Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman — autobiographical stories from the physicist.  According to my LibraryThing account, I own it and have read it.  I have no memory of this.  Glad I checked the LT database before I bought the ebook!

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich — I’m sure this is a very good book, and no doubt it shows the plight of the working poor.  I spent my teenage years that way, so I doubt I’d be surprised by any of it.  (As an adult I would have been homeless a great deal of the time if it wasn’t for family taking me in.  Gotta love mental illness.)  Also, it’s too depressing for my current mindset.

Now I’m back to reading full-length books, beginning with Matt Ridley’s The Red Queen that I’ve been meaning to finish…

Jewels: A Secret History by Victoria Finlay — I loved Finlay’s Color: A Natural History of the Palette, and so I’m quite excited to read more from her.  The excerpt from Jewels is good.  It’s about amber.  It’s a combination of history facts and her experiences researching the book, like going to gem shows.  It’s much more personal than Color was.  I think I like that.

Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs by Ken Jennings — ehhh.  It’s written in an amusing tone, but I think it’s a little too obsessive for my tastes.  I think I was expecting a book about trivia geeks written by an outsider, but the author is a trivia buff himself, and the Kindle sample is the beginning of a road trip to audition for Jeopardy!  This is something I might pick up from the library at some point, but I don’t see myself spending money on it.

I’m almost out of Kindle samples.  I can get more, but first I think I’ll read an entire book.  Samples are a nice appetizer, but I crave more.

So I don’t like it.  And I’ll probably have to write a paper about it tomorrow.  Joy.

Much Depends on Dinner: The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos of an Ordinary Meal by Margaret Visser  — Another one I want to read, but not right away.  I find the meal she chose as what to write about to be a little weird.  Buttered, salted corn as the appetizer?  A salad of lettuce with lemon juice and oil for dressing, served after the entree?  Odd.  I understand Visser wanting to choose foods that represent the world and its food history, but it’s still a strange combination.

Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America by Barbara Ehrenreich — I’ll have to pick this one up eventually.  I have a feeling its going to be a depressing, anger-inducing book, so I think I’ll hold off until I’m feeling better.  Fact related to this book: psychology has found that the exercise that positive thinking gurus suggest, where you picture yourself on a beach or getting the Nobel Prize or whatever?  It actually makes you work less hard to achieve those goals.  I’m not going to take the time to look up the exact studies, but Richard Wiseman talks about them in 59 Seconds, his self-help book that’s actually based on science.  It’s a pretty cool read, and I recommend it.

I think I’m done reading for tonight.  Tomorrow there will be homework and doctor’s appointments, so I don’t know how much time I’ll have for books.  Sad.

Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia by Dennis Covington: I had heard this was an in-depth humanization of the religious snake handlers in the Appalachians.  It might be.  But I can’t get past the fact that they’re doing bad things for completely misguided reasons.  I wouldn’t want to read a book on clitoridectomies among Muslims in Somalia, either.  (I cite that particular example because of the scene in Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel where she had her clitoris removed by her grandmother when Ali was a child.)  Reading these kind of things makes me sad and angry.  I was hoping I could deal with it for Salvation because I was told it’s really good, but…  I can’t read it.  Oh well.

The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum: MUST BUY.  I’m loving this.  It’s set slightly before Erik Larson’s Thunderstruck, which I enjoyed.  The early applications of science to crime solving fascinates me for some reason.  I also enjoy reading about this particular time period in New York’s history.  It was chaotic and corrupt, but there were serious attempts at reform, starting at the time of Handbook.

2) This works especially well for MOBI format files.

3)  If you have Document Library enabled for your Kindle app, a MOBI file opened to, say, location #330 on one device, the file will also open to location #330 on another device.  Yay for synchronization!

4)  This does not work so well for PDFs.  As in, it doesn’t synchronize between devices.

5)  PDFs are fine to read in the Kindle app on the iPad.  They’re impossible to read on the iPhone, though.  Screen’s just too small.  GoodReader is probably better for this.

I am so, so happy about the Document Library feature.  Keeps me from getting a huge headache.  Thank you Amazon!

A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare by Robert Harris: It’s all WWI and later, which made me sad because I was hoping for some pre-20th-century stuff. Also, why did I think reading this when depressed was a good idea?

Jacquard’s Web : How a Hand-Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age by James Essinger: I haven’t decided whether to buy this or not. On the one hand, the information is really interesting and I want to know it. On the other hand, it’s written at like 10th-grade reading level or something. I don’t like books that sound dumb. I’ll finish the sample before I decide.

More to come, assuming I can maintain focus enough to read…

Ask and ye shall receive, my dear.  Happy Valentine’s Day.

Art by the fantastically talented Jackie Lewis, who has a graphic novel called Play Ball coming out in April via Oni Press.  She’s awesome.