Back from the bookstore

[godfry n. glad]

Yesterday was payday.

Today is was the bookstore and the toystore.

I picked up six titles at the bookstore:

Holy War: The Crusade and Their Impact on Today's World by Karen Armstrong

Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain

An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire by Anrundhati Roy

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization by Brian Fagan

I also saw a copy of Collapse which I just drooooooled over, but it was hardback and over $30.00. Ouch. I'll wait for softback. I've enough to keep my jones at bay for a while.

The weather here is in the upper 30s F (5 C), with constant rain today. These are the days we hope lots and lots of Californians are visiting. It's great for reading...which is probably why this city is noted for having the highest number of bookstores per capita and having the highest per capita book purchasing activity.

The kind of weather to find an nice snuggly fellow reader to snuggle and read with.

godfry :read:

(I have yet to find the World Blimp...I'm still looking.)

[beyelzu]

I didnt realize so many people read in "out of bounds"


salt a world history sounds uber interesting.


I have never read anything by sontag is it worth the bother?

[godfry n. glad]

I didnt realize so many people read in "out of bounds"

Oh, yeah... Not much action, so there's lots of reading.


salt a world history sounds uber interesting.

I thought so, too. His first book of noteriety was a history of the cod.

I have never read anything by sontag is it worth the bother?

To by honest, all I've read have been magazine articles. Yet, I find her style enthralling. The fly cover blurb promises, "...Regarding the Pain of Others challenges our thinking not only about the uses and meanings of images, but about how war itself is waged (and understood) in our time, the limits of sympathy, and the obligation of conscience."

Intriguing, no?

godfry

[Gurdur]

Well, you certainly get top marks for such a list !

If you're going to do salt, one day you might like to do:
The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorus, by John Emsley

[lady cop]

i am reading "six wives" by david starkey. "trafalger" by clayton and craig, "eliizabeth l" by plowden, "samuel pepys" by tomalin and "nelson" by sugden. i will need a while to wade though these, but i love this stuff.

[Ymir's blood]

At work, I'm reading Plagues and Peoples by William H. McNeill.
For reading before going to sleep, I've got a collection of Edgar Allen Poe's poems and short stories that Barnes & Noble had discounted.

[Beth]

At work, I'm reading Plagues and Peoples by William H. McNeill.

That sounds uber interesting. I love books about diseases and I love books that expound on the societal and cultural effects plague had on people throughout history.

[lady cop]

At work, I'm reading Plagues and Peoples by William H. McNeill.

That sounds uber interesting. I love books about diseases and I love books that expound on the societal and cultural effects plaugue had on people throughout history.
have you read "the coming plague"? can't recall author. very scary stuff about emerging viruses.

[Ymir's blood]

At work, I'm reading Plagues and Peoples by William H. McNeill.

That sounds uber interesting. I love books about diseases and I love books that expound on the societal and cultural effects plague had on people throughout history.
In an earlier thread, Roland98 recommended it along with some other books that I haven't gotten to yet. This one has been quite informative and yet very readable at the same time.

I got into this kind of thing by picking up all the morbid looking books that Barnes & Noble put on the discount aisle.

[Ymir's blood]

At work, I'm reading Plagues and Peoples by William H. McNeill.

That sounds uber interesting. I love books about diseases and I love books that expound on the societal and cultural effects plaugue had on people throughout history.
have you read "the coming plague"? can't recall author. very scary stuff about emerging viruses.
Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett

B&N Link (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=QX1JY7rAyi&isbn=0140250913&itm=1)

[Gurdur]

William McNeill is the acknowledged grandfather expert on the whole field; Laurie Garrett's book is excellent.

You should try too:
Ecological Imperialism : The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521456908/qid=1107130698/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/104-6819838-4335115), by another acknowledged leader of the field, Alfred W. Crosby.

That book came out before Diamond's Guns, Germs And Steel, and it is far better than Daimond's take; IIRC Diamond actually used Crosby's work as a source, but was nowhere near as comprehensive and explorative as Crosby.

[godfry n. glad]

Actually, Crosby sounds more interesting to me. Thanks for the note, Gurdur. I'd heard the name and never followed up on it.

