Katelisim's Science: No Longer Force Fed

So I'm not a big science reader, which translates, I haven't completed a science reading since school. I'm excited to choose my science reading for once :)

I started Planets by Dava Sobel a little over a month ago, I'll have to get back to that.

Congratulations on deciding to try some science books. I was thinking, what books might interest and ease a reader into current science writing? I came up with the The Best American Science Writing and The Best American Science and Nature Writing series. They are a yearly series that started in 2000 so there are 18 total books now to choose from.

Each year has a different guest editor. Despite the title of the series many of the editors are not American and many of the writers aren't either. I think all the articles just appeared in American magazines and such. I tag them bite-sized-science-articles.

The nice thing about them is that if one article is not grabbing your attention then it's easy to move onto the next article. I always find something interesting in the books and learn from them also. After reading an article the book can be set aside for a time and nothing is lost by doing so. The articles cover a wide swath of the science scene.

Dava Sobel was an editor for one of the books.

ETA: With this year's books it should bring the total up to 20 books.

#1 I've heard of this book, and maybe another one or two by the same author, too? How are you enjoying it? It seems like I heard mostly positive things.

^ Dava Sobel has also written Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, neither of which I've read.

So far, I like this one. I like planets and astronomy, so it's not too much of a stretch. Each chapter is devoted to a different subject(planet, moon, etc). And it tells you about the planets properties in wonderful prose. Also, the author uses experiences and common myths/lore to examine human relationships with the planets.

>2 VisibleGhost: Thanks for the suggestion. The 'read a little and come back later' bit is why I'm enjoying Planets so much. No overload. I'll probably skim the science section in Half Price Books to get some ideas too :)

I'm close to finishing Planets.
And I just picked up Elephants on Acid by Alex Boese. It's all about the crazy science experiments done in the past... including giving elephants LSD. I'm super excited to read this one. I think I finally found my kind of science... psychotics in lab coats :)

Yikes! How do you bring an elephant down from a bad LSD trip? Why am I thinking that somehow the CIA was involved in this? It sounds like a interesting book. I read a comment not too long ago that said there has always been a race between bad innovation and good innovation and probably always will be. It's probably applicable to science experiments also.

I don't think it would be wise to even help the elephant... you'd probably get trampled :)

And the race... I guess it all depends on your view of good and bad.

So I finished... all about the same time....
Planets
Elephants on Acid
and Flyers and Swimmers--My cute little cousins gave this to me as a gift, a nice and short little fact book about dinosaurs :)

You're halfway done with the challenge already and we just started! How was Elephants on Acid?

To be fair, one was a kid's book only of around 30 pages.

Elephants on Acid was hilarious and a little on the morbid/creepy side. It starts with Frankenstein type experiments in the 1800's. Some others are Zombie Kitten, a tickle machine, lots of memory experiments, re-attachment of limbs, brainwashing etc. It covers a good range of how far scientists' curiosity can go silly and superfluous to a bit too far. Not heavy on the science, just tells of the experiments and some of the conditions.