Today I’ve got an interview posted over at Yale Environment 360 with Tony Barnosky, a paleontologist who’s just written a very interesting book called Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming. He gazes into a fossiliferous crystal ball to get an idea of what global warming will do to the world’s biodiversity. Short answer: it won’t be pretty.
Which brings me to the subject of books. I love books about science. That’s why I can’t stop writing them. I also like to get my hands on science books, in order to keep up with new ideas. In some cases I even turn a book into the subject of an article. But it always give me a pang to get a book that an author has worked hard on for a long time and realize that I won’t have time to spread the word about it. What little time I have left over when I’m not writing or reading for my own projects goes to my family or to my 20-year project to finish reading War and Peace all the way to the end. I’m jealous of speed readers who sit down for a cup of coffee and a book, and who stand up a little while later finished with both. That’s why I shy away from book reviews–to pass judgment on someone’s book demands a lot of time that I can’t spare.
And yet the pile of books just keeps getting taller. These are the books I got over the past month. I’ll donate the hardcover copies to the public library, but that doesn’t seem like enough. So I’ve been pondering some realistic possibilities for getting more books into the blog. I’m just wondering what would be most useful for you readers. I’ve laid out a few possibilities below in a poll. Please cast your vote. Thanks.
How Should The Loom Handle Books? (opinion poll)
Originally published May 20, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.