Are you familiar with William Cronon's editing of Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature? It's a collection of pieces on environmental thought and the nature of nature.

Donald Worster's Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas is also a worthy read. But it's kind of wandering off the original track.

Henry Hobhouse's Seeds of Change: Five Plants that Changed the World is a good read, but I suspect there are more thorough treatments of the same materials...particularly since it's been subsequently expanded to six plants, itself, in later editions.

godfry

(psssst...Beth...William H. McNeill's Plagues and Peoples is a classic. It's a fun read, too, because McNeill is an engaging writer. I recommend it. Before The Coming Plague.)

[godfry n. glad]

Okay...

I'm interested in any good books for the intelligent layman on the Gaea Hypothesis. Can anybody direct me to something that attempts to fully explain the concept to a non-ecologist? Even a non-scientific educated layman?

godfry

[godfry n. glad]

i am reading "six wives" by david starkey. "trafalger" by clayton and craig, "eliizabeth l" by plowden, "samuel pepys" by tomalin and "nelson" by sugden. i will need a while to wade though these, but i love this stuff.

Hmmmm....sounds like intensive English culture.

You'll be ready for a stroll on the Hoe by the time you're done with those.


godfry

(...for you, I'd recommend The Law of the Land: The Evolution of Our Legal System by Charles Rembar. He uses that last known legal duel in the United States as an starting point for his discussion about how our legal system came to be how it is now. To do so, he covers a lot of English, and, where it applied, European, history. I thought it a fun read, but the first chapter can throw readers off, so don't let it.)

[Roland98]

William McNeill is the acknowledged grandfather expert on the whole field; Laurie Garrett's book is excellent.

You should try too:
Ecological Imperialism : The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521456908/qid=1107130698/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/104-6819838-4335115), by another acknowledged leader of the field, Alfred W. Crosby.

Crosby rocks. America's Forgotten Pandemic (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521541751/qid=1107188967/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-9114308-9202250?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) is dated (doesn't have the molecular work done by Jeffery Taubenbarger et al. in the last 8 years or so) but it's still the best book on the 1918 flu pandemic in print.

godfry, are you a Sontag fan? I read "Illness as Metaphor" in college but haven't checked out anything else of hers.

[godfry n. glad]

godfry, are you a Sontag fan? I read "Illness as Metaphor" in college but haven't checked out anything else of hers.

I'm not really a fan, because everything I've read by her has been something I stumbled into unawares. I've enjoyed her writing style and what I've read, but I haven't done any extensive and focused reading of her materials.

I suspect liv might be of more help to you than I.

godfry

[Gurdur]

On the Gaia Hypothesis: the best books I know of are those by the creator of the concept, James Lovelock. A quick search on Amazon gives you the books available from him.
While at first glance it looks like an interesting idea (the Earth as a single organism), it tends to go nowhere fast; there just haven't been any new insights or developments more, and I don't see how there could be, really.

BTW, on Lovelock's hypothesis, it's spelled Gaia, not Gaea; for some reason or other, it seems to be mainly Wiccans who prefer the spelling Gaea, as far as book titles go.

[Shake]

I just received Electronic Democracy (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/091096520X/ref=wl_it_dp/103-7449030-4615030?%5Fencoding=UTF8&coliid=I3FG9ZF31EMQ4L&v=glance&colid=31XMPDPRJT5QA), but I'm currently reading In Code (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565123778/qid=1107455477/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-8578895-5833768).

[Bella]

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Salt is an excellent book - better than Cod, IMHO. I really enjoyed it, anyway.

I just bought The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness by Jack El-Hai, a local writer. I haven't cracked into it yet, but I'm hoping to over the weekend. I also got Damned: An Illustrated History of the Devil by Robert Muchembled.

Working at B&N has its perks - 30% off everything. My paycheque is often gone before I get it :S.

[Crumb]

but I'm currently reading In Code.

Thank you shake! I wanted to read this book awhile ago but forgot about it. I am glad you linked to it.

Bree: You are barefoot Bree from II right? (just curious)

[livius drusus]

America's Forgotten Pandemic (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521541751/qid=1107188967/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-9114308-9202250?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) is dated (doesn't have the molecular work done by Jeffery Taubenbarger et al. in the last 8 years or so) but it's still the best book on the 1918 flu pandemic in print.

