Books: Hugeass haul of doom
First I went to the best used book store. Where I was over taken by some sort of bibliophilic capitalistic demon and bought too many books.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years. by Jared Diamond. I've been looking for a soft-bound copy, and here it is! I recommend this on the strength of the animal domestication chapter alone.
Central America: A natural and cultural history, edited by Anthony G. Coates. Another baby step in my quest to get a better handle on the rest of the Americas. Hardbound, but not huge, so I'm still debating taking it with me.
The Devil in the New World: The impact of diabolism in New Spain, by Fernando Cervantes. For the same reason as above, only I shalln't take this one with me.
Everything You Need to Know About Latino History, by Himilce Novas. A Cuban author writing about a wide spectrum of things. I expect the book to be broad and mostly shallow, which is fine, because I'm askert of water over my ankles, in this area. Don't want to fall into any deep holes.
Autonomy and Power: The dynamics of class and culture in rural Bolivia,, by Marina L. Lagos. Bolivia is one of the places I'm looking at externing at next summer. This book is part of the "ethnohistory" series.
Viruses, by Arnold J. Levine. A book of color plates, diagrams, and discussion. Plain language, but includes some things about politics and policy that I was unaware of.
River-Horse: Across America by Boat, by William Least Heat-Moon. I saw this book *ages* ago - two summers? In Banff? And carried around for most of two hours before putting it back because it was a full price hardback. Now I have it in soft back, and I might take it with.
I want Prairye-Earth, though. I read about a chapter, once, and want more.
The Civil War Society's Encyclopedia of the Civil War - because I don't have a book on that war in the house.
Listening: Ways of Hearing in a Silent World, by Hannah Merker. An impulse grab, taken to get the "buy five, get the last two free" price. It looks interesting - a woman who was born hearing and became deaf, talking about living in a hearing world. I do wonder how applicable to others her experience is.
Tales from the Arabian Nights, from the Burton translation. It's not the full set, but instead fifty of the best known stories. The illustrations, alas, are not from the Burton translation, but are instead from the 1859 E. W. Lane version.
A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, because musesfool has written fic, and it's been so long that I can't remember the details. (It's funny how some books work like that - I've read Lord of the Flies at least three times, and still the entire plot escapes me. Heart of Darkness, otoh, I "got" (or it got me) the first reading.)
At Play in the Fields of The Lord, by Peter Matthiessen. I *really* liked the movie. Matthiessan has written a lot of books. From thumbing through the blurbs, I have the feeling that I'm going to wish I had picked up either a David Quammen or a Jon Krakauer book instead, but I thought I would give the man a try.
(suelac - What do you know of Stephen Jay Gould? The name seems familiar, but I can't place it. I feel like we're talked about him before. Any similarity to Quammen at all?)
Sez cofax7:
Gould was The Guy in popular discussions of evolution. He just died in the last few years, but he had a monthly column in Nature for about 30 years, and almost every one was about evolution in some way. Taught evolutionary biology at Harvard. He's the co-developer of the theory of punctuated equilibrium.
Quammen is more of a general biologist with an interest in evolutionary theory. He's not known as a scientist, just a (good) science writer.
SJG was a real zoologist and paleontologist. His modern focus was snails, I think, but he read, and thought, all over the damned place. He's well known not just for his science and evolutionary writings, but for books like The Mismeasure of Man, which is one of the primary texts on the dangers of applying evolutionary theory to human beings. I read that in anthropology class in college.
Which is not to say SJG was dry: his collections (of which there are probably a dozen, including Hens Teeth and Horses Toes) were marvelous, and you could dip in and out of them. He wrote marvelously about the evolutionary pressures that gave rise to the Amazing Shrinking Hershey Bar, and Mickey Mouse's eyes.
I put him up next to John McPhee in the realm of Nonfiction Writers I Admire Greatly.
Crafty Cat Crimes: 100 Tiny Cat Tale Mysteries, edited by Dziemianowicz, Weinberg, and Greenberg. (What is it with Martin Greenberg? Is he like a *professional* editor? Anyone got any articles about him and his work?) This is a *thick* book with lots and lots of stories and I think it will go to the other one for her birthday.
Letters from Earth, by Mark Twain. I'm looking forward to contrasting this collection with The Screwtape Letters.
***
Things I looked at but did not get:
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. Because the man still makes me crazy.
Dominion, by Matthew Scully, - even though I was reminded recently in a conversation elsewhere on lj that I had not actually finished the book the last time I had it. They didn't have a used copy.
And the real reason I didn't get either is because I know they're going to piss me off to read them. So I'm avoiding the issue still.
