Pick-a-Shelf discussion

Post your list here. I can't wait to see what everyone has chosen!

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/s...

I'm going to read at least these three that I took off my bookcase:
The Invention of Air by Steve Johnson
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester
Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease by Sharon Moalem

My husband often encourages me to read a book he's really liked, and many of them are on this shelf. Not my cup of tea, but I determined to read at least one "real" science book this month (e.g., not Oryx & Crake, which is on my TBR, though it was tempting), and to let him choose. He said The Red Queen is a "must read," so that'll be my one for sure.

I suspect the ROAR bonus points for being on the shelf of the month may be tougher to get in Feb. than in Jan. But I'll wait to decide about any others after I see what the ROAR challenges are, just in case.

I am going to read:
1) Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman (which is sort of a poetic philosophy of science musing and fits a spot in another group challenge I am doing)
2) at least one of:
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (because I own it)
- The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
- The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean
- Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by by Charles Seife

I'll see how many I get to. I have The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Stacks at home so I will start with that.

I'll read Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, which lets me continue on from last month. I understand why this is shelved in Science as the main characters are all scientists, and the plot revolves around finding the solution to the planet's ecosystem.

Also on the list are A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, The Code Book by Simon Singh, The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, and (if I can find it in my library as it's currently eluding me) Longitude by Dava Sobel.

I am only listing two this month:

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
and maybe
Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is also on this list.

I'm going to start with two and see where I end up as this shelf is definitely pushing me out of my comfort zone :0) Great Choice LynnB


The God Delusion
The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

not sure which of these i'm going to read/attempt to read, but my library had and I got:

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum CryptographyFreakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of EverythingThe Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry

Collapse and Freakonomics will probably be my priority reads - collapse because its sounds interesting; Freakonomics because its on a reading list for professional education as well

Although, I think I will try to read Oryx and Crake (it is not really science), I will try to read a science book as well.
My top runners are...
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York and

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

I will start with Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine: The Great Zeppelin and the Dawn of Air Travel, then from my own personal Hugo/Nebula challenge -
Foundation's Edge
2010: Odyssey Two
Cat's Cradle
Radix and perhaps
Friday

I have these 3 on my shelves, so will read at least one of them:

The God Delusion
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth

I've chosen three books for February. I think I'm gonna start with The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality. If I finish that and still have some time then I'm gonna read The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, which came highly recommended by my husband along with the CD of the same title by Our Lady Peace! I doubt I'll finish those two with time left but if that happens then I'm gonna finally attempt Origin of Species. I think it's gonna be an interesting month of reading!

I have a few books on this shelf that I'd love to read but I know I'll only get to one or two of them.
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
and maybe also Origin of Species

BJ Rose wrote: "I have these 3 on my shelves, so will read at least one of them:

The God Delusion
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
The Weather Makers :..."</i>

BJ,
I'll be interested to hear what you think about
[book:The God Delusion. I debated choosing it.

Ooh, maybe I'll finally get around to reading some of these books that have been on my TBR:

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
A Short History of Nearly EverythingXenocide

I'm thinking

Lacy wrote: "I'm thinking Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers"

I've been wondering about that one. I'll be curious about your review...the book seems a bit gruesome to me, but maybe it's not. Mary Roach picks some unusual topics to write about.

LynnB wrote: "Lacy wrote: "I'm thinking Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers"

I've been wondering about that one. I'll be curious about your review...the book seems a bit gruesome to me, but..."

Ditto. I saw that too, and another by her, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, both of which sounded interesting.

my choice: Outliers

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is incredible and The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic was very good too.
If there's time, I'm thinking of adding The Disappearing Spoon and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to my list. They have both been on my TBR list.

Natasha wrote: "Some interesting choices. I liked Collapse although I heard Guns Germs and Steel was better. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Tales is quite good..."

Guns, Germs, and Steel is good, but so is Collapse.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is waiting to be picked up at the library. Looks like perfect timing for the February shelf.

I had 2 more that I reserved at the library come in today (they were at different libraries so I got them through ILL)

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

I'm thinking Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void and I don't know what else, I'm still trying to narrow it down.

Well PAS has done it again. When I saw that the shelf was Science my first reaction was "YUCK", but then as I looked through the shelf I found several titles of interest, including two that I actually already own. I went to the library today and here is what I found:

The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
The Numerati
The Metaphysics of Star Trek
Blackout
and
Twins: And What They Tell Us About Who We Are

I already had:
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
and
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

I will attack them in no particular order.

