Dabbling in Science and Natural History

Who doesn't love Bill Bryson? And, I might ask, who doesn't love literary nonfiction? Because to love one is to love the other, at least for a little while. I just finished Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything and really found it super-fascinating. Although if he had scaled it down to A Short History of the Findings of Paleontology, Geology, and Anthropology of the Last 300 Years, I would have found it equally fascinating. Since those were the branches of science/social science that constituted my favorite parts of the book. I read of another blogger who couldn't finish it due to the scariness of certain parts regarding the possibility of earthly destruction via rogue asteroid, the eruption of the mega-volcano that is Yellowstone National Park (which would easily take out half the country and affect the whole world), and even the possible weakening of our magnetic field which we need to protect us from lethal cosmic rays from space. And yes, these sections were indeed unnerving. But also extremely fascinating.

He'll take you from a mini-crash course in subatomic particles to the amazing discoveries of women astrophysicists in the fifties to the hilarious and entertaining portraits of various scientists and historical figures to the current theories regarding the classifications of Homo erectus and the mysteries behind the tools and migration patterns of early humans. And it's all told in Bryson's conversational, clever, funny, and endearing manner.

I regaled M. with so many anecdotes, facts, and tidbits regarding everything from the blue whale to Jupiter to the structure of the atom, that he started asking me for a date when I thought I'd be finished, so he could start reading it. As it turns out, our copy fell apart and I was able to finish the last section unbound while he started the still bound part. Which I'm glad happened for that reason, and also because I now have the tantalizing bibliography to pore over full of titles like Tales of the Earth: Paroxysms and Perturbations of the Blue Planet, Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy, and Bones: Discovering the First Americans. Oh yeah, and Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz is in there, which is on my list of Winter Challenge Books, so I might just go there next.

During Naptime

While I would like to listen to Mahler's 1st Symphony or finish my Bryson book or read a few pages of the new book I couldn't resist from the library yesterday, The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes edited by John Gross, I have to make one of these. I really wanted to make one of these instead but the store didn't have them yet. Not such a bad deal. It's one of my last duties for Wilton and I get paid for doing it. Then I have to do a demo next Saturday and I'm done.

Science and Music for Dilettantes

I'm still plugging away through Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. It's tremendously fascinating, and of course, it's stirring up all kinds of longings for more science writing now. Hence, my Stephen Jay Gould purchase of the other day. I might start a reading list of good intro books in the sciences for dabbling dilettantes like me. Also, I'd like some suggestions also. Although Bryson's book covers chemistry (biochemistry), physics (astrophysics, geophysics), geology, archaeology, paleontology, biology and other branches of science, I'm most interested in natural history and geology, paleontology, and archaeology. Although, is archaeology a social science and not a physical science because it deals with finding out about civilizations?

Last night I finished teaching my last Wilton class early (I'm quitting due to a variety of reasons: imminent baby, boredom, babysitting issues, the incompetence of the retail world) and so I went to Borders before heading home. (I wanted Mr. Two Year Old to be in bed before I got home also.) Do they have a better selection than Barnes & Noble? I think they do. They seem to have a better backlist (can you say that regarding a bookstore or just a publisher?) whereas Barnes & Noble focuses on the big names that sell. For instance, Borders has a really great 'books on music' section with all kinds of books on music theory, biographies of composers, books about music appreciation, and essays on music. Barnes & Noble has maybe Classical Music 101 and that's it. (But we like to go to B&N anyway because I worked in two of them so I feel attached and Mr. Two likes to ride the escalators and elevator and play with the Thomas the Train set in the children's section.) Anyway, my purchase of the night was Mozart in the Jungle by Blair Tindall.

Now I'm off into the chilly, rainy early November day to the library to pay for my late CDs and get the next ones to listen to in my studies. I'm still on symphonies. I'm getting Mahler, Richard Strauss, Prokofiev, Vaughan Williams, and Elgar this time.