Here’s this year’s recap of notable books I read, featuring Russians new and old, Scythians (all old), and criminals of various sorts. (Previous years: 2022, 2021, …, 2015.) 1965 vs. 2023 I wrote a few months ago about my excursion into 1965, reading seven books published in that year. I won’t revisit any of these … Continue reading The Year in Books, 2023
The last seven books I read were all published in 1965. I decided on this literary time travel after noticing that I unintentionally read two books in a row from 1965. I thought: Why not continue? Would I get a deep sense of the mid-1960s zeitgeist? I don’t think so, but I did find two … Continue reading Reading Like It’s 1965
How many books are published each year? I’ll provide some numbers that were a surprise to me when I learned them a few years ago. First, some context. At the American Physical Society “March Meeting” two months ago, I was part of a workshop on Communicating Biological Physics. Four of us gave presentations and led … Continue reading Book inflation
It’s time for my recap of notable books I read in the past year. (Previous posts: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015.) The biggest difference between 2022 and years past is audiobooks, which made up 17 of the 50 books I “read” (consumed?). I had listened to audiobooks before, but very few, and … Continue reading The Year in Books, 2022, in which I discovered audiobooks
Four years ago, I read Bryan Caplan’s The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money, a polemic about the form of education in the U.S. I disagreed strongly with a decent fraction of it, agreed strongly with a larger fraction of it, and overall found it stimulating — … Continue reading The Case For, and the Case Against, “The Case Against Education”
I regularly teach classes on energy, environment, climate, etc., for non-science major undergraduates at the University of Oregon. Inspired by some blog comments elsewhere, I thought I’d list list some books on this subject that I like. It’s especially worth noting books aimed at the general, non-specialist reader that are nonetheless quantitative. I firmly believe … Continue reading Books I Like about Energy, Climate, and Civilization
I wrote this essay for the Princeton University Press “Ideas” site as a stand-alone piece connected to my new pop-science biophysics book. It appeared yesterday, and I’m posting it here as well (with permission). DNA is stuff: physical, tangible, material. We all know this; we can even picture in our minds its famous double helical … Continue reading The Physicality of Life
Once again, my favorites of the books I read during the past year, plus some that weren’t favorites but worth noting nonetheless. (Previous posts: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015.) The Covid-19 pandemic continues, though halfway through 2021 we were at least allowed to browse the public library in person again, which the kids … Continue reading The Year in Books, 2021
Descriptions of my general-audience book on biophysics are scattered across multiple blog posts, in some cases with outdated information like old versions of the title. Since it’s useful to have one definitive post to point to, here it is! So Simple a Beginning: How Four Physical Principles Shape Our Living World is a popular-science book … Continue reading “So Simple A Beginning,” A Popular Science Book about Biophysics
I’ve hit “send” on the final manuscript files for my popular science book on biophysics. The last round of revisions and edits took all the time I could spare over the past three months, and lots of time that I couldn’t! I should write a new, up to date summary of the book, but this … Continue reading Pop-Science Biophysics, now with a title!
The Eighteenth Elephant 