Monkeyluv

Monkeyluv: and other essays on our lives as animals by Robert M. Sapolsky

I've just begun reading this book. The sarcastic and funny writing styles reminds me of Genome by Matt Ridley (one of my non-fiction favorites!). The book is divided into three sections: Genes and Who We Are, Our Bodies and Who We Are, and Society and Who We Are. The author's main point of the first section seems to be, "Genes influence behavior, environment influences behavior, and genes and environment interact." I especially like the "notes" after each essay. These notes update the essays (some are several years old) when necessary and provide an interesting bibliography as well. By the time I'm finished with this book, I'll probably have a list of another twenty books!

9/3
Stayed up late last night to finish reading this. The second and third sections are even more interesting and compelling than the first! I'm definitely going to buy this book. Here are a few favorite quotes:

"...one of the classic features of science--in explaining something, you've merely redefined the unknown."

"...here's all of us forgoing immediate pleasure to get good grades to get into a good college to get a good job in order to get into the nursing home of our choice."

Favorites

Here's a short list, complied from my head (not the bookshelf!) I read through most of these at least every year or two.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Bonesetter's Daugher by Amy Tan
Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
The Little Prince
The Four Quartets by T.S. Elliot (poetry)
Watership Down by Richard Adams
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
Sophie's World by Josteen Gardner
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Kafka on the Shore by Murakami
A Widow for One Year by John Irving


Science Fiction/Fantasy favorites:

The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman
Songmaster by Orson Scott Card
Enemy Mine by Barry Longyear (novella)

Library List

In no particular order...

As I read through these, I'll delete them from this list and make a separate post for each book.


Non-Fiction
The Age of Turbulence (Alan Greenspan)
Testimony
Fast Food Nation
Why Zebras Don't Get Uclers
The Fate of Africa (Meredith)
The Weather Makers
An Imaginary Tale--The Story of the square root of -1 (Nahin)
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (Seife)
A World Without Time (Yourgrau)
A Long Way Gone
Stealing Lincoln's Body
The Last Mughal
Supreme Conflict
How Doctor's Think
Crashing Through
Send
The Black Swan

Fiction
The Dancing Girl of Lahore (Brown)
The Color Purple
East of Eden
The Savage Detectives
Sacred Games
Then We Came to the End
No One Belongs Here More Than You
The God of Animals
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears

In the beginning...

I've begun this blog as an online literary journal for myself. I would like to organize my thoughts about what I'm reading, and to use the blog as a tool to record what books I've read and my opinions about them. Feel free to post comments about books you are currently enjoying (or not enjoying!), list your favorites, or anything else literary-related.

aasheeta