Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth
Avi Loeb
4.5 on Amazon
5 HN comments
The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life
Arthur Firstenberg
4.8 on Amazon
5 HN comments
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
Jenny Odell
4.2 on Amazon
5 HN comments
Turn Left At Orion: Hundreds of Night Sky Objects to See in a Home Telescope - and How to Find Them (Hundreds of Night Sky Objects to See in a Home Telescope – and How to Find Them)
Guy Consolmagno
4.7 on Amazon
5 HN comments
Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
Paul Stamets
4.8 on Amazon
5 HN comments
How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices
Annie Duke and Penguin Audio
4.4 on Amazon
5 HN comments
The Longevity Diet: Discover the New Science Behind Stem Cell Activation and Regeneration to Slow Aging, Fight Disease, and Optimize Weight
Valter Longo
4.4 on Amazon
5 HN comments
The Circadian Code: Lose Weight, Supercharge Your Energy, and Transform Your Health from Morning to Midnight
Satchin Panda PhD
4.6 on Amazon
5 HN comments
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English
John McWhorter
4.5 on Amazon
5 HN comments
The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data
David Spiegelhalter
4.6 on Amazon
5 HN comments
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
Steven Johnson
4.5 on Amazon
5 HN comments
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope (P.S.)
William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
4.6 on Amazon
5 HN comments
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Neil deGrasse Tyson
4.7 on Amazon
4 HN comments
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Robin Wall Kimmerer and Tantor Audio
4.8 on Amazon
4 HN comments
Ants: Workers of the World
Eleanor Spicer Rice and Eduard Florin Niga
3.8 on Amazon
4 HN comments
dfconApr 10, 2014
http://www.amazon.com/The-Ants-Bert-Holldobler/dp/0674040759
dfconApr 10, 2014
http://www.amazon.com/The-Ants-Bert-Holldobler/dp/0674040759
SuoDuanDaoonJune 18, 2021
null_objectonSep 9, 2020
This doesn't mean that I never re-read a book - last year I re-read War & Peace, for instance. But I didn't do it to somehow deepen my knowledge of a 'core work' I read it again primarily because it's an immensely enjoyable narrative.
I also read a book about Ants purely for the fun of it. Now I can barely remember anything other than a couple of details about soldier ants that are also suicide bombers (when defeat appears inevitable, they tighten a muscle in their abdomen that causes their thorax to burst, and spray all the attackers around them with acid) and that a whole nest of the smallest known ants would fit inside a single head of the largest known species.
These two facts that I recall now can hardly count as 'deeper knowledge' or anything pretentious like that. But reading the book gave me a much greater appreciation of natural phenomena around me, and now when I see an ant's nest in the forest, I know more about what happens inside, I can discuss it with my kids and I'm more engaged and aware of my environment. But that's not why I read the book.