Science and Inquiry discussion

One of the purposes of this group is to share opinion of books read so that others in the group can decide if they too would like to read those books. But how does one find those opinions if the book hasn't yet been selected as a group read (or even if it has). For example, if you're trying to decide how to vote on the monthly group read poll, you probably check the Goodreads page for each book to read the description, and maybe a few of the reviews on that page. But if you would like to see how other members of this group felt about a book under consideration, there's a way to do that, too. Here's how:

Go to the group bookshelves, by clicking the link in the menu at the upper right of any page within the group. What you want to do then is find the book that you're considering. You can do it by looking through the bookshelves list, but the best way may be to do a search because that should find the book even if it's not included on the group shelves. Use the search box at the top left of your screen, just above the list of shelves. Also, remember that the search is a little squirrelly. A title such as "Genesis: The Scientific Quest for Life's Origins", should give you good results if you type in the whole title with subtitle, but it's not assured. If you don't get good results with the entire title/subtitle, try just the main title ("Genesis") or just the subtitle ("The Quest for Life's Origins"). Sometimes, you can get the best results by typing in part of the title and the author name (e.g. "genesis hazen").

The search should bring up a list of books which it thinks meet your search criteria. Scroll down to find the one you are looking for. If the book appears to be greyed out, that means that it's on the group's bookshelves, but it doesn't matter. Whether it is or isn't, what you want to do is click the link for "view group reviews", which is on the left of the entry, below the title, author, and your rating.

That will bring you to a page with information about the book, including a list of group discussions about this book, if any, and a listing of comments and actions by other members of the Science & Inquiry Group.

Thanks for this Betsy. I never knew this functionality existed. My bookshelves seem to be set up slightly differently, but I can find the information by selecting "view activity" on the far right of my books.

Yes, that works, but only for books that are on the group bookshelves. You should be able to use the search method. Are you sure you're using the correct search box? See, the image below. For this purpose, you should be sure to use the search box marked with the red arrow, not the main search box on the top menu bar, next to the big "goodreads" title.

Hi.. i just needed a small clarification . We vote for the book in the voting folders ....thats fine but i saw the POLL option in the right side and i saw people voting ...Whats the use of that when we are voting in folders?? Can anyone please help me with this ??

Excellent tip! Thank you.

When searching for books, I've often found using a comma between title & author helps.

Alok wrote: "Hi.. i just needed a small clarification . We vote for the book in the voting folders ....thats fine but i saw the POLL option in the right side and i saw people voting ...Whats the use of that whe..."

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by voting in folders. For me, folders mean the collections of discussion threads, like this thread is in the "General" folder. We don't actually vote in discussion threads. We do make nominations in threads, then those nominations are used to make the polls, which is where the actual voting takes place.

Ohh Thank you ...I get it now ...

Here's my wishlist:
Connections
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind
Leonardo da Vinci
Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World
Madame Curie: A Biography
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
A History of the World in 100 Objects
Why Evolution Is True
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time
The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
Coming of Age in the Milky Way
The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself
E=mc²: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales
The Agile Gene: How Nature Turns on Nurture
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life

Joel, you have a lot of excellent, fascinating books on your list!

That's a great list, Joel. I've read a couple of those. How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World & The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher are both great. Several others are on my TBR & I think I'll add a couple more from your list. Thanks!

I've started Coming of Age in the Milky Way. I'm about three-quarters of the way through. His writing is really beautiful. It does seem somewhat outdated, but that doesn't affect the biographical sections on Copernicus, Newton, Einstein, etc. Most of the details are stuff I've seen elsewhere, but I've still learned a lot. The final section on symmetry, Yang-Mills gauge theory, is mostly new ideas for me.

Jim wrote: "That's a great list, Joel. I've read a couple of those. How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World & The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher..."

I just acquired a copy of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, so I think I'm going to start that one before How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World because it's his earlier book.

Helping me decide on a book... Well, which book on my shelf do you think I should start next?

You've got some excellent reads there.

Can anyone point me to a biography of Meghnad Saha? He is my new obsession, but the only 2 biographies I can find are between $60 and $80.

I would even settle for a book in which his work is not the main focus but is covered in a single chapter.

I want to buy a copy of Euclids Elements of Geometry, but I'm not sure what translation or edition to get. I'd like the 6 book volume, PB or HB, new or used, color or BW doesn't matter. It's for reference & notes, so I do want paper. I could print out a copy from Gutenberg, but I'd prefer bound & it not to be multilingual. Is anyone familiar with the various editions &/or know of a good edition for this purpose?

If you want to see a complete list of books that our group has already read and discussed, Use this link.

David wrote: "If you want to see a complete list of books that our group has already read and discussed, Use this link."

Thank you! The search option on the page often seem to give false-negatives unfortunately!

Betsy wrote: "One of the purposes of this group is to share opinion of books read so that others in the group can decide if they too would like to read those books. But how does one find those opinions if the bo..."

I'm confused about "view group reviews" & how it works. I thought it would bring me to a list of reviews by group members, but when I tried it on greyed-out books I've reviewed, my reviews were not listed.

Herman wrote: "Betsy wrote: "One of the purposes of this group is to share opinion of books read so that others in the group can decide if they too would like to read those books. But how does one find those opin..."

Can you give me an example? A specific book?

Betsy wrote: "Can you give me an example? A specific book?"

Here are 2 examples:

-Naish/Barrett's "Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved" (which is great): https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_...

-Brusatte's "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World" (which is mostly good): https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_...

Herman wrote: "Betsy wrote: "One of the purposes of this group is to share opinion of books read so that others in the group can decide if they too would like to read those books. But how does one find those opin..."

Herman, there are group discussions of books. In those discussion, some people post links to their individual reviews.

There are a couple of ways to find these discussions. The main page of the Science and Inquiry group is:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Scroll down to the "Book Club 2020" thread, and under that you will find threads discussions of individual books that we read in 2020. If you want to see discussions from earlier years, then scroll way down, to "More Discussions ..." and you can see book club discussions from earlier years.

Another way to find these discussions, is to click on this link:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...
When you see a book of interest to you, in the far-right column click on the "View Activity" link. That will bring you to the discussion about that book.

David wrote: "Herman wrote: "Betsy wrote: "One of the purposes of this group is to share opinion of books read so that others in the group can decide if they too would like to read those books. But how does one ..."

While I appreciate the info, I'm still confused about the "view group reviews" feature & why my reviews of the greyed-out books aren't listed like those of other group members.

Herman wrote: "While I appreciate the info, I'm still confused about the "view group reviews" feature & why my reviews of the greyed-out books aren't listed like those of other group members."
Herman, could you give a specific example--a link perhaps? I don't know what a "greyed-out" book looks like.

David, by "greyed-out books", I believe Herman means books that are included in our group bookshelves. When following the "view activity" link, after the group discussions, there is a section that says "What group members thought". That is reviews from group members and Herman is correct. His review for the Brusatte book is missing.

Herman, I don't know why your reviews are not shown. It is possible it has something to do with different editions of the book, but that shouldn't be. I'll investigate further. However, I must tell you, Goodreads is often lacking in this kind of coverage. See for example, on the Brusatte book, at the "view activity", it shows no group discussions. That is patently false. I created the group discussion for it, and contributed myself.

I'm sorry I don't have a good answer for you. It's infuriating when a web site fails like this. I have brought these problems to the attention of management previously, but they have ignored the issue.

Betsy wrote: "on the Brusatte book, at the "view activity", it shows no group discussions. That is patently false. I created the group discussion for it, and contributed myself."

I noticed that too & thought that was weird. Thanks anyway for trying to help. Let me know if you have any answers.