The Multnomah County Library has it's annual Adult Reading Program underway. Associated with the program is a contest - read 4-6 books and you can enter a raffle where you can win a McMenamin's gift certificate or a stay at Newport's Sylvia Beach Hotel. Of course, for those voracious readers out there, this is no problem.
For my books so far, I've read Chess Bitch by Jennifer
Shahade, a look at women chess players playing a "man's game", and
Extinction by Douglas H. Erwin, about the near collapse of the global
ecosystem during the Permo-Triassic boundary, about 250 million years ago.
I rate both of these books at two stars out of five, Shahade's because
although
the subject is fascinating, the writing and editing just aren't that good.
Erwin's book only gets two stars because the writing is a lot more
pedantic and repetitive than a popular science book needs to be.
Next on my Summer reading list will be Organic Chemistry: the Easy Way by Bruce A. Hathaway (what can I say... the Diels-Alder reaction rocks). This one may make it up to three stars. It's very well written, the subject matter is well organized and put forth succinctly, and the editing and graphics are first rate.
As for the next few books, I'll figure that out as I go along, but a couple of them are likely to be Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher and Whose Freedom?: the Battle Over America's Most Important Idea by George Lakoff. Schumacher's book is considered a classic and I've got on hold the twenty-fifth anniversary edition which has been updated with his and others' commentary. It should be a good read. Lakoff is the top progressive in the subject of political framing. His book, Don't Think of an Elephant is considered a very important one in progressive political circles, and this book looks as if it too, will be very important, exploring as it does, the concepts of freedom held by the political left and right in this country. In any case, I'm looking forward to reading them both. On the other hand, they may come later in the list depending on whether or not I want to tackle politics or something else first.
As you may have noticed, I'm a non-fiction sort of guy. It's not so much that I don't like fiction, but I'm often disappointed with the stories. At least with a non-fiction book, if you're unhappy with the plot, it's usually because the world sucks instead of the author and then you don't go away feeling ripped off. I'll keep y'all posted on my reading progress.