Amazon says it was revised in 2003. Mebbe since then they've added the Taubenbarger work. Not like I'd know the difference, of course, and I'm glad to report that I received my copy today.

[Bella]

Bree: You are barefoot Bree from II right? (just curious)
Nope, I'm just plain ol' Bree-Bree.

[livius drusus]

Crosby does indeed rock. Not only does he mention Taubenbarger in the preface to this edition, but he's a rather fabulous writer. This gorgeous passage reminded me of the The Lone Ranger's post on the scale of the universe:

The human body is a collocation of wonders, and none is more wondrous than the lungs. Here, quite literally, the line dividing the body from its environment is thinnest. Here the blood exchanges the gaseous wastes for the oxygen that the body needs every moment of its existence to stay alive, and here the human organism spreads itself out to expose as thin and broad an area to the air as possible. In an adult male the lungs contain 750 million of the tiny air sacks, the alveoli, where the gaseous exchange takes place, and their combined surface is more than 25 times the area of his skin. The capillaries of their walls are barely wider than the diameter of a single red blood cell, and the membranes of those capillaries are one-tenth of a millionth of a meter thick. It is here in the lungs that the human body, in order to renew itself with every breath, takes on almost the delicacy of a soap bubble.

Now tell me that ain't just cool. :thumbup:

[Roland98]

Crosby does indeed rock. Not only does he mention Taubenbarger in the preface to this edition,

Groovy. I didn't realize he'd put out a new edition. :super:

[livius drusus]

This is what he says in the preface:

We know vastly more about that flu virus than we did that year [1918] or when I first wrote about it. Dr. Jeffrey Taubenbarger, Ann Reid, and their associates have examined tissue samples preserved since 1918-19 by the U.S. Armed Forces Museum of Pathology in Maryland and by the permafrost in Alaska and have reconstructed much of the genome of the pandemic virus. [...]

But we don't know yet what made the 1918 virus so dangerous, and so we don't know yet what to do to stall the return of that or any similarly dangerous flu virus.

That may be the sole modification to the edition, though, and if so, it would remain as dated as it once was.

[Roland98]

This is what he says in the preface:

We know vastly more about that flu virus than we did that year [1918] or when I first wrote about it. Dr. Jeffrey Taubenbarger, Ann Reid, and their associates have examined tissue samples preserved since 1918-19 by the U.S. Armed Forces Museum of Pathology in Maryland and by the permafrost in Alaska and have reconstructed much of the genome of the pandemic virus. [...]

But we don't know yet what made the 1918 virus so dangerous, and so we don't know yet what to do to stall the return of that or any similarly dangerous flu virus.

That may be the sole modification to the edition, though, and if so, it would remain as dated as it once was.

Well, even if dated, it still kicks ass. Gina Kolata's "Flu" goes into Taubenbarger's work, though it was done while he was still in the early stages of it. I don't think Crosby really would need to cover that ground; after all, there's not all that much that's new since 1918. ;)

[godfry n. glad]

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Salt is an excellent book - better than Cod, IMHO. I really enjoyed it, anyway.

I concur...heartily. That was a truly enjoyable and informative read. Who'd thought that such a mundane topic would yield such an interesting history.

Today, I went again to the bookstore. I came home with:

China: Empire and Civilization, by Edward L. Shaughnessy

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford.

Gunpowder - Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World, by Jack Kelly

Doubt, a history, by Jennifer Michael Hecht

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal, by Jared Diamond

and, in hardback, no less,

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond.

It looks tasty.

[Fencesitter]

Wow, I'm feeling illiterate.

Are only scientists allowed in here?

Fence

[godfry n. glad]

Wow, I'm feeling illiterate.

Are only scientists allowed in here?

Fence

No...I'm not a scientist. Just a library rat with a heavy non-fiction jones and a taste for histories.

The last batch lasted me six months, even though I lost one half way through it, never read another, and read half of another. Salt and Holy War were both top rate. I think The Long Summer (the one I lost) is a very good source to give some scale on the whole greenhouse effect thing. Fagan's The Long Winter is not nearly as good.

