Do you read popular science books?

[Tormod]

Do you read popular science books? What kind? Why not? Discuss!

[Moontanman]

I read every popular science book I can get my hands on, some are hokum some are informative and few are earth shaking. The ability to write about science in a way that makes it interesting for everyone is a gift we need much more of.

[freeztar]

I read every popular science book I can get my hands on, some are hokum some are informative and few are earth shaking. The ability to write about science in a way that makes it interesting for everyone is a gift we need much more of.

 

What would you recommend in the "Earth shaking" category? The last earth shaking book I read was E.O. Wilson's "The Future of Life".

 

I don't read many books these days. I prefer the internet. :)

[Moontanman]

What would you recommend in the "Earth shaking" category? The last earth shaking book I read was E.O. Wilson's "The Future of Life".

 

I don't read many books these days. I prefer the internet. :)

 

"Life as we do not know it" by Peter Ward

[Turtle]

I voted yes, a few each year. Currently working this year on an unpoplular science book :D, but the last I would have to say 'popular science book' that I read was Brian Green's The Elegant Universe, or no, wait...maybe The Code Book, by Simon Singh. :)

 

When I was 9 or so, I spent my birthday money on a subscription to Scientific American so I could check up on the popular science books and magazines. :hihi: That's the way I roll.

[Moontanman]

I remember my first true science books, I too spent money I had earned (by loading hay) I was about 10, they were called "The World We Live In" by the editors of LIFE. There were three of them and they are really dated now but I remember devouring the pages over and over again. I still have two of the books more or less intact and a few pieces of the third one. I had lots of animal type books before that but these were the first true science books.

[Tormod]

I tend to favor cosmology and physics books myself. Somehow I like to read about the things I don't understand at all - it gives me a sense of learning and understanding without having to study. :)

[Flying Binghi]

Edit - post removed. ....so I drink an occasional red

[Galapagos]

At home I'm reading "In Gods We Trust" by Scott Atran, and in between classes I'm reading "The Theory of Evolution" by J Maynard Smith. I like to read about evolution, mind/consciousness, and altruism/sex/social behavior etc.

[Reaper]

I read quite a bit of popular science books, usually in areas outside my expertise. Though, you do have to be careful to differentiating established ideas from fringe theories, because the lines are often blurred in popular science.

[Moontanman]

I read quite a bit of popular science books, usually in areas outside my expertise. Though, you do have to be careful to differentiating established ideas from fringe theories, because the lines are often blurred in popular science.

 

I agree, we have to be careful when reading popular science books, they do tend toward the fringe of science. I have read more than a few that I was all excited about but my natural tendency to be suspicious of anything that sounds to good to be true prompted me to research the author and premise and disappointment often followed. I imagine it's a little easier for those who have science based education to see the fringes, I openly admit to not knowing but I do try to fill the void with as much reality as possible.

[Moontanman]

I'm reading "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman great book so far, very thought provoking.

[Pyrotex]

I'm reading "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman great book so far, very thought provoking.

There's a cable documentary on TV by the same name. Prolly taken from the book. Fascinating and very entertaining.

 

I'm almost always reading some science book or another. I include serious bios of scientists in this niche.

 

Right now I'm reading "Charles Darwin; the Tortured Evolutionist", "Salk -- the End of Polio", "Guns, Germs and Steel" (again).

 

My wife recently gave me "The Edge of Evolution" by M. Behe. The name sounded familiar so I looked him up--he's one of the national leaders in the Creationist movement. But I read the first chapter and a half anyway. I may have to read some more of it, because I want to see EXACTLY how his logic veers off into pretend-space.

 

Cosmology, astronomy, mind-science and evolution are prolly my favorite reads.

[Galapagos]

I finally got around to cracking "The Ancestors Tale" by Richard Dawkins. I'm doing all kinds of systematics-related stuff in school this semester, so this book should accompany my studies well.

 

 

Also, the best popular science book I've read in quite a while was definitely "The Blank Slate" by Steven Pinker. A lot of stuff about evolutionary psychology and behavioral genetics, some parts more contentious than others, but all around it is full of interesting science facts, making it popular-science time well spent.