I'll have my books with pictures, thanks - the anatomy of things you didn't know you needed to know

One of the great joys of working in a library is getting to see all the new books come in for people, which lets me get my name on the hold list early (as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, That New Book Smell). One that passed through my hands was this charming little book by Julia Rothman, called Nature Anatomy. Full of simple but lovely illustrations, Nature Anatomy is little fountain of knowledge, for the readers who want to know a little bit about the world around them, but not the entire periodic table. Of course, it had a few holds on it already, but I patiently waited until I could get my own hold into my grubby paws.

Rothman takes us on a journey through the limited green spaces she wanders in NYC and shows us the tiny details of nature that are usually so easy to ignore - like the differences between a brook and a stream, what happens in the water cycle, how to tell when a storm is coming, what the different edges on leaves are called and why, or which bees are the ones you have to look out for! With adorable but recognisable illustrations and sketches, Rothman pairs design and science together to make this book a memorable read.

It was a quick read, but that was okay because it turns out she had written one previously, Farm Anatomy. Similar in style, this one is more about the different machinery farmers use, what actually happens on a farm and different facts about the animals and plantations (as well as info on soils and growing etc). She's also written a few others, which I have yet to read, as well as some collaborative books (one which I have read, where artists partake in an arty Exquisite Corpse, and others that focus on science and historical figures).

I love arty, sketchy, doodley, comic-key books, and Rothman's books were no exception. Definitely must reads if you feel like you learn best when there's lots of pictures involved (like me!).

For Your Viewing Pleasure... Or What To Watch If You're Not Into The Olympics

As you'll know from my last post I am not a huge sporting fan and though I will be catching some of the Olympics while they are on, I will also be using some of the time to catch up on other things.

There's the 30 odd pile of books by my bed for a start... plus some fan fiction writing, but even so there will be times when I feel like a break from all the reading and writing and just want to blob out in front of the TV or in my case, the computer with its DVD drive.

So while my partner is yelling and cheering at the TV screen I will be snug and warm on the other couch with my laptop on my... well lap and headphones plugged in watching something else (though of course, I will glance occasionally at the other, bigger screen).

Finding something to watch isn't going to be a problem for me either, as my DVD list is just as long as my book list. So if you're like me looking for something to while away the games or a cold winter evening there might be something here that will catch your interest.

Near future possibilities from Robert J. Sawyer

I have just finished another book by Robert J Sawyer, a Canadian science fiction author, who wrote FlashForward, which was turned into a TV series of the same name. He has also won numerous Hugo and Nebula Awards. 

Two of the reasons I enjoy Robert J Sawyer's work is that it is often set in the near future, meaning that it references current events from our time (like Barack Obama being the President of the United States) but from the point of view that they are in the recent past, and it always features technology that *could* happen. The technology always feels plausible, and he genuinely explores the "what if this was actually possible" question.

His WWW trilogy (Wake, Watch, Wonder) explored the possibility of Webmind, a consciousness that emerges from the World Wide Web. It was a fascinating, intriguing and thought-provoking read, and it is one of my highly recommended reads.

Anyhow, having finished the WW trilogy a while ago, I was really looking forward to his latest book, Triggers. I'm going to just tease you with the opening premise of the book (so that you'll have to get hold of a copy and see how it all ends).

The book opens with the attempted assassination of Seth Jerrison, the current President of the United States of America who, is rushed to hospital. While he is in the operating theatre, there is a bomb attack on the White House. It is the latest in a series of terror attacks that have ravaged several large US cities. In the same hospital, Dr Singh is experimenting with ways to erase trauma from people's memories.

The President suffers a cardiac arrest during the detonation of the bomb. He has a "near death" experience, but the memories he sees flash before his eyes aren't his own.The electromagnetic pulse of the bomb has triggered a strange phenomenon of a random group of individuals able to access other people's memories, including the mind of the President of the United States.

While it might sound so far like a bit of a political thriller, with a bit of sci-fi thrown in, the book in fact explores the technological possibility of memory sharing and the social implications might be if this did indeed happen.

What would it mean if someone could access your memories - *all* of them, the good, the bad, the ugly, not just the ones you wanted to share - and you could also read someone else's mind. How would it make you feel to know that you couldn't stop reading their mind, no matter how much you wanted to. And what would it mean if someone else was delving into your mind in the meantime.

If we had the opportunity to truly walk a mile in someone else's shoes, to experience what they have experienced, for a white person to see the world through a black person's eyes, for a young person to see the world through an old person's eyes, for a woman to see the world through a man's eyes. What would that mean for our understanding of other human beings?

Robert J Swayer has again captured the near future possibility of technology changing the way we live our lives. My only disappointment is that now I have finished the book, I will have to wait for the next one.

Geeky tattoos for science lovers

If you are a maths and science geek, and have a predilication for ink, then this book just might be something to get excited about.

Science Ink : tattoos of the science obsessed features a wide variety of tattoos with a maths or science theme, from dodos to fungi, from mathematical formulas to DNA helices, from star constellations to chemical equations.

Some of my favourites include a beautiful basket starfish (on the arm of an educator at the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration) and an astrarium on the back of a literary historian.