[Fencesitter]

Wow, I'm feeling illiterate.

Are only scientists allowed in here?

Fence

No...I'm not a scientist. Just a library rat with a heavy non-fiction jones and a taste for histories.

The last batch lasted me six months, even though I lost one half way through it, never read another, and read half of another. Salt and Holy War were both top rate. I think The Long Summer (the one I lost) is a very good source to give some scale on the whole greenhouse effect thing. Fagan's The Long Winter is not nearly as good.

godfry n. glad,

Thanks for your response. At least I don't feel out of place that I'm not a scientist.

I wish I could say that I had a penchant for non-fiction. Then I'd feel so much smarter than saying I read some fluffy fiction the other day. But it's hard to imagine relaxing and curling up with a good non-fiction book for me.

Fence

[godfry n. glad]

Heh...

If it makes you feel any better, I've a whole wall of murder mysteries and police procedurals. I'm a big fan of:

Ellis Peters - I think Brother Cadfael is a masterful creation.

Tony Hillerman - The Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mysteries are my favorites.

Jonathan Kellerman - Dr. Alex Delaware's psychological thriller murders are superb.

Sharyn McCrumb - She has three separate story settings, one light and amusing (the Elizabeth McPherson mysteries - these are a hoot), one heavy and brooding (Sheriff Arrowood series), and one just off-beat (the fanzine books). Excellent reads, all.

Stuart Kaminsky - His Inspector Rostnikov of the Moscow MKVD is a delight.

Ed McBain - I swear his voluminous 87th Precinct work is the template from which television police precinct procedurals are churned out (Hill Street Blues and the like).

Steven Saylor - Another unusual "detective", Gordianus the Finder, a hired snoop of the rich and famous of pre-Ceasarean Rome.

Harry Kemelman - Rabbi Small and his bad days.

Then there's the likes of Patricia Cromwell, Sue Grafton, Sheila Radley, Marcia Muller, Dorothy Simpson and, of course, the Grand Dame of them all, Agatha Christie.

I had my day with mysteries (and sci fi, too). A good historical fiction is a joy, as well, in my estimation. I enjoy junk food for the mind, just like most voracious readers. I just don't read it much any more. I'm always a bit cowed by those who read "serious lit-tra-chur"...most of it I find tedious. It's my boorish lack of culture, yknow.

:read:


:study: <---- this is me trying to read Umberto Eco.

[Fencesitter]

Heh...

If it makes you feel any better, I've a whole wall of murder mysteries and police procedurals.

YES!!! :snoopy:

Now you're talking my language. You just made my day. Maybe I'm not as illiterate as I thought.

Thanks.

Fence

[godfry n. glad]

I culled my collection of scifi and mysteries and took 'em in for sale. In return, I got a bag full of new titles for me and a collection started, two, actually:

The following by Ellis Peters:
~ The Leper of St. Giles
~ The Rose Rent
~ The Pilgrim of Hate
~ Monk's Hood
~ A Rare Benedictine
~ Dead Man's Ransom

by Tony Hillerman, I picked up the following:

~ The Wailing Wind
~ Skeleton Man
~ The Sinister Pig

by Sharyn McCrumb:

~ The Songcatcher
~ Bimbos of the Death Sun

and The Judgment of Caesar, by Stephen Saylor, A Paper Conspiracy by David Liss, and Hard Currency, by Stuart Kaminsky.

Then, I got my act together and culled my bookshelves of much of Ivy's collected materials that I would never use. Language texts, cross-stitch pattern books, home improvement guides, and novels. All went to the buyer at Powell's. They took about a third of them and gave me $45 in store credit.

That went to:

Silk Road: Monks, Warriors & Merchants, by Luce Boulnois. (This looks really tasty to the likes of me...Old World trade patterns.)

A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell by Donald Worster.

Taliban by Ahmed Rashid.

The Lost Heart of Asia, by Colin Thubron.

Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict, by Michael T. Klare.

The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia, by Lutz Kleveman.

Am I a biblioslut, or what?

I'm now officially awash in unread books. Everything looks tempting.

I must select two for travel.