete without notice irrelevant, rude, psychotic, or incomprehensible comments, particularly those that I deem homophobic, unless they are amusing. The same goes for commercial comments and trackbacks. Sorry, but it's my blog and my decisions are final.
on Sunday, 13 July 2008 at 23.38
Permalink
Thanks for the update. It's nice seeing a complete list of what everyone else has been choosing.
on Monday, 14 July 2008 at 17.42
Permalink
My pleasure, Melanie. I agree with you, and I think it's already a very interesting list.
on Monday, 14 July 2008 at 21.03
Permalink
I also read The Botany of Desire, but I wrote a booktalk instead of review. Reading Twinkie Deconstructed now! Need to step up my game, huh!?! :D
on Monday, 14 July 2008 at 22.09
Permalink
Oh, I wouldn't worry Maggie; there's still plenty of time for lots of reading left in 2008 — I'm still trying to shame people into taking the challenge! I am looking forward to learning about a book with such a provocative title as Twinkie Deconstructed.