Current and Recent Reading

As part of this blog I thought it would be a good idea to keep a running log of what I am reading or what has caught my attention in the literary world. In spite of the fact that I am in school and constantly trying to keep track of papers, projects, and people I still try to find at least a few minutes each day to read something that interests me. Increasingly, my fix has been satisfied by audiobooks on my iPod as I walk between classes so don't be surprised if a good portion of my reviews are qualified based on that.

Without further adieu, I am currently reading:

Adrift by Steven Callahan

I started this book a few days ago on the recommendation of a good friend who graciously lent it to me and so far it has been cutting into the hours I normally set aside for sleep. Adrift tells the true story of the 76 days the author spent in a rubber life raft after his racing yacht sank somewhere in the vastness of the North Atlantic. The language so far has been a little romanticized for my liking, but the inevitable tangents into the wonder of the sea and the beauty of life don't detract from the adventure the way they sometimes can in other books.

Callahan does a great job illustrating (often literally) what life in the raft was really like and the types of challenges he faced from hammerhead shark attacks, to uncooperative solar stills, to dorados (large fish) attacking the underside of the floor and preventing him from sleeping. The survival element is what attracted me to the book and it really doesn't disappoint. The introduction is brief, interesting, and before you know it his ship is sunk and you're along for the ride. I will write a concluding review once I finish the book but so far I definitely recommend it to anyone with an inclination to adventure stories.

This week on the iPod:

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Between hard copies and the audiobook this is either the third or fourth time I have gotten caught up in this book. I started it out of laziness on my way home from the gym the other day because I hadn't preloaded anything new and I was in the mood for something fun, but that should immediately tell you something. I absolutely adore this book. It might be the best, easiest to read, funniest, most accessible book ever written about science. 

There are two versions of the audiobook, both unabridged. One is read by British voice actor Richard Matthews and the other is read by Bill Bryson himself. If you have never heard a Bill Bryson audiobook as read by the author, I strongly recommend checking it out. There is something so calming, patient, and jovial about Bill Bryson's narration that it often feels like you are listening to your grandfather read you a bedtime story. Bryson is also one of the few great authors who continues to narrate many of his own books so it's an itch that is very easy to scratch.

The version I have is read by Richard Matthews and, to take nothing away from the author-narrated version, it is incredible. The gravitas in Matthews' voice does a great job of holding the reader's ear and it's kind of funny to hear him deliver Bryson's pithy one-liners in a highly proper and respectable British accent.

The book itself delivers what the title suggests, explaining the history of scientific discovery and what we have learned through anecdotes about famous researchers as well as from the author's point of view as he travels around in search of answers to his "endless parade of stupid questions." I don't care who you are, if you like reading, you will love this book.

The Magic of Reality: How we know what's really true, by Richard Dawkins

Finally, a couple weeks ago I loaded the audiobook version of Richard Dawkins' latest offering onto my iPod. I was really excited for this book because Dawkins' previous endeavour The Greatest Show on Earth: The evidence for evolution was so outstanding. The Magic of Reality: How we know what's really true is admittedly aimed at a different audience. The book is written for a younger or less knowledgeable crowd and necessarily fills the niche of a book that thoroughly explains complex ideas in simple and understandable ways. Dawkins' previous work in The Blind Watchmaker, and Climbing Mount Improbable does a great job of this, but he can get a little technical.

It may have been the intended audience, it may have been the fact that I've been experiencing some Dawkins burnout from having read and reread a few of his books over the summer, it might have been a combination of the two, but I didn't love Magic. There is nothing explicitly wrong with it, but it covers a lot of the same examples from his previous books in a way that I felt was a little dumbed down after putting in so much effort to understand what the hell his earlier books were talking about. He's a really smart guy, so I often struggle.

I would still recommend this book for anyone who has never read about evolution and wants to ease into some technical elements of it, but it wasn't for me. When I finished this book I went back and reread The Blind Watchmaker to reacquaint myself with Dawkins at his best. The book would be good for young adults as well but it's not the most G-rated expose available on evolution. There is a lot of talk about sex and selfishness in Magic that you won't find in A Short History of Nearly Everything. If you want to educate kids and hold their interest, take the latter, let them find the former on their own time.

Anyway, that's what I have been reading recently. Enjoy yourselves and feel free to offer any recommendations. I'm always looking for my next obsession.

Cheers,

-Steve