2014 Popular-Science Reading Challenge

2014-pop-sci-reading-challengeThis challenge is simply to read 10 popular-science books over the course of the year. Any popular-science book counts, including biographies or other forms of science history.

Below is the full list of books recommended to me as part of the challenge. I will annotate this list as I read the books.

A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea: the Race to Kill the BP Oil Gusher by Joel Achenbach
The Edge of Physics: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Cosmology by Anil Ananthaswamy
The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum
Thirteen Things That Don’t Make Sense by Michael Brooks – read February 2014
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson – read June/July 2014
Sex, Drugs and Rock’n’Roll: the Science of Hedonism and the Hedonism of Science by Zoe Cormier – read August 2014
Why Does e=mc2? by Brian Cox
The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
Smile or Die by Barbara Ehrenreich
Measure of the Earth: the Enlightenment Expedition that Reshaped the World by Laurie Ferreiro
The Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall – read June 2014
The Hacker Ethic by Pekka Himanen et al
Emergence by Steven Johnson
How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture and the Quantum Revival by David Kaiser
Sensation: the New Science of Physical Intelligence by Thalma Lobel – read September 2014
Decoding the Heavens by Jo Merchant
The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality by Richard Panek
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach – read January 2014
Stiff by Mary Roach
Fermat’s Last Theorem by Simon Singh (US title: Fermat’s Enigma)
The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets by Simon Singh – started and abandoned
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot – read April/May 2014
A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos by Dava Sobel – started and abandoned
Backroom Boys: the Secret Return of the British Boffin by Francis Spufford – read December 2014
Woman by Natalie Tangier
Snowball Earth by Gabrielle Walker – read May 2014
The Double Helix by James Watson
Breasts by Florence Williams – read May 2014