Monday Tally is a weekly link round-up of some of my favorite posts discovered over the week. If you have suggestions for Monday Tally, please e-mail sophisticated [dot] dorkiness [at] gmail [dot] com. Enjoy!
Deborah Blum on Science in Society from The Browser
Deborah Blum, a former professor and amazing science writer, did an interview featuring five of her favorite science books. Her picks include:
- Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Story of the Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe by Dennis Overbye
- Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
- Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson
- Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals by Frans de Waal
- Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
I encourage you to go over and read the interview, which gives some great reasons for each of these books and thoughts on science writing as a nonfiction form.
5 Reasons Why E-Books Aren’t There Yet by John C. Abell in WIRED
I love a lot great discussion points about e-books in this article, but my favorite paragraph has to be this one:
It may be all about vanity, but books — how we arrange them, the ones we display in our public rooms, the ones we don’t keep — say a lot about what we want the world to think about us. Probably more than any other object in our homes, books are our coats of arms, our ice breakers, our calling cards. Locked in the dungeon of your digital reader, nobody can hear them speak on your behalf.
I want to just pull out this quote every time anyone in my family makes a comment about the growing size of my bookshelves!
a tale of two hashtags: soaring and giggling on twitter by Jael McHenry in Intrepid Media
I love the way this piece by Jael McHenry — written partially in response to the controversy about YA literature that sprang up last week — gets at the dual nature of Twitter by exploring two trending hashtags (#sitcomnovels and #YASaves):
Twitter is the world writ small, and that means a lot of things. It means the good and the bad are both right there. It means sometimes we are silly, sometimes we are angry, sometimes we are shameful, sometimes we are inspiring, and in the end the only thing you can really be sure of is that we are we. We are us.
We’re all in this together, and the hashtags, both silly and serious, show us how it’s done.
For more of my favorite links from the week, check out my Tumblr, A Little Bit of Dorkiness.
Comments on this entry are closed.
The quote about ebooks is so, so true! I have an ereader and I love it, but it really can’t compare with my shelves.
I know that when I visit someone for the first time, one of the first things I do is look for the books. How many and what and how they’re disposed tells me so much more about a person than anything they could probably say! Great ice breakers, indeed. I will have to keep that quote in my back pocket for future reference 🙂
Not having bookshelves is one of the things I’ll never get past about an e-reader. They are great for some things, but for me books are visceral and say something about the owner. I’m the same way — I always go check out bookshelves when I visit a new place!
I’m going to use that quote from Abell too!
It’s great, isn’t it. I’m tempted to print it out and put it in a frame on my shelves.
And it is so hard to spy on people in airports and other public places as to what people are reading! It’s hard enough to get the right angle of a book cover, but with an eReader, it’s impossible.
So true… that used to be one of my favorite things about going on vacation. Now, it’s hard to be a snoop… darn!
I will be forever in your debt because you are the one who told me about The Browser ! I love it so much I added a button to in on my blog.
I read Isaac’s Storm years ago and rather enjoyed it.
That’s awesome! I hadn’t heard of it until Deb tweeted about her interview, but it is a great site.
Welp, I want to read all of these. Incidentally, have you started Jael McHenry’s book, The Kitchen Daughter, for our discussion yet? It’s only “meh” for me so far. 🙁 We’ll see.
I haven’t started it yet; I’ve got it on my Nook though. I’m waiting until a little bit closer so I remember everything when the discussion starts. I hope it gets better!