[Michaelangelica]

This looked good.

Title The Best American Science Writing 2003
Author(s) Oliver Sacks
Publisher HarperCollins
Publication Date Sep 1, 2003
Format Paperback
Pages 288
Dimensions 6 x 9 x 0.72 in
ISBN 0060936517
I love Sacks's writing "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" is terrific. He has great insight into mental problems, great compassion, and is a great observer and writer.

[Tormod]

Sounds interesting. I never read anything by Sacks.

I just finished an interesting book by John Gribbin called "The Fellowship" - it's the history of the foundation of the Royal Society in England. A very important part of western science history.

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by Tormod

I just finished an interesting book by John Gribbin called "The Fellowship"

Is that the same guy who wrote "In Search of Schroedinger's Cat" back in the '80s?

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

I love Sacks's writing "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" is terrific.

I believe Sack's used to be a therapist, and he frequently wrote about real cases he'd dealt with (changing the names for anonymity sake). Really cool stories indeed.

[Tormod]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Is that the same guy who wrote "In Search of Schroedinger's Cat" back in the '80s?

Yes. He's written lots of very good books on popular science.

[dagaz]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Is that the same guy who wrote "In Search of Schroedinger's Cat" back in the '80s?

I missed it back in the 80's and am actually reading it now. I think its the most readable description of quantum physics I have ever come across. I have read a few other of his books, including "Almost everyone's guide to science" which has a really good overview of some of the more important aspects of modern science.

[Tormod]

Originally Posted by dagaz

I missed it back in the 80's and am actually reading it now. I think its the most readable description of quantum physics I have ever come across. I have read a few other of his books, including "Almost everyone's guide to science" which has a really good overview of some of the more important aspects of modern science.

He also wrote a very good book titled "Ice Age" together with his wife Mary. It's a great little book about how people realized that ice ages had occurred in the past, and that there had been quite a lot of them!

In fact, John Gribbin writes most of his book together with his wife.

[TheBigDog]

Most of my reading of late has been Hpography, and research involving discussion on Hypography. But I enjoy a good novel as much as the next guy. So in the spirit of reading here are some of my favorite books from the world of Sci-Fi...

1. My favorite sci-fi book, and one of my all time favorite books of any genre is "Ender's Game". It will be a great movie some day. Orson Scott Card is the only author I know of who predicted the internet. Four more novels about Ender followed, all excellent.
2. And if you enjoy Ender's Game, check out "Ender's Shadow". The same book written from the point of view of one of the other characters. It is the start of the current series that OSC is working on.
3. I read two novels by David Brin a long time ago and they were some of the best Sci-fi I have had the pleasure of enjoying. I think they were "Startide Rising" and "The Uplift War". I mean to read more of his work some day.
4. Isaac Asimov's complete series from I-Robot to the last Foundation book. A must for all Sci-fi fans. How come we don't have any "phychohistory" threads here at Hypography? (It is tough to find all of them as they were written over a 40 year period and out of sequence and published by various houses)
5. When I was a kid my sisters and I read the "Pern" series by Anne McCaffrey. When I stopped reading, after about the 8th book, the people of Pern just began to discover their heritage and it really began to take a sci-fi twist. Someday I will revisit Pern and enjoy the parts I never finished.
6. I read a book called "Hellspark" by Janet Kagan years ago. It was groundbreaking for me in its insight into the art of communications. Enjoy it if you find it.

Bill

[Tormod]

If you'd like some hardcore sci-fi check out Peter Hamilton and Richard Morgan - currently my two Big Ones. Also Stephen Baxter is rather incredible.

As for predicting the Internet - I'd say there are plenty of writers who did that (even though some say otherwise). When I was a kid I read a book by a Norwegian writer in which a kid was using not only a world-wide-web like database, but he was using a hand-held unit to do it. This was in the late 70s.

[KickAssClown]

"The Carcass"
Remember the sign we saw, my soul
That beautiful, soft summer morning
Round a turning in the path
A disgusting carcass on a bed scattered with stones
Its legs in the air like a woman in need
Burning its wedding poisons
Like a fountain with its rhythmic sobs
I could hear it clearly with a long murmuring sound
But I touch my body in vain to find the wound
I am the vampire of my own heart
One of the great outcasts condemned to eternal laughter
Who can no longer smile

Ceaselessly by my side moves the Demon
He swims around me like impalpable air
I swallow and feel it burn my lungs
And fill them with eternal desire and guilt

Moreover, it matters not that we discuss it
Of your eyes, your green eyes
Lakes of my soul tremble and vice versa
My dreams in form of insanity
To soothe those bitter commotions
But all that it is not worth
Of prodigy of your saliva
It bites my soul, and it dizzies and
Swirls it down, remorselessly
Rolling it, fainting to the underworld

It is a translation of one of the poems, I believe, from "les Fleurs du Mal". It's something that I am interested in reading, I woud love to learn to read french just to read it.