eBooks

Ever since I was a small child, I've loved the smell of brand new books - the ink, the fresh pages never before touched by a human hand, all of it!  The start of the new school year always meant new books.  Schools in America recycle most of their textbooks.  After a short while, that new book smell is replaced by musty, library kind of smell.  So, I would have to get my new book fixes by buying books from store books.  I was always glad that my mom never opposed to buying me new books.  I am the same way with Bun Bun; she has a nice collection of all sorts of books.  It warms my heart to see her flip through them, study the images on each page, and run her little finger across the words.

With lots of time for reading during my commute into the city, I'm always on the lookout for new reading material.  Buying new books can get expensive very quickly.  Borrowing them from the library would solve that problem and go easy on my wallet.  But, they are very heavy and are adding a lot of additional weight to my backpack.  That heaviness is felt even more along my 15-min brisk walk to the train station.  What's something that can solve both problems, you ask?  How about reading apps on electronic devices that I already own?  What's even better is borrowing eBooks from the library!  It's not quite the same, not being able to smell and flip through the pages; but I'm slowly adapting to technology in the 21st century.  Alas!

Books, glorious books!

During my year-long sabbatical, I've been commuting into the city to do full-time research.  During the train ride, I have now tons of time to read.

Since May, here is the list of books I've finished:

• The Road to Little Dribbling, Bill Bryson
• She’s Got Her Mother’s Laugh, Carl Zimmer
• Spillover, David Quammen
• Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan
• Shape of the Eye, George Estreich
• Neanderthal Man, Svante Paabo
• The Connected Child, Karin Purvis
• Heartland, Sarah Smarsh
• The Tangled Tree, David Quammen
• The Philadelphia Chromosome, Jessica Wapner
• Taking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell

All of these books, except Crazy Rich Asians, were non-fiction which is my preferred genre.  Most of them are about science, specifically genetics.  Spillover was my favorite among them.  It chronicled the rise and spread of several infectious diseases caused by viruses.  About many I have just recently learned.  Many viruses are carried by animals and spillover into humans.  Chimpanzees are reservoirs for HIV; bats are reservoirs for SARS, Hendra virus, and Nipah virus; birds and pigs are hosts for influenza.

I was introduced to author David Quammen through the TWIV podcast and wanted to read another, more recent book he wrote.  This led me to The Tangled Tree, which was about evolution through the lens of modern genetics and analyzing DNA sequences.  Comparing DNA sequences of different organisms has led to refined sorting of them into 3 major domains of life: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya.  If you're wondering, we humans belong in the Eukarya domain.  However, the numbers of species in each of the Archeae and Bacteria domains far outnumber those in the Eukarya.

Heartland and Talking to Strangers were two eye-opening books on sociology.  Heartland is Sarah Smarsh's memoir about growing up in poverty, in America!  Talking to Strangers explores why we often have preconceived and wrong ideas about individuals based on the few minutes of interaction.

Shape of the Eye is a memoir written by a Dad raising a daughter with Down Syndrome.  Much of his and his family's story mirror mine.  I've been inspired to write a book about DS, weaving personal stories with the biology and genetics.  Perhaps that will be my project for my next sabbatical.

I am still in the middle of these:

• Attaching in Adoption, Deborah Grey
• Moment of Lift, Melinda Gates

There are a couple of books about adoption in the mix.  Our family is in the processing of adopting a young girl from China.  We are preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.  There's a lot of psychology in these books which I know very little.