History, Medicine, and Science: Nonfiction and Fiction discussion

I've noticed that a few other discussion groups include threads where people can list the books they have read over the course of the year. This might include all the books they've read that year or perhaps only their genre reads. There are also threads for tracking short story reads too (i.e. stories appearing in magazines and journals or a single story you read in an anthology). Just wondering if the members of this group thought it would be fun to track their science reads in 2015 (maybe also 2014 even if we have less than a month left to go!). Any thoughts?

Greg,
do you mean we should list all the science books or articles we have read in 2014 and 15 too? Ok i would do that if everyone likes the idea-but what is the value of this except to recommend to others some good reading.

Bunnie wrote: "Greg,
do you mean we should list all the science books or articles we have read in 2014 and 15 too? Ok i would do that if everyone likes the idea-but what is the value of this except to recommend..."

I think it's mainly used as an aide mémoire for readers to record their reading progress - what books they read and when they read them. People who read a lot of books in the year are likely to benefit more from this than those who read comparatively little.

However, it might also help encourage GR members to meet their annual Goodreads reading challenge and, as you suggest, Bunnie, it is a way for group members to find books of possible interest to them by scanning these lists.

I should admit that I've only read one (archaeological) book that could be regarded as 'scientific' this year, although I've consulted others in the course of my own research. What I mean by 'consulting' is reading the parts of these books that are relevant to my research interests (e.g. a single chapter in a festschrift or entries in a work of reference) rather than the whole work from cover to cover. Maybe for this group, it would be interesting to list the science books you consulted as well as read.

Greg,--ok i will start with a couple of boooks that are favorites of mine--"The Link" by Colin Trudge-this is about a fossil named "Ida" found in the Messel pit in Germany-she is 44 million years old-"Beak of the Finch" by Jonathan Weiner-this is about the finches of the Galapagos--"Song of the Dodo" by David Quammen-another book on evolution and selection--Now is this what you have in mind?

It usually takes the form of a list with links to each title on GR and perhaps with your rating next to eat one, but I like your idea of saying what the book is about in a single line. So I'm thinking it might look like this for you:

1. The Link by Colin Trudge. This is about a fossil named "Ida" found in the Messel pit in Germany-she is 44 million years old.
2. The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner. This is about the finches of the Galapagos.
3. The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen. Another book on evolution and selection.

How does that look to you? Any chance you could add The link to the GR database? That's a book I'd like to read!

Greg,
ok i like the way you put the books in order--i was just too lazy-The link is a really interesting book-i have wondered why no more has been heard about Ida-but i think it may be because she was actually in the possesion of a collector for many years before the scientists got ahold of her.Finally the collector felt shame for keeping her away from the scientific community and sold her--
Now explain what you mean by adding to the GR database-pardon my lack of brains.Are you speaking of the list of books i have read?

Sorry Bunnie, I meant adding the book, The Link to the Goodreads database as you can't find it on Goodreads at the moment.

I think Ida featured in a National Geographic article.

Greg,
Can you let me know what Nat Geo article?
do you mean by database yhe list of books i have read? Sorry i am not so bright as to understand what you mean>How do i do that?

Bunnie, I couldn't find my copy of the issue of National Geographic that had an article on Ida. However, I did find two NG articles online about the fossil that came out following the formal publication of the new species in PLoS ONE in May 2009. The first uses the unfortunate hype of the 'missing link' while the second comments on, and links to other commentators', issues with this media claim. I'm guessing that the National Geographic article had appeared in the May or June 2009 edition of the magazine.

And yes, I do mean the list of books that you have read. :) I think any member can add a book that is not already in the Goodreads database although you have to ask for Goodreads Librarian status if you want to edit existing entries (e.g. adding a cover image or filling in missing data like page numbers). The way to add a book is to first search for its ISBN (or its full title if it was published before ISBNs came into use). If that comes up negative on the search page, you can click on a link to 'manually add a book'. This will take you to a new page with lots of data fields to fill (title, author[s], ISBN-10, ISBN-13, publisher, date of publication, book description [the blurb on the back of the book] and so on).

Anyway, I found that the book is, in fact, already on the database - I was looking for 'Colin Trudge' when I should've looked for 'Colin Tudge'! And the reason why I looked for the author is that there seems to be a lot of books with 'the link' in the title and I didn't know what was the book's ISBN. So, here's the entry for one edition (I don't know which one you read though): The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor.

Greg,
sorry i think i must have put Trudge istead of Tudge
i just got lazy about adding the books to my list.guess i wil have to start doing it again.You have got the name of the book alright-
ISBN 978-0-316-07008-9
Let me know if you get and read the book.

Bunnie wrote: "Greg,
sorry i think i must have put Trudge istead of Tudge
i just got lazy about adding the books to my list.guess i wil have to start doing it again.You have got the name of the book alright-
..."

I will. :)