Ive been seeing the whole Ten Books thing, and thought itd be worth commenting on myself. These are in no particular order. 1) The Enchanted Forest Chronicles--my introduction to fantasy, and one of the first books I fell in love with. 2) The Crystal Cave--my introduction to Authurian legend (a good thing, too--its about Merlin, one of the characters that I actually like). 3) The Lord of the Rings--epic fantasy at its finest. 4) Faith of the Fallen--the apex (if not the climax) of the Sword of Truth series. This book is the meaning of that series, boiled down. 5) Atlas Shrugged--Ive always held many of the ideas in that book, and it was exhilarating to find a deep thinker who agreed with me. 6) Raptor Red--a lesser-known book, but one that really drove home the necessity of seeing life through the eyes of the things I study. How can you NOT love seeing the Mesozoic through the eyes of a resident? 7) Hornblower and the Hotspur--perhaps not the best of the series, but the epitome of the series. Wooden ships and iron men at its finest. 8) Archaeology of Human Remains--A necessary inclusion, given the number of times Ive recommended it. A fantastic examination of taphonomy, one that changed how I look at bones. 9) Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy--Monty Python in literary form. It defines humor for me. 10) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions--pretty abstract philosophy of science stuff on the surface, this book is a must-read for any scientist in my opinion. While I do not agree with everything in the book, it certainly presents a compelling picture of what science is, stripped of its mythology. The disagreements I have are non-trivial, and helped define what science is for me.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 01:30:19 +0000