Reading List: Carl Sagan

I wish you could see my library. It's a rather eclectic collection of things, from the creaky wicker furniture to the cacti shivering in the corner to the collection of skulls from Grandpa's hunting days. There's a sizable collection of indigenous art from both North and Central America, ranging from hand-painted pottery to huge dream catchers to ornamental ladders hung with pelts and preserved hooves to painted plates and a regal sculpture of a revered Native Chief. My own scientific endeavors have left their mark on the room as well. A squirrel tail dangles from one of the bookcases, a line of skulls sits atop a pile of books, and a tin of assorted vertebrae rattles about every time a drowsy dog bumps into the bookcase.

Of course, the purpose of a library is to house books, and we have plenty of those. We have so many, in fact, that the shelves are bowed under their weight. One bookcase is dedicated almost entirely to science fiction and mystery novels. I have my own little section from the days before we switched to digital that keeps tilting over and falling down. Another bookcase houses a selection of books from my childhood. My mother used to buy a hundred books for five or ten dollars at charity shops and library sales and rummage sales when I was younger. Once I was done with a batch, she'd have a tag sale of her own and donate the books that didn't sell to charity, and then the cycle would start anew.

A third bookcase houses my mother's academic books as well as an encyclopedia of dinosaurs.

But by favorite bookcase by far is the one that's split between various anthologies of fairytales, myths, and legends from across the world and my science books. I'm not in the library right now and I don't recall every book on the shelf, but I'd like to tell you about the one I treasure above all overs.

I read Carl Sagan's Cosmos in the summer of fourth grade after a family friend gifted it to me. For the first time, I understood the world around me in brilliant, beautiful technicolor. I knew the origins of the atoms in my body and I knew how the sun was born and when it would die. I understood that life was ancient and amazing and mind-bogglingly complex. And for the first time, I looked up at the sky and saw something more than just twinkling points of light. I saw a universe of wonders untold, an eternity of splendor, billions and billions of stars and planets just waiting for someone to lift the veil of mystery up off their shoulders. I saw unending beauty as I flew through the chapters of Cosmos and I felt boundless, bottomless elation every time a new piece of the puzzle slotted into place. For many years, I felt like that book and the dozens I read afterwards in the pursuit of knowledge dropped the keys to the kingdom right into my lap. The doors to the universe had been slammed open, and I could not wait to see where they would lead me.

That's why I'm recommending it to anyone and everyone who has even the most passing, fleeting interest in science. For me, Cosmos and many of Sagan's other books were life-changing. I personally think everyone should read them, but perhaps I'm just a bit biased in that regard.

Some of the books I enjoyed the most are as follows:

• Cosmos (obviously)
• Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (I believe I read this one directly after Cosmos, and loved it almost as much.)
• The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
• Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
• Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
• Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science
• The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence 

Reading List: Romantic Era Authors and Works

Today's lesson, for me at least, was all about the Romantic Era. Here is a list of books you should read at some point in your lifetime.

• Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
• Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience - William Blake
• Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
• Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
• Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne 
• Notre Dame de Paris - Victor Hugo
• Poetry by John Keats
• Moby Dick - Herman Melville 
• Frankenstein - Mary Shelly 
• Civil Disobedience and Walden by Henry David Thoreau
• Poetry by William Wordsworth
• Poetry by Emily Dickinson
• Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Let me know in the comments if I've missed any of your favorite Romantic authors or works! 

Reading List: France, A Love Story and My Favorite French Blog

Alright, so the dream, or at least it's abbreviated version, went something like this: I was going to live in a modest little house in Southern France, near Provence when I grew up, and it was going to be amazing.

The pursuit of the dream went a little something like this: I dedicated myself to learning all about France, its language, its culture, and its history for about a year. I dreamt of the house, and came up with floor plans, and started zeroing in on the city I'd want to live in. (I never quite decided.)

How the dream began, and how it ended, has to do with a series of pastel-colored books with really horrible pictures on the front. The series is about different countries. I started with the Canada book, which had an unflattering picture of an industrial plant somewhere in Quebec, and made my way through the France book, whose picture I can't quite recall. I started to fall in love somewhere between the History and Culture chapters, and the deal was sealed during the People chapter. The dream ended, or at least faded into something better, somewhere between the end of the Sweden book and the start of the Finland book.

In any case, here are some of the amazing books and resources I found on that leg of the journey:

France, A Love Story: This taught me a lot about French culture and the people of France. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/124791.France_A_Love_Story

French Word A Day: This blog also taught me a lot about French culture, and about French language. http://french-word-a-day.typepad.com/

I wish you success on your journey into French! Click on the foreign language tag for more language-learning resources, and be sure to check out the Learning About Culture segment of our blog for more about other peoples, nations, and cultures.

Reading List: Banned Books

Over the years, books have been banned, burned, and censored. Some of these books are now considered classics and are on the reading lists of high school English classes everywhere. Some of them you may have heard of. Some of them you may even have read. Some of them plainly express ideas and ideals that make it clear why people of earlier, less enlightened times banned and burned material that is today cherished for the same reasons it was scorned in the past. Some of them, however, leave you wondering why they were censored.

Check out a list of banned classics here: http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics

As you read, try to figure out why earlier generations banned books that are now considered essential to a good education. Ask yourself why books are banned, burned, and censored. Do you believe in censorship? What kind of book should be censored, and which should be free for all to read and enjoy? Is it right for anyone else to pass judgement on what you can and cannot read, or should all books be available for individual readers to pass judgement on? Does book censorship ultimately hurt or help society? Does it fly in the face of free speech and free press, or does it serve the purpose of protecting the public from possibly 'dangerous' ideas? Try to imagine a world with stricter censorship, or a world with no censorship.

Leave your thoughts and opinions on this matter in the comments!

Reading List: A People's History of the United States

A People's History of the United States is a book everyone should read at least once in their lifetime. It can be found online here: http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html

Note: Other great books, resources, documents, and maps can be found at http://www.historyisaweapon.org/indextrue.html