Eva’s Comments (group member since Feb 07, 2015)

Eva’s comments from the Science Book Chat group.

I haven't yet read Lab Girl, but it's on my "to read" list for this year. If you want to start a separate thread about it, feel free!

Great list! The Papyrus book sounds really interesting. May have to add that to my ever-growing "to read" list.

I've started making some videos about science books. Here's the latest one, about fictional science books, and what makes a good science book parody (or not!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6wXb...

The first one, which I uploaded back in September, is about the role of classic books on the perception of science. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0bhk...

In the Guardian, Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg lists 13 books he thinks form a good introduction to science for an audience that doesn't know much about science.

But I and others think that the books he list are not very accessible at all!

In response, Rebekah Higgit asks what books others would recommend, and starts her list with a book that genuinely has been popular among a wide audience (Silent Spring).

Chad Orzel made his own list of recommendations, which is also much more accessible than Weinberg's.

But meanwhile, Scicurious asks what the point of recommending books is in the first place. Looking at Weinberg's list, he isn't genuinely recommending what YOU should read, but he's sharing what he likes and showing off a bit.

She writes:

"I realized the people telling me to read specific lists of books were people interested in upholding the status quo. People who were invested in the current lists of “What Makes you look Smart,” because they had already ticked off those lists. Most of these people were not smarter than I was. Most were not better educated. Most were not even interesting people."

So what do you think? Do you recommend books to people? Do you think Weinberg's list is a good introduction, or do you prefer Orzel's? And does Scicurious' blog post make you think about your use of Goodreads? Why do YOU recommend books?

Krabas wrote: "Currently reading The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales and it is sooo good. It's about weird neurological disorders and it's so interesting and very well wri..."

I love that book!

I reviewed two new science-related books on my blog. One I liked, one I didn't like so much:

AsapSCIENCE (liked)


Keeping Women in Science (Wasn't what I expected)

I finished the Cartoon Guide to Genetics, and drew a new piece of paper from my "TBR jar" (jar with books "to be read"). Now I'm reading a Dutch book called "Ontspoorde Wetenschap", which is about fraud in scientific research. I'm only in the introduction so far, but it should be interesting!

I recommend following Maria Popova at @brainpicker or Ed Yong at @edyong209
They both regularly talk about science books.

Hi everyone! Thanks for joining. I'm still figuring out the format of GoodReads groups. It looks like we can start a bookshelf and add books to it. Might be a good idea for suggested reading material.

I'm currently reading The Cartoon Guide To Genetics, and I have some exciting upcoming science books from Netgalley for review.

I'm still thinking about my own favourites...

Authors, editors, publishers, illustrators - this thread is for you! What science books have you brought into this world?

Any interest in talking about a specific book - book club style? Suggestions below.

A lot (most?) of science book chatter is likely to happen on Twitter. Please use the #scibookchat hashtag whenever you want to discuss science books on Twitter.

Feel free to leave your Twitter account info in this thread, but we'll also be able to find you if you use the hashtag!

What are your favourite science books? Have you ever read one more than once? Any favourite authors?

A place for introductions.

Hi, I'm Eva, and I read a lot of books about science, so I thought I'd create a place to talk about them.