I recently finished reading A Primate’s Memoir by Robert Sapolsky and I really enjoyed it. It was quite fascinating to here his many stories about his time spent in East Africa amongst the baboons. It was also very encouraging to read about the many obstacles he faced while trying to do good science. Here you will find a post with several recommended science books, including Sapolsky’s.

I also enjoy reading other ‘popular’ books as well. I usually check Amazon’s recommendations or the NY Times bestsellers. I tend to float towards the paperback non-fiction, but I have enjoyed some very good fiction books (including Tolkien).

I often think that my time would be better spent reading journal articles in my field. I’m sure my boss would be a bit disappointed if he knew the amount of time I spent reading books, and the lack of time I spend reading journal articles. One of the professors here at my institution whom I admire told me that I should read at least one journal article per day. I’ve totally failed at doing that, but I think the advice is on the mark. I think one of the advantages of reading books, instead of, or in addition to, journal articles is that it sparks the imagination. It helps me to detach from my narrow focus for a bit and provides more of a world view. I guess this is why I like to read books about other cultures. Who knows, maybe I’ll come up with some brilliant experiments while reading about Middle Earth. Time will reveal if I should only bury my nose in journal articles. But for now, I think I’ll try to keep up with both.