24 August 2004

Strange Animals: Non-Fiction

My non-comics reading really does seem to be slowing down now. I suspect it's because I haven't been getting such huge stacks from the library, so there's less pressure. But if I'm going to skip town in a year to go back to school, I'll need to start thinning out the books now, which means reading and reading and reading to figure out which of the as-yet-unread books are worth keeping (and I'm one of those people who likes to have a lot of as-yet-unread books around; I'll read them all eventually, by which time I'll have lots of new ones I haven't read yet . . .).

  1. Platypus by Ann Moyal. This was on the new acquisitions shelf in the library. It's just the sort of combination of science and history that I've really been enjoying lately (look back at earlier posts and you'll find quite a few of them). Plus, platypuses are just so bizarre. I learned a lot, too, which is always nice; not just about playpuses in particular, but also about mammals in general, and taxonomy, and the early history of evolutionary theory. The writing was not the sort that makes you think"wow, what an amazingly written book." Instead, it was the sort that is entirely unobtrusive and creates no barriers between the reader and the material.

I will get to those books on my shelves. I will. Just as soon as I finish the three--or is it four--most recent ones from the library.

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