I was surprised to see the Harry Potter series and the Golden Compass series on this shelf. Also the Game of Thrones series which I can't put on this shelf by any stretch of my imagination. There were several novels I own which had dubious (in my opinion) placement in Science as well. I decided to embrace the spirit of PAS and broaden my horizens by picking true Science material.

Lyn M wrote: "I am only listing two this month:

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
and maybe
Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan

[book:The Hunger Games..."

Hunger games is cheating in my opinion, but whatever. LOL :)

I'm glad to see people are taking up the challenge of the Science bookshelf. I was afraid everyone would say "ACK!" and run. Hopefully, since one of the points of PAS is to expand our reading horizons, everyone will take a chance on at least one book for the month and see if they find something they like. Thanks for so many of you accepting the shelf ;)

Lynne wrote: "Lyn M wrote: "I am only listing two this month:

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
and maybe
Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan

[b..."

Ya - well :P to you. Seriously, I am going to start with billions and billions. I picked Hunger Games cuz I am supposed to be reading it anyway for another challenge, so I might as well count it. As you know (since you bought many of them for both Bob and Joe) we also have

[book:Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed|475]
Guns, Germs and Steel
Cosmos
and many others. No lack of science books in this house, lol.

OOH and here is a good one that my library has:

Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers by Michael Baden with Marion Roach
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Is that better?? ;P

I'm so glad that this shelf was chosen. I was skeptical, but I went to the science section at the local bookstore and found several books I am interested in:

Best American Science Writing 2010
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer (I am an English major)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (never read anything by him before, but I enjoyed the movie The Botany of Desire)

I never would have checked out this section if it hadn't been chosen for Pick-a-Shelf. =)

Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior by Temple Grandin

This book goes with what I am studying in school:)

Hello, I'm new to this group and would like to join in this challenge. So, I'm planning to read:

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

Welcome to the group Anna :0)

If you were looking for a shelf that will challenge me to read out of my comfort zone, I don't know that you could have picked better. :)

However, I did manage to find a few on the good old TBR. Some that have likely been there since I've been on the site, and others that seem strangely placed on the shelf. Oh well, any reason to pick up something I wanted to read is a good excuse in my book.
Guns, Germs and Steel
The Host - not sure why someone shelved as science, but it could give me an excuse to read it
The Time Traveler's Wife

In keeping with the spirit of the shelf I'll try to read GG&S first, but if time runs low - I'm going to go for The Host.

ETA: Ohh, I found American Gods on this shelf. I've been looking for a reason to read it. I think this is just the excuse!

Anna wrote: "Hello, I'm new to this group and would like to join in this challenge. So, I'm planning to read:

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier"

I really enjoyed that book. Historical fiction, but definitely about science.

My List:
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

I'm going to start with The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle since I've got it already, then who knows :-D

LynnB wrote: "Anna wrote: "Hello, I'm new to this group and would like to join in this challenge. So, I'm planning to read:

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier"

I really enjoy..."

I was going to say the same thing, LynnB. Great historical fiction book, but has a good amount of science in it as is about the scientific community.

Okay. I'm new at this (and definitely out of my comfort zone!) so I'm going to start out nice and easy. I'm definitely going to read Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages which has been on my shelf since last year, and if I hold up I thought I'd try two books about subjects that will keep my interest, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain and Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.

hmmm - I've been meaning to read Godel, Escher, Bach for ages, this could be a good excuse. May take me past the end of Feb though....

I'm excited to read two books:

The Cloudspotter's Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds

Collins Mushroom Miscellany

I dived headfirst into my first book this am - normally with NF, I do a 10% read (10% a night) - but i'm almost at 20% already...haha - its really good...hopefully the other ones I've picked will be as good

There are great titles here. I am going to start a new thread for this month for general science discussion because this topic is so varied from our usual. Check it out and please post!

Now that I've finished The Red Queen, I'm going to let myself choose more broadly from the shelf, including some of the science fiction books.

First on my list are:
Wild Seed
Delusions of Gender
Oryx & Crake
Nothing Human
The Accidental Time Machine
and maybe
If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him ( because we own it, and it has a red cover)

I'm reading Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 and finding it interesting so far, but we've had company for the past few days so I feel like I've gotten very little reading accomplished lately.

I haven't been able to read much in the past few weeks, but with a long weekend coming I hope to finish the one science book I have going and get through another (at least before the end of the month).

I still plan to read at least one science book this month! Why does life keeping getting in the way of my reading time!!?! While at the library the other day, I checked out A Brief History of Time.

Why does life keeping getting in the way of my reading time!!?!

i agree........lol

k

This was such a great shelf. I finished Blackout and am still enjoying The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief and Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea.