latest reads

[Tommy Martyn]

Recently finished Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux. Great stuff. Maybe not the usual cup of tea for this site. My holiday reading was, " A short history of everything." I've read just about everything by Bill Bryson but this is my favourite. (Tragic P - check out "Notes from a small island" before you visit this summer.) It is a whirlwind tour through the history of the big ideas in science. PBS visits pub talk would just about cover it.

In one of his books (Notes to a young contrarian - probably) Christopher hitchens mentions that there is more wonder in one page of Stephen Hawking than in all of the book of genesis. This book serves as a handy reminder that the great dreamers are more often scientists than poets. It is fun to note how many of them were also completely mad.

It is a bestseller, so you should be able to get hold of a second hand paperback without too much trouble.