Since I had a half-hour commute each way this summer on the DC Metrorail between Farragut North and Twinbrook Metro in Rockville, MD, I had a lot of free time every day to read. I thought I'd share my love of books... and I figured, if Oprah can have a book club, I can have one too.
Incidentally, should you be interested in any of the books on this page, they are available for purchase or further perusal on this Amazon list: Books 1-25
Eurekas and Euphorias: The Oxford Book of Scientific Anecdotes by Walter Gratzer. This is a hilarious book about strange scientific discoveries and eccentric scientists. I enjoy reading about eccentric scientists because it confirms my belief that people affiliated with MIT are crazy for a reason. I also enjoyed this book because it has stories in it about people whom I'd previously only known as a name appended to a theory... or a name appended to a Kekule clown...
Armageddon by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Admittedly, I'm completely addicted to the Left Behind series. I realize they aren't of any extreme literary value, but I get caught up in them helplessly. I think I might have finished this one in about an hour and a half.
The Emperor of Scent by Chandler Burr. This is one of those books that makes me glad to be a science major... the rare book that's so good I have to force myself to stop reading it just so I'll have the pleasure of reading it another day. The Emperor of Scent is the story of Luca Turin, a biophysicist at the University College of London, and his attempt to discover the biological basis of smell. It's an incredible book, well-written and funny... but my advice would be to read it only if you are interested in neuroscience, biology, chemistry, and/or the politics of science.
Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain by Antonio Damasio. Well, in my honest opinion it's a little too much philosophy (Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish heretic philosopher around the time of the Enlightenment) and not enough brain science... although the parts about emotion that he does go into sound interesting. I think I'm just going to read all the papers he cites and forget about the philosophy thing.
Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age by Duncan J. Watts. For roughly the first half, I really loved this book, which is about the emerging science of complexity, and specifically on the science of networks. And then he started talking about computer networks and business networks. Not being Laura and hence neither Course 6 nor Course 15, I began to zone out. But it was neat, because at one point the author worked at MIT, so several familiar characters showed up in the book, including the amusingly nicknamed "Gil" Strang.
Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin by Stephen Jay Gould. This is an old favorite of mine, and a fun introduction to biological statistics. Stephen Jay Gould's books were one of my first real introductions to the world of science, and I love them even more now that I understand better what's going on.
Liars, Lovers, and Heroes: What the New Brain Science Reveals About How We Became Who We Are by Steven Quartz and Terrence Sejnowski. So besides being a fantastic, thorough, engaging book about the frontiers of brain and cognitive science, this book cites papers by both my lab chief, David Goldman, and my principal investigator's other lab chief, Dee Higley. I've met and work for some of the people whose research is discussed in this book. Clearly I heartily recommend it.
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman. Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down... Feynman is probably more accessible in person, given his tendency to be slightly confusing in print, but he's a remarkable physicist and tells hilarious and fantastic stories. A true individual and a brilliant scientist.
What Evolution Is by Ernst Mayr. I have to admit, this was the first book all summer that I didn't make it all the way through. I don't like Mayr's style, and I don't agree with the dogmatic way in which he's explaining biology. He's an old-school biologist, and hasn't admitted yet that there is no such thing as non-molecular biology. It was kind of annoying.
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife. Despite the extraordinarily dorky material of this book (zero and infinity through history) and the dramatic manner the author uses every time he mentions zero, I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read and I'm always game for learning more about the history of science.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling. I read it in under 7 hours. Enough said.
The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould. Again, I love Gould's books. I am truly disappointed that he died, becaue his are an extraordinarily well-written series of natural history books... extremely rare. It's fun to read them again, now that I have some sort of idea of what he's talking about on a molecular scale.
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley. A very interesting book which attempts to answer the question of why sex is the method almost all multicelluar organisms use to reproduce, considering that asexual reproduction is far more efficient at doing the job. This book is so good that I couldn't put it down long enough to go put my laundry in the dryer, so I walked around with my nose in the book, earning some rather strange looks from passersby.
Once Upon a Number: The Hidden Mathematical Logic of Stories by John Allen Paulos. Generally not a breathtaking or fabulous book... it was just okay. But I did like this: "Still, it is suggestive... that we ourselves are so-called non-linear dynamical systems subject at times to the same chaotic unpredictability as New England weather."
Dinosaur in a Haystack by Stephen Jay Gould. I'm thinking of rereading Gould's entire series this summer... they're more interesting going into my sophomore year in college than they were going into my senior year of high school, and they were pretty interesting in high school.
Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell. I read this, expecting it to be a lot like my beloved TV show... but it's really not at all. In fact, it's kind of depressing. One can take only so much cynicism per day!
The Birth of Pleasure by Carol Gilligan. I kept reading this book, expecting it to get better and more interesting as it went on. I was wrong. It was all soft science psychobabble, the kind I particularly detest. Can we learn about the human urge to love through Freudian interpretations of myth and literature? Perhaps... but I don't really think it's science.
The End of Evolution: A Journey in Search of Clues to the Third Mass Extinction Facing Planet Earth by Peter Ward. I think the last time I read this book, I was going into my sophomore year in high school. It's a captivating, but extremely sobering, look at the two previous mass extinctions (Permian and Cretaceous/Tertiary) and how they are analogous to the situation we face today.
Up from Dragons: The Evolution of Human Intelligence by John Skoyles and Dorian Sagan. I love this book. Love love love love. Perhaps this is because it's about a few of my favorite things, and cowritten by the son of one of my favorite authors. In general, books about brain science make me happy, and this one is no exception.
Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead. An interesting book, to say the least... it's a classic, but it's obvious that it was written in the 1920s due to the almost casual way that Mead speaks about the natives as primitive and clearly "worse" than Western culture. I've read other books that say the Samoan natives entirely duped Mead as she was studying them, and I wouldn't be surprised... she seems to take everything they say at face value. A good read nonetheless.
The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould. Okay, this is, what, the fourth of Gould's books that I've reread this summer? I like him. I like his books. A lot.
Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins is a marvelously intellectually crabby British scientist whose fame was made with his postulation of selfish genes. His books are remarkable both for his complete humanism and for the wonder in the natural world which he is able to provoke. He argues in this book, and I agree, that a scientific understanding of a process does not make the process any less mystical or beautiful. (By the way, Akhil, this is the "petwhac" book.)
The Lying Stones of Marrakech: Penultimate Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould. This was the first Gould book I ever read, way back in the day, and I loved it just as much then as I did rereading it now. Gould is such a fabulous writer, and his books are illuminating and informative.
In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made by Norman F. Cantor. I was surprised to enjoy this book, as I picked it up essentially on a lark. I found it a refreshingly interesting commentary on the history of the Middle Ages as affected by the plague, a part of history that I knew little about. New fact of the day: what is called the Black Death was probably a combination of the bubonic plague and, of all things, anthrax? Scary...
The Meaning of it All: Reflections of a Citizen-Scientist by Richard Feynman. As far as deep thoughts go, this is the best value book I've read so far this summer. The book is comprised of three lectures given by Feynman on the place of science in today's world, and it's less than a hundred pages. I highly recommend it.