Book Call

[ase]

I am bored, and my personal "to read" list is packed with fiction and looks boring. So give me recommendations. I'm in the science nonfiction market, especially biology. Bonus points for things large university libraries should have on their shelves. Is there a good Linus Pauling biography? If anyone knows of a lay-ish intro to bioinformatics, please comment.

Shoutout to herewiss13: Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything is available... at the public library. It requires a little pre-planning to get there, so I'm going to wait until they call about my Fifty Degrees Below hold and pick them up at the same time. What else where you exalting? My memory is a sieve.

It's probably just as well I'm out of nonschool reading this week, what with Wednesday's physics test. (The end of Midterm Madness!) Me + novels + stress = things not getting done. Nonfiction is usually a little safer.

Comments

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read David Quammen's The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions, I recommend it. It's a popularization, but a good one. (ISTR it got a good review in American Scientist when it came out; I think that was where I heard about it.)

[ase.livejournal.com]

I haven't, no.

...and it's out. Am bummed. They do have his 2005 book Monster of God : the man-eating predator in the jungles of history and the mind. The title is either very, very catchy or a huge turnoff. Comments?

Also, noticed you'd finished The Lost Steersman. IIRC it annoyed me because Janus had a Fletcher complex, but other parts were good. My $.02.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard anything about the 2005 book, no. Quammen has a penchant for vivid - sometimes lurid or even vulgar - imagery, so if that's a turnoff that might be a problem. Still, I found the earlier book very informative. (And entertaining; the story of Darwin and the iguana really struck me funny.)

As for Janus: yes, I noticed that too. At one point I was concerned that Rowan seemed to be making the same mistakes as before. She turned suspicious faster than I expected, though. Kirstein's characters actually do seem to learn from experience... I'm looking forward to the next book.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Kirstein's characters actually do seem to learn from experience... I'm looking forward to the next book.

Wait until you get to the end, and there's no more (yet). Is there any word on when the next one will be out?

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

I could have sworn filkferengi told me something about that, but I can't find it in my archives.

[filkferengi]

Not me. Ask on the main [Bujold] list though; someone there's bound to know.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Or google around, and check usenet; I'm coming up dry, though.

[tashok.livejournal.com]

Holy crap... Pat Tallman is married to the guy who played Kosh!

Also, read my latest LJ post for some fangirlish squealing.

--Raven

[tashok.livejournal.com]

I realize that comment was totally unrelated to your post.. I need more B5 fans to squeal at.

In regards to good books.. most of my top ten nonfic list has to do with animals or mythology. However, The Future of Life by E.O. Wilson isn't bad, and Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time is excellent.

--Raven

[ase.livejournal.com]

I need more B5 fans to squeal at.

Don't we all. I need to be less reticient about grabbing people and sitting them in front of DVD marathons.

And the library has Future of Life. Brief History put me to sleep once, but I was 13 or 14 at the time. I'll give it another shot one of these days.

[tashok.livejournal.com]

I think Future is more soporific than Brief History, personally, but then again I had to read the former for a class, the latter was for fun.

I need to get the B5 DVDs so I can convert more people. I have already converted my girlfriend to the Cult of Zim and we haven't even been dating a week yet. Go me.

--Raven

[ase.livejournal.com]

No way! I had totally missed that! Any fangirl points you lost on the Lost thing are totally restored to you.

[tashok.livejournal.com]

w00t!

In my defense re:Lost, I have been assiduously avoiding that show and most other new network shows. It's principle.. I know too many addicts, I don't have the time, and just.. well.. networks have lost my respect for the most part. They're even fucking up Law&Order, and that bad boy is almost unkillable.

--Raven

[ase.livejournal.com]

My rental gets four stations: 4, 5 (sometimes), 7 and 9. I watch the morning news, and I have all the entertainment I need from the TV. I mean, really, the Harriet Miers nomination was a scream. What was up with Bush nominating someone so obviously not fit for the position? Who needs reality shows when you have the White House?

Also, there are newspapers. One Sunday Post will give you reading material all week, if you ration it right.

[herewiss13.livejournal.com]

What else where you exalting? My memory is a sieve.

Oh, who knows? That was soooo last week. ;-)

Prompted by reading a selection of old LJ posts of my own, I did just revisit "The Tapir's Morning Bath" which describes the lives and studies of a group of scientists at the Barro Colorado Island Research Center, an island in the panama canal where some of the finest tropical biology research takes place. An informed and occasionally amusing look at field work and the people who do it...and why.

OTOH, I just re-read "The Black Gryphon" yesterday for the hell of it...so I'm a little ecclectic at the moment.

...I do think you'll like Bryson, though.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Oh, who knows? That was soooo last week. ;-)

With a little effort, you could make the eyeroll come out in the text too. *G*

OTOH, I just re-read "The Black Gryphon" yesterday for the hell of it...so I'm a little ecclectic at the moment.

I'm going to politely shudder, and then remember that I'm in Lackeyland too at the moment, so I need to not be so picky. (Because 2005fanmixes really needs a Vanyel mix. Uh-huh. Okay, so I've got one song I'm building the mix around, so it'll go away and stop bothering me.)

I've read A Walk in the Woods, so I know a little about Bryson's style. And I'd like to read I'm a Stranger Here Myself, but it's out of circ at the moment. How badly do you have to bang up a book for it to land in repairs?

[herewiss13.livejournal.com]

Well, there was also that fanfic I emailed you. I've been wondering if you'd found the time to read it and what you thought.

In re: screened comment: Not a key-word I'd have thought of (the number of false positives from herp sites boggles the mind), but I suppose a sufficiently motivated stalker could make something of it. Sorry to cause paranoia. ;-)

[ase.livejournal.com]

You're using different keywords than me. Also, probably a different grade of paranoia-filter.

[ase.livejournal.com]

I did read the fic - it's good for what it is, but it's tough to read in bed, while passing out. Printouts are too messy, and also kill ink, you know?

Science history/biography

[coyotegestalt.livejournal.com]

David Lindley's Boltzman's Atom was pretty good.