Post of nice things, to ignore the pathetic spectacle on my telly
The football was making me angry so I finally did what was good for my health, switched off and decided to write an LJ post about THINGS THAT ARE GOOD. Like books!
The past two science books I've read are worth recommending. The first is Parasite Rex. As the title might imply, this is an itchy sort of book. You might not want to read it if very squeamish. But if you think you can overlook the good sense nature gave you, you should read this book because it is so interesting. Mainly following human parasites, but occasionally veering into parasitic wasp etc. territory (because WHY WOULDN'T YOU??), this is a very accessable book for the interested layman. Far from being a degenerate form of life, Zimmer shows the sophistication and seeming intelligence of these creatures. Discovering the ways that parasites alter the behaviour of their hosts (including humans, in the case of Toxoplasma gondii, an usually benign parasite but sometimes man-killer) is at once frightening and deeply intriguing. In one famous example, the aforementioned Toxoplasma alters the behaviour of mice in that it subverts their natural fear of cats, instead making them attracted to the scent in that it might be able to infect its primary feline host. There are other less-famous but equally-intriguing examples, as well as a decent, detailed overview of some life-cycles of certain parasites, some of which are astonishingly complex as in the case of flukes. You should read this book because it will make you look at the world different; instead of seeing people and animals, you'll see a habitat, a bundle of captivating parasites each intricately adapted to its especial host.
Second is The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. I did have a few problems with this book. Its focus on the pandemic in America was a little disappointing to me, being that I'm not American, but this is not a fault of the author and is rather a preference of my own; and ultimately I think it worked for the book. I did find it occasionally lent a little towards jingoism, which was tiring. The author also has a really irritating tendency to repeating things for emphasis/drama's sake, which drove me up the wall. It's a long book: the last thing it needs is needless, TV movie-esque repetition. Plus, you know, somewhere between 50- and a 100-million people died, of whom the main victims were 18 to 35-year-olds: it's already pretty dramatic!
That said, it's a great little book. Written almost like a novel, this is not a science book so much as (medical) history. It does explain the science - if you ever wondered what the H's and N's meant, or why the flu mutates so fast and is so contagious compared to other pathogens, it tells you -, but it is largely a history. And this is okay. You can't understand the true impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic without understanding the politics behind it, and why the conditions at the time were so ripe for it. What this book does best is give you an idea of the horror of the outbreak - I recently read The Stand, and Stephen King clearly got a lot of inspiration from the Spanish flu because the parallels between fiction and reality are very clear. If you've ever wondered why we're so worried about H5N1, this book will tell you why.
Fandom front: I'm watching precisely three programmes on the telly at the moment, which is a lot for me! Gok's Fashion Fix (I love him and his happy bounciness), Inside Nature's Giants (yay cutting up dead predators with a heavily pro-evolution slant!) and Doctor Who. I am at last properly enjoying Who again, largely by (mostly) avoiding its whiny, misogynistic fandom and rolling in the happy glee that is Eleven and Amy Pond. I love Eleven so very much more than I ever loved Ten (I said it) and Amy is brilliant and pro-active and actually does shit that isn't simpering over the Doctor, and I really want her blue coat and her HAIR. It is nice that it is good again.
I've also been watching some of the first series of Glee on DVD, and enjoying it rather more than I thought I would. Sue is mint.
The past two science books I've read are worth recommending. The first is Parasite Rex. As the title might imply, this is an itchy sort of book. You might not want to read it if very squeamish. But if you think you can overlook the good sense nature gave you, you should read this book because it is so interesting. Mainly following human parasites, but occasionally veering into parasitic wasp etc. territory (because WHY WOULDN'T YOU??), this is a very accessable book for the interested layman. Far from being a degenerate form of life, Zimmer shows the sophistication and seeming intelligence of these creatures. Discovering the ways that parasites alter the behaviour of their hosts (including humans, in the case of Toxoplasma gondii, an usually benign parasite but sometimes man-killer) is at once frightening and deeply intriguing. In one famous example, the aforementioned Toxoplasma alters the behaviour of mice in that it subverts their natural fear of cats, instead making them attracted to the scent in that it might be able to infect its primary feline host. There are other less-famous but equally-intriguing examples, as well as a decent, detailed overview of some life-cycles of certain parasites, some of which are astonishingly complex as in the case of flukes. You should read this book because it will make you look at the world different; instead of seeing people and animals, you'll see a habitat, a bundle of captivating parasites each intricately adapted to its especial host.
Second is The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. I did have a few problems with this book. Its focus on the pandemic in America was a little disappointing to me, being that I'm not American, but this is not a fault of the author and is rather a preference of my own; and ultimately I think it worked for the book. I did find it occasionally lent a little towards jingoism, which was tiring. The author also has a really irritating tendency to repeating things for emphasis/drama's sake, which drove me up the wall. It's a long book: the last thing it needs is needless, TV movie-esque repetition. Plus, you know, somewhere between 50- and a 100-million people died, of whom the main victims were 18 to 35-year-olds: it's already pretty dramatic!
That said, it's a great little book. Written almost like a novel, this is not a science book so much as (medical) history. It does explain the science - if you ever wondered what the H's and N's meant, or why the flu mutates so fast and is so contagious compared to other pathogens, it tells you -, but it is largely a history. And this is okay. You can't understand the true impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic without understanding the politics behind it, and why the conditions at the time were so ripe for it. What this book does best is give you an idea of the horror of the outbreak - I recently read The Stand, and Stephen King clearly got a lot of inspiration from the Spanish flu because the parallels between fiction and reality are very clear. If you've ever wondered why we're so worried about H5N1, this book will tell you why.
Fandom front: I'm watching precisely three programmes on the telly at the moment, which is a lot for me! Gok's Fashion Fix (I love him and his happy bounciness), Inside Nature's Giants (yay cutting up dead predators with a heavily pro-evolution slant!) and Doctor Who. I am at last properly enjoying Who again, largely by (mostly) avoiding its whiny, misogynistic fandom and rolling in the happy glee that is Eleven and Amy Pond. I love Eleven so very much more than I ever loved Ten (I said it) and Amy is brilliant and pro-active and actually does shit that isn't simpering over the Doctor, and I really want her blue coat and her HAIR. It is nice that it is good again.
I've also been watching some of the first series of Glee on DVD, and enjoying it rather more than I thought I would. Sue is mint.