Decades Challenge 2008

This challenge sounds like loads of fun. It was somewhat challenging just getting the list ready...here it is:

1830s - The voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
1840s - The structure and distribution of coral reefs by Charles Darwin
1850s - The origin of species by Charles Darwin
1860s - Man's Place in Nature by Thomas Huxley, or
Naturalist on the River Amazon by Bates, or Malay Archipeligo by Alfred Russel Wallace
1870s - Descent of Man by Charles Darwin
1880s - The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms by Charles Darwin
1890s - Materials for the study of variation by William Bateson
1900s - The behavior of lower organisms by H. S. Jennings
1910s - The lost world by Arthur Conan Doyle
1920s - The witchery of wasps by Reinhard, or an Agatha Christie mystery
1930s - The snows of Kilaminjaro by Ernest Hemingway or The genetical theory of natural selection by R. A. Fisher, or The causes of evolution by J. B. S. Haldane
1940s - Hormones and Behavior by F. A. Beach or Genetics, paleontology and evolution by Jepsen et al. or The material basis for evolution by Richard Goldschmidt
1950s - King solomon's ring by Konrad Lorenz or Social Behavior in Animals by Niko Tinbergen or, and most likely, Sexual behavior of the human female by Kinsey
1960s - Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
1970s - Ontogeny and Phylogeny by Stephen Jay Gould or Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Annie's What's in a Name Book Challenge

I am delighted to join my delightful daughter's reading challenge. I shall read the following:
- Snows of Kilaminjaro by Ernie Hemingway (Weather)
- Code Blue by Nancy Fisher (Color)
- Mossflower by Brian Jacques (Plant)
- Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo (Name)
- Crickets and Katydids, Concerts and Solos by Vincent Dethier (Animal)
- The New World Primates by Martin Moynihan (Place)

Can't wait to start reading!
-

Nasty Villains

My lovely wife, Debra, informed me of an online question about mean, angry, nasty fictional villains (redundant?). Booking through Thursday.

Who’s the worst fictional villain you can think of? As in, the one you hate the most, find the most evil, are happiest to see defeated? Not the cardboard, two-dimensional variety, but the most deliciously-written, most entertaining, best villain? Not necessarily the most “evil,” so much as the best-conceived on the part of the author…oh, you know what I mean!

Two villains, or villainesses came to mind, one from one of my favorite books (and movies), One flew over the Cuckoos nest, by Ken Kesey. It is, of course, Nurse Ratched. The other is from Stephen King's novel, Misery. One very creepy woman, Annie Wilkes. One read through this novel and you will never forget her.

My Summer Science Reading List
In case you care...

- Wasp Farm by Howard Ensign Evans
- Parasites and the Behavior of Animals by Janice Moore
- Eros and evolution by Richard Michod
- The red queen: sex and the evolution of human nature by Matt Ridley
- Basic instinct: the genesis of behavior by Mark Blumberg
- The scars of evolution by Elaine Morgan
- Evolutionary ecology across three trophic levels by Warren Abrahamson and Arthur Weis
- Life on a Young Planet by Andrew Knoll
- Chimpanzee Politics by Frans de Waal
- Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer
- The earth dwellers by Erich Hoyt
- The Last Human by Sarmiento et al.
- Dawkins vs. Gould: Survival of the Fittest by Kim Sterelny

My wife thought it would be a good idea to blog this list, so now you have it. I even tried to procrastinate posting this list (don't do today what you can put off until tomorrow), but when I went to get on the computer to check the weather forcast, she had gotten everything ready and all I had to do is type.

I won't get all of these read, I can try. Now, I'm off to fight an obnoxious 4 year old and put his keister in bed.