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(Last week's) Wednesday Reading Meme
Feb. 12th, 2014 11:52 pmWhat I've just finished reading
Non-fiction
The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal by Lynne Kelly
I enjoyed this. Good, steady look at various 'supernatural' and 'paranormal' phenomena and how they can/have been explained. Particularly liked the ones on UFOs, Roswell, cold-reading, numerology and walking on hot coals.
Poltergeists And The Paranormal by Reuben Stone
Reading this right after The Skeptic's Guide nearly gave me whiplash. Too sensationalist in tone for me take it seriously for the most part but the chapters on weird rains and timeslips were intriguing.
Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science by Jeff Meldrum
Oddly, Sasquatch et al. was the subject of one of the few short chapters in The Skeptic's Guide and was dismissed as being the result a few hoaxes and some misidentified footprints. That's all I ever thought of it as. After reading this book, I won't be surprised if a surviving or recently extinct great ape of some kind is discovered, whether in North America or somewhere else. The author is a scientist and while I did get rather tired of reading about all the implications of various kinds of footprints, that is his specialty. I would have been interested in a deeper look at the media reactions to reports of 'Bigfoot' and 'Sasquatch' and how they have influenced the scientific establishment's response to the idea.
Cowgirls, Cockroaches and Celebrity Lingerie: The World's Most Unusual Museums by Michelle Lovric
Very lightweight look at some of the unusual museums around the world. Fun but not memorable.
A Crack in the Edge of the World: The Great American Earthquake of 1906 by Simon Winchester
This book is done a disservice by its title and blurb. If you're looking for a social history of the San Francisco earthquake and the aftermath (which I would love to read!), you might think you've found it with this - but you haven't. A Crack in the Edge of the World is a history of New Geology, plate tectonics, the San Andreas fault, the settlement of California - all through the focus of the 1906 earthquake. It's absolutely fascinating and there is a good deal of social history as well (the gold rush, Angel Island and the Chinese settlers of San Francisco, the spin doctoring to keep San Francisco from being seen as earthquake-prone) but the book isn't focused on that. I still loved it. Although be warned, Winchester never met a thesaurus he didn't like. AT least he uses the words correctly ...
What I'm reading now
Nothing Like it in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-69 by Stephen E. Ambrose
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Lewis Wolpert
What I'm reading next
What's in the next meme!
Non-fiction
The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal by Lynne Kelly
I enjoyed this. Good, steady look at various 'supernatural' and 'paranormal' phenomena and how they can/have been explained. Particularly liked the ones on UFOs, Roswell, cold-reading, numerology and walking on hot coals.
Poltergeists And The Paranormal by Reuben Stone
Reading this right after The Skeptic's Guide nearly gave me whiplash. Too sensationalist in tone for me take it seriously for the most part but the chapters on weird rains and timeslips were intriguing.
Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science by Jeff Meldrum
Oddly, Sasquatch et al. was the subject of one of the few short chapters in The Skeptic's Guide and was dismissed as being the result a few hoaxes and some misidentified footprints. That's all I ever thought of it as. After reading this book, I won't be surprised if a surviving or recently extinct great ape of some kind is discovered, whether in North America or somewhere else. The author is a scientist and while I did get rather tired of reading about all the implications of various kinds of footprints, that is his specialty. I would have been interested in a deeper look at the media reactions to reports of 'Bigfoot' and 'Sasquatch' and how they have influenced the scientific establishment's response to the idea.
Cowgirls, Cockroaches and Celebrity Lingerie: The World's Most Unusual Museums by Michelle Lovric
Very lightweight look at some of the unusual museums around the world. Fun but not memorable.
A Crack in the Edge of the World: The Great American Earthquake of 1906 by Simon Winchester
This book is done a disservice by its title and blurb. If you're looking for a social history of the San Francisco earthquake and the aftermath (which I would love to read!), you might think you've found it with this - but you haven't. A Crack in the Edge of the World is a history of New Geology, plate tectonics, the San Andreas fault, the settlement of California - all through the focus of the 1906 earthquake. It's absolutely fascinating and there is a good deal of social history as well (the gold rush, Angel Island and the Chinese settlers of San Francisco, the spin doctoring to keep San Francisco from being seen as earthquake-prone) but the book isn't focused on that. I still loved it. Although be warned, Winchester never met a thesaurus he didn't like. AT least he uses the words correctly ...
What I'm reading now
Nothing Like it in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-69 by Stephen E. Ambrose
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Lewis Wolpert
What I'm reading next
What's in the next meme!
