The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science – Natalie Angier

Inspired premise: Writer asks leading scientists what they wish the public knew about their field. Execution: Writer joylessly pleasures herself to the sound of her own voice, interspersing the occasional scientific anecdote between the constant sodomy of puns and allusions. “Ooooh, maybe if I use the word pernicious again someone will buy a microscope!” The book is often fascinating but in everything I have ever read I don’t think I have once come across a more glaring example of a writer so totally failed by their editors. So if anyone has any good science books, I’d love to hear about them. I’m just starting out so they’ll have to be basic.

Teacher Man – Frank McCourt (great)

The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in 3 Acts – Tom Farley Jr. (interesting way to structure a biography. Did you know that Farley did an early version of Shrek?)

Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy – Vincent Bugliosi

I bought this just so I could have it (it was like $10 at Borders) and then I started flipping through it and got hooked. The book is 1,600 pages plus another 1,000 in endnotes, topping out at 1.5 million words. I am splitting it up into multiple reads. This week I did the first 400 pages which cover the introduction and a definitive narration of the assassination. Bugliosi is peerless.

Thick Face, Black Heart – Chin-Ning Chu (I had no idea it was written by a woman until I read the inside back cover. this book is ice cold. nice addition to Robert’s stuff)

These posts by Noah Brier seem to me to be the only honest and realistic discussion of building popular sites/communities around.

–600k and Counting

–Tagging Brands

Fail Dogs was linked on Gorilla Mask this week.

It doesn’t mean anything to Alexander that Alexandria is still named after him. He can’t feel anything. He’s dead. He has no idea that we still talk about him or that he may have been the greatest conqueror who ever lived. There isn’t much of a chance, however, that he could have missed out on the guilt of killing his closest friend after he’d had too much to drink. In fact, we know he didn’t.

A long time ago, I saw an interview with Metallica where one of the band members said that they’d never recorded a song and then not released it. I remember thinking “So that’s why you have so many bad songs.”

The last thing I am is a great writer. I’m still trying to find my voice. I want to get there though and I am starting to realize that it means writing more and hitting the publish button less.