And seen at the check out counter: The Radiation Sonnets, by Janet Yolen. I'm going to get those, eventually, but not this week.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years. by Jared Diamond. I've been looking for a soft-bound copy, and here it is! I recommend this on the strength of the animal domestication chapter alone.
Central America: A natural and cultural history, edited by Anthony G. Coates. Another baby step in my quest to get a better handle on the rest of the Americas. Hardbound, but not huge, so I'm still debating taking it with me.
The Devil in the New World: The impact of diabolism in New Spain, by Fernando Cervantes. For the same reason as above, only I shalln't take this one with me.
Everything You Need to Know About Latino History, by Himilce Novas. A Cuban author writing about a wide spectrum of things. I expect the book to be broad and mostly shallow, which is fine, because I'm askert of water over my ankles, in this area. Don't want to fall into any deep holes.
Autonomy and Power: The dynamics of class and culture in rural Bolivia,, by Marina L. Lagos. Bolivia is one of the places I'm looking at externing at next summer. This book is part of the "ethnohistory" series.
Viruses, by Arnold J. Levine. A book of color plates, diagrams, and discussion. Plain language, but includes some things about politics and policy that I was unaware of.
River-Horse: Across America by Boat, by William Least Heat-Moon. I saw this book *ages* ago - two summers? In Banff? And carried around for most of two hours before putting it back because it was a full price hardback. Now I have it in soft back, and I might take it with.
I want Prairye-Earth, though. I read about a chapter, once, and want more.
The Civil War Society's Encyclopedia of the Civil War - because I don't have a book on that war in the house.
Listening: Ways of Hearing in a Silent World, by Hannah Merker. An impulse grab, taken to get the "buy five, get the last two free" price. It looks interesting - a woman who was born hearing and became deaf, talking about living in a hearing world. I do wonder how applicable to others her experience is.
Tales from the Arabian Nights, from the Burton translation. It's not the full set, but instead fifty of the best known stories. The illustrations, alas, are not from the Burton translation, but are instead from the 1859 E. W. Lane version.
A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, because musesfool has written fic, and it's been so long that I can't remember the details. (It's funny how some books work like that - I've read Lord of the Flies at least three times, and still the entire plot escapes me. Heart of Darkness, otoh, I "got" (or it got me) the first reading.)
At Play in the Fields of The Lord, by Peter Matthiessen. I *really* liked the movie. Matthiessan has written a lot of books. From thumbing through the blurbs, I have the feeling that I'm going to wish I had picked up either a David Quammen or a Jon Krakauer book instead, but I thought I would give the man a try.
(suelac - What do you know of Stephen Jay Gould? The name seems familiar, but I can't place it. I feel like we're talked about him before. Any similarity to Quammen at all?)
Sez cofax7:
Gould was The Guy in popular discussions of evolution. He just died in the last few years, but he had a monthly column in Nature for about 30 years, and almost every one was about evolution in some way. Taught evolutionary biology at Harvard. He's the co-developer of the theory of punctuated equilibrium.
Quammen is more of a general biologist with an interest in evolutionary theory. He's not known as a scientist, just a (good) science writer.
SJG was a real zoologist and paleontologist. His modern focus was snails, I think, but he read, and thought, all over the damned place. He's well known not just for his science and evolutionary writings, but for books like The Mismeasure of Man, which is one of the primary texts on the dangers of applying evolutionary theory to human beings. I read that in anthropology class in college.
Which is not to say SJG was dry: his collections (of which there are probably a dozen, including Hens Teeth and Horses Toes) were marvelous, and you could dip in and out of them. He wrote marvelously about the evolutionary pressures that gave rise to the Amazing Shrinking Hershey Bar, and Mickey Mouse's eyes.
I put him up next to John McPhee in the realm of Nonfiction Writers I Admire Greatly.
Crafty Cat Crimes: 100 Tiny Cat Tale Mysteries, edited by Dziemianowicz, Weinberg, and Greenberg. (What is it with Martin Greenberg? Is he like a *professional* editor? Anyone got any articles about him and his work?) This is a *thick* book with lots and lots of stories and I think it will go to the other one for her birthday.
Letters from Earth, by Mark Twain. I'm looking forward to contrasting this collection with The Screwtape Letters.
***
Things I looked at but did not get:
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. Because the man still makes me crazy.
Dominion, by Matthew Scully, - even though I was reminded recently in a conversation elsewhere on lj that I had not actually finished the book the last time I had it. They didn't have a used copy.
And the real reason I didn't get either is because I know they're going to piss me off to read them. So I'm avoiding the issue still.
And seen at the check out counter: The Radiation Sonnets, by Janet Yolen. I'm going to get those, eventually, but not this week.