The other day I went online to look for some books At A Large Well-Known Online Book Seller, and searching for books was pretty difficult. If I started in one menu I’d get a different list of science books than I would starting from a different menu with the same search terms. Most didn’t have reviews, and the ones that did were, um, less than useful. Anyone with an agenda — or having a bad day — can downvote a great book just because they feel like it.
We’re still in the early stages of e-books, and clearly finding good ones online can be difficult, and getting trustworthy reviews even harder. What’s a reader to do?
Enter Download the Universe, a website created by science journalists and scientists who have a lot of writing experience between them. Their goal is to review science e-books so that you can figure out what’s what. A lot of good folks are involved — among them my friends Carl Zimmer, Jennifer Ouellette, Sean Carroll, and Annalee Newitz — and I suspect that over the coming months this will be the go-to place for science e-book reviews. I already have it bookmarked. So should you.
February 29th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
You can get many good quality Elsevier and Springer books online for free, although it might be slightly illegal. You just have to know where to look.
February 29th, 2012 at 4:16 pm
This is what I’ve been waiting for since I got An E-Book Reader. Thank you very much.
February 29th, 2012 at 5:35 pm
Call me old fashioned if you like, but personally I’d suggest & love to go visiting a real physical bookstore, browsing the shelves there and looking at the real physical books!
That way you can see and decide for yourself directly and its amazing what you can stumble upon there. (Metaphorically speaking – most bookshops are pretty good OHS ~wise!) Plus you get an outing and excercise (albeit mild) and can read what you’ve brought with you on the train or bus home if you travel that way. (I never go anywhere without a good book and can be happy anywhere I go with one.)
Libraries and newsagents also work pretty well too!
PS. But I guess that site you’ve suggested above could work alright as well.
February 29th, 2012 at 8:32 pm
Book marked, sent to Son AND posted on facebook. Hope it helps,,,
Gary 7
March 1st, 2012 at 5:14 am
#3 MTU:
I very much agree; nothing beats good old-fashioned books. My personal library now contains around 400 of them.
Sadly, however, getting hold of new ones on scientific subjects is becoming ever more difficult. The UK’s biggest and best known chain of bookshops is now so dumbed down, that its stores no longer even have a science section!
March 1st, 2012 at 7:50 am
#5 Neil Haggath, I also agree, though my personal library is of sufficient size that I rotate some into and out of storage. It was either that or get a bigger house to be able to install more bookshelves (which aren’t easy to find quality book shelves, these days).
The US’s biggest and best known chain of bookshops went out of business. The second largest has a larger coffee shop than its science section. Indeed, the religion section is about the same size as the science section! But, that reflects well on the average American’s ability to read, as evidenced by their performance on the highways, unable to read and comprehend the speed limit, the range to an exit or even grasp the concept that a lane is closing in a certain distance that is described on the sign.
Of course, some of that may be due to a lack of common sense. Indeed, for evidence for THAT, one need only examine a fast food establishment’s coffee cup, with warnings on the lid, cup and in one instance, on the BOTTOM of the cup (I drained it before locating THAT warning)!
March 1st, 2012 at 10:10 am
> one need only examine a fast food establishment’s coffee cup, with warnings on the lid, cup and in one instance, on the BOTTOM of the cup
On the bottom of the cup? I love it! Did it say something like “Neither the manufacturer of this cup nor the establishment where you purchased the beverage that it formerly contained is responsible for the dry cleaning bill you have just incurred by spilling your beverage into your lap”?
March 1st, 2012 at 12:34 pm
“…a website created by science journalists and scientists who have a lot of writing experience between them. ”
Phil, I think you meant to write “…a lot of writing experience AMONG them.” Pedantic, I know. But I thought I would pass this on so you could fix it before one of those Novella guys saw it and made fun of you.
Thanks for a great link, though.
March 5th, 2012 at 6:00 am
#6 Wzrd1:
As you mention the lack of common sense…
A couple of decades ago, when the aforementioned bookshops still did have a science section, they used to put books on astronomy and astrology together on the same shelf. I once complained at my local store about this, and was told that they were actually told to do that by head office!!!
These days, I think their biggest section is that filled with the totally pointless “autobiographies” ( most of which are probably not “auto” at all ) of minor so-called “celebrities”. Head, meet wall.