This week’s diary is about…. science books!
Science is incredibly important to progressive causes. Without science, we’d be wallowing in a sea of ignorance, without the most basic understanding of our world, our lives, or our bodies. In short, we’d be just the sort of pliant clay that the neo-cons love to mold into unformed and uninformed voters. Hence the title, because we can use science to un-blind us, to make us enlightened, informed people capable of sharing our knowledge and enlightenment with others.
I don’t believe it!
There she goes again!
She’s tidied up and I can’t find anything!
all my tubes and wires
And careful notes
And antiquated notions
but – it’s poetry in motion…
I’ve always loved science. As I’ve mentioned before in book diaries, my mom was a science teacher for many years, and eventually wrote the curriculum for the district. Being a geeky sort of kid anyway, it didn’t take much for my interest in science and science books to take off. Truth be told, that mostly translated into a great love of science fiction, but that’s a topic for a later diary.
There are many great science books out there. My favorite is “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking. I admire this man so greatly for his achievements in the face of adversity. His writing is eminently readable, too. I have very little formal education, and somehow I managed to stay with him all the way up to the string stuff, where I got hopelessly lost and boggled in a massive “BUT BUT BUT” phase.
My Hero
There have been many very good books written lately about science. A few years ago, I read a terrific book called “Beethoven’s Hair”, which brought out the theory that he’d died of lead poisoning. Along the way, it did a great deal of science as well as lending insight into the composer’s mind and life. Wonderful book and highly recommended, especially if you’re a music and science fan like I am.
And of course, a diary on science books would be sadly incomplete without mentioning Bill Bryson’s “A Brief History of Nearly Everything”, which, to me, is one of the best science books ever for the depth and breadth of subject matter, degree of entertainment, and overall quality. If you haven’t read it, do so. Now. You can get a pretty cheap used one on alibris.
I was also a big fan of dinosaur books as a kid. As I got older, I discovered the wonderful books of John Horner and to a lesser degree, James Bakker. Terrifically written, well-researched, and darned interesting.
So what are your favorite science books? What books of a scientific bent have you read that have made you more interested in the subject?
Did science lead you to science fiction, or vice-versa?
And as always, what have you read lately?